Ok so we know that Greg/Mo is getting ready to go elk hunting along with a few others so I think its time for another round of elk hunting tips. We did this 2 years ago but its time for another, I want to hear you best tips and advice, I myself try to lean everything I can about elk hunting and calling as well as give out advice. Education after all is the exchange of ideas. Last year I was asked to give a 15 minute mini elk calling seminarfor the Sportsmans for Fish and Wildlife, at their local banquet. Talk about being nervous, lol but it was awesome and in the end I made more friends like I do when I am on stage at calling contests. Anyway here is my list of elk hunting tips. Please feel free to add your own, after all nobody can know it all becaue there is simply too much to learn when it comes to elk hunting.

Elk Hunting Tips #2

1) Keep track of the wind and hunt with the wind in your face or from the side with a cross wind at all times. Even with the best calling or caller in the world, or sitting on the best wallow/game trail if a bull or cow winds you, game over and they may bark and run away or run away silent. No matter what hunting method you are using if they smell you its game over for that day, the elk wins for that round. When this happens its best to go look for some more elk that day and come back another day for the elk that busted you. When checking the wind I like to use the cow in heat by Hunter Specialities along with the regular puff bottle wind checker. The cow in heat comes in a spray mist bottle. Its mist is fine enough that I can see it in the air for almost as long as the powder (baking soda) puff bottle that you can purchase or make at home. With the cow in heat I figure if the wind is wrong at least the elk will hopefully smell another elk, and maybe not me. In sunlight it works great and you can see it very well. On the other hand in the shade it still works but its hard to see well. And in the early morning and evening hours it can’t be seen at all and that is when I use the puff bottle/baking soda.


2) Be as sent free as possiable, even with the wind in your face there are many little up and down swirling drafts in the mountains. Some are strong enough to detect and some are so slight that you are not aware of it. That’s why I want to stay as sent fee as possible, I try to bathe everyday and use sent free body soap, and sent killer of different types, most brands work good IMO and I don’t favor a certain one over another. The main point is staying clean and odder free as possible, and when elk hunting that is not easy at all. If you have only a cold creek or stream near by it will have to do, even a sponge bath from it each night is better than nothing. During the day it not easy to stay sent free when hiking uphill and down for several miles at a time. For this I carry a few sent free wipes and wipe down every now and then when I am sweating badly. Or when we are about to move in sneaking, or set up and try to call in a bull. One last thing I have never used sent lock clothing because for my type of hunting I would be too way to hot. If you were hunting in tree stands or ground blinds over wallows it may work, if you like to use it and believe in it.


3) If using calls become proficient with them, if you can't master a mouth diaphram there are many external reed bite and blow type calls that will work! Also there are some excellent push me type cow calls that will help out too, just don’t use them as your main elk call.Primos, Hunters Specialties, Bugleing Bull Game Calls, Knight&Hale, and several others all make good elk calls that each sound a bit different. And they all work, because every elk sounds a bit different, just like us humans. The more elk calls you own the better your success could be. Reason why is if you get busted when using a certain type of call, if you try to use that call again on the same elk, he/she will know it and not be fooled again. It doesn’t matter who the hunter/caller is the elk will know the same call and this is why elk become call shy to most hunters. Fact is most hunters all have about the same calls in their packs. I think I own about every elk call that’s on the market and most are with me, at least in camp or back at the truck. If I find other hunters in my area I make myself know to them and ask what calls they are using. Then I stay away from those calls they are using. For learning how to call there are many videos made by almost every call manufacture that teach you how to make elk sounds using their calls. The hard part is leaning where and when and how much to use these calls in the field. Primos, Hunters Specialties, Bugleing Bulls Game calls, Don Laubach/Elk Inc, Larry Jones and Mike Lapinski, Chad Shear each go into a bit of this and have a lot of excellent info. To top it off I then recommend elknut DVD’s and that is all he talks about in his videos, how and when to call in elk in the feild. He is a top caller too I might add. I recomend viewing/owning them all or as many as time and money will allow! Through these video’s you can learn from others mistakes and success that would otherwise take years of personal in field experience.


