Western Hunting - the Illusion of Seclusion

[Rich M]

No big secret that I'm from the eastern half of the states and the two western adventures I went on were 30+ hour drives each way. They were 0 pt draws and in areas where we can definitely say "the effect of others was felt".

So, you see these videos and the guys are seemingly all alone in the mountains, plains, foothills, whatever with the herd of elk, antelope or mule deer just standing there doing animal things. It is awe inspiring and beautiful. Sometimes they are hunting/glassing out of their truck on this unused road and no-one comes by. You get this image in your mind... You read these articles and books and further seem to cement that illusion that there is a lot of room and it is easy to hunt without encroaching or being encroached upon.

If you skip the research part and just get a tag somewhere, you can be very impressed when opening day comes and there are 20 vehicles where, the day before there were none. Or there seems to be some kind of cross-country loop race going on with trucks racing around - maybe a scavenger hunt - crazy how they scheduled that to coincide with opening day. Oh well, got to deal with this now.

If you do any research and look for areas with decent hunter access, a decent harvest rate or "potential for a trophy" unit/area that can be drawn with a lower number of quota points, you likely start finding words like "hunter density" and "sea of orange" and "road hunters".

Other statements you see include "difficult access" and "to avoid hunters, walk in or hunt areas with difficult access". Somewhat similar but the meaning is totally different - one means hard to find places to hunt, the other means, go hide from the hunters and the deer/elk/antelope will be there too.

So, what is it?

Do you hunt an area of seclusion - or do you prefer the challenge of hunting in an area with a number of hunters?

 

[ODB]

I can’t get far enough away from people...

 

[5MilesBack]

Ya, when I'm hunting if there are people within 5 miles of me we're too close. But that's not easy to find these days, so the normal is crowds and being disappointed.

 

[MallardSX2]

There is nothing another hunter hates more than another hunter. lol

Having said that, if you can use other hunters to your advantage then thats good. In my experience most guys really dont have a clue what they are doing when they are out hunting and I think that bothers me the most.

Most of the time another hunter screws me up I believe they honestly dont know what they have done because they just dont know how to hunt effectively.

Other times you run into that guy who hunts just like you do and that is when things get difficult.

The buck in my avatar got bumped to me by some guys coming up a trail in their side by side. I held the rack up fro them to see when they drove by sneering....lol In this case, I was in position well before daylight and used their daily habit of them driving across the trail to my advantage. Not my most glamorous kill. But I filled my tag nun-the-less.

I have killed a lot of whitetails using the same tactic.

Problem is that once the pressure finally makes it to you things get weird fast and at that point you better have a backup plan...

Sometimes the best course of action is to just simply sit still and let things play out. I have shot a lot of game 5 minutes after I have seen another hunter. Most people would have left and I just rode it out because I know how things work out and I get lucky sometimes. But I spin that luck in my favor a bit by knowing when to move and when not to move.

I should note that the above is when I am hunting with my rifle.


When I am hunting with my bow, I vacate the area if I am running into other hunters. Even if there is game there, I leave because it just isn't worth it to me. The odds in killing spooked game with your bow is VERY low in my opinion.

 

[FLAK]

My Western apps are determined by number of tags and size of the unit.

 

[robby denning]

If you can get a truck or a quad, and in many places even horses, there fairly easily. And it’s not a draw unit with limited tags. You’re gonna see a lot of people

Just don’t give up, you don’t have to be the only one hunting the unit to be successful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Doc Holliday]

Whatever you do, don't go on a hunt up in the Yukon or NWT.....

 

[Mike Islander]

I hunt locally on weekdays, drive till the road stops, hike the last miles, cross a saltwater marsh, and achieve real isolation. So that's how I feel.

 

[jmez]

I hunt where I find elk. I don't worry about what others are doing.

