I'm sure hope I can help.
Here's the first section of part Three.
This is going to be a long one.
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Part THREE “Tactics”
You’ve made the 2000 mile drive, pitched camp, and woke up to a beautiful opening morning. Make sure and pinch yourself. At this point, you are living your dream.
Where to start…………
Well, last July while studying your Topo map, you noticed a good looking draw that has a creek named ‘Beaver creek’ running from north to south. You wonder about the area, and since you have researched elk enough to know that they need to drink twice a day, you call the game biologist for the area and ask him about the ‘Beaver creek’ area.
He tells you, “Heck yes. I know there are some elk in ‘Beaver Creek.’ That would be an excellent place to start.” So,…you scout out the county road or trail close by and top a high point in the road and immediately your breath is taken away by what you see.
The next question is “How do I go about hunting it?” The first thing you need to notice is which way the wind is blowing. It’s been said, “you can fool their eyes and you can fool their ears but you won’t fool their nose.” Oh how true.
The wind thermals will switch from mornings and evenings. I’ve noticed about (depending on how hot it is) 10:00 am the wind will switch from blowing down hill to blowing up hill due to the thermals getting warm, and as soon as the thermals start to cool again (late afternoon) they will switch again and blow down hill. There are a lot of exceptions to this rule, but as a general “rule of thumb” it’s a good starting point.
It’s first light and the wind is blowing in your face. “How do I hunt it?” is once again the question in mind.
My favorite form of elk hunting is still hunting. Find an area that looks good, has a water source close by, and has elk country written all over it. When still hunting, you don’t know if animals are in the area for sure. You haven’t seen any yet, but does that mean they aren’t there?” My favorite style of still hunting is slowly working the country I think elk might be in. I will walk 10 yards and stop and glass the brush/trees/vegetation in front of me. I have done this routine many times with great success. Slowly walk 10 more yards, stop and glass. You will be surprised at how close you can slip to a heard of elk provided the wind is in your face and you have been careful not to make any human noise (Zippers, loud fabric brushing against a twig, etc.) One of those times you stop to glass, your optics will be filled with the unmistakable color of “Elk.” Elk by nature are extremely noisy. Breaking sticks and such are ‘natural sounds’ to them. Like I said before, try your hardest to remove the human sounds.
“How do I know where the elk are going to be?” The short answer is, you won’t. That’s why the 10 yards, glass, 10 yards, glass method. Anywhere there is a tree, there might be an elk. You can’t figure them at all.
But throughout the years, I’ve noticed they have habits that are pretty much one in the same. Look for taller stands of shady trees where they might go to bed. I’ve also noticed they really like a ‘mixture’ if you will of pines, aspen, and oak brush.
So let’s pretend this picture is “Beaver creek”. Note: I borrowed these pictures from the internet. Pretend the draw off to the left of the picture is where the actual creek is. If I was to hunt this area, and had the wind in my face, the yellow is the path I would set. Remember that later in the day the wind will shift so I like to hunt in big circles. I will walk until the wind shifts then circle around and walk back to the truck with the wind in my face most of the time. The pink areas are where I would personally check for them bedding. If they are up moving around, you never know where you will run into them.
Another form of hunting I really like, is sitting on a “wallow” during the hottest part of the day. Finding these take work. Often time they are no more then a mountain spring the elk will dig out. Keep in mind that cows use the wallow just as much as bulls do. It’s been my observation that I have personally found more wallows in the pines/dark timber. There is absolutely no science to back this up, but it’s were I look the hardest for them.
Afternoon hunts are usually spot and stalk for me. I will find another area with excellent feed clearings and try to find them moving from bedding areas to feeding areas.
This next pic is prime late afternoon feeding area. I will spot elk and try to slip in the red zone. Once again, keep the wind in your favor. You can get aggressive wile stalking elk. Don’t be afraid to make a little noise. If you act like a predator (sneaky), you’ll get their attention quick. If you act like a moo cow (noisy) on the move, they won’t hardly look up. Just stay in the cover. Be careful not to make much human noise once again, and even though you are being aggressive, don’t get in a hurry.
So my general elk hunting day consist of,
Morning-still hunting
Day-sitting wallows or more still hunting
Evening-spot and stalk.
If I spot elk in the morning, I’ll put them to bed before I try to stalk.
A herd of elk will most of the time post guards. They will take turns. I’ve noticed there is usually one guard for every 7 or so elk bedded. Say you have a herd of 20 elk, there is probably going to be 2 or 3 guard elk up and about. I have seen herds of 2 or 3 that all bed down. These guard elk are the ones I’m looking for when still hunting or spotting and stalking.
Once you get within 75-50 yards of the herd, slow down. I’m talking, it should take you almost an hour to close that last 30 yards. Stay low. Hands and knees or belly crawl. Keep movement so slow you wonder if you are actually moving or not. Lie on your belly and literally inch your way closer. One inch at a time. Don’t ever think you have to hurry. Sure if you don’t, you might blow the stalk. But if you do, I guarantee you WILL blow the stalk.
Often times I’ll wait the herd out and wait for them to start feeding out of there bedding area if I don’t think I can get close. Elk hunting is definitely a game of chess. Don’t ever play checkers.
This is only the first part of many tactics. This is going to be a long section. I’m going to say again that none of the above is fool proof. If somebody tells me they have “figured out elk”, I will stand flat footed and call them a “bald faced liar.” Please keep that in mind.
Once again, none of this is scientifically proven to work. This is just what I do and has seemed to work for me.
Plenty more "tactics" to come.
Todd
Topic: Wanna go elk huntin'? 2010 UPDATE. More photos Pg. 5 (Read 2134 times)
