Things I learned on my elk hunt!

[Tigger]

I thought I would start a thread just for things that we learned on our hunts. Big or little, hopefully everyone can gain a nugget of knowledge.

1. Know how to both read and navigate with a topo map/GPS/phone app. The topo part is the key. You need to be able to see benches, fingers, saddles, etc and then be able to navigate to them. almost as important, you need to be able to see slopes that are too steep to traverse. If you have any doubts whatsoever, get practicing.

2. Boots. Boots you use on the prairies are not necessarily mountain boots. I have some Schnees Beartooth that are awesome. But after an all day rain, they were wet. Went to a pair of Danners and they were okay, but not as good as the Schnees. Have a way to dry out boots. Bring multiple pairs. Make sure you dont get blisters in them. Wool socks.

3. You will be uncomfortable. You will be hot, cold, wet, hungry, thirsty, sore, tired, exhausted, winded, stinky and any other number of things. Get used to it. Having a good attitude about it is crucial or it will wear you down after a few days. Joke about it, but dont be negative.

4. Dress in layers. light layers. I know this has been beat to death, but I was constantly taking off light coats and vests, then putting them back on. I really like a light vest. A wicking layer next to your skin is crucial. Merino wool is the best IMO.

5. Practice calling. Know the situation. What story are you telling the elk? What are they telling you? If you can push a Hoochie Mama, you have 5%? of the elks vocabulary. It is a good start, but know and understand more. You can't beat the Elknut's Playbook for this (Free advertising Paul!).

6. Have a bottle or two of wind indicator. It does odd things. Check it often.

7. Keep that pack weight manageable. Take out everything you dont need....but dont take out everything!

8. Take lots of pictures. The reality is most will go home without an elk. Make sure you have a memorable hunt regardless if you kill an elk or not. Admire a bear track or mountain lion scat or a weird tree. Taste pine pitch. Have fun. Smile.

9. Really concentrate on your setup. It happens fast sometimes, you need to always know the wind, where is the elk coming from, how far out is the shooter(s), too thick?, too thin?, closer to the elk? One of the things that I found a little hard to judge was how far away the elk was if it was over 150 yards. I had a hard time telling the difference between 200 and 400, 400 and 800, etc.

That is all I can think of for now!

[Calbuck]

This is a good list, and portrays a good attitude. You're right about the preparedness for uncomfortable situations. Hunting really can be the hardest fun you can have. Good post!

[six]

Any suggestions on how I keep my buddies attitude positive. We've hunted together, known each other since high school. I tell him his parents named him Tom for a reason. (doubting Thomas) I hear a lot of what are you going that way for? I'm not seeing anything can I hunt with you?

[Lefty]

good list
I keep relearning some things Sometimes experience is a tough teacher
But you dont need to be hungry, cold, thirst,y or stay stinky!

[Tigger]

six,
that is kinda tough, but I would say that you yourself have to always be positive and lifting him up. Compliment him on stuff and if he is focussed solely on bagging an animal, you need to make him see the value of the hunt is more than just harvesting. Take notice of other things in nature. Take a nap midday on a sunny hillside. Make it more of an overall enjoyable experience than just a elk harvesting mission. If you are doing that.....I dunno.

Lefty, I agree, you dont need to stay uncomfortable, but it happens. Once wet, you are wet for hours. Once cold, it will take a few minutes to warm up. Showers are back at the camper....although we looked longingly at a cold pool in a mountain stream once.

Lets hear some other tidbits guys, I am hoping that we can put together a big list that we can all learn from.

Bring chapstick and nose gel to help keep soft boogers. Sure, laugh now, but bloody noses suck!

[CurlyTail]

Great List!

I had great success this year with the following strategy : Hiking to a high ridge/saddle early am and sitting the saddle hoping for traffic across this pinch point until the daytime thermals kick in, and listening for spontaneous bugles from the 2 valleys on either side, and trying to elicit bugles with occasional locator bugles, then traversing into the upper end of the valley (which ever one we believed the elk to be bedded), and then slowly working down the valley throughout the day cold calling if no elk had been located, or getting close and bugling if elk were located. Had great mid day success when elk were encountered.

