Flat Land Elk Hunting

[SaskatchewanHunts]

Here in Saskatchewan our elk hunt is quite a bit different than we read about in the articles and magazines. There are no canyons to call down into, no vantage points to glass from and no northern slopes for the elk to bed on. It is solid forest for miles and miles bordered by agriculture land. If you had to take these tactics out of your hunt, how would you approach the situation?

[Swede]

I think the most important thing to consider for the bow hunter is: Find calling locations where the elk must come well within shooting range before they can see exactly where the elk (you) called from. In your case you will need to use cover for that. You may need to move quickly after calling or have a shooter out front. Elk have the ability to come in from great distances and precisely locate the caller's location. They can pin you down so you cannot move without being spotted. If elk come to where they know they should see the elk and the elk is not there, they will hang up. Often they walk back and forth a couple of times and then leave. As they walk back and forth they will focus 100% of the time on the exact location the call came from. They will not look away. If you are hidden there, you will not get a shot off.

[Old school]

I would say you now don't have thermals to worry about - just wind direction. Figure out where they are bedding and where they are feeding and hunt them either coming to or leaving bedding/feeding - whichever the wind allows you to do.

--Mitch

[Indian Summer]

How much pressure? Do the elk key on the ag fields?

[Lefty]

I would say you now don't have thermals to worry about - just wind direction. Figure out where they are bedding and where they are feeding and hunt them either coming to or leaving bedding/feeding - whichever the wind allows you to do. --Mitch

What he said,.. a huge advantage knowing what the wind id doing.
Plus the walking is easier

[SaskatchewanHunts]

Thanks for the input gents. The ag fields get heavy pressure. Generally they are posted and hunted by friends and family of the land owner. Once you step foot into the forest it is extremely dense. Most shots are 10 yards or less. I have used the ambush setup on fields that seem to be active. Get in the forest and catch them on the way out. The trouble is in the evening it is extremely hard to navigate out of the dense forest in complete darkness. I have tried lol. An obvious game trail in the day light disappears quickly when the sun fades and the flashlight comes out. In the morning they tend to exit the fields prior to legal shooting. It would be great to get in there and cut them off, but as I mentioned its hard to navigate the jungle in darkness to get in there before their departure.

We have had success but its taken some ingenuity and coming up with a few of our own tactics. Typically we will get on an active trail at first light. Two guys, two pack frames, two gps's, etc and go. We will cow talk back and forth the entire way. If we get lucky we will stumble upon a herd. Generally we won't know they are there other than a satellite will come crashing in to check us out. With the extremely dense forest hang ups are the norm. The only way we have found to counteract this is to have a Montana decoy ready to deploy at all times. Pop the decoy up get as much elk fire as possible into the air and then go straight in on it and kill it. No time for messing around. It either works or it doesn't. I'm not exaggerating when I say you may not see the animal until you get to 5 yards or less.

The tactic seems to work but its the uncertainty. You may spend a lot of time hunting dead areas. You just never know until you get in there. Seems like covering ground and being aggressive is the only way to go. Was wondering if I was missing the boat on a better way of approaching. One thing I probably do wrong is not bugle enough. It seems that when things really come together a bugle is what triggered it. Another tactic I would like to try is night calling. Get them to talk in a field prior to their departure. That would help a lot.

We have a great elk season here in Saskatchewan. I am able to hunt cow, calf, or bull for two weeks during the peak of the rut, with a rifle, every single year.