Elk bedding early, what would you do?

[Fryman]

So my buddies and I just finished our elk season here in Washington. As usually (thanks to the wisdom of the Washington Fish and Wildlife) the season ended before the rut really got rolling. Even so we got into elk everyday but it was hard to work with them. Due to the high temperatures and time of year, they were feeding at night and moving to their bedding areas right before daylight. They would bed down and be done for the day by 8:00. We would hunt them until they bedded and we knew where they were sleeping but it's thick county and hard to get close enough to them in their beds to arrow them. They wouldn't move again until late in the evening, usually about 1/2 before dark so again not much time to work them. We packed in 9 miles into the wilderness so we weren't real mobile. This area has a few good bulls but not a huge population of elk, so to be safe we backed out everyday once we were sure they were down. We didn't want to bump them out of the area. This led to long, boring days in camp waiting for the elk to get up from their naps.

So here's the question: What would you do? Would you press them in their beds and hope to kill one before pushing them into the next county or would you do as we did and back out? We ended up killing a bull late in the week. He was a late for bed and we caught him in the feeding areas tending his cows. So it was a great trip but I'm wondering if we left a little hunting on the table?

Thanks for your responses.

[Trophyhill]

i'd wait them out. I love killing elk just before dark. even if you get aggressive at mid day and bump them you at least have a chance. if you're backing out you have no chance.

[LckyTylr]

You faced a similar dilemma that I faced this last weekend. I was spending my days in camp and to say it was "boring" hunting solo is an understatement. From looking at the thread that I started, it seems as though I made the wrong decision. Even if you didn't want to hunt those particular bulls, gathering from my thread, you should have snooped in other areas that looked "elky" in search of other elk to play with. If you (and I) had done that and found something, you could play with them. If we had screwed up an opportunity with one herd, we could have had another option.

Just what I have learned from others on a different thread.

[fm]

If there was water close to the bedding area allot of times if its hot out they will get up midday to get a drink.

[cnelk]

Knowing what your schedule is, it may be worth a shot to bump those elk out. Especially early season.
We have good luck calling to broken up elk later that day or the next morning in the same spot.

But only doing this later in your hunt, sacrificing some things to accomplish others

[Fryman]

Thanks for the advice. One thing I forgot to tell you. We hunt right on the unit boundary so if we bump them over the line they are out of our area. There is also water everywhere in this area. You can't walk 200 yards without coming up on a pond, stream or puddle. So sitting water is pretty much a waste of time. I like what LckyTylr said though. We should have been exploring other areas. We got so intent on the elk we knew, we ignored the rest of the area.
Thanks again!

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

Get between the elk and their bedding area before daylight and intercept them as they leave the feeding areas. I don't like to hunt bedding areas. But, as a last ditch effort on your last day of the hunt, through in all the chips

[Fryman]

Thanks. Good point about the last ditch effort. We had the same thought and did that on the final day only to be beat to the punch by some other hunters who stumbled on the area! I guess that's the risk you take on public land

We did attempt to get between them every day. Twice it worked, once we put a very nice bull down and the next we almost got one (10 yards no shot opportunity). The rest of the time the were in their bedding area right at daybreak. They would mill around and them bed down by 7:30 to 8:00. We tried to rile them up and get them to come in but had limited success.

I appreciate all the input.