Heavily timbered elk Habitat,Tips,Tricks and tactics.

[mandrroofing]

Hope to have some experienced elkanators chime in on this.Tips,tricks and tactics on hunting heavily timbered areas.what i mean by that,these is no need to bring a spotting scope.What can one do to locate elk,even if the elk are not talking. ? .

[Toby]

Find fresh sign and cold call, expecting elk to come in silent. Be patient and alert, they come in like ghosts. If you are in fresh sign and they are not bugling, no sense in being in a hurry to go somewhere else.

[Pop-r]

The only thing I'd say diff than Toby is they are bugling somewhere if it's time. Usually. Lol. Cold calling works well! Focus on the wind & plan to hunt it accordingly, know where/which slopes elk might would bed on in the heat of the day depending on their typical behavior for the area, use your nose, & your eyes! If you move thru timber with enough caution it is very possible alot of times to spot elk before they spot you & even stalk them succesfully. Good luck!

[mandrroofing]

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[ElkNut1]

Matt, hunting the timber or thick stuff is our forte'. It's our favorite place to locate & hunt elk. Locating elk can require a variety of sounds but nothing tops a good 2 second high pitch bugle with a low growl at the end, at this time we generally do not use any chuckling or grunts as we are only in search of, we are not trying to call elk to us! Once located there will be days that a bull will bugle a few times either on his own or in response to another bull who has chimed in. If he's not responded after the first bugle we do our best to head is way as promptly as possible. If there was a great distance between us & him we will bugle for his location again with the same locator bugle, no need to be challenging.

If we come across a bull that responds to our locator bugle once or twice but the distance is too great to pinpoint his location then we do our best to get withing 150 yards, we setup & go straight to an Advertising ourselves in the area type of bull. We will stay 30 minutes & carry on with a variety of bull sounds & raking & light foot stomping. This can really bring in those silent curious bulls.

Running & gunning in this type of country is our favorite, it's not for everyone but once you get a taste of it & realize how productive calling can be it both excites & motivates you to continue doing it! (grin) Once in close a bit of mixing it up with creative cow calling & bull sounds/bugles can bring in the most cautious bulls!

ElkNut1

[JoeH2o]

Hope to have some experienced elkanators chime in on this.Tips,tricks and tactics on hunting heavily timbered areas.what i mean by that,these is no need to bring a spotting scope.What can one do to locate elk,even if the elk are not talking. ? .

You can leave the spotting scope, but definitely don't leave the binos! Glassing heavy timber is crucial. Glass and move, glass and move (assuming your in fresh elk sign). You will be surprised at what you pick out, legs, antlers, rumps, ears......

[Toby]

My first response was based your comment that the elk are not talking. In reality, I am almost always looking for a hot Bull and do pretty much as Paul described. Run and gun, or at my age, walk and gun, but generally keep moving and listening and calling, hoping to get a response. OccSionally will cold call in one place for 30-45 minutes, if there is a lot of elk sign around.

But, I hunt elk because I enjoy the vocal interaction with them. I get enough sitting still hunting whitetails at home.

[nwilt]

Hi Matt- I am far from being an expert, but the area that I hunt in Western Oregon is very heavily timbered as well. We have had success in finding clearcuts/other areas that the local herds feed during scouting, and then targeting the saddles that the elk use to move between these areas and the heavier timber/reprod. Talking to some of the local loggers has helped as well since they often see herds feeding when they come in to the areas in the morning. In the coastal mountains here, it doesn't take much of an elevation change to make for a descent travel path - it seems that the elk are as lazy as I am. We will usually use Google Earth/Topo maps to identify areas of interest around the clearcuts or clearings. We then scout the areas between the high points of the saddle and find a descent path within ~100 yards of the base of the saddle if there is one, and target those areas (cold calling is nobody is talking). I know that I have learned a ton from this forum, and appreciate the quality of the info and tone of the discussions. I figured it was time to chime in instead of just lurking
Nathan

[mandrroofing]

Really great advice guys.In areas like this i usually cover 5- 10 miles a day.Some times we find good sign and sometimes not in a days hunt,I believe in areas that are heavily timbered you MUST cover a lot of ground!I think we are going to give our unit one more go this year,I feel now that we are really honing in on the "good" areas of our unit that i have a great chance of tagging my first elk!This will be my 4 archery season there and im just now feeling that i am getting to know it,Granted there are still areas i have not checked out.

[Toby]

It is great to be familiar with your hunting territory, saves lots of energy, keeps you in the elk.