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Oak Brush

Question on hunting the dreaded oak brush. Found a north face bowl of the stuff loaded with acorns 4 yrs ago , but no acorns or elk since. Question is ,what is the mast cycle or is it weather dependent? Thanks

Bob all of the oak brush here in CO is Gamble oak. Elk love the acorns. If the freeze does not get them in May, Then they need rain. If both of those work. It is the place to hunt. Bears and elk love them. Good luck!

Thanks, we found that spot towards the end of our hunt. Glassed elk and a couple of bear from the top, but once we dropped in it was a challenge. Very thick and nasty. Thanks again

Acorn production is very sporadic in the south west. Sometimes we go years with almost no acorns. Then when we do have them, they are thick in small patches. I don't have an answer other than, you can't count on them from year to year.

I've seen up to several hundred elk using oakbrush for bedding during the day. The brush gets as big as small trees as you get into the ravines and creek bottoms.

Laughing at this post as the woman in the Nation forest service office (Pagosa) told us "Elk don't eat the acorns"!

lol @ OTC

Years ago I had permission to hunt a chunk of landlocked BLM that had a large north facing patch of scrub oak. The elk used it for feeding and bedding so much that they had trails cut thru it that were literally like tunnels. I used to love sneaking thru those tunnels with the wind in my face. More often than not I could inch my way right into the herd undetected. I killed a lot of bulls in that stuff.

Matt

Find the trails and wait at the end for PM hunt. Trying to get in or out, even with the tunnels is a major bitch. We made the mistake of trying to sneak in on one of the trails early on an afternoon and had elk running all around us. They can see and hear you breaking branches and cussing from getting cut up a mile away!

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