Hunting Elk vs. Deer

[USN_Sam1385]

Question for you elk hunters who have also hunted white-tailed deer..

I have only hunted deer and not elk..

I am currently reading "A Man Made of Elk" by David Peterson.

Good book..

Anyhow, my question is this; Can you get away with a lot more movement with elk. In the book he is creeping up on them, running up and down ridges to cut them off, etc.

This amount of movement unless done incredibly slowly would spook every deer out of the county.

Thoughts??

[Longbowz]

Difference is the elk are farther away and he is running trying to intercept them.  When the elk are close they are very much harder then a typical deer to fool, motionless or not.  Also no animal can pinpoint sound better then an elk.  A deer may look in the general direction of a sound, but an elk will look directly at it.  Saying that, sometimes when ultra close to elk they will look right over you, not thinking you could be that close.

Bottom line most elk hunting is spot & stalk where deer are typically taken from a treestand.

Have fun and post your results.

[AZWarts]

I have noticed that elk are able to pin you much quiker but I find them a lot easaier to hunt.

[AWPForester]

I live in WV but I hunt in Colorado and their is no comparison to how much more wiley and alert the WV whitetails are versus Elk and mule deer on public land, open permit areas of national Forest in CO.  SO I so strongly disagree with the opinion they pick up on you quicker.  I matter of factly know better than that.  I have called in quite a few now and as long as I stand still not in the open Elk go about their businesss.  A whitetail deer in WV does not do that.  They pick you out everytime if you so much as breath on the ground and then they vacate the area.

I am unsure about Elk pin pointing better, as they are good to be able to tell where you are at but so are whitetails when you call or move or anything else.  I seriously doubt their hearing is better than a whitetails though.  But once again their hearing does not matter as if you stand still out of the open parks, they just forget about you and go about their business.  i am in no way insinuating they are dumb, but they are pushovers when comparing the two.

Honestly, stay in the shade when possible, stay still when they are looking at you, stay down wind, and stand against or behind something and you will kill your elk.  They will not pick you out like eastern whitetails.  And if the do, jst stand still, they will forget about you soon enough.  If they do get bugered just chirp at them, they have stopped everytime for me as long as they did not smell me.  Something else a whitetail will not do here.  Motionless or not, Whitetails in WV pick you out than they run away whether they smell you or not.

Be aggressive if need be.  They are wary animals as we hunt them durning muzzleloader and right after with bows and we have always killed at least 50 percent per trip and once 5 of seven brought them home.  But we have fiured out that they go about their business if their is no one pushing them.  A whitetail will bed and stay that way until complete darkness naturally, muchless if they see pressure like the unit we hunt in Colorado.  One thing for sure is elk are very condusive for ground hunting and calling.  They really do let you get away with quite a bit compared to the deer you hunt.

Get in shape, and get close.  You'll be amazed at what you can get away with versus the Whitetail, ecspecially the eastern whitetail. Don't know what the deer in Missouri, Washington, or Arizona are like, but in my opinion and expierence, Eastern Whiteails are the most alert and wary game animal I have ever been around.   God BLess

[Bjorn]

I find Elk to be less skittish and wary than deer. Elk may know you are there but they do not seem to care as much as deer do. If they smell you then like deer they are gone. But they seem to tolerate hearing you and seeing you a little better. My personal feeling is that bigger animals have fewer enemies and fewer reasons to care.

[wapitirod]

something I was told when still hunting elk is this.  The sneakier you are the more alert they are, the more natural you walk, the less wary they are.  I've also been told before to step heal first and toe second making one step sound like two.   So far this has worked for me, elk are fairly social animals and if you ever get in on a herd without being spotted and they are relaxed you will find they are extremely noisie critters when relaxed.  The only time I sneak with elk is when I'm moving into shooting position.  Deer, both mule deer and blacktail I find I need to sneak alot more, especially with the blacktails.  Mulies I consider to be kind of stupid and have a tendency to let their curiosity get the best of them although that's not always the case.

[centaur]

I must be the odd man out here; I have had a good deal of success with whitetails, but have only bowkilled two elk. Elk success rates in Wyoming are around 30% for all weapons. I love hunting elk, but they have been a real nemesis for me. Over the years, I have had numerous elk called up to spitting distance, but something always occurs that doesn't make closing the deal happen. Still, the rush that I get from calling in a bull keeps me coming back, and some day, I am confident that a blind and deaf 6 point will stumble within bow range and stand broadside to me. In the meantime, I keep putting whitetail venison in the freezer.

