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[Indian Summer]

I was reading Swedes thread and it got me to thinking. He mentioned that we haven’t had many new threads lately. I think that’s probably because we just came off of both archery and rifle elk seasons. And now in many states it deer season. I’ve been hunting deer pretty much all the time for about the past month.

As far as new threads go, my question is what topics would be of interest to our members? Actually, my question is do we have any new elk hunters on here? I won’t bother starting threads about how to find elk if everyone on here has experience and already has their own hunting areas dialed in. There are other things we can talk about if that’s the case. But if we do have some people on here who are still scratching their heads, then we could discuss things like that as well as other things that go along with elk hunting, that might help them get on the right track.

How about this….. Hit the reply button and tell us what state you Hunt or Hope to Hunt in if there is one and tell us how many years of experience you have if any I’d be interested to hear that.

I hunt Montana and Wyoming when I can draw licenses. I’ve been hunting elk for More years than I care to admit. Right around 40 years I guess. And I still learn lots of things every time I go back to my same old areas. That includes this website. Always learning.

[7mmfan]

I've been elk hunting for 25 years. Killed my first elk at 18 years old, I turned 40 this year. I've killed 10 elk total, but most of those have been in the last 12 years. I've killed 1 branch antlered bull and a whole pile of spikes. I hunt Idaho and Washington, but mainly Idaho anymore as I just don't get excited to hunt Washington on their general tag. I am a rifle hunter now, although I have bow hunted a fair amount in the earlier part of my career. I may pick that up again someday.

2024 I just deer hunted in Idaho, and in an area I've never hunted to boot. I found myself on October 10th in the middle of the craziest elk rut fest I've ever experienced. Bulls bugling all day, all around me. I called in multiple bulls with cow calls. I could have killed 12 different branch antlered bulls that day. Of course I didn't have a tag and the season didn't open for 5 more days anyway. But it was exhilarating nonetheless. I learned a lot about that particular area and am hoping to get back in there with an elk tag in my pocket in 2025. We'll find out tomorrow if that is going to happen.

I'm pretty good at finding elk. I generally understand their habits and why they are where they are, and where they like to go when the pressure is on. What I'm not good at is calling elk. I noted above that I called in multiple bulls with cow calls this year and that as true, but I feel like it was purely situational. There were literally elk running all around me, hundreds of them. Bulls screaming back and forth, bulls fighting up the ridge from me, it was crazy. I feel like just by sounding like a lonely cow that day any satellite bull was interested and coming to check me out. Otherwise, I am a complete novice.

I do have one situational question for guys that have been around the block for a while. Kind of a "what would you do if" question. I posted it a couple years ago and got mixed responses, maybe because people didn't understand what I was asking. I'll post it up again later today if I get a chance.

[Tigger]

I have hunted elk 12 years and harvested 7 branch antlered bulls. My biggest problem these days is licensing. I hunt WY and MT mostly, but it is getting harder and harder to do that every year. In fact, next year I will likely strike out in those 2 states. Not sure what I will do then. I have a love/hate relationship with new areas. Fun to hunt new areas, but takes a while to figure it out. Then the season is over. My WY spot is solid, my MT spot let us down this year. I always love learning about finding elk.

[Swede]

I have hunted elk about 50 years. I started out at 17, but time in the navy and work priorities kept me out of the game some seasons. I have killed 34 or 35 elk. Most have been taken with my bow from a tree stand. At this time of life, I am quite content helping newbies gain some success. Over the years working in the National forests of Oregon and Washington.
I have observed many things, but I have no secret sauce that will make anyone an instant success. It still all boils down to knowing the elk hunting basics of 1. Locate a good area to hunt then get to know it. 2. Know the elk there, i.e. where they go and how long it takes for them to show up in a particular area. 3. Be patient and then more patient. 3. Persevere. Quitting just because you are not in the elk, before your hunt time is over is easy, but not the way to gain success. 4. Avoid being detected by the elk. They have great noses, ears and their eyes.

I do not know that I am good at calling elk, and I do not care. I have called in a few elk and killed them. My calls are simply tools to help me get the job done. I will never be a calling champion and will often be seen with bite and blow calls, so you know I won't even be admitted into the better calling fraternities. To make matters worse, shooting a cow is OK if my tag permits.

