How far will elk travel?

[Threesixtyfive]

How far do elk travel to and from their winter/summer range. I'm trying to find a few bulls that winter in my unit. It's a low dry unit . Any ideas? I found some good bachelor groups but not the big boys I see in winter.

 

[jjenness]

Depends a lot on terrain, but I have seen them as far as 25+ miles, and wouldn't be surprised if they are further in some areas.

 

[Threesixtyfive]

Wow, that makes finding them tough. It's a front range unit that gets pretty dry. So I have concentrated on water but haven't been able to track down some of the monsters I watch in the winter.

 

[Buster]

The guest speaker at a banquet I recently attended discussed results of his study tracking spikers for 2 seasons. One particular bull went over 100 miles over 4 ranges before returning to the same wintering range. Unfortunately they were only able to track him for one season before he was killed.

 

[cnelk]

If youre hunting Colorado, a good resource is the Colorado Hunting Atlas
http://ndis-flex.nrel.colostate.edu/HuntingAtlas/

Below is an example of GMU 20 near Estes Park that shows migration patterns, summer/winter concentration area, etc
A very useful tool

 

[robby denning]

Depends a lot on terrain, but I have seen them as far as 25+ miles, and wouldn't be surprised if they are further in some areas.

I'd have to agree that they can do that during the summer to hunt season, too.
I will say that if they have what they need in food and cover and water AND if they aren't getting a bunch of pressure, I can find them in few square miles throughout the fall. If they disappear and the food, water, pressure hasn't changed, they usually show back up. Just keep scouting. Good news is if you find them now, there's a decent chance you'll be able to keep track of them.

 

[Bar]

In my unit the summer range is around 12,000ft. The winter range is right outside of town at 8000ft. That's about 25 miles.

With that said. I can show you where elk stay year around at 9000ft. The old saying always holds true.......Elk are where you find them.

 

[Threesixtyfive]

Where I hunt water is scarce in sept. and that's where I have found most of the elk. The big bulls I shed hunt every year winter less than six miles from this area but haven't ever showed up. But.... They are somewhere... Just have to keep looking.

 

[WonkyWapiti]

A thing I find in one of the areas I hunt is that during the onset of the rut the bulls will start moving from the hills and start working their way into the lowlands to find cows. This is an area that doesn't get a ton of snow and thus the cows generally stick to certain areas throughout the winter and fall and after the rut the bulls head off higher into the hills to be alone.