? on elk coming in contact with human scent

[wvmathewsman]

If a elk comes acrossed a path you have walked, or something you have touched will they blow out of there like a whitetail deer will? Or do they generally just pay attention to scent in the air?

[Pop-r]

It's honestly a guessing game from my experience as I've killed several bucks over the years coming right down the same trail I just walked in on. It's weird how sometimes you can just get away with certain things cuz that's just how it's meant to be & play out ( such as a 6pt standing in ur face at 8 yds screaming with the wind in his face for 30 seconds & he never smells u). I call them blessings. To clarify; I don't think it's a guessing game of whether they will bust out if they get smell of human at all.

[Lefty]

It's honestly a guessing game from my experience as I've killed several bucks over the years coming right down the same trail I just walked in on. It's weird how sometimes you can just get away with certain things cuz that's just how it's meant to be & play out ( such as a 6pt standing in ur face at 8 yds screaming with the wind in his face for 30 seconds & he never smells u). I call them blessings. To clarify; ,.....

Ive seen some weird things too with deer elk and coyotes.

One time they will turn inside out to get away Others times it is like you dont exist or you become the point of interest
Ive watched deer and coyotes cross into my scent plume 200 yards away and bolt like Im just feet away
Ive had deer and one was a little buck walk op and bump my barrel smelling it. It was even witnessed buy a couple guys . Im not sure if they were more freaked out the buck stayed that close for so long, or that I was nuts and didnt shoot it

I love telling this story, it might be the forth time on this forum,.. but here it goes I wa in my box blind and had a bull elk stick it nose into the "peep" hole -4-8 inches from my head,. He snorted and blew snot all over the side of my face, then he smacked the blind with his rack,.. what a rush

Ive had elk knock the mirrors of my truck staying on a cattle trail following the same trail into
Ive had 60 elk cross my track made minutes before,.. stop and look at me 40 50 yards away

sometimes I thinK the herd or flock mentality gives them a false sense of security

Just never ever expect any animal to stick around down wind

[ElkNut1]

If elk smell right where you walked or something you touched, then yes they are out of there when they smell something foreign to the area.

With this said, in dry conditions the moderate human scent can dissipate in 15 minutes or so. In wet ground conditions they can stay 2-3 times longer. If raining it's not around longer than the 15 minutes. Best thing if you're heading to a stand or blind location is to not walk on any trail habitually that takes you to your location that the elk may use themselves, come in the back door so to speak. Once at your location make sure you monitor the wind so your scent doesn't drift in the direction of supposedly oncoming elk.

ElkNut1

[easeup]

I agree with all posts above regarding weird behavior as it relates to being scented by bucks and bulls.
Now, I cant recall I single event where a doe or cow scented me and stayed around at all.

[foxvalley]

The strangest scent encounter that I ever had with an elk happened as I was just about to my treestand over a heavily used wallow. I was just a few feet from the stand when I heard a bugle about 50 yds. away ! I shimmied up that tree so fast,and just got my recurve up as a cow came in with a massive old bull right behind her.My scent was just seconds old as the cow hits my trail,stands up on her hind legs and does a 180 then starts walking away.The bull, not sure what was going on,continues forward,now 10 yds below me with no shot opportinity.
He comes to one of my smoking hot footprints,sticks his nose right in it,and lets out this growl that was so full of "disgust" hate, whatever you want to call it,but there was no mistaking what he was thinking.There was no fear in his voice, just pure, unmistakable,disgust.

[Trophyhill]

While calling for a friend a few years ago in south central NM, I witnessed something pretty cool. So my buddy is sitting on a stump near a well used trail and I'm positioned about 30 yards from him on a cold calling set. This bull kept bugling from the drainage bellow. After 30 minutes my buddy couldn't take hearing that bull chuckling out of the hell hole below and leaves his stump and walks over to me hinting he wanted to go after the chuckling bull below. Suddenly a nice bull appears not 15 yards from where he was sitting on that stump. The bull walks over and licks the stump he was sitting on. I ended up calling the bull in close but there was too much deadfall in the way for a shot. Needless to say Harold was heartbroken and pissed at himself for leaving that stump lol.

[foxvalley]

IMO any human scent is our worst enemy,100% givaway that humans are in the mtns.and more than likely hunting.A 3 year old whitetail has a masters degree in avoiding hunters,especially after he smells hunters in the woods,one or two times. Now take a 10 year old elk,on public,that has survived three times longer than the average old whitetail,IMO one wiff of human"off the trail" and in the mtns. is enough to alert him,and now he is expecting you! This is even more prevalent after a close encounter with us.
I have found over the years that you can catch the elk "off guard" by being the first ones to come in contact with them the first time that year,as they are not expecting you,is your best chance to kill them.I don't think big old bulls even need the contact,they just need to smell your goat stink just once to put them on high alert.
It is a real pain to shower every nite,and wash cloths,and bring a second pair of everything as to have a dry set for the next day,but anything you can do to not let on that you are there, will pay dividends.You can smell like a lit "punk" with just a little smoke(scent) wafting thru the air,or you can stink like a full blown camp fire(your goat smell) up and down the whole valley.

[zpd307]

the bull i shot last year, but lost, came into a wallow 15 minutes after i had just walked through it. i actually walked up to the same rubbing tree that he was using when i snuck up on him. i wouldnt have guessed it, but it happened. maybe by day 6, i stunk so bad that it didnt matter....