[cohunter]

I killed my first bull at 14. I've taken 8 branch antlered bulls and 2 cows in the 30 years since - hovering right around 50% success with one tag a year hunting OTC units in Colorado. Took a few years off during college and with brand new kids and a few years off while living in Kenya. Being a biologist by training, I really focus on habitat when approaching my elk hunting. For the last 10 years, I've been hunting with a bow. I'm a mediocre caller at best but I've learned that sparse calling at the right time from the right situation is very effective - even if it's not champion caliber.

[saddlesore]

I have hunted elk since about 1966 and have only missed three seasons since that I remember. I guess that is about 57 years. I hesitate to post how many elk I have taken,but it has been a bunch. I hunted bulls mostly with cows sprinkled in there. In about 2018, I quit hunting bulls. They were too big for me to handle in the field. In the early years ,it was pretty much like 7mm posted. It was not hard to find elk. Some years, the state permitted two elk tags a year, one year ,it was three. I took advantage of every one of them. Elk are not hard to kill, hunting them is.

About 15 years ago,that started to close. The number of hunters grew exponentially and it became a game of figuring out what the elk do from all the pressure, where they went to find a safe heaven, and how/what route the they took to get there. Forget about them acting like they did the other 9 months of the year.

Because of that I thought less and less about killing an elk and more about just going. I still killed elk, but it wasn't a big priority. I guess I didn't think too much about the hows and whys. That was tucked into that back part of my brain and came out without me thinking about it.

Sorry to say, I think my elk hunting career ended this past season of 2024. My brain said I could do it, but at the end of 3 days, my body was saying "What the heck am I doing here".

I guess my best advice is, take your age now, give a guess at what age you can hunt to. That will give you a good approximation of the numberof elk hunts you have left in your life. Unless you hunt multiple states, it isn't all that many. Don't squander those years, they go all all too quickly. If you do, you are not addicted to elk hunting.

[Swede]

Forget about them acting like they did the other 9 months of the year.

Now, there is a pearl of real wisdom coming from a lot more experience that many so called experts. When you read or hear someone telling you this is how elk behave, just know that they may not be referring to the elk where you hunt.
I just read a good article where an expert was explaining how elk behave. I agreed with everything except for one point. He said elk complete their circuit every four or five days. Maybe they do where he hunts, but don't bet your hunt on it. Elk will also go where you are not allowed, or it is just plain awful and hang out there. One of the largest elk migrations I ever witnessed came the evening before the opening of archery season. The elk were leaving public land to go live on a working dude ranch. I would sometimes call them from the public land side of the fence. The bulls would answer but not come.

[saddlesore]

For you it's a game. For elk it is survival, be it food, shelter, water or a safe haven. Sometimes the will give up the first three to survive.

[Lefty]

Ill keep this short. Raised in Minnesota hunting ducks squirrels and deer and trapping. At 12 years old in 1970 my bike and brother covered a lot of miles. At 1`3 a neighbor helped me select my first bow,,, I was going to be a trophy hunter like him
Killed my first deer in Canada in 1972 ( $60 in paper route and fur money)
The trapping was my thing for years.
Married an Idaho girl, who had the most impressive pile of muledeer racks that few could ever match.
Her dad put me in for a Montan elk hunt in 1990 ( I think) I hunted elk like whitetqails , killed 3 elk , 5 tags, 9 days of hunting.

The I got hooked on archery elk in 2008. Ive seen and have been in on lots of bulls and some big bulls
Still learning bunches every year.

[Tigger]

Another tidbit I would add is there is no such thing as 100% in elk hunting. Saddlesore's comment about them not acting like the other 9 months of the year is right on....most of the time. But once in a while they do act the same.

I saw 3 cows and a raghorn laying on the sunny slope in the sunlight in 70+ degree weather. You will not find any one telling you to hunt sunny slopes in 70+ degree weather, but they were there. So play the odds for sure, but keep your eyes up and do not be afraid to improvise.

