how long do you wait

[bnsafe]

after talking with a member on here for a couple hours yesterday (THANKYOU), i was wondering how long you guys hunt a spot before you say its time to move on. do you hunt for a week then move elsewhere for your next hunt. if you havnt seen anything in a couple days to you move, do you hunt the same spot for a full season knowing they migrate with time ofyear, pressure,etc.

[Swede]

It depends on how much fresh sign I see. No fresh sign and I leave soon. I may finish the day there, but that is all. If the sign looks like there are animals in the area, I can hang around a long time. I can usually wait as long as it takes. Where I hunt it is easy to check the trails and water holes.

[bnsafe]

so if you know there are elk historically in the area do you wait a week, 2, 3, to go back again or are you done for the season. i am not referring to the info i got yesterday by the way. im just wondering if i go into an area ive never been before. just wanted to clear that up.

[Lefty]

I had concentrated in an area about 2 1/2 miles by 3 1/2 miles , the bulls like the area and may be there, or not, later that day, the next day , next week they will be, I just need to find them.
Where I hunted more last year the area was bigger about 6 miles by 1 1/2 miles. Again if they are there right now they could be there this evening.
The elk I hunt are very transiet .

According to the biologist the elk have a tremendous range through out the year. Even their daily cycle or weekly cycle is almost unbelievable. Elk circulate where I hunt in small groups , then into bigger herds as some elk move from the mountians into the flats during the rut.

I followed one herd one day for 5 hours. they covered about 11 miles, then got bumped by some other hunters and I glassed them until they were another 6 miles away, at that point they were well over 12 miles as the crow flies from where I saw them at first light

With that said a few years back a collared cow elk in my area had been tagged in Wyoming about 200 miles as the crow flies. elk cover a lot of ground

Good elk country will hold elk,... somewhere

One thing I know many hunters miss. But at times elk leave little or no sign and some guys do not know how to read or find sign in difficult situation, hardpa, rock etc. Heck for two years I thought the 3/8 inch droppings I was finding was from deer and rabbits

[Swede]

If I am in an area where there is no recent sign, I pull out and hunt somewhere that has fresh sign. If I don't get an animal, then I will check several times during the season to see if the elk have moved back in, but I don't spend a lot of time where there is little or no fresh sign. I hunt elk; not land or even habitat.

[otcWill]

If I don't see elk, I'm going somewhere else. I have about 7 different spots within 20 miles or so and we've been known to leave a spot where we're seeing dozens of elk because we havn't seen any decent bulls.

[easeup]

I have never pulled up camp and just left for greener pastures yet,
Maybe I should have looking back on it all.

but on a smaller scale, If I hunt in a general 2 sq mile area, one day and do not see any sign nor here anything, I go elsewhere the next day.

[JohnFitzgerald]

Depends on what type of hunting you like to do?

For ambush or spot/stalk, if you don't have fresh sign you should move immediately. Before leaving for the hunt you should have a A-Z plan. If "A" doesn't look good, don't waste time, move onto "B".

My team relies on chasing vocal elk. We never set one foot out in the woods unless we've had responses to our location bugles. I know people will disagree with me on this. But for us, finding hunt-able elk is 3/4 of the battle. Even if it means we have to hunt a different area every day.

Before I started chasing, we'd be lucky to hunt 3 vocal bulls the entire 10 day season. Last year we chased and hunted ~15 vocal bulls in a 4 day period.

Go to the elk!

Just my 2-cents.

jf

[Trophyhill]

great question and if i would have moved on after a couple days of minimal action i may not have killed my first bull. i hunted the first 10 days of Sept last year and there was something about 1 certain area that i just couldn't stay out of even though i was having encounters in other areas daily. but i was constantly on the move searching and would end up or pass thru this 1 area frequently. i suppose in some areas it's just a matter of time before they show up. the one thing i do know though is that no matter how slow the action is it only takes 1 and that may be the only chance you get so be ready and make that shot count.

[Heartwood]

We usually start out looking at spots that have held elk in previous seasons, many of which can be glassed from a distance. Somtimes all we are looking for is the presence of any elk (they may be miles distant so that we cant even tell a bull from a cow). We know if there are cows then there are bulls. We hunt mixed timber and sage country that can be glassed effectivly. Many times we can be hunting an area and glassing a few other areas at the same time. To answer your question, we dont spend much time at all in a particular area if we dont either see, hear or find fresh sign of elk, one day at most. However we will check back on numerous spots after a few days to a week. If we are having a tough time locating elk, we will somtimes hike at night to locate vocal bulls then hunt them in the morning. Bottom line, we are constantly moving because there arent elk in every canyon or drainage. In the early less experienced years i wasted many days in areas stubornly looking for elk that just wernt there. These days we are in elk much more frequently and there are less elk overall in the unit. My advise, dont spend much time somewhere where you cant posatively locate elk. Those hunting days during the rut are too limited and precious.

[WapitiTalk1]

I hunt a different area every day with very few exceptions (I define different area as draws maybe only a few miles apart). I only hunt during the rut, with a bow, and for the most part locate and move to the bull(s) as my sole tactic during elk season, to clarify the following comments). If I do not hear vocal elk in an area during evening scouting sessions, I will not hunt it the following day..period.. Yeah, elk may move in during the night but not probable if they aren't there late evening/after dark to begin with. Whether back country or base camp hunting, this principle applies for me. Late evening locating is something many hunters do not do and IMO is very important. Now, if I would find myself in a "large" area where there are no vocal elk, or, significant sign, I would seriously consider packing up camp and moving on after several days.. This is where the pre-season scouting, previous knowledge of the area, or inside information for F&G Biologists, friends, etc., comes in. Plan B, C, or even D needs to be ready just in case.

[CrazyElkHunter]

We set up camp for a 4 weeks stay in the same camp every year. The elk will always be somewhere within our area. The luxury of staying the entire archery season is we get to see all the phases of the hunt. Early, we hunt wallows and water sources and spot and stalk. Middle 2 weeks they go into a scatter stage. Last week they start getting vocal. If I do not bring a elk home, it's because I get to picky, I screwed up or both. I have never been on a archery elk hunt in over 30 years that I did not have a opportunity to fill my tag, all OTC public land hunting. We have never packed up camp and moved to another area. I have hunted Oregon, New Mexico and Colorado for elk, but 90% has been in Colorado. I do not shoot monster bulls, but a lot of them are between 250 and 315".