[Geezer]

There is one thing that is much easier about deer....dragging them to a truck!    :D

[Kc kreger]

Amen to Geezer!  Elk do seem to let you get away with more than a Whitetale.  That has been my experience anyway.

Someone a lot wiser than me said, "Fool their noses and the odds are in your favor".  I've seen elk pin point a hunter and the hunter get away with drawing back on the elk with his bow.  Of course the elk was at full alert by then then and ended up jumping the sting!

Best of luck to anyone heading out for Monarch of the mountains this fall!

K.C.  <><

[steadman]

I'm with Pat on this one as well. But just like every game animal, some are easier to some folks while others struggle. This is a pretty generalized question. I've seen elk every bit as spooky as any whitetail I've hunted, and some that couldn't care less. I will say I've gotten awat with swirling winds with whitetails, but never with elk YMMV

[John Scifres]

The after effects of the spooking are definitely dramatically different.

Spook a deer and it will run a ways and, unless they are big woods deer, they will come back tomorrow.  Or at least be kinda close.

Spook an elk and you might see them again...on a ridge a mile away still trotting.

[Montanawidower]

No real answer to that one.  I have hunted both for 20 odd years and like Centaur said, I have killed dozens of deer and only a handful of bulls.  

Elk hunting is TOUGH because of where they live and their mastery of that domain.  They are loud animals and so yes more noise is excepted.   That does not lessen the whipping they will impart on you.  

Whitetail from a treestand are easy IMHO. They are fun, but nowhere in the vacinity of the total physical challenge of an elk hunt.  That's going to offend some people, so I'm sorry ahead of time.  

[stickum]

Living here in WA I can tell you that most hunters I know kill a deer every year  but consider themselves lucky to get an elk.  Many people hunt elk for years before getting their first one. (often six or more years) I think it is much harder to kill an elk.  You have upwards of thirty to fifty elk in a herd and constantly have multiple eyes watching at all times. Elk that aren't pressured are more relaxed, but the week before the season starts their whole demeaner changes.  Keep the wind in your face and when I start my stalk I shed my boots. I Always carry a spare set of socks for a stalk.  Their "herd mentality" is far greater than a deers. You have to fool the entire herd or you are busted.

[ryguy24000]

I have deer come into my yard regularly.  you think they would do that if i were to shoot at them every time they did.  Well they would stop coming around because they would be dead if not!  Point is different areas are different. If your hunt is in a high pressure area expect spooky elk.  If your hunt is in a low pressure area expect good elk hunting!!
That's the way it is here in Oregon anyway reguardless of species.

[USN_Sam1385]

Yeah.

Sounds like mixed responses.

You could say that I hunt fairly highly-pressured deer, because they sound very similar to the East Coast deer.

I can blink the wrong way at deer around here and they will head straight across the country.

I guess what began my questioning were some of the passages in the book I am reading. He is a very good author and very vividly draws up the scene with his words.

I just picture some of the things that he gets away with while hunting elk, and know that it would not fly from the ground with a whitetail here in Missouri. They are like phantom ninjas.

[Grizzbear]

Elk in idaho were tame compared to whitetail ive hunted.

[kadbow]

Totally different critters and very different hunting tactics.  A whitetail may be more skittish but are typically more predictable.  Elk may be less skittish but are less predictable and fewer in numbers.  Both are fun to hunt and both will bust you if you don't have the wind.

[Coiloil37]

You can't generalize elk that easily. A satellite bull early season when love is on his mind can be easy to fool. A herd, lead cow or old bull is a totally different proposition. They usually let you get away with a bit of noise and you can often fool their eyes but they always trust their nose. Once they've been bumped or fooled once they can get wise quick and start circling you before coming in. As mentioned if you do bump them they often go miles before stopping.

[OregonBlacktail]

How difficult elk hunting is depends on a lot of variables. Numbers, pressure, cover, ect all determine how difficult. My elk hunting experience is on public land in Oregon, so success is low. I have hunted whitetails in WV and they are tuff but i wouldn't say they are any harder to hunt then elk, just different.