Elkshed

How do You hunt elk?
I like to hunt during the archery season after rutting bulls.

ELKampMaster

Wow, I'm surprised this has set here this long with no response, perhaps not that many folks actually hunt elk....

First, I'd have to say that for me "how I hunt elk" means way more to me than getting close to an elk and killing it; if that is all there was then the whole damn trip would boil down to about 1 minute to 1 hour.... very sad. So bear with me if this description of "how we hunt elk" doesn't have enough "killing part in it." To me, the enjoyment of friends and nature and the execution of strategy pretty much make the package.
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* Explore your area thru the summer. [Enjoy nature and friends]
* Cache items to make your job simpler and easier during the hunting season [Work, Enjoy Nature].
* Utilize GPS and mapping software so you really know your way around [Strategy].
* Get a good crew together that have: sufficient firepower (no pop guns), mental toughness, work ethic, and good sense of humor. [Strategy, Enjoy friends]
* Go during the first rifle season available, [in 2003 the bulls were bugling full time] after the first rifle season "assault" the "word is out" and elk get tougher to harvest). (If you are a late, cold season, wade in the snow hunter, then God bless ya.) [Strategy]
* Set up a main camp just off the main graded forest service road with all the comforts of home so you have a good recharging station plus a place to recuperate if the weather is really really bad. This also acts as the mustering point for people arriving into camp on various days and times. [Work, Enjoy Nature, Enjoy friends]
* Bring along the gourmet chef, so that you eat well, have someone to "take care of you" when you are not in spike camp, and you have someone to watch your stuff when the camp empties out.
* Scout your area the week before the season. Determine the best area and the spike camp location. [Strategy, Enjoy Nature, Enjoy Friends]
* Set up a spike camp about 4 miles back into the "hot zone" (or what ever it takes in your area to get away from the crowds and into the action), this way you don't have to spend so much of your dark hours walking in the dark on the way in in the morning and walking in the dark on the way out in the evening. This camp provides only basic shelter, heat, a place to sleep, and basic food --- a place to "hole up" or "warm up". [Work, Enjoy Nature, Enjoy Friends]
* Set Up: Based upon your scouting knowledge of the area (this may take a few years --- part of the price to be paid) position your group in a picket line of adventageous ambush spots. If you can arrange it so the actions of the weekend warriors will drive the elk to you, then by all means utilize it. [Enjoy Nature, Strategy]
* Killing: (1) use a rifle and bullets that can EASILY do the job [regardless of what you believe your marksmanship abilities to be], (2) make sure the darn thing is sighted in to gnats arse and that you can shoot it well without a benchrest, (3) when the elk are "acquired" at reasonable distance, (use a cow call to stop them [80%]) then perform and perform quickly. [Strategy, Common sense]
* Field dress the game using the Alaskan method, get it into game bags, and get it hanging in the shade ASAP. Have a back up plan of how you will preserve your meat in the event you knock down more animals than you can pack out in a 24 hour period of warm, warm temperatures (hard to predict Rocky Mountain weather). Be aware while you are field dressing the elk you will likely see more shootable elk, be ready. [Work, Strategy, Enjoy Nature]
* Pack out the elk to the main camp using horses and panniers. [if you are packing them on your back, then I hope your group don't shoot too many at once AND god bless ya].
* If you don't have your animal the first day, then hole up in spike camp and hit it again tomorrow. [Enjoy Friends and Nature].
* Finish packing out the meat. Take the spike camp out on the last trip. [Work, Enjoy Nature, Enjoy Friends]
* Butcher the elk in camp, (1 to 3 days) [Work, Enjoy Friends].
* Break and load camp. [Work, Enjoy Friends]
* Divide the meat. [Enjoy Friends]

* Leave [Appreciate civilization upon your return].
* Spend the next year figuring out how to make "it" better. [Strategy]
* Keep an eye out for hunters who have "the right stuff" for next year's group.
* Don't invite anyone back who diminished the group or the hunt [group dynamics are key, key, key]

* Repeat and do it again next year.

That's how we hunt elk.

EKM

txhunter58

If I lived amongst them, I would bowhunt due to the long season. However, since I can only go for a week, muzzleloading is my favorate elk hunt. Golden aspens, bugling bulls and 100 yard range (vs. 30 yards with a bow). Can't beat it. Only 5 weeks till I am there!

GooseHunter Jr.

2nd rifle season here in Colorado! Stand hunting!

rtrujillo

Where are you hunting elk elkshed? I hunt them during the archery season when they are screaming. Lots of people like to call elk and that is a fun way to hunt them. Cow calling works best. I never call to elk, because I am looking for the huge ones, and usually wont come to a call. I prefer to let the elk make the noise and try to get in close to them, without them knowind Im there. I think this is the most challenging and exciting way to hunt.

