Hello this may be my first post however I do know most of the regulars on here due to reading through the many forum topics since I became a member close to a year ago “many hours poring over all the incredible stories and helpful advice”. I definitely have a passion for the outdoors and hunting has finally taken ahold of me.
When I was younger "middle school" I had some good experiences and some not so good experiences with my introduction to hunting. So it was short lived, but the bad has just about been forgotten and most of my memories are the good ones... spooking a black bear feeding on a gut pile and having him stop to check me out at about 10 yards standing vertical on his back legs, then on the count of 3 me booking it down to the bottom of the hill to watch him at a safer distance for the rest of the afternoon, or at age 13 the following year hiking five miles into camp and hunt on the backside of a lake. I was atop a blown over tree “root Ball” when a monster Bull Moose walks right in front of me through the creek only to wade chest deep in the water without knowing I was there.
18 years later…
Then over two seasons ago after facing enormous health issues that my wife was undergoing she had finally crested and was in a great recovery stage, I was then invited to go hunting. I imagine someone thought I needed a little fresh air… and this is when my passion for the outdoors reignited. There is so much more to my story and I am happy to have a strong and healthy family.
So here is my question on whether to start at the bottom of a drainage and work up to the clear cuts on a morning Archery elk hunt or just start above, glass and listen, then move down the clear cut and into the deep timber. I can probably already answer this question myself.
So this is why I'm asking in the past I've been set up early before sunrise in a nice location and as dawn breaks the rest of the hunters start moving in and the once quite logging road begins to look like a city street. I’m not complaining but it seems to me that if everyone is above and riding the edge of the GMU then the animals are going to be pushed down and rather quickly. So I thought rather than help push the animals down I would start at the bottom and slowly work up the drainages toward the clear cuts. I have a decent understanding of the terrain so I’m thinking it will be very step with some areas that level off slightly as I’m moving up. I’m starting to thinking about scent and being able to visible see uphill…I may be over thinking it.
Lastly the previous season when it got busy it was muzzleloader season and this year I will be hunting with a bow so I’m thinking there will be a little less traffic. I’ve researched a ton of GMU’s but I’m drawn back here because it’s one of the only units I’ve set foot in for elk hunting.
