This topic comes up a lot so I thought I'd offer my perspective after just trying to complete the "family's" self generated archery Slam competition. In the end it didn't work and I wouldn't use my deer points again like this.
Stage setter: 12 Days to tag an elk, muley, bear / Sept 13 to 25th
Tags: Limited either sex elk, limited either sex mule deer and a OTC bear
Points Required (Resident): Elk 1-2, Deer 3-4, Bear 0.
Prep: 7 years in the same valley hunting during muzzleloader, archery seasons. Yearly 7 day July scouting trip/camp prep.
Mentality: Although tough we felt like we could pull it off only because of the time spent in the area. This is why I don't recommend a Non Res hunting elk/deer on the same trip(at least during archery season)
Biggest challenge: All three species are living in different altitudes/forage zones with the bear overlapping a little.
Base Camp: 10,400
Elk. Due to our main focus year round is elk we felt confident we could get this part done. I planned on three days and we got it done day one so ahead of schedule as it took two days to get him out. Not a monster at all (4x5) but I was shooting the first brown that came in range as it was an either sex tag. The elk were at 8400-9000 2.5 miles+from camp mainly due to being pressured down the mountain. Of note this was light pressure and they still moved like they normally do.
Glassing. We went high and glassed for 36 hours to confirm prior trips. Mule deer moved out we glassed up in July and the bears were still over lapping a little.
Deer. We quickly found them again but they were on the aspen/conifer line at 8000' roughly, on south facing slopes feeding hard. We got a little lucky and day 4.5 or the 1st day deer hunting we got a very solid stalk on a wall hanger only to have him side step an arrow from a 50 yard shot. No doubt this grey ghost knows what a bow string sounds like as he calmly did a Spanish bull fighter shuffle by. We were into 7-10 deer daily but were ultra conservative with wind and scent so we wouldn't push them out of the bowl they lived in. We averaged 1.3 stalks a day for 5 days before a shot was taken on a medium aged 4x4 only to never find him.
Bear. We never were able to give this our full attention and passed up a bear on a old kill site due to elk screaming. The bears were at 8000' feet and below with an occasional one being called into the elk set ups during he week.
Weather ends up running us off the mountain day 10 as I couldn't risk staying up there for 4-5 more days and school being missed.
Bottom line. We gave it its due diligence/prep/planning. In my GMU, the deer/elk in late September are just geographically separated too far in altitude/habitat to effectively hunt out of one base camp IMO. Was it worth the 4 deer points, yes. The buck that side steps the arrow hopefully was not the biggest we ever see again, but I fear it was. It had the feel of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Mother nature, true to form, threw her wrench into the plan.
This team is why you hear me recommending Non Residents focusing on one species at a time while hunting and learning a GMU. I honestly thought we could pull it off and arguably almost did, but we had a lot of things fall into place.
Stage setter: 12 Days to tag an elk, muley, bear / Sept 13 to 25th
Tags: Limited either sex elk, limited either sex mule deer and a OTC bear
Points Required (Resident): Elk 1-2, Deer 3-4, Bear 0.
Prep: 7 years in the same valley hunting during muzzleloader, archery seasons. Yearly 7 day July scouting trip/camp prep.
Mentality: Although tough we felt like we could pull it off only because of the time spent in the area. This is why I don't recommend a Non Res hunting elk/deer on the same trip(at least during archery season)
Biggest challenge: All three species are living in different altitudes/forage zones with the bear overlapping a little.
Base Camp: 10,400
Elk. Due to our main focus year round is elk we felt confident we could get this part done. I planned on three days and we got it done day one so ahead of schedule as it took two days to get him out. Not a monster at all (4x5) but I was shooting the first brown that came in range as it was an either sex tag. The elk were at 8400-9000 2.5 miles+from camp mainly due to being pressured down the mountain. Of note this was light pressure and they still moved like they normally do.
Glassing. We went high and glassed for 36 hours to confirm prior trips. Mule deer moved out we glassed up in July and the bears were still over lapping a little.
Deer. We quickly found them again but they were on the aspen/conifer line at 8000' roughly, on south facing slopes feeding hard. We got a little lucky and day 4.5 or the 1st day deer hunting we got a very solid stalk on a wall hanger only to have him side step an arrow from a 50 yard shot. No doubt this grey ghost knows what a bow string sounds like as he calmly did a Spanish bull fighter shuffle by. We were into 7-10 deer daily but were ultra conservative with wind and scent so we wouldn't push them out of the bowl they lived in. We averaged 1.3 stalks a day for 5 days before a shot was taken on a medium aged 4x4 only to never find him.
Bear. We never were able to give this our full attention and passed up a bear on a old kill site due to elk screaming. The bears were at 8000' feet and below with an occasional one being called into the elk set ups during he week.
Weather ends up running us off the mountain day 10 as I couldn't risk staying up there for 4-5 more days and school being missed.
Bottom line. We gave it its due diligence/prep/planning. In my GMU, the deer/elk in late September are just geographically separated too far in altitude/habitat to effectively hunt out of one base camp IMO. Was it worth the 4 deer points, yes. The buck that side steps the arrow hopefully was not the biggest we ever see again, but I fear it was. It had the feel of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Mother nature, true to form, threw her wrench into the plan.
This team is why you hear me recommending Non Residents focusing on one species at a time while hunting and learning a GMU. I honestly thought we could pull it off and arguably almost did, but we had a lot of things fall into place.
