Evaluating pressure Preseason/How deep to hike in

[cnelk]

Get to know a topo map and look for benches and saddles.

 

[Indian Summer]

Here’s a bit of advice for what it’s worth. It’s not always about distance. You ask how deep should I hike as in how many miles? In other words, you want to put a barrier between you and other hunters. That barrier being distance. There are a lot of places that are only a mile or two from the road but much higher in elevation. If you gain 2000 feet of elevation it is probably as good or better than hiking 6 miles or so. Anybody can bust out 6 miles on a creek bottom or ridge top trail with gradual elevation gains. Most people would rather do that than bushwhack up a near vertical climb for a couple thousand feet. Especially in the dark first thing in the morning.

Then there is this…. In low country, the hills are more rolling. Elk and hunters can pretty much travel anywhere they want. You can guess where you might find elk by looking at topo maps but it’s just a crapshoot until you get there and find out firsthand.

The higher you get the steeper the hills are. Once you get really high up there will be places where elk and other game are forced to travel. Places where they have to go around a cliff or rock slide, etc. Razorback ridges where it’s just not practical for any living thing to walk. It’s much easier to predict where you can find elk sign in those places. Less hunters too.

Water is more scarce at higher elevations too. Always a good thing. Usually more glassing opportunities from vantage points up there too which is a big plus.

Once you get to that point do what Cnelk just told you in the above post and look at the map for saddles and benches. You’ll find elk doing that if they are there.

Prepare to sweat! On the bright side it’s downhill to the truck. Packing elk downhill is easy right? Don’t forget your trekking poles…..

 

[bcjoe]

Glass, Glass, Glass if no luck finding elk and nothing on the lower grasslands. Look for the nastiest looking drainages and avalanche shoots that are furthest from the trails and are north facing and plan a trip into there and you will run into them, just hope you see them first. if the drainage has a nice creek than that is even better because the wind swirls in those cold drainages all day, good for them not so much for you.

 

[cnelk]

It’s not a secret that I hunt only a mile or so from a vehicle.
Since 2009 (when the Go Deep craze started) we’ve killed a couple dozen elk with a system I’ve created to dissect an area that has lots of pressure.

I decided to do this because Old Man Time is undefeated and I want to hunt elk as long as I can.

It works so good I’ve only shared it with a couple people. They compared it with what they encountered and said it was spot on.

But…. It’s not for sale or anything but could be figured out.
It only took me about 5 years.

 

[hoosierhunter11]

It’s not a secret that I hunt only a mile or so from a vehicle.
Since 2009 (when the Go Deep craze started) we’ve killed a couple dozen elk with a system I’ve created to dissect an area that has lots of pressure.

I decided to do this because Old Man Time is undefeated and I want to hunt elk as long as I can.

It works so good I’ve only shared it with a couple people. They compared it with what they encountered and said it was spot on.

But…. It’s not for sale or anything but could be figured out.
It only took me about 5 years.

Got the chance to chat with Cnelk before my first trip. I didn’t get the secret sauce but this general sentiment really helped me. I ended up shooting my bull a little less than 3 miles from the truck by foot. Probably only 1.5 miles the way the crow flies. It was, however, just shy of 2000 ft of elevation gain. Truck was parked at a popular campground (where we camped a few nights and hunted in the opposite direction of where I shot my bull for several days). We did get to get him out to bike and hike trail to go down that elevation but wow that was a leg smoker!

 

[justinspicher]

I am growing pretty fond of hunting in crowded areas. You can see some pretty wild stuff.

 

[Mikido]

Very simple.

If you think “doesn’t look that bad”, then don’t go there.

If you think “I’ll never get an elk out of there”, then go there, kill the elk, and suffer for a while.

 

[PredatoryProwler]

Once you get really high up there will be places where elk and other game are forced to travel. Places where they have to go around a cliff or rock slide, etc.

Most of the time, do they seem to default to using saddles when possible, even when it is not very steep just because it is the path of least resistance?

Packing elk downhill is easy right?

I wish...

 

[Tahoe1305]

Here’s what I’ve learned. Most places there are elk, there will likely be people.

If you don’t want to find people, go where there are no elk.

Sadly, it’s almost that simple.

I went to MT again last year. Three days before opener walked a long way, and see a base camp with cut wood and everything which appeared to be for a massive outfitter. Was so depressing.

