How much snow is to much??

[ColoradoOverwatch]

hi all,

well it is down to this last week for me to bag an elk for 2012. i have a cow tag for 4th here in CO. the unit i am in had 6-8 inches above 9500 and a budy saw elk in the adjacent unit down around 8500. so i have two questions to ask as i never really have given it much thought.

1. how much is to much snow for elk. will they start moving down if there is 8- 12 inches on the ground for a few days?

2. is there a general time frame for when they start moving to there winter feeding grounds.

now i know these are subjective questions, and no one can say on a specific date that they will start to head to winter pasture.... just trying to figure out which end of the unit i should concentrate on. One is the winter pasture.. the other is higher and more timber..and more snow on the ground.

 

[mdunc8]

My limited experience suggests it takes quite a bit more than 8-12" to get elk moving downhill. That's not to say there aren't elk hanging out down low, but I don't think it's enough to push them out of the mountains. The biologists around here seem to think that the elk around Big Sky didn't even migrate over to the Madison last year, as they usually do, because of the lack of snow.

 

[utah400elk]

For what it's worth. I know of elk at above 10,000 feet in February in Wyoming. I never really look at elevation when elk hunting. I was into elk in flats in Wyoming at 5200 feet in September and all the way up to 11,000 feet in the same month. What I have found is that elk can survive well at almost any elevation. I look for hard to get areas and usually find elk there. That being said, up to a ffot of snowshould not effect elk at all. JMO

 

[ColoradoOverwatch]

this is a new area that i am hunting and I was told by an "old timer" that when there is a foot of snow they elk have trouble getting down to feed. so they start heading lower. Being as i never thought of how deep it would have to be before the really start to head down i figure i would ping everyone.

in the early season all I saw were Cows around 9 - 10k. so I guess this time out i will see nothing but Bulls.

 

[Elkmagnet]

Is there layers of crusty snow or is it 8 inches of powder that's the question.

 

[ColoradoOverwatch]

not crusty yet. this was/is fresh snow... it was just getting a little deep before i left.

 

[gjflyfisherman]

I'm hunting during the fourth season too. This is the second time for me as I typically hunt during muzzleloading or 1st season. My understanding from a biologist and DOW is that about a foot seems to get the elk moving, probably more the cows and calves than the bulls. During the early season this year we had already started seeing elk at a little lower elevation than normal. I am hoping that with this past storm that they will lower and grouped up better than last year!

 

[jlmatthew]

I have a 4th season tag as well, but in the area I'll be hunting the cows have already come down before the snow last week. Just hope they are where my buddy left them

 

[belly-deep]

Big game migrations are something I have "racked" my brain over for quite a few years now.

As far as I can tell, it takes a combination of snow AND extreme cold, but exactly how much either seems to depend more on the time of year than anything. The closer it is to winter, the less of either snow or cold it will take to move them.

There is something else that goes on that we, as humans, don't understand. I've seen seemingly the exact same conditions with different results as to how the animals reacted.

In other words, there is no set amount, just whatever the critters decide is good enough to send them for lower ground.

 

[ColoradoOverwatch]

I guess either way it is going to be a lot of hiking and glassing. Weather reports say highs will be high 40 - 50 and lows in 19 to mid 20's. It's a new area so i am not going to exect a lot. just get out and enjoy hiking with my gun.

 

[sbhooper]

Prior hunting pressure can affect it also. I saw this big time in northwestern Colorado. We got weather and along with pressure, the elk just left the area for their winter grounds lower on private land.

 

[MT_Nate]

I've found sheds from mature bulls at 7500' in Northwest Montana, where up to 6- to 7-feet of snowpack is usually attained by the time they drop in February. I'm convinced some of these big boys call the high country home for most of the year.

 

[jlmatthew]

I was hunting above 10,000 ft 4th rifle and apparently I was too low. There was no snow and it was hitting the low 50's up there, unreal

Always next year

 

[ColoradoOverwatch]

Well I am back from the field. The only elk that was seen was the ones hanging from the meat poles of other camps. It seems that opening morning a heard fed out in the middle of a few camps. Was told it was a blood bath. Over 12 elk taken in the first few hours of the opener. I didn’t arrive until the next day.

Climbed to the top of a nice peak to glass into a few north facing basins around 7k but didn’t find any elk. As I was glassing I came across a mule deer but and started to pick the area apart. Found 8 deer spread out feeding through the timber. Two nice bucks and one that would have been a shooter if he was not missing his passenger side. As I was watching I notice a few started to move down hill, stopping to look back. As I pulled away from glassing I spotted a lone guy in orange walking down through the trees with no gun. I figured he was driving them to a guy with a gun and watched with amusement as the heard split up and circled back around him and watched him walk back down the hill. Figuring that there must not be any Cow’s in there I hiked back to my truck. As I got there the guys came up and I proceeded to lay out the story about how the deer circled back around him and watched him walk to the bottom. They all laughed. I then asked if they saw me sitting up on the hill glassing into the area he walked. They said they did and was trying to drive the deer to their buddy who had a tag. I know it is public hunting but if I had a tag I would have been pretty pissed that they just jumped in when it was obvious that I had spotted something and they felt it was okay to try and drive them around to the other side.

That was the last time I saw any game on this trip. The rest of the hunt was fighting all the “pumpkins” in the area. There had to be over 300 people in this unit. Even with fresh snow on Saturday there were no elk to be found. Talking to the DOW officer, he stated that they were still high, around 10 – 12k. doesn’t do any good when there are no peaks in that unit that high. He also said with all the pressure they would also be down on private.

So long story short… no elk or deer for the freezer this year, although I had a great time hiking around with my gun. Now for a short rest… and the planning for next year.

 

[Oak]

I was hunting above 10,000 ft 4th rifle and apparently I was too low. There was no snow and it was hitting the low 50's up there, unreal

Huh. I was hunting at 7,000 feet and saw 14 bulls the last two days. Fortunately for the elk, I am a lazy elk hunter.:W:

 

[jlmatthew]

Huh. I was hunting at 7,000 feet and saw 14 bulls the last two days. Fortunately for the elk, I am a lazy elk hunter.:W:

There is no need to be so cruel, totally uncalled for

Now make good on your bad deed and tell me where this place is

 

[putm2sleep]

..that's a typical ds CDOW officer for ya, 'yeh the elk are all high'????? ....and that's your typical outdoorsmen these days, they see ya and could care less about ethics and fair chase and fun.I hate hearing that shiat.
Hope you had some good experiences in there, lessons learned etc. Plan for the next one, and good luck next time.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Glad I went archery this year. Gun seasons were rough.

 

[noharleyyet]

How much snow is to much??

2nd year in a row for me to hunt Colorado 1st rifle elk sauna. Tag jambalaya....aaaahhhhiiiiieeee, right Draftstud?

 

[ColoradoOverwatch]

There is no need to be so cruel, totally uncalled for

Now make good on your bad deed and tell me where this place is

I second that.