Hunting Forum

when your out elk hunting carry a hard plastic empty water bottle in your pack. after you down a bull or cow , as your gutting check the bladder. if theres any urine in it carefuly tie off and remove bladder and empty contents into bottle. you now have what you know to be "authentic" elk pee at no additional charge. on your camo pants on each side tie a one foot length of strong string and attach a cooton patch tightly to the end. dip the cotton piece liberally into your elk pee. as you walk and stalk or sit the elk scent disperses from the cotton. this little trick has really improved our elk succes rate. also, pour some into a small aersol botlle. when sitting and calling, squirt some up into the air on accasion. and elk pee freezes well so you can use it for quite awhile. CLEARLY . mark the bottle "elk pee" when put in freezer to avoid some raucious discussions with Mama Bear about what should be in the freezer. this works for moose and deer as well......... as for calling, we usually stick to cow calls or lead cow calls as we don't mind taking satellite bulls and they are easier to entice in....good hunting to all

i had a cow tag and my daughter and i had spooked a small heard of elk. they weren't to badly sppoked as we were totalled camoed up and had our scent rags on. . we hunkered down and sprayed some scent and started to "lead cow" call. in about 5 min this cow showed up edgy and suspicios and when she turned to leave ...pow...my daughter was taking the pics and i didn't even know she had until we got home. ...glad she did..the first pic is of her coming in all nervous and the second was her just stopping to turn back.

More good info from 270Thompson!

Do think I've killed more Elk after being busted, than before. Everyone thinks Elk will put ten miles between you and them after ya bust em. And they might, depending on how bad ya spooked them, and how many are in the group, and how many of them you spooked. I found if you get busted by just one or two animals on the edge of the group (say ten or more), you can wait a bit and let them settle down. Then pick up there direction of travel, circle around and get ahead of them. Don't let them catch your scent or see ya following their tracks, or you'll bust them again and they'll run even farther. I spent all day (from about 1/2 hour after sunup) on one group of about 22. Got busted 3 times, the fourth time they ran was after my rifle downed a small 5x7 about an hour before dark. It really depends on how bad ya spook them! Ya bump 1 or 2 animals in a large group, and odds are they may only move 500 yds or so. Do think the numbers have a calming affect on those that got spooked! The bigger the herd and the fewer animals made aware of your presence, the less distance they will cover.

I don't give up if I bump one or two Elk. I sit down, have a candy bar wait for them to calm, about 20 or 30 min. Pick up their direction of travel, circle around down wind and get ahead of them. Set up and wait for them, pick the animal I want... TWANG or BOOM, depending on the season.

270Thompson, great that you shared that with us. Even better that you shared with your daughter!!!

Dean
H2O Elkaholic

I spent two weekends scouting  for elk this month. And what I found was both, the expected and the unexpected.  I  found Elk in all the tipacal places I'd expect.  Wet damp places with lush veditation all around on the north and east facing slopes.  But I also found them on the west and south facing slopes.

And that leads me to a couple of topics I don't think have been covered here, yet?  Water and trees.  I'll address the former first.

After hunting Elk for over 30 years, Elk like wet places!  Go figure; you'l'd have thoght I'd have figured that out before now!  I've always found em in or near damp places, even in the rain forest of Washingtons coast where 2 inches of rain every day durring the fall is not unusal.  Makes since now, Elk are grazers and grass grows best where the water flows and slows.  After five years of hunting the Rocky Mountain Elk, I've found they are no different than the Roosevelts I hunted for 25 years.  Places where a bowl funnels it's water to a flat area, places where a creek, stream, or spring  levels out and deposits water and nuteants year round.  Find places like these in Elk country and you're going to find Elk near by!

Also read an artile about Elk and trees in the RMEF Bugle.  It mostly delt with Elk and trees in the winter.  Most dream of taking that thophy bull, standing out in that high open meadow, but most Elk are taken in the timber.  Elk like trees, summer, fall, winter, and spring.  Find me a pic of a throphy bull anywhere that doesn't have trees in the background.  They are few and far between.

Just some insites to what I have observed.

Dean
H2O Elkaholic

ttt

Dean
H2O

It was tough huntin this season.  Temps were warm and almost no snow.  Elk weren't movin much.  And we hunted hard.  But it was a good season!  We went two for five in a any Elk area here in Wyoming.  Three NAHC Members from Washington and my son joined me on the hunt.  Was a great time!  Truly enjoyed every minute hunting and in camp!  No one saw a cow, all the Elk we got into were bulls.  Some would say that's good, I was hoping everyone would go home with meat!  We took two good bulls, a 5x6 and a 6x6.  The 5x6 had a lot of mass, both were real good bulls!  A lot of work went into getting them and getting the meat out.

