Elk Hunting Style.

[williaada]

Hi there, I went out hunting for 3rd rifle this year, and realized hunting elk is not like hunting deer. My question is what type of method do people prefer to use when hunting elk?

1. Get up on top of the mountain and then continue to walk while stopping to glass every so often to try and locate an elk.
2. Sit somewhere and glass all day from one area?

 

[Wapiti1]

Really depends on the terrain as to how I approach a hunt.

In open country, I pick a couple of spots per day, one morning and one afternoon, and spend the day glassing from those two spots. Moving on to the next days spots until I find elk. It is boring, and feels like I am wasting time, but it almost always pays off.

If it is less open, but still glass worthy, I get up high and work up a ridge glassing as I go. Hit another the next day, and so on. Glassing in this case is parking there for a good hour or more. It is not a quick look and move on. In a lot of cases, the more you move, the less you see.

In thick timber country, it is still hunting and tracking. Snow is helpful/needed for tracking. A good understanding of how elk use forage and terrain also helps a lot. i.e. where is the food and where is the bedding. This is my favorite type of hunting, but is also probably the most difficult.

The last thing is to pay attention to the other hunters. Where are they, and where are they not. If no one ever goes to a place, it may be worth checking out. Two weeks ago is a good example, I was in MT hunting a familiar area with some friends. All of the locals swore the elk were down low and weren't driving up past the lower access roads. My buddies actually got mad at me for ignoring the local B.S. They didn't realize that these locals are the kind that wait for the snow to push the elk out and have all season to hunt.

I went high and shot my elk the first morning. The elk were at snowline just below the crunchy snow in a series of old clearcuts and benches. We never saw another hunter all week, and were in elk (lone bulls and small groups of cows) every day. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, I was hunting with guys that can't shoot. You'd think a bunch of mid-westerners that hunt whitetails in the timber could shoot elk in the timber. You would be wrong.

Jeremy

 

[Phaseolus]

For me one of the most important ingredients for success is learning a unit well which can be best done by hunting it year after year.

 

[5MilesBack]

1. Locate areas of interest on a map or google earth.
2. Be in a position before first light and then evening to glass those areas.
3. Mid day "still hunt" likely areas in the timber.

I've shot more elk at close range in the timber than any other method.......excluding archery season. Those were all still close range in the timber as well, but an entirely different methodology.

 

[juan trueno]

I’m defintely a still hunter of timber. It’s a grind- and really draining simply because your doing a lot of hours of miles at a state of as total readiness and alertness as you can muster and as soon as your vigilance and preparedness fade you will jump a big bull and watch him leave fast and with amazing power.

Rifle Elk hunting comes down to a couple options / strategies in my mind. Pretty much the same as everyone else’s I guess.

1) catch and shoot the elk where you want them to be, via glassing etc. this is a method gaining popularity and offers the advantage of the elk being in the kind of terrain you want them in.

2) follow elk into the terrain they want to be in. This method is less popular for a variety of reasons most having to do with the kind of places elk meat wants to go when pressured.


The guys who employ enough of method 1 to know where to go employ method 2 without having to burn days and calories “eliminating areas” seem to account for 70% or so of those 15% or so of the tags that actually get filled.

 

[williaada]

I appreciate all of the input on the post. After reading all of the posts I realized I hunted both methods, but only found one 6x6 bull by chance, who was out further than I felt comfortable taking a shot 420 yards (limit 350 yards). Based on this bull's location I would have had to sit on top of this hill and just watch one small clear cut in the thick dark timber and hope for a bull elk to pass through the clearing. Every time I went past that location I never saw another elk track in the clear cut.

The other question I had do elk move throughout the day or bed down during the day. Everyday I would cut fresh tracks of elk in the snow having where the elk cut through between the times of 9 pm and 4:30 am. From walking out and walking in, would it have been wise to follow the elk tracks to try and learn what more about the elk?

Adam

 

[Jimss]

I always try to "think like" the critter I'm hunting. What would giant bucks, bulls, rams, etc do the time of year I am hunting and what is their response to weather, hunting pressure, feed, rutting activity, water and food sources, cover, etc.

A lot depends upon the hunting terrain, access, time of year, and hunting pressure. Elk generally move until they find an area with little to no hunting pressure. The trick is finding these areas and concentrating time in those areas. I like hunting open country so it's a matter of getting to high glassing locations and spending time watching and waiting. The more time you spend hiking rather than glassing the more chance you have of spooking elk back into secluded, hidden spots. Conversely if you don't cover country the less chance you have of locating elk. There's a trick to covering lots of country (with eyes and legs) to find elk without spooking them!

In regard to your question about elk movement. Yes they do move during the day. If they aren't pressured they may talk a lot more, feed in the open, and be active all day long.Obviously if it's 80 degrees out they likely will move/feed more in the early/late hours plus at night. Elk may move in response to hunting pressure, feed, temperature, snow depth, and a lot of other factors. The key to elk hunting is figuring out what their activity the time of year you are hunting. Things can change dramatically from pre-rut, rut, post rut, to winter range. You may be able to figure things out by looking for rub marks, wallows during the early season... fresh sign on particular slopes and aspects etc. During late season you can eliminate a lot of country....if it's snowing and blowing they may be on sheltered slopes or possibly at lower elevation. The more time you spend in elk country the more you figure things out. You can eliminate a lot of country if you are aware of where they are hanging out during certain times of year and hidden little spots where they may head with hunting pressure.

 

[KHNC]

Evidently , the method in NW Montana, is to drive roads up high, walk out gated roads and sit rock outcroppings to glass brushy slope areas. Then walk out said gated road for a mile or so in hopes of seeing elk or deer. Rotate this method with other hunters in the area as much as possible for six days in a row. This is how a veteran guide with over 30 years experience has us do it. Oh yeah, we were unsuccessful, not sure why.

 

[davsco]

neat thread!