Lots of people ask what elevation the elk are at. In my experience, they are everywhere or nowhere. I think elevation has little to do with where elk are. I think deep snow, habitat, lack of pressure or an abundance of pressure, heat, bugs, food, water, time of day, etc all play a big role. Elevation by itself does not in my opinion. There will be elk down low towards the valleys, there will be elk mid mountain and there will be elk towards the top on most days.

[Indian Summer]

Another tidbit I would add is there is no such thing as 100% in elk hunting. Saddlesore's comment about them not acting like the other 9 months of the year is right on....most of the time. But once in a while they do act the same.

I saw 3 cows and a raghorn laying on the sunny slope in the sunlight in 70+ degree weather. You will not find any one telling you to hunt sunny slopes in 70+ degree weather, but they were there. So play the odds for sure, but keep your eyes up and do not be afraid to improvise.

Lots of people ask what elevation the elk are at. In my experience, they are everywhere or nowhere. I think elevation has little to do with where elk are. I think deep snow, habitat, lack of pressure or an abundance of pressure, heat, bugs, food, water, time of day, etc all play a big role. Elevation by itself does not in my opinion. There will be elk down low towards the valleys, there will be elk mid mountain and there will be elk towards the top on most days.

Well, I hope you don’t plan on being an author and writing a bunch of books about elk hunting because you pretty much just summed it up in one or two paragraphs. Now you can’t sell any more books!

[RanchoSueno]

Four years of archery hunting otc in Colorado and every year I think I have a headstart from past experience in the area, I get my butt handed to me and pull out some improv location of interest and manage to walk into elk. I think my biggest setback in past seasons is not getting deep in the elk woods early enough and covering too much ground too fast. This year on the horses, I found 3 times as many elk in previous years and with only 4 days of hunting. Next year I plan on packing in with a horse camp a mile or two closer but far enough to not be on top of them and set aside 14 days of hauling, packing and hunting.

[Swede]

I understand what Saddlesore and Tigger are trying to say. Under pressure elk change their habits, but they are still elk. Sometimes I wonder why they are behaving the way they do. I too have seen elk foraging in a logging opening, belly deep in grass, midday when the temperatures are in the 80s. Why? They are hungry. Why ae they not chewing their cud in their bedding area, where it is cool? They are hungry. Why?

[Tigger]

Swede, they are hungry because their stomach is not full enough.

[Swede]

The following is just one incident I remember well. I suppose we all have seen this or something similar multiple times, but all I know is what I observed. The rest is left to speculation.

It was early one afternoon when I left camp to go sit in my tree stand for the remainder of the day. I drove several miles then left my truck, bow in hand. The temperature was well into the 80s. As I skirted a large opening created by some fairly recent logging, I looked over into the clearcut. I was totally surprised to see a herd of elk out feeding. They were so intent on feeding they had not seen me. I ducked over the edge of a break overlooking the river below and tried to see if somehow, I could get close. It was too open and there was no use trying, but why were they there? Did they get run out of their feeding area in the night by some predator? Were some hunters on them that morning? Did the ranchers on the private lane a couple of miles away bother them earlier? Who knows? They were hungry and feeding when normally they are bedded down. I can say this; they dd not come to my seductive cow calls. They just continued feeding and moving away. They did not come to my stand that evening either.

[juglow]

Mainly archery hunter, spike camps preferred and wherever I can land a tag, 45yrs old.
Started in CO in 2016...that was an eye-opening experience. I thought PA hunting had a lot of pressure until my first elk hunt. Was fortunate to take a large cow (that I decided to shoot over the 4 point) that was with her because she was much larger. Took a year off because honestly, I hated it as I experienced body failure 2 times on that trip packing the cow out. This love hate relationship didn't last long...it motivated me to be more ready next time, and I felt i was in good shape to begin with.

Since then, I have been on 5 elk trips across New Mexico, Idaho and Wyoming. I've been fortunate to have taken 3 branch antlered bulls and a cow in the 5 trips.

2025-Landed a tag on the 10th so i will be back to idaho in an area I've never hunted as the area i used to hunt is pretty much impossible to get as a NR anymore.

I plan on going to Montana in 2026 or 27 depending on what i do with my CO points.

Much has changed in the last 5 years when it comes to NR being able to hunt big game out west...