Here's a pic of camp, happy hunters, and the bulls.

Elkhunter78 and luvtohnt with their bulls.

Hope all your hunts went well!

Dean
H2O Elkaholic

Great animals, congrats to the hunters. Just what I needed to get me excited about next week's late season bull hunt here in Arizona. Thanks for the good advice. Even those of us who have done this for years can learn something new.

DezrtRat
Good luck on your hunt!
Yep, been huntn them for 30 years, and I'm still learning.


Dean
H2O

Where did we leave off with the number of "rules" was it eleven? OK, how about number 12? OK, I understand this thread is all about "elk" but what about the hunter? I gotta believe somewhere in the equation is the importance of having a SAFE GOOD TIME. I've been with hunters that are so wrapped up in the animal that they lost their sensibility. I've witnessed some real stupid choices that required "all hands on deck" to solve the problems caused. The "doing" before the "thinking" got the individual in deep trouble and the whole camp had to stop enjoying their hunt to help out.
I'd rather have a safe and enjoyable camping trip then an unsafe hunting experience! I have a lot more good memories of friends and good times than of bad meat gathering trips. At least for me (and the people I go with) the adventure, scenery and friendship is more important than the meat. For us, good times in terrible weather are better than terrible times in great weather, that includes taking home the bacon.
Put in any order of importance but I believe it's right up there close to the top...think first, have a safe time and enjoy the adventure! just my two cents....layta

I don't have this "rule 12". If you are hunting with me, no matter where you put an animal down, I will be there to help pack it out.

Rules: think we addressed some of them in the first Savey thread.  I don't remember now where we left off at?

Think everyone has some good rules, good on ya FirstSasquatch for reading back!

As for Skuds coment, I don't remember now what rule it was.  But there's is a rule in there 'on the first Savvy thread', "that both he and I adhere to, about getting the meat out".  I've hunted with Skud for a number of years now.  He's helped me pack mine and I've helped him pack his.  Every time, all the meat has made it to camp!

FirstSasquatch
My reading of your post sudgest, you find new hunting partners.  As ETHICAL as you sound, if you don't feel safe hunting with your friends, then IMO you're hunting in the wrong camp!


Dean
H2O

X3 We have an unspoken rule that we stop whatever we're doing to assist another hunter even if he/she's not in our camp. Due to my buddy taking the time to retrieve his grandson and my elk this past November, he missed his window of opportunity to get one for himself. As far as helping people I don't know, there was a guy and his son who helped me in 2010. Thiese two worked hard to get mine to camp. Shortly after that (within an hour) my buddy came back with news that he had one down. We worked several hours to get TO the elk and when we were ready to load the animal those same two guys that helped me earlier, showed up to help with my buddy's. The funny part was that the two guys weren't even hunting but rather scouting for the next week's hunt.

DezrtRat, that's what I'm talkin about - If you are stuck I will pull you out. If you are lost, I will help find you. Just the way up here. And by the way - If I'm stuck, please stop and help me.

Posted By Skud on 04 Jan 2012 07:25 PM
DezrtRat,  And by the way - If I'm stuck, please stop and help me.

I guess a Jarhead could help out a Squid. LOL

OK, I'll keep this going for 2012. The past two years I have been fortunate to harvest nice 6x6 bulls, but neither were the trophies I am now in persuit of. I don't know what kind of advice I'll get unless you've hunted Arizona but here goes. Getting drawn for the "trophy hunts" ( September & October) is difficult. So, I may never get to hunt during the rut. So, where will I find the BIG BOYS? I understand the thick Junipers along canyons hold large animals but that's where I got my bull this year. So, is there a secret pattern for the monsters?

I have never hunted AZ, my biggest from Public Land in WY is right at 300, but I have seen some good ones 350-380 over the past few years (of course they see me before I saw them).

All of them were alone, all were tight in the thicker stuff, and they only broke free when I got too uncomfortably close to them.

I hunt General Season, after the rut.

I also like to go where no one else goes. I don't pack in, I just go to harder to hunt, uglier spots. Usually less than 2 miles from the truck.