Relocated. Walked a mile. Found a ton of elk. Sat on them a few days. Friday before opener 20+ vehicles at the trailhead white lights everywhere wrapping around the elk we were sleeping on top……so frustrating.

The good news is we shot at first light and got one, but archery is a different game than rifle unfortunately.

 

[hereinaz]

Most of the time, do they seem to default to using saddles when possible, even when it is not very steep just because it is the path of least resistance?


I wish...

Elk do what elk do.

They will use the terrain to make it easier, so it’s a higher odds location in saddles than randomly looking. But if they want to go up, down, or across gnarly steep stuff they will.

All the elk I watched and followed for 10 days in my AZ archery hunt, only once did I see where they were in a saddle. The elk moved up and down mountains and across the steep faces, I think because of the pressure. In the mornings moving from feeding to bedding, they did cross roads and we saw a herd move past a parked truck on a forest road.

Whenever they could, they would feed moving slowly across a steep hill face, and then just go straight up and over the top once it was time to move. They crossed a flat and open timbered spot several hundred yards several times, but then went straight up a hill. I only found where they had crossed a saddle in one place when I was chasing them. After crossing the saddle they still went straight up the mountain. A few times we trailed them across a bench, but then they went up the mountain…

 

[cnelk]

Last fall I called my bull down from this bench - the yellow waypoint is where he died

 

[Caseknife]

Primarily if elk aren't disturbed, they will take the path of least resistance, move through saddles, contour the ridge, feed on south facing slopes, bed on north facing slopes in dark timber and the lost goes on. If they feel pressure, all bets are off, straight up cliffs if they want to get away from something.

 

[elkliver]

I archery hunted elk a few years ago in Colorado. Near a wilderness area. Driving to a different spot every morning and hiking in. getting into elk every day. Ran into some guys from back east. They had hired an outfitter to pack them in to a drop camp... They said it looked like small city with Wall tents, back packing tents and everything you could imagine lined up like a city street. after a couple of days, they pulled out and hunted surrounding areas from the road and hadnt seen anyone until they saw us. Part of that was the fact that we werent hunting the obvious

 

[Huntnnw]

almost impossible to gauge the pressure in any given unit. You might show up to a spot to hunt and not be a soul there, but the week before there was 5 guys in there... just dont know. I do know there is alot of country not being hunted very close to roads. Guys with stock are going way in and every flat biller thinks you gotta hike in 5+ miles

 

[BigCam47]

Elk are where they are. Find spots that look good on a map and check them out. No sign…move on. We accidentally pulled off on the wrong campsite (and I’m glad we did) last year and we ended up bushwacking over to a ridge for a 1000ft decent (and climb back out) and ended up finding a herd in the bottom of the nastiest gulch I’ve seen. No other pressure so we stayed in that area all week. Ended up only being a mile or so from the truck.

 

[bz_711]

My first couple seasons I hunted mostly 3-5 miles from truck. Had some encounters but also saw other hunters.

The next few seasons I harvested my first 3 bulls .25, .33, and .75 miles from the truck and didn't see other hunters...lots of little pieces to the puzzle but a few I've shared with everyone:
-don't park at TH's or ends of the road where everyone else does, pull off roadside in spots you've never seen a vehicle
-crossing large streams gets rid of the majority of hunters quickly (I learned how to make Tyvek waders right here on Rokslide)
-find close elk features that are extremely hard to get to, typically this means very steep uphill climb is the only way to access but might only be .1 to .25 miles from road.

Good Luck!

 

[Pafarm]

Predicting where pressure will be is near impossible. You could pack into the most remote area and people will be there. Also could find no-one its just up in the air. Be mobile and have a mindset to adjust as needed. That may mean moving to next basin over or packing out driving to a new area.

 

[Sundance]

I hunted an area for about 10 years which was heavily logged and saw a lot of pressure. There was no telling where the elk would be and how bad the pressure was on a certain year, even pre season scouting wasn't helping much. The best system we found was using 2-3 people and each person had 4 areas to cover. We'd split up and cover ground on foot, mountain bike, and driving to different units within a 100 mile radius. Once someone found themselves consistently in elk they would let the others know to converge on that area. Worked well for us, I also like hitting the roads/trails from 10pm-4am and listening for elk moving at night to know the area I want to be at first light. It wasn't uncommon to cover 15 miles in a day then get back to your rig and drive a couple hours to a different trailhead and go in at night. Fun times