Best way to spend 2 days scouting immediately before the season starts

Hi All -

newbie here with some questions! I'm a New Mexico resident and was lucky enough to get drawn for the second rifle hunt in 16A (Gila wilderness, Oct 21-25). I'm pretty new to hunting in general - didn't hunt growing up, and have hunted 16A 3 years ago but knew pretty much nothing about elk hunting! On that hunt I did a bunch of scouting before my season, but the places I was finding bulls in Sept/early Oct were completely empty after the first rifle season in mid-October, and I could never find any bulls during my actual hunt. I learned a bit about what not to do (I think!) but am trying to learn more about what I should be doing before my hunt this year.

I've got the 2 days right before my hunt to really scout - I know the unit better than I did a few years ago, and have a few areas I've picked out based on Google Earth that look "good" to me.

I'm trying to decide what my strategy is going to be for the 2 days before the hunt - I'm guessing I need to find elk without pushing them around too much, so what's the best way to go about that?

Thanks for any advice/tips!

Matt

If I were in your shoes, I would have a bunch of spots on my maps that look like no one else is going to want to hike into, and on those first couple of days I would start checking the best looking ones to try and confirm whether or not there are elk in them. Ideally you will have found elk for opening morning, but if nothing else you have crossed country off your list and can keep working your way through spots until you find the elk. Check our Randy's late season elk hunting tips on youtube, they are goign to be tucked back in some nasty places.

Scout from afar, don't go busting into your hunting areas and burning them for opening morning. John

The bulls will be recovering from the rut. They will be back in nasty places and moving little.

In my opinion, October 10th - Halloween is the most difficult time to find a herd bull. It's more like hunting for a needle in a hay stack like a high country buck. As mentioned above, they are back in bachelor groups in nasty canyons, bedded for most of the day to conserve calories and feeding in small areas.

You can still find younger bulls with herds during that time frame. Scouting 2 days in advance of the opener will be great, at worst case you won't find any elk and you'll figure out where NOT to be opening morning. That in and of itself is a success. If your lucky you'll find some elk to sit on come opening morning.

Thanks for all the replies!

I've been watching as much of Randy's stuff as possible, and it's definitely helpful! Doing my best to learn a bunch and make a plan before I get out there. I'll keep pouring over maps on google earth and pick a bunch of spots to check out for the first 2 days.

Make arrangements to fly the area at daylight

bailey68 said:

Make arrangements to fly the area at daylight

Click to expand...

From NMGF's websites list of prohibited activities (protected includes all big game):

• Hunt from, signal locations of protected species to hunters from or harass game with aircraft; hunt protected species observed from aircraft within 48 hours of observation; or hunt protected species the same day of air travel, except by commercial airline or direct flight to a landing strip