Elk are where you find them

[Tuffcrk14]

I dislike this saying so much, but it’s so true. I’m a concrete kind of person that wants the how and the why. I came into this year with some burning questions about what elk do where I hunt them throughout the year. It seems like every answer I find leads to more questions, which is a good thing I think. I tell you that to share with you all this… In mid-late November my camera I have in a small valley bottom in the mountains caught a group of 5 bachelor bulls walking by at 3 in the morning. Not a small bull in the bunch and also not any of the nine different bulls I had gotten pictures of in that spot between September and mid-late November. What has me scratching my head is what were they doing there? Every podcast, magazine article, and seminar I’ve listened to always preaches that the bulls are hanging out on the upper third of the mountain recovering and staying far away from any sort of pressure until the snow pushes them down. This is not a migratory herd because there is no winter migration here. My only thought is that they must have been changing zip codes from one area to another and it was snowing pretty hard… or maybe they like to hang out in dense timber and move around like gypsies to stay ahead of the hunting pressure whether it’s in the bottom of a drainage or on the side of a mountain. Would be curious to see if others have experienced bulls in places that you wouldn’t expect to see one post rut.


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[saddlesore]

A lot of hunters depend on what they have heard or read about elk rules. Trouble is, elk don't read those rules and there are no hard and fast rules about elk hunting.

[Tuffcrk14]

A lot of hunters depend on what they have heard or read about elk rules. Trouble is, elk don't read those rules and there are no hard and fast rules about elk hunting.

Yep, that’s true. It definitely gave me some perspective that sometimes they live closer to busy roads than some may think.


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[Swede]

Elk often feed on ranches and bed in the forest. They cross roads as they move around from place to place. my hunting companions and I have taken a lot of elk near a major camp and destination along one of Oregon's "scenic byway." We can hear kids playing, dogs barking and vehicles throughout the day from our tree stands. The scenic byway just happens to cross an elk travel route, or is that vice versa?

[Elkhunttoo]

Everytime i think i might have figured out what they are doing, i find out i am wrong.

They do what ever they feel like, whenever they feel like it, and most of it don't make no sense

[Tuffcrk14]

Elk often feed on ranches and bed in the forest. They cross roads as they move around from place to place. my hunting companions and I have taken a lot of elk near a major camp and destination along one of Oregon's "scenic byway." We can hear kids playing, dogs barking and vehicles throughout the day from our tree stands. The scenic byway just happens to cross an elk travel route, or is that vice versa?

This is in logging country where there is hardly any private land or any ag fields close by. It seems like this area has a lack of consistent water sources because I’ve caught elk coming up from the bottom of some steep canyons that have little trickles of water in the bottom. They cross by one of my cameras that’s just below a ridge and continue on up. That could have been going on here with those bulls because they were headed right to a well used and established seep/wallow about 100 yards from my camera on the trail they were using.


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[Tigger]

are they where you find them or do you find them where they are? Randy Newberg and Marcus have a debate on that.

[Tuffcrk14]

Everytime i think i might have figured out what they are doing, i find out i am wrong.

They do what ever they feel like, whenever they feel like it, and most of it don't make no sense

I think about that often. Just being out there gives you a chance. Your chances may be low at times, but they’re never zero. I feel like we’re all trying to get to a point where we rely less on luck and more on skill to get into consistent positions to succeed. You just can’t beat being in the right spot at the right time though.


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[Swede]

I go with find elk where they are or will be. Going along with the idea that elk are where you find them seems too random for me. As a tree stand hunter, my concerns are different from those moving and calling. I don't worry much about calling in hunters or having other human interference. It happens every once in a while, but it is fairly rare. I just wait for the elk to come to me. I am hunting where elk are. I hunt heavily logged places, and I hunt in recreation areas where there is no logging. Logging or no logging tourists or no tourists is not the issue. Where are the elk?

[Lefty]

I dislike this saying so much, but it’s so true.k

Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” Wayne Swede Gretsky

A lot of hunters depend on what they have heard or read about elk rules. Trouble is, elk don't read those rules and there are no hard and fast rules about elk hunting.

Everytime i think i might have figured out what they are doing, i find out i am wrong.

They do what ever they feel like, whenever they feel like it, and most of it don't make no sense

They are all pearls !!!