Finding Benches on Topo

[cnelk]

^^^ nope. No bench. Don’t need a bench for bedding areas

 

[Poser]

I walked right up on a bedded down bull last year. I was so close, I thought he might gore me when he stood up. He was bedded down on a flat spot up against a tree that was just big enough for me to sit down on, I’d say 2 feet by 2 feet. This was on a sustained 40 degree slope and I was having to side step my way down it with trekking poles.

 

[UncleBone]

Here’s what one of my best daytime bedding areas looks like


View attachment 547162

Could you zoom out just a little more?

 

[Stickhead31]

Google Earth had a 3 dimensional feature

 

[cnelk]

Could you zoom out just a little more?

Ha. Nope

 

[UncleBone]

Ha. Nope

Dang, so close.

 

[tuffcrk14]

Utilizing a feature like slope angle shading works well in finding benches on a mountainside. If you don’t know what the slope angle feature I’m referring to is, it is an overlay that is on several hunting apps like OnX. The overlay covers the terrain in varying colors based on the angle of the mountainside’s slope. Benches are flat and will show up as a different color (generally green) while the rest of the mountain will have colors ranging from yellow to purple, depending on the steepness of the slope. Lastly, knowing the slope angle range that elk tend to prefer to be on will help in your end goal of finding elk. Good luck!


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[ElkNut1]

There's nothing written in concrete as to the size of a bedding area. I will say it doesn't require much real-estate for an elk or a small group of elk to spend the day. If hot they're normally in a fairly cool & shaded area. I've located beds where it was steep country & elk beds were just in front or behind large pines, just enough of a spot to fit their bodies! Too, I've found larger benches with this cool factor that were much larger in size.

There are two things I'd consider in locating bedding areas, neither require any serious e-scouting. 1 - Bugling for location; after 9:30 a.m. & you get a bull or cow to respond to your calling they are in their bedding areas for the day. They may get up & move a bit early afternoon for water & a light snack but will bed in the aprox area again.

2 - Get to a decent elevation where you can hear the travel of sound, when a bull gets up especially one with cows he will bugle in a nonchalant manner to alert the group he's on his feet. Any bugle you hear from 9:30 & on will put them close or in the place they bed. These are solid ways to define those daytime bed spots. Now you can mark them on your paper map or your phones with mapping apps. Like cnelk I have tons of these as well as secluded water sources marked on my maps.

Burn some boot leather & keep your ears open, it's the quickest way in locating bedding areas that you can put confidence in!

ElkNut

 

[jayhawk]

I recognize that spot. See you at your favorite hunting spot in the fall, sucka

 

[Paleface]

In my experience, the best benches don't show up on topo maps. Even 7.5 minute maps with 40 foot contours don't have enough detail to show the smaller benches that elk seem to like the best. I've had decent success scouting out the contour "bulges" on timbered slopes but the best benches that I've found don't show on the maps at all. I didn't even know they were there until I walked up on them. Google Earth accounting is only the very beginning!

 

[Usi05]

I always show this to people who never saw a topo map before.

Bench… a flat place to sit. Bench on a map: Flat spot with steeper above and below…. where elk like to sit.

I prefer higher benches unless the road is on top. In that case a lower one maybe.View attachment 547044

This graph really helped me a few years ago. Topo just takes some practice.

There’s some good books around too that offer some maps and breakdowns if a guy/gal wanted to read a bit.

I will add that learning topo for elk also really helped me with Hill country whitetails. Once you know the features you can predict travel and scout to confirm.

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[ShootOkHuntWorse]

To add on to @92xj 's picture...

Let's say you have a main ridge that is fairly even in elevation, maybe gently sloping down, and in the bottom is a creek. Most of it will be fairly even sloped from top to bottom. But, to get the room for the bench, you need some extra steep stuff. This is your old algebra/geometry stuff. Look just uphill from the bench in the pic...it's the steepest terrain in the picture. Add on to that, sometimes benches aren't evident on a topo, but you can visually pick out the cliffs when you're there. Usually a bench is right below something pretty steep.

I never thought about it like that!

 

[Dos Perros]

I've seen plenty of elk bed in that stuff that looks steep or at least uniformly steep on a topo. Sometimes I think the benches are actually about the super steep stuff just above them...that it's about security...if you bed with something super steep above you less chance for something to come in from down wind.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I have found the majority of the elk on: 1) north side, 2) short finger ridges about a third of the way from the top. Look for the little bumps at the head of drainages with a longer ridge on either side. There is usually a main trail that connects those little ridges together.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

you also should measure the distance between the surrounding contour lines to determine the gradient.

 

[Maverick1]

What are we talking about, bench work? I’m benching at least 350, no problem!

Hey! Uh, you’re talkin’ about ah…
probably 10,
10 years I’m in the business.”
Oh, 10 years you’re in the business?
Yeah. It says here I
need benchwork too, huh?
Yes, benchwork.
Lemme tell you somethin’ pal.
I’m benching at least 350. No problem.

You’re benching 350 pieces?

You better believe it,
but no… 300 pieces?
What the **** are you
talkin.? pounds baby, pounds!”

 

[NCTrees]

Pay close attention to not only 92xj’s pic example which is spot on, but also Pony Soldiers point on contour interval, which is critical. Oversimplified, greater the interval, the less detail. If you really want to get state of art look into if your hunt area has high resolution LiDAR imagery available. With that, you can literally see cracks in the pavement. Rendered through a DEM you can probably get 1’ contour intervals.