2015 Hunting Seasons Recap
The 2015 elk hunting started out hot and dry and kind of continued to follow that pattern throughout third season. We had unseasonably warm weather but due to the climate I was extremely happy with our results. During the rifle hunt we ended the year with a 75% kill rate, which was awesome. I typically would not expect such a good kill rate with such warm weather but it seemed to work in our favor.
We had three muzzleloader hunters which was a great hunt. We were just 33% on our kill rate, but it was not the lack of elk or try. We were in elk every day but nothing seemed to go our way. We had days where the elk were bugling all day long, which was amazing and then had days that were dead silent. It was interesting because it seemed to be the hotter the day, the more bugling there was and the cooler the day, the less vocal the elk were. Seemed odd to me but that's elk hunting for you.
We had some mule deer hunters this year and we were able to shoot some really nice bucks. Everyone that had a buck tag filled their tags with nice mature mule deer. We leased a deer property about 10 miles west of the ranch, which resulted in two nice bucks. We shot two bucks on the ranch: one in the Trap and one in Friend Draw.
The hunting stands all vary year to year on which one produces the most elk. This year the honey hole was the winner with 5 elk shot. It’s been a long time since the honey hole has produced that many elk in a period of one year. We have been hunting it differently so I hope that is the reason, but with elk hunting it does seem to change year to year.
2016 will be right around the corner; it is looking like I am going to have a full boat, which is good because it has been a while. My main goal for 2016 is to have some ground tilled up and ready to plant for the spring of 2017.