avoiding other hunters

[Kevin Root]

California's Powerball lottery generated 3.1 million in it's first day yesterday for a new record start. Last year's Mega Millions multi-state grew to a $656,000,000 prize. I've never played the lotto yet but with dollars like that it gets enticing to want to play.

Public land hunting has it's drawbacks and its challenges. My thought is just to embrace the challenge and enjoy the adventure. You can find hunters or the lack of hunters and or people while deep in the wilderness away from any trail just as well as finding folks while hunting not very far from your vehicle.

Until I win or make a boat load of money to develop a private dream ranch of my own, I'm willing to embrace the public land drawbacks and challenges. To me it's a whole lot better than not being able to hunt at all.

 

[Drhorsepower]

Like others have states, no guarantees but generally speaking, the deeper, higher you go the less people you will find.

 

[Old Hunter]

The majority of hunters want to hunt an area that appeals to them. Not the elk.

 

[tttoadman]

I definetely fit into the "want to do more than I can afford". I am in a great spot with a senior and a junior in high school. My hunting passion is quickly getting revived.

I am the solitary hunter, but love to hunt with my Brother and my Niece. I am a horrible shooter but i can sure find em. We have decided that my niece will run on my hip and finish the job. I am pretty good with that. I get just as much thrill just being part of it.

I am not a huge fan of horses, but getting passed up by a four wheeler or simply listening to one in the distance really gets me depressed.

I have found that most of the people I do run into in the backcountry are people like me, and we all have a mutual respect for one another. Whether we hike for miles from a base tent or a spike out, we are all putting out a huge effort for our passion. My brother and I spent an hour talking with a couple guys from Cali last year on top of Steens Mtn the day before the season opened. Good times!! You guys may be on the forum??

 

[Old Hunter]

This is where I hunt. No trails, ATV's, or horses will get you there. Just boots. I never see another hunter. However, it will kill you getting the elk meat out alone. I hunt nothing but timber. 75 yds would be a long shot. I've never hunted any other way, and I never wanted to. Just me and the mountain.

 

[BKC]

OH, I don't mean to toot my own horn but that is pretty country but it doesn't look like tough country. I think that if you lead a horse you can get them a lot of places. If you actually get off your horse and lead them they have a much easier time negotiating tough country. I have off loaded quarters just to get my horses thru some nasty stuff and them loaded them back on. I don't hunt in the collegiate peaks but maybe I will see you up there someday. My mule and I have talked and we want to ride up every canyon in colorado

 

[nebugle]

Hunting the dark timber is something I need to try. I think it could be the answer to some of the overcrowding problems I have been having but it's a different hunt than I am used to. After the pressure is on the elk seem to go there and not come out.What does everyone do to find them in the timber do you move slow and get wind right or just set up along a trail?

 

[Old Hunter]

OH, I don't mean to toot my own horn but that is pretty country but it doesn't look like tough country. I think that if you lead a horse you can get them a lot of places. If you actually get off your horse and lead them they have a much easier time negotiating tough country. I have off loaded quarters just to get my horses thru some nasty stuff and them loaded them back on. I don't hunt in the collegiate peaks but maybe I will see you up there someday. My mule and I have talked and we want to ride up every canyon in colorado

It's tough when you have to walk up there. I'm right at timberline, and my Jeep is 3-4 miles away down the mountain. There's no trail at all, so you're fighting the timber all the way. Then again, i'm 70, so maybe it wouldn't seem so hard when I was younger. Seems so long ago I can't remember.

This is on the way up. It sort of opened up here, and I stopped for a snack. I do that a lot.

Some old miners cabin from the past.

 

[Old Hunter]

Hunting the dark timber is something I need to try. I think it could be the answer to some of the overcrowding problems I have been having but it's a different hunt than I am used to. After the pressure is on the elk seem to go there and not come out.What does everyone do to find them in the timber do you move slow and get wind right or just set up along a trail?

Exactly. You want to still hunt the timber. You're hunting elk that are bedded down, or moving back and forth to the bedding areas. Sometimes they just get up to stretch, and move around a bit. The best part is you can hunt like this all day. This is where they are during the day. In early and late hours they are moving from and to this area. I'm not one to sit in one spot glassing. I like to keep moving very slow. See them, before they see you. Be sneaky.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Exactly. You want to still hunt the timber. You're hunting elk that are bedded down, or moving back and forth to the bedding areas. Sometimes they just get up to stretch, and move around a bit. The best part is you can hunt like this all day. This is where they are during the day. In early and late hours they are moving from and to this area. I'm not one to sit in one spot glassing. I like to keep moving very slow. See them, before they see you. Be sneaky.