I made a couple of observations: I had very little reaction to "realistic" calls such as general herd talk, chirps, and mews. The kind of sounds you might actually hear on a day to day basis. When I had good reaction to cow calls it was more excited calls such as "lost calf", or loud and excited cow calls. I observed that Bugling was far more likely to elicit a response than any cow call. It is hard to go into a totally quiet valley, and light it up with loud and frequent Bugles - Pauls advertising sequence - but boy did I have good results when I did! This year I did what I would have considered "over calling" in the past, with frequent loud realistic Bugles on several occasions and got shot opportunities almost every time. And boy was it fun.

I re-learned that you cannot over do it with your physical preparation. Getting the Elk out pushed us to our physical limits. I felt silly hiking around my neighborhood with a freighter pack and 80 lbs. of rock salt - but boy did it pay dividends!

I resolve to carry the GPS, even though I don't think I will need it or use it. We got off track packing out the elk in the pitch dark with no trails to follow, unable to see the usual landmarks and landscape profiles, and turned a 2 hour pack out into a 4 hour ordeal that wasted precious time and energy. GPS could have kept us on track in the dark.

[sasquatch]

Any suggestions on how I keep my buddies attitude positive. We've hunted together, known each other since high school. I tell him his parents named him Tom for a reason. (doubting Thomas) I hear a lot of what are you going that way for? I'm not seeing anything can I hunt with you?

Leave him home

[welcher83]

Great thread Tigger! I like being able to learn/share information with other people like me who are still learning.

I followed your numbering scheme and added my thoughts/experiences/ideas to each of your specific categories.

1. TOPOS/GPS - this was my first year using Topos and it was a huge plus for us. I couldn't afford spending $100 for a mapping program for my GPS right before the hunt, so I printed topo maps that we kept in our pack. It was really easy to use the TOPO and then check our elevation on the GPS to know exactly where we were. Will probably bring more topos next year and may even laminate them.

4. LAYERS - I did better on this than in past years. One thing I would add is make sure you have good underwear and lots of them (and hike in them pre-season to make sure they don't rub wrong or get too hot). This year I made sure I had a fresh base layer for every day to keep the stink down. For camo I had 3 pairs of pants, 3 short Ts, 2 long Ts, 1 light sweatshirt, and my Gore-Tex rain camo (sunny skies the whole trip so this stayed at camp). I may buy one more pair of pants, short T, long T, and light sweatshirt for next year. I will also bring a bucket and some detergent and each night wash the camo I was wearing that day to keep everything not too smelly.

5. CALLING - had some good success calling (mostly cow sounds), and we also heard a lot of elk talking and bugling. It was good for me to get those sounds ingrained in my memory to help my practicing over the next year. Had one scenario where the estrus buzz worked really well - my buddy and I set up and cow called to a spike that came running at us. I was not quite as concealed as I should have been as the caller (lesson learned there) and I think he spotted me, hit the brakes, turned and started to leave. I started hitting him with the estruss buzz and other cow sounds trying to be as demanding as I could and he started working back toward me. My hunting partner missed the shot, but it was good to see what the estruss buzz could do (even if it was a spike and we probably wouldn't have gotten away with that on a more mature bull).

8. PICTURES - I agree. I took a lot more this year but wish I would have taken more

9. SETUP - We definitely had one encounter where I think if we had setup a little different I would have gotten a shot at a raghorn. We spotted this bull by himself in a little meadow and he was less than 150 yds away for sure (we were in the timber). I think we made two small mistakes that kept us from getting a great shot. 1 - we rushed getting setup. I was the shooter and didn't have an optimal spot with great cover. We were pretty limited where we were but I think if we would have taken another 45 secs, I maybe could have been in a better spot. 2 - the caller was back and concealed but he was directly behind me - the bull came in as soon as he called but he came in right at my face. I never had a good opportunity to draw and he was staring right at/through me trying to see the cows. I don't think he smelled us, but I think he saw my face and turned and trotted off. My hunting partner also brought up something to me after that scenario that I had never heard - if elk are that close and moving at you, put your head down slightly so your face and eyes don't give you away.

