A typical day during September?

[BrentLaBere]

Id love to hunt all day during archery season. Ive just never hunted an area the wind will allow it. Different weather and terrain will dictate how long that will be. Mid day can be long but great for when you need to pick up and move.
I will try to locate elk mid day and early afternoon. Ive heard them start to bugle from their beds around 3 or 4. Allows you to set up on them and prepare for the thermals to switch.
If I have found elk in the morning and wasn't able to make a move on them, ill back off and find a good vantage point to listen and watch that area. Sit back and try to relax.

 

[Coach529]

Great info guys. Thanks for sharing.

 

[vanish]

I feel like for most of us hunting OTC units, figuring out where they are is the hardest part, and can be taken for granted by the most experienced elk hunters. Unless you're in a place you can glass, you're going to have a lot of trouble finding them if you aren't moving. No calling sequence or listening for a bugle is going to put an elk in your lap if they aren't within range for you/them to hear.

If there are bugles to chase, you bet I'm going to do something other than moving around looking for sign - I'm going to put myself in a position to kill one, whether that's being stalking or calling. I don't know about the rest of you, but my experience has been chasing bugles is the exception, not the rule.

Keep in mind that sneaking around doesn't make for exciting YouTube content, or sell any merchandise.

 

[crazyhawksfan]

Usually we camp high so first thing in the morning we're up glassing or sometimes we sleep in. Once the thermals start blowing up mid morning is when the magic happens. We work thru the very high sides of north facing slopes and jus move and call move and call. Had more call ins from 10 am to 2 pm then any other time. Hunt the fresh sign, call and move move move is our style.. million ways to skin a cat tho

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[crazyhawksfan]

I'll add if you camp up high you have to take into account the fact your scent is blowing down the mountain all night. You have to be smart about where you camp and we usually pick a spot on the backside of the ridge we plan to hunt the next day and away from known travel corridors.

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[Ross]

My style since the 80 s has remained the same run and gun and find bulls that want to play the game. My country has dense underbrush and is only flat where you park so does not offer many opportunities for extended glassing. Up at 4 hiking by 5 listening for bugles and once daylight I am covering ground using locator bugles trying to find a bull who wants to play. Once I pin down where the bull is I am on a beeline for him closing the gap to 100 yds or so and getting the wind in my favor to then begin the chess game. If he does not come in then I am going to him raking and calling. If he walks off and continues to bugle I will follow till he longer bugles or holds his ground and game on. My style not for everyone but has worked well for me. I will like others stay out till 11 go back to camp sleep take a swim and then go back out around 3:30 or if the bugling is incredible that day stay out all day. As to rifle I am out the same time and in many years the bugling is still very good with the second or third estrus with many of my bulls having been shot due to the bugling telling me where a bull was. On my watershed hunt last fallen WA i was able to get 5 bulls to answer the week of 10/23 and called a 360 bull out of his afternoon bed sounding like his harem of 20 cows taking off with another bull from out of town

 

[Scrappy]

Thanks guys for all the info, are we all invited to the fish fry. I can just picture sitting on side of a mountain choking down a cliff bar and swear I can smell fish frying.

I have about decided on opening day to camp up high on the back side of the mountain and be up at dawn glassing the first morning. Just let the situation dictate my next move.

 

[BKhunter]

Last year was my first elk hunt and hoping to get back out next year. From a newb, I found this thread to be very informative and encouraging that I was doing some things right last year.

 

[Backclintry]

I second LostArra. I am cold calling at the tent at first light no matter what. I'm not walking blindly, either in the dark or through thick timber, until I've gone through my calling sequence and am absolutely certain there is not an elk around coming to me. Then I'm generally moving slow locating. I like midday prospecting, but I walk right at treeline or avoid dark timber and spooking bedded elk. If you walk up on bedded elk in dark timber, they will be 3 miles away within an hour. Once located, I determine if they're bedded or on their feet. Then I make a play. Generally, I'm hunting hard until about noon. I get a quick lunch downwind from a likely bedding area (if I don't already know where they are bedded). After a 30 minute lunch, I'm lightly cow calling, maybe a soft bugle imitating a bedded bull with cows until 4 pm. If nothing has bugled or come to me by then, I start ramping up locate sounds and moving slowly until dark. Obviously if I start getting responses at any time during the day, I react according to what the elk are doing and the wind. I'm imitating a group of elk all day long, with a brief 30 minute break to eat and rest. I try to sound like a group of elk moving/feeding in the morning and evening, and sound like a group of elk bedded during the day. My rule of thumb - if you're in elk country making elk sounds, you better be ready to see an elk, so I'm actively paying attention to the woods around me in case one slips in. If I get responses, it's on and the rest of my day revolves around that group of elk. When I only have 7 days with 13 hours of shooting light, I have 91 hours to get it done, and I'm actively trying to locate or make a play on elk all day long.

 

[IdahoElk]

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

this but I stay out and nap instead of going back to camp

 

[Whiskey_Fish]

We decided to hunt patterns exclusively this year for our early season. I feel like this only works well if you have a ton of scouting and time in your unit. This is the second time we’ve hunted this unit and I’ve seen plenty of elk and heard nearly zero bugles, and the timber is to gnarly to sneak up on them. That being said, between trail cams and a ton of scouting my hunting partner and I both killed bulls exactly where they were supposed to be. I sat for a full day and then tagged out in the same spot half way through day two. He killed 300 yards away on his first day in the evening after passing up a few opportunities in the morning. Later season it might not be as effective, but the scouting and patterns made the difference for us this year. We don’t go back to camp mid day any more. We sit a trail or wallow or water. It works.


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[md126]

Are you solo or with a partner or two? That can change tactics and strategy quite a bit.

I was solo for the first time this season and was hunting first week of archery. I pretty much glassed open areas in the am and lightly cow called as I worked my way back to camp. Relaxed until about 12-1 then reversed the process as I worked my way back in, glassing as the sun went down. Got into elk 4 of the 6 days and had a great hunt

I didn’t hike 10 miles in and did not hunt areas where I couldn’t get an elk out for safety and logistical reasons

Good luck

 

[LongWayAround]

I wake up and try to get into position where I can listen for the elk. Preferably somewhere that I can glass a bit at daylight. I basically keep moving until I can find them. If I fail to find them, I find a place to sit and wait out the mid-day doldrums. Either a glassing spot, a saddle or other funnel, maybe water or what have you. If I've found the elk but couldn't get them, I back off and keep an eye out.

Truly still hunting is massively exhausting for me, I just can't be tuned up to that level for hours on end.

The elk that I've killed have all been taken in the morning but I hunt until dark anyway. You never know when you will see them for the next day.

 

[weekender7]

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

Man that looks GOOD!

 

[RB3]

New to the site: I am surprised that I only saw one person mention hunting a different species during the middle of day (antelope). I can understand not wanting to push elk out of the country, but surely some guys are seeing nice muley bucks and bears up in the high country. I have encountered that scenario with bears--not so much mule deer bucks....yet. I just moved to decent muley country and haven't archery hunted them prior.