The DIY Hunter

Alps Outdoorz Pathfinder pack and Ultrec Carbon Fiber tripod scouting for elk

My Alps Outdoorz Pathfinder pack and Ultrec Carbon Fiber tripod while scouting for elk. I will always remember this photo because of the large cougar that walked right in front of me minutes before I took this photo.

I was finished glassing from this location and had my camera and gear all back in the pack. While I was sitting there a cougar walks through an opening below me at around 30 yards. I quietly scrambled to get my camera back out to take a photo of him but was too late. So I took a photo of the pack while I had the camera back out.

 

Cow elk feeding while scouting for elk on the Wasatch Limited Entry Unit

This cow elk fed around the hill below me while I was glassing for bulls.

The marks on the back and side of this elk are interesting... could they be the claw marks of a cougar?

After nine years I finally drew Utah's Wasatch Limited Entry archery elk hunt. I figured I should have drawn the tag a few years sooner but, my luck apparently wasn't very good, in fact down right poor according to the supposed number of points needed to draw an archery tag on this unit. Oh well, I'm hunting it this year!

On my first trip to scout the unit with a friend who also drew the tag, we watched at least 23 bulls and many cows and calves. There are a lot of elk on the unit. I believe I saw more bull elk in this one day than I have seen in all of my combined personal elk hunts my entire life. We didn't however see any super dandy bulls. But there were two that we watched that I would shoot if the opportunity arose. I'm not going to be that picky, I've never shot an bull better than a couple small five point bulls, two with a bow (2004, 2007) and one with a rifle in 2010. If I get a bull in range that looks to break the 300 point mark I'm putting an arrow in him.

Below is some video of a few of the bulls we watched on my first scouting trip to the unit.

See how my hunt went in this article: 2012 Archery Hunting for Elk in the Utah Wasatch Limited Entry Unit

The weekend before the opener I took my family out camping in the area. in the mornings I would sneak out of camp early to glass for elk. Here is some video of some of the same bulls and some other bulls I found in the area on this trip. I am surprised that most of the bulls still have their velvet with only a few days to the opener.