Chapstick - definitely agree and learned on that this year. After the first 2 days my lips were dried and cracking so when I would bugle I had a tough time getting any lip bawl in there cause of my lips.

One item I would add - TREKKING POLES! Great addition to your pack. When my buddy shot his elk shortly before dark it made it a lot nice for each of us to have a pole going down the mountain with meat on our backs. Also, we didn't go out the best way that night and were down in the bottom of a rocky canyon and having one more point of balance was very nice.

Sorry to hear about your buddy not being motivated. I've hunted in the past with people and it never clicked as far as being on the same page. I've been hunting with my current hunting partner for 3 years now and it is awesome when you find someone that it works with. We never seem to be doing something that the other doesn't want to do, and we bounce ideas back and forth and quickly come up with a plan and then we are off.

Fun story relating to calling and hunting partner and motivation from this year. We started out the day going into our hunting area and two other hunters went in with us. We were on the mountain all day so never made it back to our truck to know if they were still there or not. At around 5:30-6, we had a visual on a small group (including 1 bull) that were moving from there bedding to feeding area. We also started hearing a different bull moving from a different area toward the same feeding area. We closed the distance pretty quickly on the bugling bull at first when he was low, but he started up the hill and elk generally move faster than we do going up steep hills at 8500'. We kept after him and were getting going up the steep ridge when we heard some elk sounds. The sounds were about our same elevation and off to our side. I was 95% certain this was another hunter using a hoochie mama - it sounded like a hoochie mama call, it was the same each time, and we didn't really hear any other sounds coming from that direction. We both felt like it was other hunters. I told my hunting partner "we are younger and stronger than those guys and we can get up the hill to that bull before them." That was all it took and he was in it to win it and he took off up the hill, and all I could do was try to keep up while thinking to myself "and he is 8 yrs younger and slightly stronger than me." We got pretty far up the ridge and the bull would sound off occasionally but seemed to be going uphill. Then we bumped into the other hunters with the hoochie mama - turns out it was a few cows and a spike. We farted around with them without trying to get busted and were in a really good spot as now we were either between 2 groups or amongst 1 larger group. My buddy ended up sticking a cow at 20 yds - his first ever elk! He later told me that when I said we could get up the hill faster than them that it was the perfect thing to kick him into the extra gear and get into kill mode. It was a great experience and gives me a little motivation this offseason to not only be in good shape to hunt big country but also to put that little bit of extra effort in, so that when a situation develops you can really get after it (not saying I didn't do that this time, he just did it a little easier).

That's all I have for now

[iHunt]

Great write up, is there a flavor of Chapstick that smells best for attracting elk!?

[Tigger]

I have heard that Chapstick is coming out with a new flavor called "Wallow". Let me know how it tastes!

Ever see those pine trees leaking sap/pitch? We got my one buddy to believe it was just like gum. I laughed for hours over him trying to get that stuff off his teeth!

[iHunt]

I once had a brother who tricked our dad into eating one of those hand towel pellets thinking it was a mint...

[Huntrgathr]

I once had a brother who tricked our dad into eating one of those hand towel pellets thinking it was a mint...

Hand towel pellets...those are for the hand towel pellet stove right ?

Great List!


I made a couple of observations: I had very little reaction to "realistic" calls such as general herd talk, chirps, and mews. The kind of sounds you might actually hear on a day to day basis. When I had good reaction to cow calls it was more excited calls such as "lost calf", or loud and excited cow calls. I observed that Bugling was far more likely to elicit a response than any cow call. It is hard to go into a totally quiet valley, and light it up with loud and frequent Bugles - Pauls advertising sequence - but boy did I have good results when I did! This year I did what I would have considered "over calling" in the past, with frequent loud realistic Bugles on several occasions and got shot opportunities almost every time. And boy was it fun.

