Looking for a way to just get out and hunt? A spike or antlerless elk hunt is a solid option! Explore tips on how to quickly find the best hunt that suits your needs
With low-hanging hunting opportunities becoming more rare in the West, many hunters are scrambling each season to put together a good hunt and to put some healthy meat in their freezers. One area that I feel gets overlooked by many hunters is cow elk and spike elk hunts. Also, any antlerless hunt, for that matter. Antlerless and spike elk hunts can be an excellent addition to a hunting trip that has already been planned, but these can also make for great standalone hunts, too. Along with some of the other great tools like Filtering and antlerless Draw Odds we offer, one of my favorite tools to use while researching antlerless hunts is the Unit Profiles. Unit profiles give hunters a thorough breakdown on many aspects of each hunting area and can really accelerate your e-scouting and hunt planning. Additionally, Unit Profiles allow hunters to quickly determine whether a unit might be right for them — or not.
GOHUNT recently added Unit Profiles for every unit/area in each state on our mobile app and that means you can now research any hunting opportunity in the palm of your hand.
Unit profiles give hunters a quick glimpse into a unit’s terrain, vegetation, access options and more. After doing my initial research in Filtering my next step is to jump into Unit Profiles to begin to formalize a plan. Below are some of the main things I’ll look for in a Unit Profile.
The terrain section of a Unit Profile is a great starting point. Here, hunters can learn about the overall terrain of an area, what ground cover might be like, elevations to expect, public land percentages and more.
Personally, I enjoy the solitude hunting can bring, and I feel the most deadly in areas where I can use boot leather and ingenuity to get away from pressure and find animals. Typically, in a terrain section, I am looking for mentions of steepness in the terrain and other access hurdles. These are areas where I know I can find overlooked locations.
On the other hand, if an antlerless hunt is purely about filling a tag, I might look for areas with a more approachable terrain type where physical exertion will not be as big of a deal. Bottom line: the terrain section can quickly clue you in on the type of areas a unit can offer.
After getting a good grasp on the general breakdown of a unit and the terrain types, then I like to look at vegetation.
The vegetation section can give a hunter a great idea of the type of feed and cover they may encounter in a unit. For me, the big part of an antlerless hunt is the ability to glass. I am not concerned with locating a specific bull or buck — I just need to find a doe or cow — so, having the ability to quickly cover ground from a single location versus having to still hunt my way through heavy timber is desirable. The Vegetation section can quickly clue me on the type of conditions I might encounter.
Another big area of consideration for any unit is access. The Access section of a Unit Profile can provide additional information for hunters that is useful like the potential availability of access programs, primary routes of travel to enter the unit, helpful tips for navigating the area and even some starting locations for large portions of public lands.
Camping and Lodging is another great section as this can generally clue you in on some accommodations you may need to make or arrange prior to leaving for a hunt. At times, you might be hunting a desolate unit where the only modern lodging is located outside of the hunting area while other units may have a plethora of options.
Another section of the Unit Profile where you can find some good species-specific information is the Species Descriptions located in the season section of each unit profile. Within this section, you will often find specific hunting information about the unit you are researching, such as potential starting points or hunting tips and tactics. The Species Descriptions section can also clue you in on the potential movements of the animals depending on the time of the year you may be hunting them. For example, hunting in a state with minimal migration movements, like Montana, can be vastly different than in a state like Colorado, which has massive migration patterns.
Perhaps one of my favorite things to look at in a Unit Profile is all of the great season data that is available. Through the Season Data section, I can find historical harvest success rates, drawing odds, hunters surveyed and more.
When it comes to success rates for most of my big game hunts, I generally treat this stat with a grain of salt. Success rates, in my opinion, are a direct representation of hunter effort. If you are looking at a unit with a heavy population of road hunters you might see low success rates when, in fact, the hunting off the road could be great. However, with antlerless hunts, hunters are much less picky and generally much less likely to hike. Because of this, an antlerless hunt with great year-over-year success usually tells me that the hunt shouldn’t be too difficult.
Beyond the content found in Unit Profiles generated by the GOHUNT team, another great place to look is in the Unit Profile comments. These comments are generated by members of GOHUNT and can often be a place to learn more about the unit. Often, you’ll find comments from other hunters who’ve expressed interest in hunting the unit you are researching or who have actually hunted it. These little nuggets can often clue you in on areas to investigate, areas to avoid or just give you little tips on moving about the area.
There really isn’t any sugarcoating it: finding information for cow elk and spike elk hunts can be tough at times simply because people really don’t publicize or talk about them much. One other thing I really like to do while researching an antlerless hunt in a Unit Profile is to also look at the seasons, data and information for the male counterpart. Often, you can find some great information there that can also narrow down the focus for more prime areas.