It really depends on what you are after. If you just want to kill an elk, sit at a water hole and wait for one to come to you. Again, I never do this because there is no challenge there. If you want a little challenge and will be happy with a smaller bull, try calling its a lot of fun. Looking for a world record? Find the bugling bulls and sneak into them and try to get a shot.

Good Luck!

Elkshed

rtrujillo,
I elk hunt in the Lolo National forest,Bitterroot selway,BobMarshall,and a few other places here in Montana.I don't like to sit and wait at water holes.I do like to locate the bulls with a bugel early in the morning and sneak in on em.then cow call or challenge the herd bull if he is big.It depends on the situation.If it is a satelite bull I'll cow call him in.Sometimes I even set up in the direction they are heading and ambush them.
Elkshed

skeeter 7MM

No mountains here just forest and forest fringe to hunt elk.

Our main camp is situated near a long, dense valley that leads from the provinicial forest and jutts out into the agriculture lands in the eastern portion of this province. We own or have sole permission on several tracks of land in/amongest this valley. We own 2 choice 1/4 sections of land right in the bottom of the valley along the small river that split's the dense valley side bush. This is always plan A for our crew to wtach the rich alfalfa and oat fields planted on each section, the elk tracks leading to and from these are deep and worn right through. In this particular land we set up (during rifle) with one shooter to the north over looking 2 major travel trails to the alfalfa field, put a caller on the point close to the river and a second shooter on a finger which is located on the edge of the oat field/meadow, the elk travel from the east to west and vice versa. The whole idea is to call out bulls to the shooter but on several occasion the caller becomes the shooter as directly in front of him is a birdnest of travel trails that can pop an elk out anywhere along either fields edge. Our main technique in the other properties is sitting in meadows in the valley or the actual food sources(aka field in which the elk come and fill up on). If we have the rut going we will call from certain areas to draw elk out in the openings for a shot during rifle season, if no call it is sit and wait.

For archery we set up on trials, etc in the dense bush that surrounds the valley by using calls as our aid in locating or drawing elk. Often archery falls on pre rut so getting these settlement elk beside the spike within range is a tough task. We actually spend a majority of the time during bow chasing the Forest elk, where they also call earlier and seem to react better for a bowhunter in way of shot distance.

We refer to the elk near camp as settlement elk and forest "big bush". The settlement elk are really vocal and on the move in low light/darkness times, but during the daylight hours quiet and impossible to move up on. The big bush elk will call in the heat of the rut almost all day long and moving on them although can be very difficult is at least possible. We will often start and finish off with settlement elk and head north to the forest for daytime tangles. By far the biggest bulls have come out of the valley or settlement herds but sheer numbers the Forest is a place to be.

Dirt2

I scout all year. Winter is for map reading, it's amazing what you can find in a map after staring at the same drainage for 3 hours. During meals, for instance, I've got a map propped up on the table, just to sort of idly stare at while I eat. Did I mention I don't have a significant other?

Summer is backpacking and scouting season. I keep tabs on three separate areas in three different mountain ranges in western MT. I'm still learning the basics in two of these three areas, as I've only been back in MT for five years. I actually have more country scouted than I can hunt in one season. Right now I have tentative plans for the 2005 season, both in terms of scouting and hunting. I might be more effective hunting just one area, but it's about more than just killing to me, although that elk meat is premo. I like seeing new country. Even so, I wind up hunting many bulls that I actually know, in the sense that I recognize them from the year before, and that's really cool to me.

Come hunting season, 32 days hence, I'll backpack in 8 1/2 miles to my first area for a three day hunt. I should be set up the night before season opens, and hopefully have an elk herd located (about 80% likely in that area). I'll put that herd to bed, staying in glassing range until dark, then go back to camp and try to sleep. Next morning I'll press in as close as I dare in predawn, then the hunt begins. Elk hunting with a bow in the rut has to be the most fluid pursuit in the human repertoire, you just never know what's going to happen or what you're going to do until the moment arrives.

That hunt over, I have to go back to work for five loooong days, then I start 16 days vacation. I'll backpack 9 miles to an area in my second honey hole, set up and commence elk hunting until the food runs out - 8 days. At that point, I rush home to shower up, do laundry, and pick up the next 8 days of chow. I'll either return to that honey hole, or migrate to honey hole number three, an easy 7 mile hike in country. Hopefully at some point this odyssey will be interrupted by my arrow disrupting a bull elk's organ function. Then the fun begins. Bone the bull out, get the meat cooling, and start hauling it out, pound by painful pound.

I love, and I mean love in the fullest sense of that word, hunting.

Wolf killer

I also prefer to archery hunt rutting bull elk. There aint nothing that gets me more pumped up than the the sound of a bull elk bugle.

Buckslayer1

Muzzleloader in colorado. Hope to get picked next year in a trophy unit as I have 11pp for elk.