This year though? There’s a bunch of new rules apparently. He took my range pass and my map and said I can’t come back in until tomorrow

That's brutal I was really looking forward to this hunt hope I can post a better outcome to my hunt next week..

no not this year.

that's odd

Unfortunately this is a cull not a hunt that's one reason it never interested me even though I know some guys that killed some 380s and 390 there

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I was looking forward to going there next week but after what everyone has said I don’t know what to expect

Maybe with different weather the elk will move differently

thanks for the info. sorry to hear about your frustrating day!

Was there any Bulls shot I will be there next week

if you want to make it a hunt, you can make it a hunt.

instead of just driving around road hunting, get into the NWA and burn some boot leather. i walked over 8km to get onto a herd and then had to make 2 3km trips (9km total) back to the truck.

Cowtown Guy, i urge you to go back. you used up your priority and i know i would regret it later on if i only hunted one day.

Go back. Got my bull last morning after not seeing a single elk for two days. was a later season as well so I'm sure they are still there this early.

Anything can happen.

Patience
 

We'll be there next week too. Last year was first time there and was a learning year but we did shoot two bulls in the NWA. This year my brother and my middle son will be the hunters and we are looking forward to it.

Is there still a designated walk in area that you can hunt without the winning one of the daily NWA draws?


PS we are staying at the Travel lodge

Rob

There hasn't been yet it all draw and only 25.

Yes there is. They only told us this on day 2. You can drive in on road but it's foot access from there. Look on map. It's a big section south of main nwa.

No can do. Logistically it won’t work. I’m 500$ in already. Priority or not, it really isn’t worth it.
I’m not eligible for the NWA as a single hunter either.

The best of times, the worst of times.
 

I was a mule on this hunting trip for a friend had drawn a tag and he was in need of someone with a strong back and a weak mind. Well, that’s me.

The first morning was full of optimism and enthusiastic energy. Being the first day of base hunting we expected to find pockets of elk dotting the landscape. After morning briefing from base staff and wildlife biologist we where cautioned that we may not see as many elk as perhaps we had hoped for as the herd reduction plan has been effective. As well the dry summer followed by the fire has kept numbers down on the base. We saw 3 groups of elk first thing in the morning. 2 groups were in the NWA which we did not have access to and as we were closing in on the 3rd group a truck pulled up on a neighbouring road and the herd ran away as a cow was shot. The rest of the day was spent in the north part of the base travelling roads and glassing hills. No elk were spotted and we noticed a lack of forage. We left the base that day dejected and talked about the lack of elk seen. Tomorrow would be another day.

The second morning we decided to draw for a NWA opportunity and were successful. It was close to 10:30 by the time we checked into the NWA and began our hunt. We immediately parked and headed east. Without going into detail we successfully harvested a bull at last light. We accumulated 23ish Km’s of hiking. Saw a combining of many herds into a super herd of 1700+- elk that we were able to get within 250yds of. The noise and chatter of this herd was phenomenal and something we all won’t forget. It was a huge challenge to find an animal that we could ethically shoot as their were often several animals either in front of or behind our target bull. We had a fantastic day and left tired but fulfilled.

This is our first experience on a suffield hunt and cannot say enough good things about base personnel. After our experience on the first day we decided to make this a hunt and we worked very hard for our bull. The experience will be what you are able to make of it.

Good luck to all in future hunts.

Great info exactly what I needed to get my hopes up cannot wait to go.

Congrats any pictures of the bull?

This is truly awesome and probably the best post in the Suffield threads that I have seen. Good job!

We were able to tag out yesterday. The key is the NWA lottery. We seen 11 elk outside the NWA (all bulls so we could not shoot) and yesterday 30 mins after entering the NWA we had a cow on the ground.

There are a lot of guys pounding the roads and we found our herd of roughly 80 just over the first rolling hill off the road. Like the post above they were chirping like crazy, really neat experience.

The base guys were great and after ironing out a few issues in the first couple days the briefing and time to get on the base was quicker. There is a 1 hr delay after briefing and they really mean 1 hour. You can wait at the gate or just inside the gate but they won't let you pass sooner.

The doors did not open before 6:00am and although we filled out paperwork before from the net they had us redo it the first day as they said it was a different version. Bring a pen if you remember, they have some but you will have to wait for one to be free.

To get into the NWA you need food and water for 12hrs, a hunting partner, a way to get the elk out, a solar blanket, a gps (most important part and they do check) and map they provide you. The map is really detailed topo map and is very useful on planning your hunt areas and places to walk where trucks should hopefully not be driving.

They will list a lot of rules and they will also search your vehicle (depending on the MP they search it really well) so don't try to sneak something on as they will lifetime ban you. They said the first day 12 people received lifetime bans with 2 being from alcohol.

This was my second year there and it was a really different experience. Last year IMO the briefing went a lot smoother and we were hunting a lot sooner. I also seen way way more elk and never went into the NWA. This year was a bit slower and I don't think there are many elk that are not in the NWA. I did not witness any of the crazy stuff people have stories of and found most everyone to be very respectful other than a few guys that did some hard tailgating.

Hope the other hunts go well this year and IMO I would try hard to get the NWA draw.

glad to hear some positive feedback instead of just negative ones!

Solar blanket? I'm assuming any blanket would do??

I think its one of those thin tinfoil safety blankets, least that's what I bought and showed when asked

sounds good. yea i know what you are talking about.

Does iHunter on your phone count as GPS?

My understanding is it must be a stand alone hand held gps. Not a phone.

Has to be stand alone unit, there are a few areas with no reception. They checked us and we had to show all the stuff they listed in briefing to get into the NWA.

Just to show how thorough they are when they check, they even went through my wife's purse on day 3 of our hunt.

How much snow on the ground down there. Debating on a sled or game cart for retrieval? Thanks

Hunted there today pretty slim pickings outside the nwa.
Biologist said 6 taken yesterday and when I left around 5 o clock
There was one bull taken

Hunted here before, seemed a lot different this year with the dry conditions and fire. So be prepared.

Consensus from the people I talked to that there were very few animals seen on the last few days

I hope everyone on the next hunts has better luck than me

Stirfry, did you see any bulls outside the nwa?

Weird. Seems like they are really stepping up enforcement of the rules this year.

Last year all I got checked was that I had a GPS before I went in the NWA. He didn’t even ask me to turn it on or for anything else I had.

I even drove around the base with my dash cam on (I totally forgot and have no video) and the one soldier looked at it and didn’t care.