wihunter1
FNG
Hello all, Below is our trip review and a few questions. 
We recently returned from our 100% OTC DIY public land elk hunt (SEP 7th-15th) and wanted to share some of what we learned. This was both of our first times ever elk hunting (two brothers from WI, 23 and 27 years old). We stayed in a truck camper and walked into our spots of interest daily. We hunted mostly in dark timber and were lucky enough to get into elk more days than not that we hunted. We also managed to take a cow just over half way through the trip and overall had an amazing trip! We met some great locals and a few other out of state hunters that for the most part were extremely kind and generous with their information for a couple of first time hunters.
Things we wished we had known before we went out: We both thought we might be able to cut down on our walking distance by shortcutting the trails. Due to the steepness we were wrong and our plan for walking was lengthened a bit. It was much smarter to walk 2 miles on a trail and then .5 miles off then it was to walk 1 mile straight to the area of interest. Walking longer distances was ok the first few days but we soon realized that this wasn’t sustainable.
Had we sat up and glassed daily we would have been able to see elk but they were usually really far away. Much too far for us to make a move on them. We expected to locate them with a bugle but they were silent, in fact when they heard our locator bugle they moved the other direction. We ended up still hunting near bedding areas making quite cow calls which was much more effective.
There is a lot of hype for sitka/ first lite/ kuiu clothes and ultimately it's preference. We saw people in camo jeans and button ups and people in 500 dollars worth of clothes hunting together. Ultimately, do research on the weather and just get gear accordingly. For us lighter weight was the ticket. We both used merino wool socks but both had different brands so try multiple brands out. By brother had wet feet from sweat by 8am but mine were dry. (Also depends on the person)
We used day packs (eberlestock X1 and X2) to haul our meat out which was fine for the cow but if you harvest a bull a frame would be better. (we tested day packs to comfortably handle around 50lbs) You don't need a 400 dollar frame to haul meat..a decent Goodwill or rummage sale find will do. Just test it out hauling +/- 50 lbs of sand.
Things/gear we really appreciated having along:
KT Tape - One of us had some sore spots on our feet after a few days of walking and the KT Tape not only stopped any foot irritation but we couldn’t feel it on our feet at all.
Light T Shirts - We both had light shirts (loose under armour like) fitting tops that we either bought at Cabelas or Fleet farm. We each almost exclusively wore these when walking and wore them most of the afternoon.
Good boots - Wear them a lot before the trip and although it sounds silly, walk sideways on the steepest incline u can find because that's what you'll be doing.
Coffee - don't forget coffee. Our typical day consisted of leaving the truck at 5am and getting back around 10:30pm. Coffee and quality snacks throughout the day we're a must.
We had a blast and there really is no substitute for boots on the ground experience and knowing what we know now we feel like we could have a much smoother trip/have better chances to get bull next trip. (Of course there will be another trip).
Now for the questions,
1. We made an effort to look for bedding areas on north facing slopes and while we found bedding areas there, we noticed that there was also a decent amounts of bedding areas on slopes facing the other 3 directions. I guess my questions for you all would be if it really matters in dark timber? I understand in open areas where the sun is hitting the forest floor it can heat up a little quicker and therefore the northern facing slope is really important for keeping cool. It felt like the temperature difference was lessened in the dark timber.
2. We were able to figure out what the elk in our area were doing in the hours surrounding sunrise and sunset but we never really figured out what they were up to in the daytime hours. We figured they were just bedded but we did hear one bugle rip off around 1pm that we were pretty sure was an elk and not a hunter. Can anyone shed some light on their daytime tactics? We thought we might try sitting over a wallow or creek but we didn’t find any wallows that were heavily used or any creeks we felt allowed for a nice sit.
We recently returned from our 100% OTC DIY public land elk hunt (SEP 7th-15th) and wanted to share some of what we learned. This was both of our first times ever elk hunting (two brothers from WI, 23 and 27 years old). We stayed in a truck camper and walked into our spots of interest daily. We hunted mostly in dark timber and were lucky enough to get into elk more days than not that we hunted. We also managed to take a cow just over half way through the trip and overall had an amazing trip! We met some great locals and a few other out of state hunters that for the most part were extremely kind and generous with their information for a couple of first time hunters.
Things we wished we had known before we went out: We both thought we might be able to cut down on our walking distance by shortcutting the trails. Due to the steepness we were wrong and our plan for walking was lengthened a bit. It was much smarter to walk 2 miles on a trail and then .5 miles off then it was to walk 1 mile straight to the area of interest. Walking longer distances was ok the first few days but we soon realized that this wasn’t sustainable.
Had we sat up and glassed daily we would have been able to see elk but they were usually really far away. Much too far for us to make a move on them. We expected to locate them with a bugle but they were silent, in fact when they heard our locator bugle they moved the other direction. We ended up still hunting near bedding areas making quite cow calls which was much more effective.
There is a lot of hype for sitka/ first lite/ kuiu clothes and ultimately it's preference. We saw people in camo jeans and button ups and people in 500 dollars worth of clothes hunting together. Ultimately, do research on the weather and just get gear accordingly. For us lighter weight was the ticket. We both used merino wool socks but both had different brands so try multiple brands out. By brother had wet feet from sweat by 8am but mine were dry. (Also depends on the person)
We used day packs (eberlestock X1 and X2) to haul our meat out which was fine for the cow but if you harvest a bull a frame would be better. (we tested day packs to comfortably handle around 50lbs) You don't need a 400 dollar frame to haul meat..a decent Goodwill or rummage sale find will do. Just test it out hauling +/- 50 lbs of sand.
Things/gear we really appreciated having along:
KT Tape - One of us had some sore spots on our feet after a few days of walking and the KT Tape not only stopped any foot irritation but we couldn’t feel it on our feet at all.
Light T Shirts - We both had light shirts (loose under armour like) fitting tops that we either bought at Cabelas or Fleet farm. We each almost exclusively wore these when walking and wore them most of the afternoon.
Good boots - Wear them a lot before the trip and although it sounds silly, walk sideways on the steepest incline u can find because that's what you'll be doing.
Coffee - don't forget coffee. Our typical day consisted of leaving the truck at 5am and getting back around 10:30pm. Coffee and quality snacks throughout the day we're a must.
We had a blast and there really is no substitute for boots on the ground experience and knowing what we know now we feel like we could have a much smoother trip/have better chances to get bull next trip. (Of course there will be another trip).
Now for the questions,
1. We made an effort to look for bedding areas on north facing slopes and while we found bedding areas there, we noticed that there was also a decent amounts of bedding areas on slopes facing the other 3 directions. I guess my questions for you all would be if it really matters in dark timber? I understand in open areas where the sun is hitting the forest floor it can heat up a little quicker and therefore the northern facing slope is really important for keeping cool. It felt like the temperature difference was lessened in the dark timber.
2. We were able to figure out what the elk in our area were doing in the hours surrounding sunrise and sunset but we never really figured out what they were up to in the daytime hours. We figured they were just bedded but we did hear one bugle rip off around 1pm that we were pretty sure was an elk and not a hunter. Can anyone shed some light on their daytime tactics? We thought we might try sitting over a wallow or creek but we didn’t find any wallows that were heavily used or any creeks we felt allowed for a nice sit.
