Crowds Moved in on Your Big-Game Hunt? Make the Hunting Pressure Work for You

That sinking feeling of pulling up to the spot you’re planning to hunt only to find that it looks like a Costco parking lot on July 3. Or, maybe you packed 10 miles into a secluded bowl only to see hunters pouring out of every nook and cranny on opening morning. Because even the most welcoming hunters would rather have a hunting spot to themselves.

Hunting pressure changes animal behavior. But if you hunt big game on public land anywhere in the country (and even up here in Alaska), you’ll have to deal with hunting pressure. Rather than spitting gravel on your way out of the parking area in disgust, you can still have a successful hunt when other hunters are around. Sometimes you can even make the pressure work for you. Successful hunters are adaptable and willing to shift tactics according to the situation.

Hunt Where the Animals Will Be

It’s not good enough to just out-hike your competition anymore. Backpack hunting is popular, and hunters are in shape. You can’t count on animals to stay where they are before the season, but you can anticipate where they will go once pressured. If you’re hunting an area that will be pressured, focus on being where the animals will go or in a position to intercept them. This might mean a travel corridor to private land or a saddle to the next drainage where pressured animals will escape. When animals get blown out of an area, they don’t just disappear; they go where they think they will be safe and comfortable.

Preseason scouting is great. But if you’re in an area with other hunters, putting all your hopes on the spot where you saw animals before the season is a recipe for disaster. Anticipate where critters will go to escape hunters, and you’ll have a better chance of punching a tag.

Hunt the “Front-Country”

Sometimes an entire area might be saturated with hunters, but with all the popularity of backcountry hunting, many “extreme” hunters unknowingly walk by scores of animals trying to get to the sweet spot, and sometimes cause animals to congregate closer to the road than they would otherwise. You can sometimes find animals in places you wouldn’t think to look simply because it’s not “back in far enough.” If everyone else is hiking way back, try hunting closer to the road or trail. You might be surprised by what you see.

Take Your Time

Nothing forces a hunter to hurry like knowing you will be competing with other people, but often the best strategy is to slow down and hunt more carefully. Frantically rushing around trying to beat other people to a spot usually won’t help your odds. On many occasions, I’ve seen hunters buzzing around an area, or hiking through an area, where there are animals in plain view, but the hunters never even notice them. Different hunts require different methods, but here’s an example. A couple years back, one of my buddies overheard another pair of hunters say they couldn’t find any legal Dall sheep. He could see a legal ram, one that he’d been observing, beyond the other hunters’ shoulders. They gave up and left.

Plan for the Hunting Pressure

In ideal circumstances, we can do all of our off-season planning around where we think the animals are, and will be, as well as what land we have access to, and our entry points. Mapping and land-ownership apps and software do help, but everybody has those same apps now, so lots of those “secret spots” are laid bare to even the least-savvy hunters. A big initial advantage of these apps was to find little hidey-holes. Well, even with hunting pressure considered, these apps can still do that, but you have to reverse-engineer it. In other words, use your mapping app to find places that look less-attractive to other hunters. Sometimes these might not be the most prime hunting spots, but they can still offer you a great hunt and experience. For example, if you look at a map and the first thing that catches your eye is a beautiful mountain bowl that’s a good 5 mile hike from the road, well, you can bet everyone else has that bowl pinned on onX too. So instead of hunting there, look at all the features around that bowl and pick a spot that’s less obvious on a digital map.

Never Give Up

Even though hunting pressure might spoil the experience a little bit, or at least what you want that experience to be, you can still have a good time. Sometimes finding success among the hunting pressure can feel even sweeter. Not every hunt will be productive, but know that the most successful hunters stay patient and persistent regardless of the hunting pressure. That starts with mindset, and luckily, that’s one of the few things you can control out there.

Even though hunting pressure might spoil the experience a little bit, or at least what you want that experience to be, you can still have a good time. Sometimes finding success among the hunting pressure can feel even sweeter. Not every hunt will be productive, but know that the most successful hunters stay patient and persistent regardless of the hunting pressure. That starts with mindset, and luckily, that’s one of the few things you can control out there.