Realtime elk advice wanted. It's hot and the elk are quiet.

[TheCougar]

I'm in New Mexico elk hunting until 24 September. The unit I am in doesn't have many tags or too much pressure, but elk densities are low. It is supposedly a good unit with big bulls. It is hot and and I'm having trouble finding elk. The moon is almost perfect and the weather is going to stay the same through the rest of the season. They aren't talking much at all, and stop shortly after the sun comes up. They don't bugle again until well after dark. I've sat waterholes two nights in a row with no luck. I've located a drying-out wallow and set up my one trail cam on it. I think my biggest frustration is I feel like I am wasting most of my day... at 8am, my hunt is basically over for the day. What should I do in the middle of the day? Try cold calling (not very productive with low densities)? Sit water in the afternoons? Hike my face off and hope to bump something? Any other advice for quiet, low density elk in hot weather?

 

[tioga]

Never hunted NM but I would try and find where they are traveling from food/water to bedding area and be there before they are. Or find where they are bedding and wait until it's hot, get the wind right, slip in on them and challenge those bulls. Get aggressive if it were me.
You can do it, it's just never easy.

Hunt hard and shoot straight

 

[Jjamesdean]

I would also try cold calling. We've called in several bulls between 12 and 2 in the last week.

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[TheCougar]

Thanks, I will try cold calling this afternoon. As far as pattterning them, I need to find them first!

 

[Beendare]

I would cover as much ground as possible...it sounds like you haven't really found them yet. It also sounds like you are a late riser...get your butt out there 2 hours before the sun comes up and you will find them.

In NM they get bugled at a lot and can be call shy. They still bugle their asses off at night and early AM. Cover ground...then once you find them make a plan. FYI, where you hear them bugling in the dark will be a different area than where they are in daylight areas....connect the dots.