Thats really the only way I really know how to hunt. My Dad & Granddad taught me that was the way. Learned to hunt deer in the Sierras in Cal that way and hunt elk the same way here. Works pretty well too!!

 

[Old Hunter]

Same here. My dad taught me to still hunt, and I never changed. I don't know how guys can stay in a stand all day. It would be torture for me.

 

[Murdy]

I thought the same way about stand hunting at one point in my life. I've mostly been a Midwest Whitetail hunter, and I came to realize for what I was doing, sitting still was my best shot at success. I can sit in a tree for hours. At some point, I took my watch and stuck it into a pocket where I couldn't easily reach it -- started just paying attention to the woods, it became like what I would imagine people who meditate experience (I know I probably sound like a loon here), and time just seems to slip by with me hardly noticing it. I also see more deer than I ever did. That said, I still like moving around bit too.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Same here. My dad taught me to still hunt, and I never changed. I don't know how guys can stay in a stand all day. It would be torture for me.

You are right about that. I remember the first time someone told me I still hunted....I looked at him and said "Huh". I walk all day and don't sit in a blind, what the hell do you mean still!!!

When I went to Texas for the first time to hunt hogs, I sat in a high stand on poles and watched a feeder in a food plot. Saw lots of deer and finally shot a pig after a couple of hours. I just about went nuts sitting there. I don't know how they do it, sitting in those tree stands all day!!!

 

[Old Hunter]

A lot of hunters don't really understand what still hunting is. Some of them really think it means a stand. I've even seen magazines describe it that way.

Taking one or two slow steps, and then standing completely still is where the name came from, and it's been called that since the 1800's.

I got this book for Christmas in 1950. I wore it out reading it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Still-Hunter-Theodore-Strong-Dyke/dp/1146573421

 

[Timberstalker]

Old Hunter, you and I hunt a lot alike. 90% of my hunting is still hunting timber. When elk hunting I also rely on my nose, many times I've smelled them before I saw them. If you want to get away from hunters, hit the timber with plenty of steep ground dead fall.

 

[Old Hunter]

LOL..Yeah, it's easy to smell elk. I guess we smell as bad to them.

 

[dihardhunter]

Now, why in the world would I want to share my secrets about having the mountain to myself with everybody else... Seriously though, lots of great posts on this thread, I've enjoyed reading along. We've found that there are certain thresholds where you just leave people...X feet elevation above the trail, Y miles away from nearest trail when Z miles from trailhead. They are rules we've rarely seen fail. X, Y, and Z are proprietary information.

 

[nebugle]

I can tell from all the responses to this thread that having other hunters ruin your hunt is a soft spot. Other hunters can also help. the first elk I killed I got because another hunter told where they were at .but it seems every year that goes by I see more and more hunters and farther from the trail 3 miles used to do it but everyone is wise to going further now. New tactics are in order!

 

[Doe Nob]

I hunted in one of the more popular OTC units in CO and it took us a week to figure out how to get away from the people. The answer was off any main trail and steeper than you prefer.

The other rule of thumb I have is if you can google it, someone else already did and they'll be there opening day.

 

[Eberle]

I agree with Pete. We ride all day the first day & barely get our tent set-up before dark. The second day we finish setting up camp. We ride from camp to where we hunt everyday. The terrain is so rugged & vertical that we tie are mules up at the base of the mountain. I've got some mules that would follow me off into Hell & back. Some of the country we hunt they look at me like, you are on your own master! We'll be here if you make it back! Some of the areas we hunt, if you kill an elk. We gut it, saw legs, head & roll it into a ball (the best we can) & tie it up. We then shove it off the mountain. It will often slide 200 feet before it gets hung up. We just slide down the mountain unhanging it all the way to the bottom. Then lead our mules over & finish quartering & packing out. It's tough, after 5 days of hunting hard in this country you are absolutely beat down.

It's not the distance you go. It's how difficult it is to get there. I go where even horse can't get to.

I only see hunters at the beginning of my hike in. Never when I get there.

Riding a horse to an area is something anybody can do. You're going to have company.