c-rad

I had no chance to scout this year until this past Saturday. I didn't want to screw anybody's hunting up so I waited until 10am to go out to scout. On the way up to where I usually park I saw 11 different trucks and 4 quads just road hunting. Even in the woods I ran into 2 hunters and they were less than a 1/4 mile off the road. Not sure why a non-resident would pay so wuch just to road hunt for a week. Hopefully it is like that next week during 4th rifle so I get the area to myself.

NorCal

Just out of curiosity what is the limit for roads in your area? I have been hunting for 46 years and have yet to see a road worth taking a shot at. It's probably better that hunters like you and I don't road hunt, personally I wouldn't know what to do with one if I were to take one.

skb2706

No limit and no season. Clean em and hang em....let em hang for a very long time. At least til the pot holes fill in.
Last year I wasn't elk hunting but went with a friend to be his sherpa. Met up with a group from out of state that only hunted from the road and only when it was warm. Found one of them drunk on the streets of Walden needing assistance back to his motel.
They flew in, drove 180 miles to hunt one and a half days then drive back to Denver and fly home. Doubt they got more than 50 yards off any road.

Alsatian

I often hear about hunters not getting very far away from the roads when hunting for elk. That is not an effective strategy . . . which I suppose everyone reading this already knows. My attitude to that is if 75% of the hunters don't go more than 1/2 mile off the road, that leaves a lot of prime hunting land to me. I took my 5x5 bull on public land about 4 miles from any road last year.

Having said that, my first year hunting elk in 2006 I actually saw elk as they crossed the road not 50 yards in front of me. I could have parked, taken my rifle, walked off the road a legal distance, and shot one of those cow elk likely pretty readily. It would have been easier getting out than my bull 4 miles from the truck. I didn't do that if for no other reason than I wasn't sure they were elk! I knew what a bull elk looked like, but at that time -- never seen elk in the wild before -- I wasn't sure what the difference between a cow elk and a mule deer doe was. I know, seems obvious, but it wasn't something I had studied at that time. I didn't want to be wrong. I'm not sure even then I would have taken the shot even if I was 100% sure it was a cow elk. If that was what my hunting was like EVERY year I probably wouldn't keep elk hunting. On the other hand, elk meat is REALLY good! It is more fun going off road to get them though.

Shoobee

The best time to road hunt is before the season opens, around dusk and at dawn.

That lets you cover a lot of ground for your scouting.

Once you find out where the bucks are, after roadhunting them before the season, then you need to get your boots on the ground and hike into the areas where you have pre-spotted them.

You should park your rig on the high ground wherever you intend to hunt. Then still hunt very slowly, or make a stand and watch, while the road hunters scare the deer to you.

The bucks will be hidden in brush thickets up high, as high as they can get and still have cover. They won't move at all during daylight unless someone else drives them out, or if the sun around midday makes them get up and move a few feet back into the shade.

That's what you should be watching for. Movement.

Don't whine about the road hunters. They are helping you with their roadhunting.

halfbakedi420

road hunting? we drive the road and find the wide paths used by dear, and then get to walking. following the path of least resistance all the way in. once every 5 years we walk so deep we have ta stay the night, hunt in the morning until one of us scores, and then both of us carry out our gear and 1 deer. its alot of work, but we are usually the only ones carry'in a deer to the truck.

Murdy

I got a nice one last year, cut it up and made new driveways for all my friends.

madmax83192

I've killed multiple elk within a mile of the same highway

Muley Hunter

I love road hunters. It keeps them out of the deep timber where i'm hunting.

Topgun 3006

Ditto that MH! I don't even start getting serious out in Wyoming until I'm a mile or more from the nearest road and I see plenty of game. It's funny how all these people ride down the roads and are the ones complaining that there's no game around. One guy with a CA plate pulled up to my camp right on the main gravel road and complained he hadn't seen a deer in four or five days while I was watching a nice buck with some does a few hundred yards up the hill across from camp and agreeing with him, LOL!!!