A typical day during September?

[Scrappy]

I hope this topic hasn't been beat to death on here. Last year was my first year hunting elk. I got into elk, and could have, and should have killed a bull.


I was just on another thread and all the advice given was to not just try to sneak through the timber hoping to run into elk, ok got it. Leads me to my question. How does your typical day go from sun up to sundown? I'll be hunting from Sept 1 staying til I tag out.

Thanks in advance for all the info.

 

[cnelk]

Everyone hunts different. What works for me may not work for you.

I hunt mornings until the thermals get squirrely - 1030-11.
Head back to camp and rest until 4-5pm and hunt the wind til dark

 

[GregB]

I'm pretty similar to CNELK, I'll hunt till the afternoon and either take a nap on the mountain or back at camp. It depends on how far in I am and what my plan for the day is. I walk probably 6-10 miles a day so a break in the afternoon is important to let my body recover.

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

Depends how far in I am. Ill do what cnelk does usually. But If I'm far from camp I'll just pick a ridge I can glass from that won't throw my smell out too much and I'll see if I can turn something up. All it takes is one bedded midday bugle to get another encounter going.

I've had bulls wander into me midday when I was dicking around. But usually when I didn't have the tag. Lol

 

[bwlacy]

I'm curious what everyone does on a typical day if they haven't found the elk yet. Do you get up high and glass in the morning? Try and use a locator bugle? What about dark timber where you can't glass much? The hard part in unknown country is finding the elk I think.

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

I go somewhere else until I find elk. I'll try just about anything to find them then move on to plans b-z if I don't. I see it as I can't kill something I can't find.

If I know there's for sure elk in the spot somewhere from fresh sign, or if I've seen them prior. I'll put more time into it before moving to the next one

 

[5MilesBack]

It depends where I'm hunting. I have some areas where I don't want to blow the elk out of, and some of those set up nicely for a morning hunt, and others set up nicely for evening hunts.........mostly because of the terrain, elk behavior, and thermals. So those I'll hit in the mornings and evenings and then take the fly rod over to the river or creeks for some mid day flyfishing (best time of the year for it).

For most every other area, I do like Corey Jacobsen. I kind of laughed when I watched one of his videos where he said he just hikes and bugles until he finds a bull that wants to play. That's what I do. I can and will cover a lot of ground and will go until one wants to play, no matter the time of day.

 

[Catahoula]

Sometimes I sit over water midday....place to rest and never you never know what may walk in to drink.

 

[FlyGuy]

Personally, I just cover ground until I find elk. I wake up, grab my pack and head out of the tent. Eat a bar on the hike/drive. I'm bugling my way in in the dark and I'm looking for fresh sign, wallows, rubs, scat, tracks, etc and listening for any elk sounds. I'm not still hunting or trying to be super stealthy, just covering ground at a comfortable pace with my head up and keeping the wind right, and stopping to bugle when/where it makes sense. I've never had a tag in a area that really lent itself to glassing, so it's not much of a factor in my normal plans.

Ive never hunted the same unit twice, so i have to use every minute i have to eliminate ground. Therefore I never go back to camp once I'm out and I rarely ever see my basecamp during the daylight. Usually I will partake in a short nap at some point during the day, many times around 10 when the wind gets really squirrelly. Other than that I'm moving with just short breaks here and there. Lunch (and all daytime meals) are just bars or snacks that I can eat on the move. I may sit over a water-hole if it looks fresh and I need a break anyway, or sit a field right at dark if it looks like it's being hit. I'm bugling my way back in the dark and Usually back at truck camp (if not bivying for the night) somewhere between 9-11pm. Boil water for a mtn house, organize my pack for the following day so I can grab and go in the morning, preload the stove so I can touch it off when the alarm goes off in the morning, put the GPS/phone on the charger, and eat dinner while studying the map and finalizing my plan for the next day.


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[Wapiti1]

I have a similar strategy to many who have already posted. Hit them in the morning until the thermals get sketchy, then find something else to do until the last few hours of light in the evening. Usually I hit different areas morning and evening due to access, wind, etc.

That mid-day could be spent snoozing in the trailer or a nice sunny warm spot on the mountain, sitting water/wallows, running into town for lunch, hunting antelope on a 900 tag in MT (best of the options), exploring new country, grouse hunting, fishing, etc.

That is a typical day when I'm into them. Otherwise, I'm on the move until I find elk. Sometimes that is on my feet, sometimes in the truck, and sometimes I park in one spot and stay on the glass.

Jeremy

 

[timberlinehunter]

So how much if any would everyones hunt plans change for the October rifle season? I would assume it would be very similar but maybe less calling due to the rut winding down?


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[Scrappy]

Thanks for all the info guys. I kept my camp on my back almost every day last year. Moving like flyguy stopping for breaks. Big difference is I spent all day trying to go slow still hunting. I think I'm starting to understand that I need to find the elk first before I try to hunt the elk.

 

[oldgoat]

I don't think there's a damn thing wrong with sneaking through the woods looking for elk, me and the wife go slow cause we're old and we regularly see elk and they don't know we're there. Good thing to do moving between elk calling sets!

 

[cnelk]

We pick a day during our hunt when we make a big meal of walleye for lunch

 

[bz_711]

We pick a day during our hunt when we make a big meal of walleye for lunch

Frying fish in elk camp (first of all sounds delicious)...has to bring the bears in right?

 

[justinspicher]

I just wonder around the woods until I hear or see them. I have a hard time sitting still and I like to explore. Not a good combo for elk hunting but it’s a pretty solid way to get your bow or rifle out for a walk.

 

[wytx]

Lots of bulls get taken mid day.
Find fresh sign then hunt the area, rubs and tracks with scat.
If elk are rutting hard then hunt mid day. Have slept in some days and still had elk encounters mid morning into lunch time.
Full moon, hunt mid day and evening.
Early in season we hit it hard early morning then back at camp late morning for a meal and nap then back out early afternoon.

 

[wyosteve]

Agree with what wytx said. Majority of our bulls during archery season have been taken midday to mid-afternoon. My opinion is that those bulls caught a nap in the morning and are raring to go by noon again.

 

[Montanaelk31]

I hunt from an hour before dark til dark. I never stop. I locate elk in the dark, close the gap, follow, follow, til they bed. Then I obsess about the wind, call them in, and kill them. I've killed most elk between 10 am and 4 pm. Then I pack out in the dark. Then I get up early and do it all again on a buddies' tag.

 

[LostArra]

Everyone hunts different. What works for me may not work for you.

I hunt mornings until the thermals get squirrely - 1030-11.
Head back to camp and rest until 4-5pm and hunt the wind til dark

I do this ^^^ but rather than return to camp I try to get into an unsquirrely spot where I can glass, eat lunch, glass, take a nap, glass some more and move to my ambush spot by 3-4pm. If the elk are bedded then I stay bedded too. If they move, I move. For bow season I like to set up a shot opportunity where I'm stationary and they are moving by me. I don't mind stalking into a shot opportunity (under 200yds) with the rifle especially if I didn't forget my kneepads.

One thing that has changed for me is when to leave camp. Where I hunt I can get into elk within 100 yards of camp. Leaving in the pitch dark pre-dawn hours has been a disaster for me. I have stampeded elk on multiple occasions simply because I didn't know they were there. I wait until I can see a little now and it has paid off.