2016 Uinta Elk?

13687 Views 39 Replies 20 Participants Last post by Clarq, Feb 1, 2016

JT770

Discussion Starter · Jan 25, 2016 (Edited)

Hello all,

I'm brand new to the forum and am looking for a little help or constructive criticism on my hunt plan for next year. Definitely not looking for honey-holes or 10 digit grids, just a point in the right direction.

I'm an active duty Marine that grew up on the east coast as a whitetail hunter but have had the fortune of being stationed on CA/NV border. I'm definitely new to western hunting but have experienced some succes knocking down a couple CA mule deer (eastern Sierra Nevadas) on solo backpack hunts and a Cow elk in CO last year out of a drop camp. Basically, I don't think I'm completely clueless and am definitely not afraid of some hard work or covering some ground.

Right now my group will consist of about 4-6 guys for the Any Bull Rifle season. I have a line on renting some horses and we plan on packing in the 7th then hunting the 8th through the 15th. I want to try to get 5-7 miles off the roads, set up camp, then hunt from there. Most of the guys I'm going with are in there late 20's as well so we plan on covering some ground to try to get on some Elk.

Right now I'm looking at the Southern Slope east towards the actuall wilderness area. My main issue is finding a step off point then a general area to set up camp. I live about 8 hours drive away, so after some serious google Earth and map work, I'm hoping to go backpack and check it out this spring.

From all the reading I have done so far, it looks like I should expect high pressure by the roads and rugged country and low elk densities in the back country.

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Jon

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3arabians

· #8 · Jan 25, 2016

I will echo what Airborne said about the horses being a hassle. Taking them on hunting pack trips is more work than fun if you plan on hunting and taking care of them simultaneously. Hopefully if you are renting horses a guide/wrangler is part of the deal. If not my advice is that if you are going with a group of 4 or more for that amount of time is to rotate days as wranglers. One person is responsible for the horse each day and rotate through the trip. There is a laundry list of issues that can come up with horses aside from the daily care they require (injury, thrown shoes, etc). I own horses and have plenty of experience. Personally I have never packed in with my horses for more than a 4 day trip because hunting and taking care of the horses is so much work you are completely exhausted and done after day 4.

Also if you aren't riding them daily they can get bored after a couple days tied to the highline and become quite moody which doesn't help.

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3arabians

· #19 · Jan 26, 2016

Yes, very impressive hazmat. You have it figured out. I like the shrine type picture frame also. I have done a couple of those from my hunts of the past. A fun thing to hang on the wall if you cant afford taxidermy or even if you can.

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