Ca Elk Tag, best chance of drawing with less points?

[Navy SWO]

At FHL the elk hang out in the old abandoned gunnery range, where hunters are not allowed to go. The elk are wise.

They are easy to spot, each evening there as they cross the road, one bull leading about 20 cows each.

Finding a stray elk is going to be mighty hard, especially a stray cow.

There are stray immature bulls here and there, but the cows normally all cue up behind one of the two or three dominant bulls -- I've counted 15 points on some of those bulls.

Some of the elk herds do exactly like you state but there are almost 600 elk on the base and they are spread out quite a bit into more than two or three herds. They aren't all in the range areas and they do move around. Success at FHL is a combination of the right areas being open (and having a muzzleloader to take advantage of many of the elk areas that are muzzleloader/archery only) and spending the time to find the elk in the areas that are open. If you commit to the hunt and are able to hunt every day available you have a very good chance at getting your elk. The lower success numbers for some of the hunts (especially the cow hunts) is primarily due to people who only plan on hunting the weekends and suffer the misfortune of areas not being open for hunting when they are there. There are several other hunt reports on the elk page that reflect this. The folks that stick it out, figure where the elk are and wait if necessary for an area to open up are successful. Its just a matter of spending the time and covering the ground to find a herd and get a shot.

As an active duty military member I've been fortunate enough to get drawn to hunt elk 3 times at FHL in the last 15 years. I've been successful all three times. Two of those times I've taken one of my kids with me to go along. One was 5 at the time the other was 9. FHL is a great place to hunt in general and elk specifically. If anyone does decide to cash in their points on a cow tag at FHL, there are quite a few folks on the board who will happily help with info and tips for success.

Now if only CA would price their resident elk tags in line with the rest of the western states . . .

 

[dinkshooter]

The guys on TV never fail to draw the tags

That's because they pay for a LO tag, or in some rare cases they get an OTC tag.

 

[smithstation]

I drew the san luis tag last year, had max points. The one random tag went to a guy who had 2 points. I will start putting in for it again this year. Someone has to get lucky, might as well be me..... There is a Santa Clara tag thats pretty easy to draw but its 100% private and you have to pay big $$$$ to gain access there. San Luis is almost all private but there are land owners who will let you hunt or just charge a kill fee if you are successful. Also 900 acres of elk filled ground by the lake but its archery only and the big bulls are not easy.....