How would you have hunted these elk?

[yo_vinny]

I've been thinking about my most recent elk hunt, what I might have done differently to be successful and wanted to see if you all would have done anything differently.

My tag was 1st rifle, central Colorado. The hunt-able terrain in this zone ranges 9k-11k feet. The terrain is set up so that you can't glass large sections of terrain easily. If you get to a good glassing point, you end up multiple miles from what you're looking at. I've hunted this area before (2nd rifle) and been successful so I feel I have a pretty good lay of the land. What's causing me to second guess is that I saw more elk there this year than ever, but couldn't seal the deal.

On opening morning my hunting partner and I glass a heard of 60+ elk from ~2 miles away across a valley. We can't really judge elk size from this distance, but we can tell there are multiple branched bulls. The elk are moving across a high alpine meadow in a SW direction (prevailing winds in this area are W) towards dark timber. We watch them until we lose them in the dark timber. Normally, I've found that these elk bed down in this dark timber during the day, and at the end of the day they feed downhill, almost directly south.

Given that we think we have a pretty good read on elk behavior in this unit, we decide to make the trek to the area below the dark timber while playing the wind, where historically the elk have fed to during the end of the day. We set up in different terrain funnels hoping to catch the elk there.

2nd morning, we try to set up an ambush along the herd's anticipated travel path. No luck. That evening we set up similar to how we did the first night. My partner saw a legal bull, tried to get a shot off, but he appeared and disappeared so quickly he couldn't get a shot off.

3rd morning we glassed from the same spot again and saw the same herd, although probably only half as many elk. That night we set up for a similar ambush, I saw a legal bull at 180 yards with a few cows. But between brush, and the position of the cows, I couldn't get a clean shot before shooting light ran out.

We repeated the same pattern for the remainder of the 5 day season and neither of us notched our tags. We saw elk every day, but never as close as we got on days 2 and 3.

All week long we debated still hunting the dark timber the elk bedded down in. It's thick nasty stuff with a ton of blow down, so we were nervous about bumping elk and blowing them out of the area.

In hindsight, at a minimum I would have done 2 things differently:

1. Scout way more pre season. I live in the unit so there's 0 reason to not have scouted harder.
2. Still hunted the timber on the last day of the season at the very least.

What do you all think? What would have you done differently than us?

 

[Poser]

How long did it take you to move from the glassing point to being set up to intercept the elk you saw?

What to do differently? Have one partner move in preemptively and the other hang back and glass. Use radios.

 

[TaperPin]

. My partner saw a legal bull, tried to get a shot off, but he appeared and disappeared so quickly he couldn't get a shot off.

…

…But between brush, and the position of the cows, I couldn't get a clean shot before shooting light ran out.

…

1. Scout way more pre season. I live in the unit so there's 0 reason to not have scouted harder.
2. Still hunted the timber on the last day of the season at the very least.

Seeing elk that many times and having that many chances is a win. I think you guys did good.

I get razzed for emphasizing the importance of being able to get a shot off quickly and having the rifle in hand as much as possible, but as you know a few seconds can be the difference between a shot and no shot. With your opportunity at 180 yards would quickly sitting and taking the shot unsupported been enough to get a shot off? Tall brush can be hard. Dedicated offhand practice develops good trigger control for all sorts of less than ideal shots and you might find 180 is doable standing if you have a tree or bush to lean against. In just three weeks of practice I’ve seen guys double their hit rate standing.

You’ve hit the nail on the head as to when to go in after them. More than anything else I’d focus on this and it might turn into your favorite style of hunting. Even if it turns out you hate still hunting, developing basic skills will pay off guaranteed. During scouting trips rather than glassing farther and wider for other spots, I’d go right back to where these elk were (they will probably be there or close by every year) and spend the days in the timber getting comfortable with still hunting. The learning curve is steep, but once you slow down enough and develop a feel for travel routes and bedding spots in the timber you’ll be able to go in much more confidently and if elk are bumped a little it’s no big deal since you will develop a gut feel for their travel.

Just getting a whiff of you, or one elk seeing your movement doesn’t mean the entire herd will expend the energy to move off miles. If they did that it would look like antelope running around all day. The terrain will dictate what they view as a reasonable response to you. I’ve jumped a few elk on big bench, a few hundred yards later could hear a herd moving off from me, hooked around in front of them less than a mile to the end of the bench and could smell em so they were very very close. A hundred yards further and there they were all bedded down, bang, bang.

