Silent Utah

[YORT40]

I just got back from a quick, un-expected Hunt. We flew into SLC late wed. night, shopped for all the food, loaded the horses, and drove for the high country. We arrived @ the trailhead at 4:00 a.m., slept in the truck until 5:30, packed the horses and head up the steep trail. After a 6 hr. horse ride, we made it to the 11,000 ft. elev. lake, and set-up camp.
I'm sure this situation has happened to every hunter one time or another, but we were too early!

We hunted hard for 2 days without a single response to our calls. I did spot a nice 6x6 in the trees the first day, but all was silent in the mountains. Though I was confident we would see more animals, the weather stepped in and made us re-evaluate our priorities as hunters. The next afternoon the rain came first, then the hail, then the lightning and deafing thunder. All night long, all 4 of these forces stayed right on top of us. By morning, everything was soaking wet or frozen. The tents had all gathered water, and I was down to my last dry layer of clothes.
So we broke camp and headed down to 9,000 ft. to see if we could hear any bugles in the larger meadows. As it turned out, the rain and hail would not stop, and the bugling would not start. So with that, we made the long wet trip down to the truck.
I'm ready to do it all over again, but it sure would help me get motivated to hear a couple of bulls sound off.

 

[YORT40]

This is home after the 1st hail storm.

 

[YORT40]

Wet awesome high country.

 

[wmidbrook]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

but it sure would help me get motivated to hear a couple of bulls sound off[/b]

At least you came home with some nice photos!

I was out there this weekend too. Very similar situation. I was up there late Friday afternoon and got pounded by rain, thunder and lightening for a few hours @ 10,000 ft. I thought early Saturday morning would be promising. No bugles. I did hear that bulls were fired up pretty good in another mt. range though...but, the corner of the Uintas I was in was silent too.

Maybe next weekend.

 

[YORT40]

P.S.- I learned a very valueable achery lesson this trip.

*** Never pack your bow on the horse, in your pack or anywhere else besides your hand!

By the end of the ride my Bowtech was thrashed! I just had to order a new string and peep which was ripped off traveling through the timber.

 

[soupr]

Hey great pictures and great looking country. Looks like if you moved your tent twenty feet to the back you would of been out of the hail. Better luck next time.

 

[MULIES4EVER]

HEY YORT, SORRY THAT YOU DIDNT HAVE LUCK. THEY DID BUGLE FOR ME HOWEVER BUT I WAS IN A SPIKE ONLY UNIT. CAME CLOSE TO A COUPLE SPIKES BUT NO BLOOD.

MULIES

 

[Monsterbull]

My brother went to a seminar by Jim Horn a few weeks ago, and I talked to him a bit at the last RME convention as well. He's taken bulls in Oregon during the first week of the season several years in a row (don't know how he did this year...). The elk don't talk much, if at all, but they will come in to calling. I don't recall his particular pattern off the top of my head, but the gist of it is: find fresh sign, if you have a caller-shooter team set up closer than normal, and give the calling setup a good 45 minutes. Personally, I haven't hunted much early in the season, but I've had plenty of elk come in silent as church mice.

I'm heading up later today for a crack at em this weekend - my bro says the elk aren't talking yet - so I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Monsterbull]

I found a link to Jim Horn's article on the subject:

http://www.elkhornhuntgear.com/Articles/Ca...nBullsEarly.htm

 

[wmidbrook]

Great article!! I'll be using that advice. I've had a tendency to keep moving until I get a bull to light up and then either pressure him or try to sneak in on him...I've had some success with my approach but I'm hunting earlier in the season than usual too...a fella I went hunting with last season knows Jim pretty good and has also had a lot of success. He still prefers the ambush technique for early season...

 

[Monsterbull]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

He still prefers the ambush technique for early season...[/b]

wmidbrook - I wish I could utilize that technique too, but the area I hunt doesn't lend itself very well to ambushes, at least early in the season. Pretty heavily timbered, no big canyons, small pods of elk. You simply can't see very far, so it's tough to ambush them if they don't announce their presence. But once they start rutting pretty good, I try to do the same thing. Actually, aggressive calling tends to cause the bulls in my area to simply round up their small group of cows and move out.

 

[dairyhunter]

sorry you didn't get an elk, Yort, but at least you got out hunting....more than you can say for me this year.
I hope to see you this winter for the honkers!

Brandon