Elk Tactics 101 - Episode #11

[WapitiTalk1]

Date/Time: Mid September 2016/5:15 PM
Location: Somewhere in the elk woods
Hunt Pressure Status: Minimal
Hunt: Solo Hunt
Tag: Archery season; any branched bull

Late afternoon/early evening finds you in this situation. Wind direction is as shown and you, the hunter, are set up in a group of saplings in the middle of an oval shaped dry meadow. You chose this spot as a ground blind/ambush point as there are numerous elk trails that cut through the meadow in several different locations, and, there is fresh sign throughout the meadow and some pretty fresh beds in the grass in several areas. The long week of hiking/hunting has taken its toll and the warm SEP afternoon has you doing the bobbing bird thing (dozing off and on while waiting for any elk traffic to move to/through the meadow). After bobbing bird doze number 5, you lift up your head as you sense/hear something to your right and see this fine fellow walk in on one of the elk trails and stop to smell one of the cow beds just off the trail. Your cover/concealment is adequate and the bull is not spooked. Where he stands, the bull is right at 65 yards away which for the sake of this scenario, is 15 yards beyond your "first shot" comfort range. If the bull continues on the trail, he'll work in the direction of the red line and perhaps offer a shot at around 40 yards as he follows the trail.

Your move.....what is your game plan for bringing this bull home for dinner? Are you making any elk sounds at some point? What perhaps, is wrong with where you set up?

Elkinmeadow2.jpg (128.53 KiB) Viewed 3639 times

Reminder that if you save the picture to your desktop and open in MS Paint, you'll be able to place a spot, X, or whatever on the critter before you save it back to a jpg or png and add the marked up pic with your post.

[Ryan Conkle]

At this point I would have my bow held in front of my face, with my released hook on and in a semi-drawn position, to which it would take very little movement for me to come to full draw. With the picture that is provided, I would not feel comfortable calling to this bull, due to him only being 65 yards' away and with the ground cover that is shown, I feel that he would pin my location down and hang up if I called to him. I would prefer at this time to keep the bull unaware of my presence and would be watching and staying with his every move, to be ready to take the shot if he catches my wind. I would then come to full draw when his head is behind one of the small pine trees' as he is approaching the 40 yard shot and would then take the shot as he steps in the 40 yard shooting lane, I would also have a mouth reed in and would be prepared to do a nervous grunt, if he goes to leave, so that I could stop him for a shot. I feel that the direction of wind indicated in this photograph is sharp enough to my left, that I will be able to get an arrow in this bull before he is able to get away from me.

If the cover in front of my location was a little bit thicker and provided better concealment, I might consider calling to him, at which time I would start with some light cow talk and see how he reacts and then proceeded from their. The only thing that I can see that is wrong with the set-up is the bad wind direction, so possibly that could have been adjusted accordingly for, as I see multiple other areas' in the picture that could have been set-up in that would provided a good set-up.

[Swede]

I sure don't like my position. If the bull follows the red line he will catch my scent before he is in range. Right now he is 25 yards beyond my comfortable shooting limits. The cover is poor and as Ryan said, calling is going to cause the bull to focus on me. He is not nervous and is looking away. I get a little advantage there. The ground cover is minimal. Advantage bull. I would like to try crawling forward to where the wind is more in my favor and I can be close when he comes around. If I can pull that off before he detects me I should be in good shape. I don't think I have anything to lose. In addition if the bull doesn't follow the red line around, but goes out the other was slowly, I might have a second chance at him.
My experience in situations like this is that the bull continues to enjoy the summer and goes on to another season. Something always messes me up.

[stringunner]

I agree with Swede here. I would try and move slowly to get better advantage/and in range. My dad and I had a similar scenario once and it worked out. I stayed back, my dad moved slowly forward focusing only on his slow movements forward. We had a tad more cover though. It did work out and my dad connected on a cow. Having this experience in my head I would probably try it again.

The only other option I can think of is moving back into cover and trying to move in front of the bull. But not knowing what sits behind me (how far to cover, how big is the meadow, what is he heading towards) I think i would do what Swede says and try my luck.

[Shawn Ryan]

I'd be moving super slow to the left and a bit forward. Not a great option, but I've had some success with super slow movement in this situation.

I'd rather have set up at my 11 o'clock, across the meadow, in the shadows, with the wind in my face. Much better concealment from the shadows and much better wind. But then again, I'm napping and the shadows might be cold... As can be seen in my avatar, napping is a high priority.

[Luckyman]

If he is following the trail, let him come on. Just be ready and drawn when he hits the opening.

[TurkeyBowMaster]

I don't see any reason to believe the bull will follow the red line at this point, therefore I will tak two steps to the right where I will have two pines for cover and close the distance , then just the one pine for cover if I need to close in tighter. I will freeze if he suspects anything and just let him go and then I will retreat so he can't smell me, loop around and call.

[TurkeyBowMaster]

I don't see any reason to believe the bull will follow the red line at this point, therefore I will tak two steps to the right where I will have two pines for cover and close the distance , then just the one pine for cover if I need to close in tighter. I will freeze if he suspects anything and just let him go and then I will retreat so he can't smell me, loop around and call.

[Elkduds]

Not getting dark, and this elk is just starting to feed, so there is no urgency. If wind shifts a little (when did that ever happen?) I'm busted. Hunting alone, no caller. There is great stalking/shooting cover on the downwind side of this big guy. So I'm backing out, circling downwind to the left side of the pic, and getting as close as I can. I may not need any calling.

[Mathewsz7-elkridge]

I would slowly move forward to the left with no calling expect for a nervous grunt to stop him for the shot.

[ishy]

x2 for crawling downwind.

[WapitiTalk1]

Yep, I think the setup location in this scenario could have been much better. When hunting on the ground, It's not usually a good choice to set up in a spot (middle of a clearing for example) that may limit movement to a better location for a potential shot as the situation develops/changes. As Shawn Ryan mentioned "I'd rather have set up at my 11 o'clock, across the meadow, in the shadows, with the wind in my face. Much better concealment from the shadows and much better wind". From almost any other position "not in the meadow", a hunter could adjust/move if necessary with much better cover/concealment. Good discussion!

[Ryan Conkle]

Contrary to my previous statement, if the ground cover allowed it, to which I do not believe that the pictured ground cover does, if you were to call to this bull and you have or would be able to establish the wind being in your favor, I believe that this would be a great scenario to use the nervous/popping grunt which would in turn ask the bull to show his presence, which might be just what it would take to get this bull to cover the last few needed yards' and it would be a vocalization that this bull would expect to hear in this situation due to close distance that you are from his location.