How to best spend 3 scouting days in August

[jt13]

So with all the craziness that was canceling my honeymoon I ended up with all kinds of leftover flight credit for a number of different airlines. With some of this credit I have orchestrated a scouting trip the weekend of August 27-29th to the south-central Idaho unlimited quota elk unit that I will be hunting from September 13th-23rd with 2 friends. None of us have ever set foot in Idaho and we each have about 2-4 years of mixed previous experiences in the elk woods (public rifle, public drop camp archery, private archery, private rifle). I have been e-scouting, dropping way points on OnX, going through elk management plans, seeking out summer range GPS data, and so on...

Now with the back story out of the way, what I want to ask is-- Do you have any tips or suggestions on how I can make the most of 3 days of scouting in late August to improve our chances of success in mid-September?

 

[Deleted member 20812]

If it were me, I would try and drive out every road in the area you're wanting to hunt. Look for ATV trails that may be hot spot access points. Identify which roads are drivable. Look for well used camp sites. Get some boots on the ground too and look for water and rubs. Compare what you see on the ground to USFS MVU maps and travel plans. You won't know what pressure is going to be like until your hunt, but you can potentially rule out areas that are a superhighway of ATV trails.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Yep, you want to figure out where the crowds are forming up. I’d find and GP a couple of good looking campsites, saves time looking for something a little better.
Have fun.

 

[johnrr65]

If it were me, I would try and drive out every road in the area you're wanting to hunt. Look for ATV trails that may be hot spot access points. Identify which roads are drivable. Look for well used camp sites. Get some boots on the ground too and look for water and rubs. Compare what you see on the ground to USFS MVU maps and travel plans. You won't know what pressure is going to be like until your hunt, but you can potentially rule out areas that are a superhighway of ATV trails.

+1

 

[ccc23454]

Drive roads suitable for what your bringing in fall, find campsites look for heavy use areas to prob stay away from. Look for horse crap and places big enough for horse trailers, if its there in summer they will be back in fall likely. Learn way to nearest gas/supplies/emergency, find any ag lands or features that may uniquely draw elk, hike 2 or 3 want to go waypoints if time allows. Talk to anybody you can and pry info out of them about pressure, dont ask them where you should go but what areas everyone hunts so you can figure your own attack plan. Mainly just have fun building confidence and a plan...

 

[huntandfly]

In my experience, access is the biggest key. Spend your time looking into multiple different areas that you have scouted on your maps. Find out what your best access is, and also look at how other people might get in there and move the animals around. I have often found that places I thought might be relatively remote had an unmarked trail or dirt road going into them that made them much less likely to hold animals. Look for elk sign from previous years, actually seeing animals would just be a bonus

 

[jt13]

I know when scouting for public land deer in the east there is value to looking for public land furthest from a town. As people generally hunt whitetails, hike, and walk their dogs as close to home as possible. Think this is also true in the part of the world we are headed to in regards to pressure from elk hunting, hikers, horseback riders, ATVs, etc?

Edit: More specifically, one side of the unit borders a larger mountain town, would it be wise to target my efforts on the opposite side of the unit?

 

[2rocky]

If it were me, I would try and drive out every road in the area you're wanting to hunt. Look for ATV trails that may be hot spot access points. Identify which roads are drivable. Look for well used camp sites. Get some boots on the ground too and look for water and rubs. Compare what you see on the ground to USFS MVU maps and travel plans. You won't know what pressure is going to be like until your hunt, but you can potentially rule out areas that are a superhighway of ATV trails.

JLS beat me to it. I will add, you have roadless areas, get to know the main trails and see how the country and cover "lays". Can you see through the burns? Are there well defined cattle/game trails in addition to the government trails?

Summer scouting is seldom about seeing animals. I hunted a new wilderness area where I'd never been to where I camped but did a day ride in from the two nearest trailheads that summer. never actually set foot in the country where I killed a bull on the second day of the season.

 

[AZbywayofWI]

So with all the craziness that was canceling my honeymoon I ended up with all kinds of leftover flight credit for a number of different airlines. With some of this credit I have orchestrated a scouting trip the weekend of August 27-29th to the south-central Idaho unlimited quota elk unit that I will be hunting from September 13th-23rd with 2 friends. None of us have ever set foot in Idaho and we each have about 2-4 years of mixed previous experiences in the elk woods (public rifle, public drop camp archery, private archery, private rifle). I have been e-scouting, dropping way points on OnX, going through elk management plans, seeking out summer range GPS data, and so on...

Now with the back story out of the way, what I want to ask is-- Do you have any tips or suggestions on how I can make the most of 3 days of scouting in late August to improve our chances of success in mid-September?

Jt13, I am in the same boat as you. I was supposed to get married May 21st and be on my honeymoon last week, thanks for nothing Covid! Anyways, to carry on with the questions that Jt13 was asking, I am going on a scouting trip to a new area for the first time next week and I only have 1-2 days. I have pin-pointed a wilderness roadless area that I want to check out and have also found a couple different ways into the area that are a long enough hike that I think will deter most hunters. My question is about timing and migration. This area is deemed by the Fish and Game Dept for this state as a Summer Range for Elk, more specifically a concentrated Elk area for the summer. My hunt isn't till the 3rd week of September, do you guys think that I should still plan on hunting this area at this time or will have the Elk moved out of this area into a more Winter Range area?

Thanks!

 

[jt13]

Hey everyone, just completed my preseason scouting trip! I'll add some more pictures later but this is what a brand new rental truck looks like after 1100 hard miles in Idaho....

 

[jt13]

I had an awesome time exploring Idaho with a good buddy. One heck of a successful scouting trip if you ask me. Cant wait to be back out there in a few weels with a bow in my hands!

 

[jt13]

 

[Brian_Holcombe]

Sounds awesome!

I look for three things in August to inform September: Wallows, Water and Cows, in that order. Looks like you found some of it!

 

[jt13]

As we head east the story of this hunt has come to a close....

In 8.5 days of hunting on public land in Idaho we encountered 27 cows and 21 bulls. 12 bulls inside of 100 yards. 7 responded to calls. 5 called in. Bows drawn 4 times. 2 shots fired. 1 hit in the shoulder. 1 miss. 79.5 miles hiked. Tens of thousands of feet of elevation climbed. No elk in the cooler for the 36 hour ride back home to Pennsylvania. Hell of a trip