Originally Posted by
cayugad
Well fire is a real concern to people that work and live in the woods. One reason why, when I was a smoker I never smoked in the woods. No matter the season. When out cutting, I would chew. Copenhagen don't start fires other then in your belly sometimes when you swallow too much.
Fire in these conditions and a muzzleloader really does make me pause and think about it a moment. I told Terry last night I was considering switching to the Tikka 300 win mag but I have not shot that in years, so this morning I stayed with the Knight 52 cal.
Did you see any sign of elk? I mean like scat or tracks?
Really it was pretty sparse, nothing that would indicate a large group of animals. But as much vegetation there is on the ground it can be hard to tell. Scat was scarce also, but I did not make it into the Thermal Cover. I was hoping to catch them on the way in.
That sure looks like a large area to walk around. Do elk follow trails like deer do in the woods?
Most of the time they are creatures of habit, they establish a route and do not vary of the course very fall at all. They do like moving along a ridge or in somewhat straight line crossing the terrain to a destination.
My elk hunting experience was really limited. The one time I went, the guide and I sat on top of a hill with binoculars and glassed most of the day. Then we'd walk to the next hill and do the same all over again. When we'd see a "shooter" as he called it, we'd put a sneak on it. And it ended up the one I did shoot was standing in a field minding its own business eating grass.
That is a pretty tyipical experiance... Elk usually do not work the grasses very much they are browsers and will work the brushes for buds or the broadlleaf plants on the ground. They will go to grass and hay in the winter if they are hungary enough.
One thing that kinda bothered me this morning, as early as I was there - I did not hear any cow-calf talk nor any bull blurts. It was pretty quiet other than the squirrles throwing cones out of the trees, and the whitetail moving through the dry forest floor. I had two whitetail burdt out of the brush below me and run right at me - couldn't figure what promted this as I was not moving at the time - but they ran up to about 20 yards from me - stopped looked back at where they came from and then turned and ran back where they did come from... made zero sense to me... I didn't even scope em cuz I knew I wasn't going to shoot them... But, then again they probably knew that also and were just teasing me!