Photo credit Backpacker.com
The anticipation for the start of hunting season is certainly around us all. I know I have been anticipating the smell of September and the cooler mornings all year long! This to me is the best feeling in the world because it means that I will be hunting soon thereafter. With that said, that also means that there has been anticipation for the hunt in the back-country and the wild preparation involved to have a successful hunt.
Hunters are losing weight, working out consistently, buying new gear, lightening their load and e-scouting all over the place. However, one of the common gut checks that occur are that you arrive to your trail-head or camp spot and realize that there are 17 trucks in the spot that you might have expected to not see a soul. Maybe, you also scouted the area in late summer and didn't see a soul but come hunting season, the place is filled with fellow sportsman.
Let me throw another one out there! You are hunting out west for the first time and you chose to go hunt Colorado because they have OTC tags in October and when you get to your unit, you are appalled..
I know what is going through your mind. It becomes a self defeating feeling that you were cheated, that the work you put in might not come to fruition and the positive feelings on the trip go right out the window because you begin to second guess yourself and your planning. Well, guess what, you are out there and you aren't going to be turning around. You have to figure it out, plain and simple.
Here are 5 small secrets that you can use to increase your odds of harvesting an animal in high pressured areas.
Get your ass up earlier than everyone else
Pardon my french but I speak my mind. I hope you can appreciate the truth. If you are out there to hunt, then my goodness, hunt! Let me tell you a little story. A buddy of mine and I were hunting Nevada and we each had elk tags. We wandered into a new area on the edge of the wilderness and we were in an area that was pretty full with other hunters. I knew that hunters were out there to have a good time as I saw them drinking beer, hanging out in camp and laying back before sundown. I have a big focus on getting the mission completed and we game plan every night at the campfire for the morning plan. We knew where we were going to go and glass in the morning. We knew that we needed to get to the top of the ridge by 5am which meant waking up by 3:30am at the latest to grab our stuff and head up for a tough morning hike. While it was a challenge, we were set up with our tripods and glass by 4:45am and we were just waiting for some daylight to get the binos working. As expected, we had elk 600 yards in front of us feeding on the side of the mountain as soon as sunrise was approaching. Behind us around 6:30am, we could hear some talking and as we look behind us, 2 hunters are super excited, talking to each other about how they are going to smoke an elk today. When I turned around and looked at them and showed them the "shhhh" sign on my mouth with a finger, their jaws dropped and it looked like I stole their souls. Guess what, I saw them first, you have no clue what is going on, and you are making noise. That to me what just terrible to see. With them being upset though, they needed to realize they should be only upset with themselves.
My buddy and I simply outworked them and they cannot be upset about that... We were quick to pack up and head around the other side of the mountain because we knew where those elk would be moving and we wanted those loud guys to stay where we were, while we were headed in a different direction. I am assuming you know how the ending will go as well so I will stop there.
Be Patient and Glass for Hours
photo credit @4pointoutdoors
I'll keep this simple. Find yourself the highest peaks to glass from and go there. Then, sit down and glass the mountains, picking every bit apart without moving too much. I would sit in the same area for the entire day, only moving 25-50 yards at a time every couple hours to get a slightly different view.
What you will see will simply amaze you. You are either going to see deer/elk movement because you are patient or you will see hunters busting up through the woods on a tear and you will see the deer and elk running from them. The best part of this will be that you are going to be able to spot the bedding spots of these animals and these other hunters had no clue they blew these animals out of the area so they won't be going there again. They simply think there are no animals in the woods!
In the aspect of glassing, I would highly recommend glassing from a tripod to prevent the hand shaking and you can have a ton more patience sitting there when you are not hand holding something. You will be able to concentrate and I promise you that you will see more animals.
Let other hunters push game to you
If you look at the map, you will see where the trail-heads are for easy access. I would highly recommend going over to the next ridge from the trail head and get off the beaten path. Below I've outlined with red lines where the easiest access trail heads go through and the green arrow is showing you where I would be glassing from. You will see hunters staying on the main trails and animals would be heading your way based on their escape routes. You could literally be sitting there and you would be hearing animals heading by you because they have no clue you are there and they are thinking they are getting away from the hunters they are watching blow through on the trails.
Limit your use of calls
This might be more for the elk hunters but everyone sees elk coming to those great elk bugles and cow calls that they see on tv. I have news for you. Elk are smart and when every Tom, Dick and Harry is in the woods year after year blowing their calls all over, the elk get smart.. Blowing a bugle might actually terrify an elk that you are a human instead of getting them to come to you.
If I were you, I would be quiet and see if you hear elk bugles for yourself. If you do, try and figure out if they are another hunter or if they are an actual bull. If it is an actual bull, the biggest point of a call will be to get them to come to you because they think you are a lost cow that got away from their harem. If you were to call, use a cow call and use it sparingly. It will work 100 times better than blowing bugles all over the place in an OTC unit. All you will be doing is calling other hunters to you.
Be Adaptable
I often am asked how long I will stay in an area if I am not seeing animals. I always say the same thing. I will hunt the same general area for 2 days. If I am not seeing animals in those 48 hours, then I am moving to another basin, another peak or all together, I will move to another part of the unit/units. In late 2018, I had an elk hunt with a buddy and we also had deer tags in our pockets. We were unfortunately not seeing many elk due to a wild fire so my idea was to pack out after 4 days of seeing very small bulls and heading out to the flats to hunt some deer. Then, once we harvested a deer, we were to head into an entirely separate area to find more elk. The plan worked, we harvested a deer within 12 hours of hiking out from the wilderness area and then we headed out for another 3 days into a national forest. We ended up being successful because we didn't stay stuck in the same area, yet we had a plan and we adapted with the situations. Often times I see groups of guys staying in the same place day after day and they are seeing the same few deer or the same elk which they do not want. If that is the case, do something about it. It is up to you and you are in full control but I can assure you that it will be the difference of a harvest or tag soup.
Hope you have a successful season out there! If you need any assistance please shoot me a note!
Alex G
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