Cypress hills elk hunt
 

Hello AO group,

My wife has drawn the second week elk hunt for cypress hills. Does anyone have any pointers? Any tips for previous hunts 2017? PM me

Good luck for one,and id skip the park and head south to the farmers around the park. You’ll have better luck there and they’re usually pretty good on handing out permission and giving good detail when the elk go through there areas.

It’s a pretty tough hunt, the elk get pushed around in the first season and could be anywhere by the second. The country is beautiful though, I recommend putting some miles on your boots and getting into the thicker stuff. You’ll have a more enjoyable hunt doing it this way as opposed to driving road patrols.

The Elk will be back away from any roads or vehicle trails. A mountain bike is a good way to travel if you are going to hunt inside the park. It allows you to get back to the deep heavily forested ravines where the Elk hang out during the day. There are lots of fire roads to bike that you aren't allowed to go on with a vehicle.

The Elk will move into and out of cover mostly in the dark. Seeing one out in the open during legal shooting light is not real common by the second hunt or even the second day of the first hunt. Intercepting them a mile back from where they are feeding, as they head into bed is a lot more effective than trying to catch them in the open.

If you can figure out where they are feeding, track back to where they are traveling and set up a mile or two back in so it is good light by the time they get to where you are.

If you can take a small rake along to rake a few feet of the trails you find to see which one are active on your next pass through. Sign is hard to see without rain or snow.

Play the wind as much as possible.
Pre wash your cloths
Try to keep the smelt trail as small as possible,, had a bunch of close encounters with some smart bulls last week....
On bad wind shift or cross wind blew them my smell.
Thick cover made the situation worse.

I'll be willing to bet your elk are hiding in the low areas out of the heat ,, into the shade
Have fun

Youd think
 

Youd think they would have been in shade today, but i glassed a heard of elk with about 3 mature bulls, broken up a bit with the biggest being 310. And 3 other younger bulls with about 45 cows. Bedded on top of a coulee in the sun for 4 hrs or so. They went to water aftet that.
Cover ground ona bike and glass and move.
I was outside the park. Can you hunt both the park and private land outside?

Second hunt
 

Yes you can hunt in the park and out side the park. For some reason I can not open my PM. First time posting on here. Thanks for all the comments

Is there snow in cypress hills?
 

Hi: Is there snow on the ground in cypress hills today?

We are driving up tomorrow

Hoopi

Hey Guys

Have a friend with the tag right now they have been putting a ton of mile son with No luck yet this spotted 3 cows at 1000 Yards at last light yesterday. Sounds like its a pretty tough hunt maybe with Mule Deer season opening today will get them moving a bit more. Any tips I could pass on would be greatly appreciated he's getting pretty bummed out.

Buddy said they are not seeing anything either. Going to take some exploring

Its a tough hunt....period.
Deer hunters probably wont make it easier on elk guys,the elk just become more wary.
You put miles on,look at everything....sometimes miles away from a tree.
I put alot of time into late season hunt last year and only had one good chance at elk,deliberately wrecked by 2 ********s from Bassano area(i know because i talked to them day before).
I dont know what the success rate of these hunts are now(they had map down in office last time i tried to check) but its gotts be pretty low.

Frustrating forsure specially when a guy drops a priority 12 you would hope you could at least find a cow shot shoot. They seen a 6x5 this am but was long gone by the time the finally got permission on the land it was on.

Indeed.....biggest mistake I ever made was wasting so many years on the last hunt.

Here too....I’ll do it one more time but it’ll be first hunt or nothing.

Not sure if I follow this tag doesn't have a bunch of hunts like Sufield you get awarded for the zone and can hunt any of the dates within.

Cypress Hills
 

Used to hunt this every second or third year. Only time we got blanked was the year I decided day one to hold out for a bull. Never did see another shootable elk for the last 2 days. Not sure what is happening down there now but when we were hunting there it was always a 3 or 4 day season starting Tuesday of each week for 4 or 5 weeks and your tag was only good for one of those weeks as they wanted to control how many hunters were there each week. Killed cows in Graburn in the thick stuff, Murray hill between high hill road and north boundary along the fenceline as well up high on east side of Reeser coulee.

Hey guys,

I have a tag for this week. I have my name and number out with quite a few ranchers and land owners but thought I would try on here as well. If there’s anyone in the cypress area or someone hunting the area who sees a herd i would appreciate a message. I will also do the same with someone hunting as well.

Thanks


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