Elk Hunting Near A Large Forest Fire

[Swede]

Every year hunters find "their" hunting area is on fire. They wonder how to deal with the situation. When a large fire breaks out firefighters and equipment respond, and the burn becomes a beehive of activity. Bombers and helicopters are overhead, and dozers and trucks are on the ground. Most likely there is an appropriate area closure to keep you safe and out of the way. You have a valid tag for the unit that has much of the fire activity. What should you do.
My recommendation is Go hunting. Stay outside the closure area but get as close as practical. Often elk hang around away from the fire activity. My experience is that is 5-10 miles away. Some were likely forced away from the fire while others are blocked from going there. I have observed them milling around in a fairly small area for weeks while the fire suppression stays active. I worked on the line and mopping up many fires during my Forest Service career. I have never seen an elk that was caught in a fire and only one deer. I am not saying it can't or doesn't happen, but based on my observations, it appears to be a rare event. The elk don't go very far away and will be more concentrated in the area they have left to live in. Go get em.

[Lefty]

Fires can be bad news. We had a fire 7 miles away i was in on a herd under 300 yards in the open,,, I couldn't handle the SMOKE and left
As weird as it seemed the elk didn't seem to care.

[Swede]

Lefty, I normally leave everyone's post alone, but for clarification I added the work "SMOKE" to yours as I believe that word was inadvertently left out. It took me a minute to figure out your intent. I hope you don't mind. If I got it wrong, you may correct what I added.

Fire complexes are all different and the situations as they pertain to elk vary, but the two things I have noticed it that the elk don't get killed off and they don't go very far. If you can get there legally you may find some better than normal hunting opportunity. I remember driving by elk herds on the way out to the fire line where I would be. I have seen big Mulie bucks get up right in a blackened area with smoke still rising from the logs and stumps nearby. As Lefty said, the critters don't care about those things. It may be possible that the elk become more accustomed to people being nearby and that could work in your favor.
If your area gets burned over maybe you will need to relocate your camp, and your tree stand location may be filled blackened snags, but the elk are somewhere not far away.
If anyone is interested, we can discuss clean burns, where the land is mostly cleared of vegetation and ground cover, and dirty burns, where the fire just burned on a hit and miss basis. I like following after dirty burns, but both have their advantages.

[Lefty]

Lefty, I normally leave everyone's post alone, but for clarification I added the work "SMOKE" to yours as I believe that word was inadvertently left out. It took me a minute to figure out your intent. I hope you don't mind. If I got it wrong, you may correct what I added.

My dyslexia strikes again

It took me a minute to figure out your intent. .

Research has proven people of normal intelligence often fill in the missing word without even knowing the word ( or letter) were missing;.
So Im assuming your ( you are) above normal intelligence


OK Swede you currently dont know where my mind is going,,, but my wife may be offended: you took her job of correcting my miscommunication

[Swede]

Sounds like she is the one with above normal intelligence.

[Lefty]

Sounds like she is the one with above normal intelligence.

Iver also learned over the years when not to say anymore

Not back to the original Thead.

I quit hunting the desert for a couple reasons . In part the old growth sage brush burned up 390,000 acres in 5 years which isn't coming back anytime soon