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Bookcliffs Hunt Info

Well, the planets lined up and my hunting partner drew an archery elk tag for the Bookcliffs Bitter Creek area. We have over twenty years of experience hunting elk, mainly in the South slope area but have no clue as to what to expect in the Bookcliffs. I really would appreciate any info you care to share about this area. Roads, Camping, water, best places to scout, etc. We plan to be there for opening day and stay through the season if necessary. What tactics do you recommend early versus later in the season? My partner and I are in our mid 60's so this may be our last chance to get on a trophy bull.

Hey bushman. My buddy has a deer tag there. We will scout it a couple times. I will gladly give u any info we come up with. There is a water hole or two that i know of the elk hit regulary.

Great tag. I have bow hunted and muzzy hunted Deer out there. The archery hunt is early so don't expect much rut action until the last week of hunt. Water is a good bet for the hunt. I saw bulls from the cedars up to the ridge lines. You can spot and stalk but if real hot won't have much time to get in on a bull. There are also some big herds which are hard to get in on. Depending on your expectations of size of bull you should have plenty of action. I saw 320 - 340 bulls up high and a few bigger ones down in the cedars early on in the hunt. Success rate is great for an archery hunt out there. Due plenty of scouting to locate camping sight and area you want to hunt- it is a big unit. I would locate some good water sources and find a few wallows that are out of the way. sit on the wallows early afternoon through evening. Good luck! Ranger

Thanks for the info guys! Sorry for the late reply but just got back from vacation with the wife. I appreciate all the help and advice I can get. My plan is to head out a week early and get in some scouting. I figure it will be really hot so water and wallows will be my goal for the first two weeks of the season. After that it will be run and gun time!

Your going to have a great time and hunt Donnie!!

Happy for ya man

Good luck, Robb

Many thanks to you Robb! After all, it was you that encouraged us to get into the limited entry gig in the first place. So glad we took your advice. We are really getting excited about this hunt! Good luck to everyone this season!

Hey Bushman, find water. Sometimes with so many eyes around the bulls it is hard to make a move on the bulls. When you are worn out, you can set up a stand on water and still feel productive while you rest and if your not careful your odds of a great harvest will multiply 3 fold if you can just sit still for a while. Plenty of animals, It's going to be a great hunt!

Thanks Shaun! We are getting geared up to find and hunt the water sources. We usually hunt the last two weeks of the archery season. We call, move in and set up close to the bull. For this hunt we are planning on being there on opening day and stay until the last. It will be different for us but other folks have also recommended that we sit on the water sources. This is a really big deal for us and we plan to hunt hard. We know it's not going to be easy but I know we will have a blast chasing them bulls!

Everything is packed up and ready to go. It's been a fun summer planning for this hunt. Thanks to everyone that sent me advice and took the time to answer my questions. I hope to be able to post some pics and a good hunt story later.

Good luck. Don't break a foot. That's what I did weeks before my Book Cliffs hunt last year and had to turn the tag back in. It sucked.

OK, where to start. My buddy and I spent 26 days scouting and hunting in the Bookcliffs. Unfortunately we are eating tag soup as we held out for a trophy bull and passed on many, many lesser bulls. Another factor was that my buddy had family obligations to tend to so we had to leave just when the bulls were starting to respond to calling. The Bookcliffs are an awesome place to hunt. We saw tons of elk and mule deer. In addition to that we had encounters with bears, cougars, wild horses, buffalo, eagles, hawks and all types of small game. It is a tough hunt! The terrain is steep and wooly with oak brush. The dust is terrible and the temperature was hot, but we learned to adapt. On our last evening there we had a very close encounter with a huge bull we had been watching for over two weeks. We knew where he fed, where he got his water and his bedding areas. We patiently waited for him to get in a position where we could move and keep the wind in our favor. He was starting to get interested in our calling. On that afternoon, he was full blown working and I was willing to bet we were about to put him down. About that time out of nowhere another hunter moved between us and the bull. The bull didn't like the situation and bolted. It was very depressing but that's public land hunting. I hope to draw my tag soon and build on what we learned on this trip to maybe harvest a respectable bull. A huge "THANK YOU!" to those on this fourm that reached out to me and shared info about the Bookcliffs, hunting tactics and general info. You really made this hunt way more enjoyable!

Thanks for following up and letting us know how it went. Hopefully you get the tag soon.

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