Same here. If I just mew and chirp I end up walking right into elk that never made a sound and blowing them out. Sometimes I want to sound nonchalant if I'm just going from point A to point B and I need some audio-camouflaging. All the other times it's the more excited sounds. The elk in my area know me as " that cow that's always lost and horny".

[iHunt]

No they are hand towels that come in a condensed pellet and once they get wet they unravel into a hand towel. Similar to the t shirt launcher at a ball park

[BRazz]

Great thread. I've had limited days to hunt this year and they've been pretty much duds. But even on these trips out there is still lots to learn.

Went on a four-day hunt last weekend (the tail-end of muzzleloader here in CO). Although we saw very few camps on the first portion of our road, when we got to our trailhead there were four trucks and an ATV there! This is not a massive area, maybe 5-8 square miles total. Big enough to find some seclusion but we figured it would be tough to escape the other hunters. We headed back to our "secret" spots and ran into hunter after hunter, and heard only one bull bugling at 1 a.m. from far away (might have been a hunter since it came right from the ridge near where they were camped). After two days of searching we bailed and went to another nearby spot, where we got into some elk sign (and no hunters) but again was completely silent. Literally no elk bugling. We hunted an evening and a morning there, and again left for a third spot. Just looking for some elk that are willing to talk... Finally at the third spot (and final day of our trip) we got into some elk. The bugling was nonexistent, and not until 9 am did we find some elk. We never actually saw him, but we heard him growl from a couple hundred yards away while we got our jackets off and ate a powerbar. Since our calling had drawn a total blank thus far, we tried to play the silent card and sneak up to him. We ended up finding his tracks and followed him for a mile until we lost his trail. Seemed to be a lone bull, which somebody on here (elknut...) could surely have called in. But although he was likely bedded in the thick timber someplace nearby, we sat and listened and occasionally called - but got no response. Moved a bit more and repeated, and still no response. Bummer. Finally the end of the trip was approaching so we had to leave, back to the real world.

Not a terribly exciting hunt, but a valuable learning experience. In my experience, finding elk that are bugling their heads off by themselves is the exception not the rule, and I had no luck trying to incite a response to my bugling. So when this is happening I think it's really valuable to either (1) move until you can find vocal elk - which obviously didn't work for us, or (2) make sure to stop often and quietly listen. Elk will probably be making some noise, and unless they are bugling from on top of an open ridge, these vocalizations really don't carry all that far. If we had been walking just a couple hundred yards away we'd never have heard this bull and would have assumed the elk weren't there. It's easy to blow a bugle, and when no response is heard for a minute or two, put the bugle away and hike on.

I've got one more morning to make it happen.

[Charina]

Not a new lesson this year, but a lesson reaffirmed: Sometimes less than fifty yards makes the difference between seeing no sign of recent activity, and copious droppings, rubs and signs of grazing. Sometimes the reason for the difference is evident (typography, cover, etc) but there are times it seems to make no sense. Two portions of identical contiguous habitat, one devoid of sign, and another regularly used. Transects are sometimes useless for finding areas where the elk are.

[ElkNut1]

Tigger, why would you need two wind indicators?

ElkNut1

[Tigger]

Two reasons. First is that I almost used a whole bottle cuz it didn't work quite right (it spewed out powder instead of that nice smoke trail sometimes) and second is if it gets even a tiny bit wet it is ruined. It really doesn't weigh anything. Actually a person could lose it too. It just seemed like we used it a ton.

[Fridaythe13th]

Add an extra release to your pack. It is a helpless feeling knowing you 3 miles from the truck and realized your release is in the front seat of the truck.. So I turned into the caller which is no big deal until a nice 6x6 is standing in front of you at 30 yards

Carry 2 spare tires not 1 for the trailer. 19 hour to get to the woods 28 hour to get home. Why don't I live closer?????????

HOT and DRY: means hearing 1/16 of the bugling on a 7 day hunt. Tough hunting.

And I need new boots.

[Lefty]

ooppp!!!!
Rocks pulled the trailer tire off the rim today in the middle of no-where. We had a spare. The trailer nuts were larger than my pickups.
Make sure you have the basics for tire repair. A small air compressor and my CPAP battery saved the morning.