I'm not directly effected by this, but a buddy in Nebraska sent me a picture of some wildfires going on and said "aren't you glad we're not going there?" I'm personally glad we are not, but for big game hunting, what kind of audible do you guys call if you draw a unit in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, ETC... and then it starts burning down before season.. Do you guys use it as an advantage or do you cancel your trip? Just curious to see if fires have affected anyone's hunting plans this year...
Luckily have not had it happen yet, but for me it would be hard to give up years worth of points and not go. If it was a danger to myself then I guess I would use the vacation time elsewhere and get in some more whitetail hunts.
I thought the same, I wouldn't go active fire, although maybe I would and use it to my advantage - Game funnels, scent control, i'm not exactly sure, but I would do my best to connect with something...
A lot of times, at least in the pnw you have fires around, makes the animals skittish and harder to hunt. Also if it’s anywhere near the area you plan to hunt often that land gets all shut down. They don’t want to be trying to find some hunter while dealing with a fire. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The state of Colorado has offered buy back options on draw tags in certain units with active fires in the past. Not the best option if you’ve been putting in for years but better than nothing, nonresident tags aren’t cheap. You can hunt in the smoke, it makes some things like glassing more difficult but it’s not impossible to find critters.
I was concerned the past couple years hunting in CO. Last year, some were a unit away, I was hunting two units away with the fire outside Glenwood. Part due to distance, the rest wind direction, was a non issue. Last year the bigger problem was C19 had tons of recreationalists swamping trail heads. This year, there are 4 fires upwind of areas we're targeting. Pretty sure we will be in some smoke, but distance helps dilute the smoke... As contingencies I have pins in probably 5 units... Where we set base camp will be a last minute call. I'm probably on inciweb twice a day and get the daily fire team updates on the fires via FB. If I had an Le / draw tag and there was a fire in my unit I'd be more concerned than a general tag.
For all intents and purposes, scent control is impossible, where/how we hunt...nearest shower is often 20+ miles away. Merino to minimize stink and play the wind.
Hopefully this year won’t have the same result. There’s been more rain throughout the summer around my house and some of the mountain areas I hunt. This time last year it seemed half the state was burning and both units I had been scouting had active fires. Good luck come September
Thx. We're in MT this year. I heard AZ and para of CO got some good rains this year. Good luck to y'all too.
Heck the sun is a haze ball at my house let alone where I’m gonna be hunting. Air quality alerts and fire bans to include charcoal grills are in affect right now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've never had an actual fire burning close enough to threaten a hunt, but no access is certainly a possibility this year. Much of the area I hunt is Potlatch Corp. land and they have completely shut down all access to it, can't even walk on it currently. If we don't get a good rain before archery elk season it will still be all shut down. The small amount of State ground will become very packed I'd think, I think most of the other people that hunt the area will just still go and hunt State ground. If we don't get rain then we'll either hunt another spot that I first started at in my late teens/early twenties (I'd be the only one familiar with it, and that was over 25 years ago), it is all Forest Service, or go to another spot with access that is completely unfamiliar to all of us. Just flat don't have any idea what's going to happen right now. We are hoping for a rain miracle right now.