4) Wallows, Tree Stands and Ground Blinds, I am putting this here as tip number four because IMO these are under used hunting methods for most elk hunters. Bottome line wallows attract elk. I like to find hidded pockets of a bunch of wallows in the middle of dark timber. One of my favorite honey holes, is at the bottom of a small canyon. Area wise the bottom is about 1 mile wide and about 2 miles long. Its surrounded by dark timer from all sides, a cool clear stream flows through it. It’s a mix of small thickets of timber and small meadows where the grass grows tall. Elk love it there because they have everything they need. Plenty of food and water, wallows for cooling down and playing in. And last of all every direction goes to safety in dark timber. In addition to setting up tree stands on the more popular wallows, I have found the main elk trails that funnel down on each side into this canyon off the ridges. This has only been learned by time and effort from each and every season. So knowing the area is important when setting up tree stands and ground blinds. But when placed right it can be very successful to the hunter.


5) Don't worry about making natural noise. Everyone has different calling and hunting strategies. My favorite is I like to sneek in under 100 yards and set up and call. When sneeking in, or just walking, you might step on and break a branch or two, or if the ground is dry it will be noisie. Don't worrie just give a soft cow call or two to make them think you are an elk. When calling do make noise, and sometimes a lot of it. You'll want to break branches, stomp the ground, and rub big branches on trees. A bull elk will beat the heck out of a tree when he is working it over with his antlers. Do what he does and create a lot of noise to make them think you are the bull. I have found rattleing sticks work well too along with beating up a tree. When doing this I have found most satellite and smaller bulls will come in silent just to see who the new guy is in town and to find out why he is wanting to pick a fight. Another good trick if still water such as a pond or wallow is nearby, splash in it with a stick and big branches or maybe even your boots if they are water proof. Try to sound like a elk splashing around throwing the water and mud everywere. This is a common sound to elk because they do it almost every day during the summer and early fall. But few hunters try and copy that sound in attempt to fool the elk. If you have a empty bottle that you don’t mind getting dirty, fill it up and pour it out back into the water. This will sound like a bull peeing in a wallow. I have yet to not see a bull elk pee in the wallow he is visiting.


6) Use a decoy they work great, I have used them with calls, and with out calls next to well used elk trails and wallows. When using the decoy I use a whitetail trick and put elk fire, or cow in heat (same thing) in a drip bottle next to the decoy. My hope if it looks like and elk and smellls like and elk it must be an elk to the real elk. My favorite decoys are the montana elk decoys.


7) (Some might disagree with this) But IMHO you should never put an elk scent, be it cow in heat or any of the varities of a bull or cow scents on you or your clothing. Why three reasons. The first is elk have a strong strong scent, I have had bulls come into me silent and I only knew they were there because I could smell them first. If you are coverd in the scent you will not know if you are smelling the scent on you or the real bull elk. Second if the elk does smell it he will pin point you and come in strait to you, giving you a strait on head shot which as we all know is bad, can it be done yes, but not recomended. Thats why I put it wilh my decoy and set up to the side so when he comes in I will have a broadside shot. And the third reason, bears,,, some of the country I hunt has Grizzly Bears in them! Some bears both black and grizz, have learned to key in on the calls and let their nose guide them from their. Most of the time a mature bull elk can out run a bear, some don't. Either way a bowhunter can't and these last few years there have been quite a few bear attacks on bowhunters here around Idaho and surrounding states.