Other times the escape route from where you bump them might be across open terrain to the next patch of heavy timber and those long legs can go a long ways quickly.

To calibrate your brain to how slow to walk just remember to move with purpose until you get into fresh sign then slow way way down. If the entire likely bedding area is a mile across, don’t walk 1 mile per hour through it, you have a lot of time to go slow. If elk jump up they might have a swirl of scent and not really know where you are exactly so don’t get frustrated. Hook around down wind and go slow. If you’re constantly kicking elk up before you see them slow down even more. Many of us use binoculars to look through the trees for eyes, ears and fur. You’ll learn a lot from the first herd you see first by just hanging out watching them and trying to move carefully as if trying to get in position for a specific bull.

 

[yo_vinny]

How long did it take you to move from the glassing point to being set up to intercept the elk you saw?

What to do differently? Have one partner move in preemptively and the other hang back and glass. Use radios.

In a straight line it's roughly 2 miles from glassing to the elk. To actually get there due to terrain and a block of private, you have to walk about 5 miles. It ends up being about 1.5-2 hours

I have never thought about using radios, I always thought they were against regs in CO. Guess I need to re-read the big game brochure again to see what other misconceptions I had!

 

[yo_vinny]

Seeing elk that many times and having that many chances is a win. I think you guys did good.

I get razzed for emphasizing the importance of being able to get a shot off quickly and having the rifle in hand as much as possible, but as you know a few seconds can be the difference between a shot and no shot. With your opportunity at 180 yards would quickly sitting and taking the shot unsupported been enough to get a shot off? Tall brush can be hard. Dedicated offhand practice develops good trigger control for all sorts of less than ideal shots and you might find 180 is doable standing if you have a tree or bush to lean against. In just three weeks of practice I’ve seen guys double their hit rate standing.

You’ve hit the nail on the head as to when to go in after them. More than anything else I’d focus on this and it might turn into your favorite style of hunting. Even if it turns out you hate still hunting, developing basic skills will pay off guaranteed. During scouting trips rather than glassing farther and wider for other spots, I’d go right back to where these elk were (they will probably be there or close by every year) and spend the days in the timber getting comfortable with still hunting. The learning curve is steep, but once you slow down enough and develop a feel for travel routes and bedding spots in the timber you’ll be able to go in much more confidently and if elk are bumped a little it’s no big deal since you will develop a gut feel for their travel.

Just getting a whiff of you, or one elk seeing your movement doesn’t mean the entire herd will expend the energy to move off miles. If they did that it would look like antelope running around all day. The terrain will dictate what they view as a reasonable response to you. I’ve jumped a few elk on big bench, a few hundred yards later could hear a herd moving off from me, hooked around in front of them less than a mile to the end of the bench and could smell em so they were very very close. A hundred yards further and there they were all bedded down, bang, bang.

Other times the escape route from where you bump them might be across open terrain to the next patch of heavy timber and those long legs can go a long ways quickly.

To calibrate your brain to how slow to walk just remember to move with purpose until you get into fresh sign then slow way way down. If the entire likely bedding area is a mile across, don’t walk 1 mile per hour through it, you have a lot of time to go slow. If elk jump up they might have a swirl of scent and not really know where you are exactly so don’t get frustrated. Hook around down wind and go slow. If you’re constantly kicking elk up before you see them slow down even more. Many of us use binoculars to look through the trees for eyes, ears and fur. You’ll learn a lot from the first herd you see first by just hanging out watching them and trying to move carefully as if trying to get in position for a specific bull.

No doubt my shooting leaves room for improvement as I definitely couldn't have made that standing or sitting unsupported. I got prone and tried to make the shot but took too long to get set up. This is something I've been working on, and plan to continue next year too.

I've never thought about practicing still hunting while scouting, but I like the idea a lot.

When I've still hunted in the past, I've found it tough to know how long to look through my binos before moving again. When you stop to look through your binos are you usually doing a quick scan, or a detailed look at every tree, stump, etc?

 

[TaperPin]

No doubt my shooting leaves room for improvement as I definitely couldn't have made that standing or sitting unsupported. I got prone and tried to make the shot but took too long to get set up. This is something I've been working on, and plan to continue next year too.

I've never thought about practicing still hunting while scouting, but I like the idea a lot.

