Elk Tracking Tips

[WapitiTalk1]

I'm sure many of us have had difficult tracking experiences; it goes with the game. What are some of your tips for tracking elk once the arrow (or other projectile) has found its mark? Let's skip past the standard ones that most big game hunters know (try to determine what type of hit it was, mark where you shot from, mark where the elk was standing and visual direction of travel, wait XX minutes before proceeding, mark every spot of blood). I'll throw out a couple.

1. Move slowly when tracking a hit elk. Stop often and listen.

2. An elk, even when hit well, may not bleed significantly outside the body for some pretty long stretches (depends on the hit, the hit angle, going uphill, downhill, etc.). Learn to tune in to the tracks of the target elk as much as the blood sign. This is crucial.

3. Realize that bright red/frothy blood does not necessarily signify a lung shot.

OK, these are just a very few. Tracking an elk after the shot is kind of an art and something that is learned through many years of doing it. Please throw out a few of your after the shot tracking tips that have worked for you.

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[Swede]

I have observed that a badly injured elk will try to follow the herd for as long as they can then make a sharp 90* turn and bed down uphill nearby. A dying elk can fall into the awfullest place around without even trying.

[>>>---WW---->]

Two of my favorites:

(1) Hydrogen Peroxide in a small spray bottle. Spray a squirt of it on anything that looks specious. If it is blood, it will foam up instantly. I've used it on dried up blood several hours old and it still works!

(2) Toilet Paper: Tear off a piece and place it on every speck of blood you find. It will mark the trail and help determine the general direction of travel the animal is going. And the nice thing about it is you don't have to go back and pick it up. The first light rain or heavy dew will dissolve it.

[Elkhunttoo]

Amen to the toilet paper


Elevation….in tracking one thing I have found is that lots of times they will not climb hard or drop straight down. They will sometimes keep the elevation they are at and ever so slightly be at a down hill grade


When there are lots of elk. And lots of elk leave lots of tracks. Without blood it becomes very difficult no matter what. My wife shot a bull last year in a saddle. It went out of the trees and right back to where they had been grazing all morning. Zero blood. Never found one spec. I found what I was most confident was his tracks but I could only be on them for about 100 yards and then there were elk tracks everywhere. In that hundred yards 3 of us spent a couple hours looking for blood just to try and confirm direction of travel and we never found one drop

[Swede]

I agree with Elkhunttoo. Last season I found a few drops of blood where the arrow broke off then there were a few drops near the end of his trail. When the next blood started showing he was about twenty yards away. That bull was angling slightly uphill all the time from where he was hit with the arrow. After being hit, an elk will try to follow the herd. If they are alone, they just try to escape. It does not matter if it is uphill, downhill or sideways. I do not think we can depend on there being any rule on the elk's direction. I observed one that went in the opposite direction of the others. The cow he was with kept bugling for him well after he was dead. That was the only time I was sure I was hearing a cow bugle. She sounded similar to a small (spike) bull.
BTW: I don't carry toilet paper. I use corn cobs and hate to throw them out along an elk's escape route. Who ever heard of such a thing?

[Lefty]

Often elk are directional ( much like following the herd) then angle hard whe changing terrainer or cover.

gunsight former sign,, and follow that line.

ah and dont forget to look 10 or 15 yards right or left when you run out of sign

And those back, liver gut hits or the lungs where they keep going if they are running often they run a straight line