8) Advanced elk calling tips, I call these advanced only because they are not known to many hunters in reality it has nothing to do with skill. I have many of these types of tips/tricks but for here I will list a few of the many. First one is if you get busted by a elk by sight only,meaning they only see you beitwhen calling oreven walking along a trail and a elk barks at you, just bark back at them. When that happens the elk that seen you might run away barking and it might just stay put barking back at you. Remember september is the time when all the elk can act a bit funny from time to time. A cow in heat can be and act as stupid and do weird things as a bull, not usually but they can do it from time to time. So if the rest of herd hears two cows going off barking (one of the cows is the hunter) about half the time IMO most other elk around will pay it no attention and just think that its two cows that are confused. The only time this will not work is if they smell you, if that happens game over no matter what you do. If you are hunting with a large group, bunch up in groups of three, with two callers and one shooter. When setting up, keep the callers at least 40 to 150 yards behind the shooter depending on the situation. Have the farthest caller stay put and try to mostly do cow calls sounding like as many cows as he/she can. If time have the second caller walk/sneek up with the shooter before dropping back into place. This way the caller can see what the shooter see’s. If on the right side of the shooter is open with plenty of shot opportunities/lanes but on the left is thick withno openings to shoot through.Then the caller will want to try to pull the bull to the right side of the shooter. To do this the walking caller might have to run or criss cross or even J-hook behind the shooter in order to try to pull the bull past the shooter. This will also work if there is two of you, but I have found it to work it best with three because the hunter in back can be the herd of cows and the walking caller can be the small bull going back to his cows. Remember to not sound big, if other bulls around think you will kick their butt, they will most likely stay put. Also I admit this doesn’t work on herd bulls because they think you are a smaller bull trying to steal/seek some more cows into your herd. But it can work great for satilite bulls on down. When calling in and working a bull that you can see it in front of you. Remember to always turn around and check behind you from time to time. I have had bulls sneek in behind me at under 20 yards only to bust me and hang up the bull in front of me. If you’re the caller you can quickly become the shooter if this happens so be on your toes and be ready for anything. One last trick that I'll mention here and I have only known about for two years is this, take two metal bottle caps (a pop or beer caps) and rub them together between your fingers with the rough sides facing each other. This sounds like a elk grinding its teeth, while chewing it cud, so if you have a bull in the timber hanging up but he’s within hearing range, give it a try, I will only say is it works.


9) Be prepared, Be ready for any weather, in September it can go from 80 degrees down to the mid 20's and snowing in a matter of hours. Last year was a good example of this for us bowhunters here in eastern Idaho. On the third week of september we went from warm weather to 6” of snow in a day and a night. We were camped 5 miles back in but we were warm and dry inside a whitewall tent with a wood stove. The horses were a bit wet and cold but they made it through, my horse is used to staying in the mountains and outside during the winters, but I think I will get a horse blanket in the future. In addition to being prepaired I will add eat well and get good sleep, and drink plenty of water. A good sleeping bag and pad is priceless. and drink plenty of water. IMO two things a elk bowhunter is in always need of is sleep and water. If you run out of energy becasue of lack ofsleep or nurisment your hunt is done no matter how good of shape you ae in.Always have a small emergency kit with you at all times, the Rockies can be a dangerous place if you are injured and alone. Also try to let someone know where you will be at all time, this may come in handy if your life is in danger or you are lost and people are out looking for you.


10) Be in shape, I am putting this as its own tip because each and every year we all hear of countless stories of hunts ended by hunters not being physically ready for there elk hunt and the hunt ending very early with no elk on the meat poll. IMO this the biggest reason why the elk hunting success is only 12% for archery hunters. Last year we met some hunters at the trail head where we parked our trucks/horse trailers. It was a big group of hunters from Wisconsonsin, they were sitting around their campfire when we came riding down the trail. We were packing out my friends elk that he killed the previous day. Upon seeing us they come over to talk to us, half joking and half serious they asked us if they paid us if we would pack them in along with a few supplies into their hunting area on our horses. I ended up waiting for my friend to drive his meat to a near by town just across the border in Wyoming. While waiting I shot my bow a bit with a few of these gentlemen, and I admit they were very nice guys. They had tags for the other side of the road/other unit and they were only hunting 2 to 4 miles in from the trail head but they were all tired after only 4 days of hunting. They admitted they were there for full two weeks but most couldn’t walk anymore and a few were getting ready to call it a trip and go home. I wanted to help them and even felt a bit sorry for them, but we had 4 guys/tags still left in our own camp. When we left for a break of our own 3 days later, a few were still in camp and admitted they had stayed in camp the entire time because they were not ready physically for this hunt. Some like they had said had already left early. Out of the twenty three hunters from all ages in this camp only 5 (I might add all 5 were older guys who worked hard to get into shape) of them hunted for the full two weeks and I found out by email that they did kill two bulls. Most of the group had only hunted 4 to 6 days of the two weeks and of course came home empty handed.

There you have it some tips/advice/ideas about a subject I love to talk about, now lets hear what you have to say. Sorry it kind of long, but then again maybe not because its my favorite subject to talk about!