Strategies for hunting when camped at the top

[welka]

Curious as to how others hunt am/pm when camped at the top of the mountains. This assumes that the elk are some where up at the top also. Seems like am hunts are difficult because thermals blow down as elk come back up to bed. PM hunts also can be tough as approaching from the top when thermals are up is ok, but if your a little late, the thermals switch. I know this is somewhat of a "broad" topic, but interested to ideas of how to hunt when camped at the top. Thanks.

[slim9300]

It seems like archery mule deer hunters prefer camping at the top of the mountain / timberline due to being able to spot bucks from way off and wait for them to bed. And this makes perfect sense to me. By that time the thermals have stabilized and are now coming up, the deer is bedded or thinking about it and it time to move.

Since I basically never hunt elk by spotting them first and planning a stalk this method is nearly worthless to me (mainly because the terrain / environment I hunt won't allow it). I love the idea not having to gain 1000+ feet of elevation every morning but then I'm losing the ability to hunt my way up for the first hour or two. Plus, even though the elk generally seem to be 1/3 slope at first light on most occasions, there are many instances where they are still in the bottoms bugling up a storm. This is when they can be really vulnerable.

The evenings are much different in my MT area. The thermals don't start dropping downhill until 30-45 minutes before dark. Thus, it's always a balancing act planning for that evening time frame when it comes to elevation.

[otcWill]

Tough question to answer really. My best suggestion is very carefully. Do some glassing and figure them out first. Once you've done that you can get very close to being in their scent cone without them catching your scent. To elaborate, as long as they aren't directly downwind of you, you'll have a good chance at closing the distance. Keep your windicator in your hand and check it constantly as you make your final approach and make sure you don't camp where they'll catch your scent i.e. directly above where you expect them to be feeding or bedding. Hope this helps. Good luck

[easeup]

in that type arrangement, where you are in the position of hunting downhill with the thermals in the morning, I would suggest that you get downhill to about the elevation you want to be and sidehill the morning hunt. At least you can work with the wind at a crossway direction.

[Vanish]

I'm interested in more answers to this as well.

The only place for us to set up camp is 3/4 up the hill, as the bottom is all private and there are no access points down there. I guess last year we would drop downhill to about 1/2 and hunt sideways, then up. I COULD get to about 1/4 but my fear is I will be spooking elk just getting down there. The other issue here is there is no glassing, its way too thick.

Sometimes I feel like I put myself in an awkward place to hunt elk, but by the end of the season last year we were into them every day.

[easeup]

I'm interested in more answers to this as well.

The only place for us to set up camp is 3/4 up the hill, as the bottom is all private and there are no access points down there. I guess last year we would drop downhill to about 1/2 and hunt sideways, then up. I COULD get to about 1/4 but my fear is I will be spooking elk just getting down there. The other issue here is there is no glassing, its way too thick.

Sometimes I feel like I put myself in an awkward place to hunt elk, but by the end of the season last year we were into them every day.

so you were into them every day by doing what is stated above? 1/2 down and sideways?

[T/H]

i camped on top of a mountain in 2010 and had elk in my camp at night. they did not go down because everything they needed was up high so they stayed there. they actually moved down a few hundred yards to bed in the mornings. goes against everything i've been told about elk but just goes to show that "elk are where you find them". so my belief is if there is suitable habitat the elk will be there no matter what part of the mountain we are hunting.

[HurricaneHuge]

So does this mean most of you guys are setting up camp in the bottoms? Curious to know since I haven't exactly decided on the place I want to set up camp in. I can do bottom and top, I guess I just assumed guys were going high. Am I wrong on that?

[ElkManDan]

90% of the time I hunt up the mountain. It is much easier to pack a bull down the mountain than up. When I do hunt downhill I drop down to the elevation that I want to hunt and then work sidehill into the elk.

[slim9300]

So does this mean most of you guys are setting up camp in the bottoms? Curious to know since I haven't exactly decided on the place I want to set up camp in. I can do bottom and top, I guess I just assumed guys were going high. Am I wrong on that?

Yes. I prefer camping low because the elk seem to be near the bottom at first light and move to about 3/4 slope to bed during midday. I normally leave camp about an hour before shooting light and move to about 1/4 slope and try and predict where the elk are going to move. Sometimes I move upward at first light, many times I move laterally and sometimes I move back downward but either way it's the best possible starting point for my MT area.

What guys need to keep in mind is that they need to hunt where the elk are. If the elk are already at 50% slope at first light, that means you had better have at least 30% of the elevation gained at that time if you want to have a chance of making a move.

[cnelk]

I camp low and hunt up

1- I am 'fresh' in the mornings. I leave in the dark and get to where I want to be just as the light is enough to see
2- I then listen for elk. I use the thermals to either 'sidehill' or go straight uphill to get closer.
3- As morning wears on, I do more sidehilling as I try make a big circle and then come back down as the thermals are shifting uphill.
4- By this time, I am not as fresh. The downhill trek is much easier to navigate. Especially if packing meat

[Freebird134]

We stay high. Not much of a choice where we hunt. If we wanted to get lower, it would add a lot of walking and be extremely steep (river canyon). Plus, we have to pack our meat up and over to get out of the roadless area. It also makes moving between drainages much easier (we are hoofing it on foot).

Our plan is to be above them and catch them as they are moving to us. Thermals might make it a little tricky, but they just require that you pay attention.

Camping high also maximizes our distance between elk and out camps at night.

[Vanish]

so you were into them every day by doing what is stated above? 1/2 down and sideways?

I guess it depends on what you call "into them" but yes, after opening weekend (we moved spots after opening) we had encounters every day. We were never into big herds of elk (I don't think they even exist in our area) or on them for hours at a time, but I think that has more to do with our lack of skills than camp location. The encounters were split between low and high pretty evenly. One thing I did notice, we always found the cows lower than the bulls. The area where we had the most bull encounters was probably 3/4 up the mountain and I never saw a cow up that high. Come to think of it, I never saw a cow above the aspen line. Probably just coincidence there but I'm going to keep it in mind this year.

One problem we did have was bumping into elk in their night beds before they even moved downhill, while we were still heading downhill. This wasn't always bad, as it resulted in some great first light encounters if we could keep them in / they stayed in the area.

As I said, we don't have the option to camp at the bottom, there is no public access ... unless we spiked out down there, which I have considered.