 

I agree with Skud
The biggest bulls I've incountered, were late in the rifle season, and they were mostly alone (here and with Roosevelts in Washington.)  One lone bull, maybe another or two, reel good bulls with them.  They were always in narrow coradors, between heavly hunted areas or beyond ares hunted by most..  There is a lot of that kind of country around!  My opinion is, that if you want an Elk, hunt where the Elk are.  If you want a monster, in the late Oct - Nov season, you'll have to hunt where the Elk aren't and be prepared to eat the tag.  I've set my goals high for the last ten of fifteen years and have had tag soup many of them.  When I fist started hunting Elk, I figured, if I spent as much time as I could scouting and hunting them; eventally I'd get a big one.  I'm getting old now and still haven't scored the bull of my dreams.  I hunt as hard I can, but can't hunt as hard as I used to.  Guessing that in another 10 or 15 years I'll just be posting what use to happen?  Damn, 15 years would make me 73.  Hope to still be pusueing them then, even if my trophy bull is on the wall.

Dean
H2O Elkaholic

58 isn't old. My hunting buddy is 62 and can...will wear out much younger people who try to keep up with him.

Although I've heard all this advice before, a light just came on. I tend to hunt really hard the first couple of days and then slack off for a couple. I guess I hadn't gotten to the place where I would accept going home empty handed. So, I get the mindset that any elk will do. I have to convince myself that I won't settle. It's hard not to pull the trigger when I see a bull. I love the way the meat tastes, which causes me to settle. A lot of my friends only put in for Bull every few years. The rest of the time they hunt cows to fill the freezer. I want the bragging rights of getting a 380+ to 400 class bull during a DIY public land hunt. Everyone's different and I don't look down on other hunters, but hiring a guide to do all the work and take you to a honey hole to point out the elk he wants you to shoot isn't hunting. I can't forget hunting in 2010 and driving up to a truck with a nice bull in the bed. After admiring it I told the guy with the blood up to his elbos, "congratulations." At that moment, another guy stepped around the side of the truck with clean clothes and hands who said, "thanks." For me, the hunt is 80% of the trip. Pulling the trigger is a bonus. But now I want to pull the trigger on a big one.

Here is something that I don't think was mentioned:

Right now it is January. My work involves 4 people who travel around the region of most of Southern and Western Wyoming, North Eastern Colorado and Western Utah.

I listen to them when they see elk on their travels. All Winter Long, I ask and discuss elk. When people see them, plus when I see them I can make a good educated guess on how the elk herds are handling the Winter.

I keep track of where they see elk Wintering, I keep track of the weather and how the snow is, I also use this site to watch the snow depth in my hunting area. http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/interact...&js=1&uc=0

After all that I can figure out the best guess for how the hunting season is going to be, whether I start hunting high, or low. Etc.,

So I would call this: extended scouting.

 

H2O and I have talked about patterning elk earlier this seson. I had friends of mine hunt an area and were suprised to find them in a place they had not thought of. When they explained to me were they found animals and the variety it got me thinking. We have talked in earlier threads about the fact that most say the bull is in the back pushing and at times it may be the case. I no believe that this is the case in the heard bull pushing his girls when needed. We have talked about the older cows being the ones that will pull some of the younger bulls along. I believe that this is the case in the younger bull that may have gotten his but kicked by a heard bull.
I found what I am guessing to be a younger bull in the same area this season as last with a group of cows. This area closely borders private land that is used in late spring for calving and is a transition area in late fall to get to their winter grounds. The bull never left the private property ( at least not in the daylight ) but the cows would move back and forth along the forest and private property between morning and night. My son had mistakenly bumped a few cows out of thier beds the evening before. I don't believe they scented him, but heard him fall over some deadfall. I caught them going to those same beds the next morning. I killed a large dry, maybe sterile, cow that was in the lead of two other cows making that treck to beds.
I had worked cattle a good number of years and noticed something of the same from them when grazed until fall on forest property. Some of the older cows would be at or near the gate for a few weeks before we would normally open it to let them off the mountain and onto winter pasture. They would always have some younger dry cows and younger bulls with them. I believe the older cows having done this for years, get a jump start on things and bring others with them. I think the same thing is going on with elk.
Other observation this past season was that that bull lower and on private property seemed to be the only one bugling. I did find other bulls miling around slightly higher by themselves or in groups of two, but no more than that. It was like they were done with the rutt, ( on the 10th of September?). In talking to a biologist from that area, his take is that due to the abnormally large snowfall the previous spring, it some what scattered the heards this fall due to the overabundance of feed from all the extra moisture. In comparring notes he also thinks that breeding is actually going on at the same time yearly ( most seem to think it is getting later every year ) but the bulls, maybe getting smarter, are not as vocal as they have been in the past until they need to be later in the rutt. THINGS TO THINK AND PONDER ON!