 

[JPD350]

I was in the Gila wilderness,,,,,,,,,,,sitting atop an awesome peak overlooking the wilderness and doing a few elk calls, after a half hour of waiting I hear some really bad sounding cow calls below me. After 15 minutes of these calls they finally stopped, about 5 minutes later I see a young teenage girl coming up the hill so I put the binos on her and see a nice white roll of TP in her hand. She is about 75 yds away at this point so I stand up and when I thought she was looking my way I started to wave my hands but no response at all from her, she walked to about 50 yds away from me, she stopped and started to look around every direction but mine and reached for her belt! at that point I just sat back down and looked away. Just so you know, I have two daughters and a wife so there was no way I could violate her privacy. After a couple minutes I see her walking back down the hill, I could plainly see that she didn't know where see came up, she started whisper yelling to her partners and they did a nice soft whistle to her to direct her to their location. A few minutes went by and the cow calls resumed and they slowly traversed the side of the hill and disappeared, I was again alone in the vast Gila wilderness.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

If you are in good mountain condition it's not hard to get away from the crowds. How often do you see hunters in poor physical condition way up high on the mountain, rough country, with no road or quad access? I don't.

I'd be interested to know what others think. Realistically, in any Western hunt, what % of hunters would you say can really get after it. Go places others won't or can't go? I'll bet 5-10% range. That's your competition.

 

[cnelk]

Stay away from burns and wilderness areas and the amount of people reduce significantly

 

[WCB]

I find not only hunting where "others" (most others) won't hunt....whether that includes hard to reach areas, lower animal density units, lower trophy animal density, etc. really helps. But also try hunting "when" others don't want to hunt. Later in the season in when it is cold and miserable is my favorite time to be out. The cold or wind or a little moisture in the air can keep a majority of guys in the trucks or close to it. An all out blizzard or hurricane is one thing but I've killed animals and horrible weather days and never saw another sole around. Then run into guys in town "waiting out the storm".

 

[wmr89]

At times hunting pressure is helpful because other hunters push the game and keep them moving all day long. Learning how to use hunting pressure to your advantage is a useful skill. I have found hunting pressure a bit more useful in rifle seasons than in archery seasons but maybe I just haven't learned how to use that pressure well enough yet.

That said, my goal is generally to get away from people and have some isolation if for no other reason than to enjoy the peace of it. I have been in lots of high "pressure units" and had no problem finding myself alone with just some light hiking 1-2 miles of the road.

 

[Poser]

If you are in good mountain condition it's not hard to get away from the crowds. How often do you see hunters in poor physical condition way up high on the mountain, rough country, with no road or quad access? I don't.

I'd be interested to know what others think. Realistically, in any Western hunt, what % of hunters would you say can really get after it. Go places others won't or can't go? I'll bet 5-10% range. That's your competition.

10% is generous. Some of them will hike far in on a trail, 6-8 miles even, but you start talking getting off the trail and we’re probably talking less than 5%.

 

[FredBear86]

Bout to get to a point with the way hunting is publicized on TV and internet and wrote about in magazines that there are very few places to get away from people anymore. They say hunting numbers are down but I'll be dam if I see it. Just gotta out think the game and the other hunters nowadays.

 

[GunsAreFun]

Stay away from burns and wilderness areas and the amount of people reduce significantly

Can you expand on the wilderness areas?

I think I know what you mean, but as I plan a hunt, I’m struggling to find a balance of places not littered with roads while also not being people magnets like wilderness areas. Without those areas, it’s hard to find much land that isn’t less than two miles from a road.

 

[cnelk]

For 10 months of the year, Wilderness areas are pretty much void of people, with the exception of hikers and some fishermen.

Then comes September…. All of a sudden, the place is loaded with people. Think the elk don’t notice that?

Whereas, places that have roads, the elk are accustomed to road noise and summer travel and into Fall. Probably not much difference to them?

Ive said it before; Over the past 10+ years, we killed a lot of elk no more than 1 mile from a vehicle.

 

[Daniel0307]

Seriously guys is this even a question anymore... There is NO place on public land that there is not someone doing something if they aren’t hunting you run into a backcountry fisherman, or people packed in on horses, or the 4 college guys on their first ever elk hunt... yes the older out of shape guys only hunt near the roads but there are so many guys in the 20’s and 30’s who look like they work out everyday with steroids that don’t mind hiking in 10miles and just over the divide are the guys who hiked in 10miles from the other trailhead... With all the technology of onX , maps , gps ect ect there are more people hunting than ever before... If your that lucky guy who has thousands of acres of private land or can afford private land hunts then count your blessing and enjoy but the majority of us have to adapt and do the best we can.. just my 2cents

 

[cnelk]

Age and physical conditioning have nothing to do with hunting near roads.

I hunt there because.... Thats where the elk are.

Prove me wrong.