diamond hitch
Well-known member
As I was growing up my father had 3 maybe 4 areas we hunted. That means we knew the ground well as well as the patterns of the elk with regard to the weather and time of the year. By the time I was in college I had expanded that to 12 - 13 areas. I was starting to understand migration paths and the relationships to weather changes. Essentially I would start hunting where the elk rutted which was on the edge of the summer range. With infill and recon I added to my knowledge until I knew where they were going and why. I transitioned from an occasional elk to every year.
I got comfortable. Life was good. Then things changed. The weather got warmer, patterns changed. The last straw was when I came home and the forest service had clearcut 10 of my 12 areas. Main forest service access trails from the 30s were gone. My comfort zone dissolved over the winter and 10 years of recon was dissolved.
I struggled and found an elk that fall - barely. I started over. I plotted topos, walked trails, reconned basins. Crawled through jungles that no would touch. Slowly I built up my knowledge base of new areas. I put in a remote camp because my new area was 2 hours from home. Our success slowly improved and became predictable but I didn't trust fate and felt what happened once would likely happen again. I got into a habit to recon new areas early in the season when the weather wasn't right but was condusive to long traverses that tied areas together and filled in gaps. I found people that had hunted those areas and pieced info together from other hunters experiences. Sure enough I came back one year and there were new roads and more than half of my area was a wasteland. However this time I had enough recon to be able to adjust.
I moved back to Montana and as my father got too old to hunt I started to develop new areas closer to home. My hunting options are now between 16 - 18. I try to recon two new areas each year early in the season to compensate for losses and the unknown. With the wholesale death of the mature lodgepole stands I spend 10 -15 days cutting out elk trails, cow trails and old forest service/mining trails out for egress. As some of these are miles long I can see the elk start to use portions of them within a week. It's easier to facilitate their travel than it is to figure out where they went.
If you are serious about elk hunting, it requires a serious investment in time and energy.
I got comfortable. Life was good. Then things changed. The weather got warmer, patterns changed. The last straw was when I came home and the forest service had clearcut 10 of my 12 areas. Main forest service access trails from the 30s were gone. My comfort zone dissolved over the winter and 10 years of recon was dissolved.
I struggled and found an elk that fall - barely. I started over. I plotted topos, walked trails, reconned basins. Crawled through jungles that no would touch. Slowly I built up my knowledge base of new areas. I put in a remote camp because my new area was 2 hours from home. Our success slowly improved and became predictable but I didn't trust fate and felt what happened once would likely happen again. I got into a habit to recon new areas early in the season when the weather wasn't right but was condusive to long traverses that tied areas together and filled in gaps. I found people that had hunted those areas and pieced info together from other hunters experiences. Sure enough I came back one year and there were new roads and more than half of my area was a wasteland. However this time I had enough recon to be able to adjust.
I moved back to Montana and as my father got too old to hunt I started to develop new areas closer to home. My hunting options are now between 16 - 18. I try to recon two new areas each year early in the season to compensate for losses and the unknown. With the wholesale death of the mature lodgepole stands I spend 10 -15 days cutting out elk trails, cow trails and old forest service/mining trails out for egress. As some of these are miles long I can see the elk start to use portions of them within a week. It's easier to facilitate their travel than it is to figure out where they went.
If you are serious about elk hunting, it requires a serious investment in time and energy.
