Scouting Question

[bmontang]

I am getting to my unit on Wednesday before the season opens on Saturday and plan to scout Thursday and Friday (and maybe Wednesday evening depending on arrival time and how long camp takes to set up).

How many guys would head into the woods well before daylight to scout versus wait until there is some illumination before heading to far in. This is in a unit we have hunted a few years in a row, but I am scouting a new area in a different portion. What I am trying to avoid is bumping elk in the dark just because my escouting has me thinking they are in a certain area. It is a 3-4 hour hike to the area I think they would be in. I am leaning toward going in in the daylight so I can see if there is anything closer, see any fresh sign, etc. and then glassing the area the I escouted through the day and into the evening and backing out after dark.

What do the experts here usually do?

 

[kansasdad]

@bmontang: One question to consider, are you the top of the food chain where you are at?? (Humped shouldered bears at O'dark thirty can be scary, so I hear)

 

[AggieHunter]

No expert but at least for a hunting scenario if I think there may be elk between me and where I intend to hunt I wait until legal shooting so if I run into them I can shoot. No point in walking past elk to find elk.

 

[Stocker]

I generally wait until it’s light mainly to get a feel for the terrain, then I skirt the outside of the area I’ll be looking at. I don’t go trampling through the areas I think elk will be, no sense in blowing them out before the season opens.

But that’s “generally”. Every area is different, sometimes you just have to get in there and see if they are there.

 

[Wyohunt]

If I run into another moron walking in at first light with his headlamp on I am absolutely going to #$@% myself. I am Not a hunting god but I have always had best luck walking very slowly and quietly to a favorite spot in the dark without a light and waiting until Well after full light to stalk slow and use Binos to search every nook and cranny But that’s just me.

 

[The Hedgehog]

3-4 hour hike in to where you think they are?

How many mph do you hike?

 

[Wyohunt]

I know where they are. Been hunting the same spots for a long time. I hike real slow and get there about 30 min before first light. might not do that in an area I am not familiar with Tho. Just a thought.

 

[bmontang]

3-4 hour hike in to where you think they are?

How many mph do you hike?

No idea. I am not going down a comfy hiking trail, all told it is probably 4-7 miles of hiking into the area so that would be 1.5-3 miles per hour. That is over a ridge that will require gaining 1,400 vertical and then dropping about 600 vertical on the backside to get to the spots I want to check out.