Elk Hunting Basics...Your Move, Thread #8

[WapitiTalk1]

A bit of a twist but a real situation none the less. You're driving to your elk hunt along a high ridge road with a large sweeping draw below you to the left. It's legal shooting light. The season is open and any elk is legal. As you round the corner there are four elk standing on the road 200 yards ahead. They dive over the bank into some pretty thick timber with some 3 foot high huckleberry brush and seem to be moving obviously down, to the east in the same direction you're traveling. You and your buddy have your bows (for this scenario) out of their cases laying on the back seat. It's early September. Your move. What do you do?

[Backcountry]

Well, I would be relying on the thermals to still be dropping down this steep draw. I am going to drop and drop fast! Try to get below the elk and then side hill to them. Next I would throw out a few lost cow sounds and sit quietly for 45mins to an hour.

Ok, now the experts go:D

[Bowhunter]

My bow would be in a case as the law requires where I hunt. I have been known to get out, remove my bow from the case, and try to catch up to an elk before. It hasn't worked out yet.

[ElkNut1]

It depends on the 4 elk? If cows & it was early season I'd most likely stop in the area & cow call 2-3 times, listen for 5-6 seconds, if nothing I'd then toss out a round type bugle to try & roust up a response from a possible bull in the area, if nothing in a few minutes happened that interested me I'd continue on to where my original destination was. I wouldn't waste much time there hoping a bull was with them & he stayed quiet if he was.

ElkNut1

[Indian Summer]

Pick huckleberries!

[Still Hunter]

Keep going to where I was headed.

[WapitiTalk1]

Pick huckleberries!

Don't eat too many of those things in one sitting or you'll regret it in the morning

[stringunner]

I think I would log in my head the area the elk were at and direction they were heading and keep heading toward my direction. Its early in the season and I still have hunting time left. Whether cows or bulls doesn't much matter to me as I will shoot a legal elk but I'm not interested in running elk down, I too have tried this before to no success. I would then come back at a later date and check the area out if it looked of interest to me.

[WapitiTalk1]

Nobody else reacting to this free throw? I know from multiple times experiencing this odds are low but haven't you tried to play this hand or would you? Worked out positive for me once

[Washington Wapiti]

Great situation RJ, very likely and very common! I can't even count how many times this has happened with elk and deer alike. I saw the biggest muley buck I've ever seen this way. I guess I've learned to just note it in my head and either move on or scout the area out later, since like other's it hasn't worked out for me that way. It never stops the jumping of panic/excitement in my stomach though . . . and the weeping that ensues after watching an awesome animal walk or run away.

I suppose I might try, what I've tried in the past. That is, drive up a mile or so, park, and bomb down the hillside trying to stay ahead of them. Play the wind/thermals, and probably throw out some cow or lost calf calls, when I start getting close to where I think they might be based on where they were last seen and direction of travel. Then after it doesn't work out, I'll stomp back up the hillside, irritated that I have to now walk all the way back up to my vehicle in that shrubby hell. LOL

[Washington Wapiti]

So, give us the punchline! How did you do it in this scenario?

[otcWill]

Keep driving. Seems to be maybe a loaded question? I got nothing against any legal hunting but road huntn isn't for me

[WapitiTalk1]

I suppose I might try, what I've tried in the past. That is, drive up a mile or so, park, and bomb down the hillside trying to stay ahead of them. Play the wind/thermals, and probably throw out some cow or lost calf calls, when I start getting close to where I think they might be based on where they were last seen and direction of travel. Then after it doesn't work out, I'll stomp back up the hillside, irritated that I have to now walk all the way back up to my vehicle in that shrubby hell. LOL

Close Shawn .. This "yikes" moment has happened many times as I headed to or from an elk hunting spot. Normally, as others have mentioned, it's really not worth much more effort than a quick walk over the bank if that. Mark the spot in the memory bank and move on. One particular day in early SEP, 17ish years ago, I was on leave from the Army and back in MT hunting with dad and older brother. As we came down the mountain road and around a corner, four cows stood for a second then baled to the the left over the bank, seemingly moving in the direction the truck was pointed. Truck was pulled off to the right and dad and brother grabbed bows and headed over the bank in hopes of an easy shot/pack. I grabbed my bow and down the road I sprinted. Ran at a pretty good clip for about 300 yards and headed over the bank and straight down another 150 yards or so. I hit a small, pretty decent game trail going down a small ridge so the going was easy. After I got to a small bench area, I nocked an arrow and waited/listened. I got lucky and here they came along that small bench. I was able to stop the last cow with a loud, whiny cow call with my diaphram (didn't understand the beauty of a nervous grunt back then) and was able to get a shot. Don't believe there is a textbook plan of attack for these situations but heck, you almost need to try something at least for a few minutes. You never know

[cnelk]

I like to chase elk as much as the rest.
But in this case, it is my opinion all you would be doing is 'chasing' with slim results

Keep driving to where you were headed to and put the elk seen in your memory bank and research later where they were possibly headed to.

[Washington Wapiti]

Excellent, well played! I'm always willing to try something . . . for at least a few minutes.
OTC I'm not a big fan of road hunting as a method in-of-itself either, but I surely won't pass up an incidental opportunity such as this one. Especially, if it seems a likelier proposition than where I were driving to. Of course you have to weigh those options in the moment. I had an interesting series of encounters sort of like this while working out of Oregon in 2010. Probably every other day or so for about 3 weeks I would head up to a site that was essentially a 2 mile long spur that ended at a landing. I would end up in there around the same time of day, and I'd come across the same solitary cow coming out of the small clear cut, crossing the dirt road, and heading into the timber at basically the same spot each time. This was maybe a quarter to half-mile in on the spur. I would just stop and watch her. I thought it was pretty funny and interesting. I think she tired of me and she eventually disappeared. This along with a bunch of other cool elk encounters in that 6 month period got me seriously considering buying a non-res tag for Oregon. I mean, I was essentially scouting on the job and it was SWEET. I ended up hunting my old go-to in Washington however.

[Swede]

If that group of four elk has a big bull in it I am interested. I have played this game before and never had any success. I too would drive past them or back up depending on the wind and try to at first relocate them. Based on the time of day and the date, I would come up with some plan to try and get one.

[ishy]

We've gotten elk in a similar situation. Split a herd on a road. First thing is being quick, but you have to keep human sounds out of it. One option is slowing the rig down to a slow crawl and letting someone bail out and truck keeps going out of hearing range. If not an option you keep driving out of hearing distance and run quietly back and set up according to wind and terrain and start regathering noises.