When I've still hunted in the past, I've found it tough to know how long to look through my binos before moving again. When you stop to look through your binos are you usually doing a quick scan, or a detailed look at every tree, stump, etc?

Sounds like you’re well on your way to connecting all the dots. We all mis a few animals due to wasted motions and learn from them all. It still gives me a stomach knot remembering a critter that came out across a meadow and too much time was spent getting into position and as the crosshairs were headed close to him, he walked behind a tree.

Still hunting doesn’t always mean you have to go in right away, and time is well spent gathering clues along the edges first. Walking the edge of the timber will show you tracks from bedding to feeding areas and different tracks into and out of the area. This map is a favorite area to take a new still hunter and we spend two days carefully walking the perimeter noting all the tracks and sign, new and old. I know in warm weather elk bed primarily in the one drainage and feed uphill, and travel routes are off the bottom left and a saddle top right, but I treat it like a new area with them and make a plan based on what we see. During the day when winds are going upslope we rarely push any elk walking the edge this way.

At first travel routes seem rather random, but elk are often rather pragmatic and take paths that make sense when moving from this bedding area to others. Comparing tracks with a map often helps make sense out of where they are going. Elk also use the same travel routes year after year so there is a benefit to hunting the same area.

After walking the perimeter it’s pretty obvious the fresh sign from feeding is going into the one general area. We take our time going into the timber and it doesn’t take too long to start getting into elk.

Glassing in the timber is like glassing anywhere. You’ll develop a feel for when to not use binoculars in low probability areas, when a quick look with one hand helps sort out a small patch, and when you’re really close and have to carefully look at the smallest details with two hands. If you have good vision binoculars may not help much, but it helps some people a lot. It’s easy to get tunnel vision and assume elk are right in front of you, so make it a point to carefully look almost 180 degrees side to side. If you smell the herd, really pick everything apart go at half your normal snail pace and be ready to shoot.

Sometimes an elk will stand up so close it surprises the heck out of you. If you’re comfortable shooting offhand to 100 to 125 yards it can really come in handy, but practicing quickly sitting can be almost as fast and is much steadier, hopefully good for 200 yards or so. It’s a skill to look quickly for a spot that won’t break your tail bone then plop down and bring the rifle up. I’ve taken more shots in the timber seated and one guy I know shoots almost exclusively standing unless it’s past 200 yards, but he has a lot of offhand experience.

If you’re in no rush to hunt what looks like the primary bedding area, you can always nibble away in secondary areas where if you jump something it won’t be the end of the world. I will often walk at full speed to get to the very edge of where I consider hunting and still hunt back through the timber, and still have time to get into position to watch the primary area that evening.

You’ll also start to differentiate between areas with “structure” that concentrates bedded elk, like big benches, or dark timber along a soggy north facing creek, vs big monotonous patches of timber that are harder to pattern.

 

[Poser]

In a straight line it's roughly 2 miles from glassing to the elk. To actually get there due to terrain and a block of private, you have to walk about 5 miles. It ends up being about 1.5-2 hours

I have never thought about using radios, I always thought they were against regs in CO. Guess I need to re-read the big game brochure again to see what other misconceptions I had!

Yeah, that’s typical scenario I’ve encountered in CO with the stalk times from good glassing being too far to be effective for a stalk. Having a dedicated glasser is productive.

Radios are legal unless you break another game law. It’s illegal to use them in conjunction with other violations.

 

[CMF]

Sounds like hunting...

3rd morning we glassed from the same spot again and saw the same herd, although probably only half as many elk. That night we set up for a similar ambush, I saw a legal bull at 180 yards with a few cows. But between brush, and the position of the cows, I couldn't get a clean shot before shooting light ran out.

Are you setting up to rifle hunt them and staying 100-300yds away? Maybe think more like a bowhunter and get closer to anticipated travel paths.
Try any calling? Might peak just enough interest to get a bull in shooting range

 

[theavgjoe]

My partner and I have run into similar issues, it seems like it is always the wrong place at the wrong time. I agree still hunting sometimes is the only way to get close enough. We had hundreds of elk within 250 yds this year on private land and no really big bulls. If we would have still hunted the dark timber on the public land above that herd, we may have punched our tags. Instead, we kept following the herd and never had a shot. Sometimes we have to go against logic and do something they would not expect and risk blowing them out of the area. Most of the elk I've shot have been complete surprises by doing something I did normally do. Every time I try to follow a structured plan, I never fill my tag. Thanks for the input everybody.