Scouting for critter?

Went looking yesterday, for 1st season rifle. Found a nice meadow with water flowing and a decent pond. Tons of tracks to and from the area as well. Several beds found as well. The curious thing, almost no poop! This would be my 2nd attempt, with first being a failure due to serious lack of scouting. Area seems like it would be great to just set up and wait, but the lack of dropping has us a bit puzzled. At least 2 animals were pulled out the surrounding area that day from bow hunters. Didnt get a chance to see much, just wrapped bags going away on ATV's. One to the north by a bit, one to the south.

Any advice would be appreciated!

What elevation are you scouting at? How far from the road are you going?

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Originally Posted by yjsaindon

What elevation are you scouting at? How far from the road are you going?

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About 9k' and 1.5 miles from the road

We were having a bit of a hard time in the areas that were sparce with pines finding sign too. We did find a ton of it in some pretty isolated places like thicker dark timber and in 1 really nice open meadow/draw surrounded by aspens. This place was topped out with a pretty open flat and ran down hill to a place where they could easily escape. On all accounts we had to be just under a mile from the road as the crow flies. Are you using a GPS to mark good areas?

Go in and bugle. Get a good call, and let them know who's boss. You gotta be in early. 0515 is the wake up call, 0530 the snooze alarm goes off. Then all hell will break loose till 0730. Action stops around 8am. Bugle, cow call and be mobile. That's how I found mine and i'm at 9100ft. I run chappell's calls, and they frig'n work...http://www.youtube.com/user/chappellhunting

That's pretty much sums it up. We were up at 4:15 and slammed some oatmeal,geared up and started our trek up the mountain. By 6:00 the bugles started. The day I stuck my elk I was in the dark forest with 5 bulls screaming at each other no more than 40 yards from me.The cows were calling in and one smaller bull came in to challenge the heard bull and some horns were locking! I was in sheer aw and amazement watching all this go down. I was frozen in place with no shot because of the heavy brush and timber so all I got was a live Animal Planet show.

That purple lizard must of given you away...^