Giving Elk Hunting Seminars are great, I've had the privilege of giving countless ones over the last 15 years. It seems when talking with small or large crowds regardless of their elk hunting experience most have their separate wants & needs that they hope is covered as they listen on. Opening it up to the audience can help in that regard. Even at that you are just touching the tip of the iceberg of elk hunting! It's like giving a Seminar on how to handle & treat women & all covered in an hour & a half! (grin) Elk Hunting is a Process! Finding them & killing them are two different worlds in many cases. If you have a persistent & don't give up attitude you will find elk, it's not that tough, it's knowing what to do with them once found, this is where your elk hunting knowledge & savvy will come to the fore! Consider this info here, it's some basic food for thought. Newer hunters ask where to start, most choose Trail Heads! Should they?
If Trailheads are in use, stay away from them, they are virtual people magnets. If no one at Trailhead & you can tell by shoe prints it's had very little use then go for it but have topo's of the area & have certain areas picked out that look elky to head towards that lead you away from the trail, elk prefer areas with few human encounters. Seek out those less used areas or you will need to be prepared to out distance hunters in front of you.
Truck camp or base camp but be prepared to bivy one or two days if the need arises. You would bivy into an area you were just at & had lots of elk action but too far for you to go in & out daily. Consider it then & not before otherwise it's a crap shoot with days wasted in areas you are not familiar with.
When to hunt primarily depends on what guys want out of their hunt? If into Bugling/Calling action go after the 10th. If into Spot & Stalk, hunting Water Holes, Wallows, Treestanding Travel Routes, lots of Blind Calling Sequences, etc. then early can be good. Your choice! I prefer after the 10th for higher odds of Bugling Bulls, they are more exciting to locate & hunt at that time if into calling & glassing but mostly calling.
Don't concern yourself with lots of hunters, hunt where they aren't! It's rather simple really, most will start at access points, avoid them & you will be alone in many cases. In time as season progresses elk will also avoid the pressured areas & seek areas most hunters are not at! Look for elk where they are during your hunt not where you want elk to be! Big difference there! Find steep or rugged Timbered/Aspen or Brushy country where most hunters would drive right by because of difficulty & consider starting your hunt in areas as this! Have a topo of the area so you can see if trails or old roads are on the other side of these mountains, there will be plenty of solitude areas as this! Elk can be within calling distance for location purposes in these areas. A high note bugle from you can reach over a mile away, it's a great way to locate from vantage areas & save unneeded wear & tear on boot leather, but be prepared to walk 5 to 8 miles per day. You will find elk sooner or later, be persistent & in shape. I'm 61 & have no issues with these distances & whatever the terrain has to offer! You can do it! (grin)
As a sidenote, we hunt Idaho a lot, it too is an OTC State but zoned, this means there are several units per zone, you can only hunt one zone here. Here are last years hunter numbers in the zone I hunt. 681--2330--3267--991 -- This totals 7269 individual elk hunters that can & do hunt any of the 4 units. That's a heck of a lot of hunters, add wolves into that equation & it seems even worse! Who would pick such a unit? Your odds of success there is 5.9% for a cow or bull, most would consider this a lousy zone to choose! This statistically shows that just under 7,000 hunters will go home empty handed, this happens every year! Most feel this zone is crap & would avoid it if looking for a new area to hunt. Actually it's a decent zone, you just have to be smarter than the other hunters out there & know how to find & hunt those elk, this can apply to any state or unit ! My Son & I are 100% for taking elk in this zone for 25 straight years, we basically take 5 & 6 point bulls regularly. All OTC DIY where everyone else hunts. We mainly base-camp & return daily. We do not hunt out of camp per say, we drive away from it every morning to a pre-determined area that we've discussed the night before.
Most our elk are taken after the 10th of Sept. because we prefer hunting rutting bulls, we call over 95% of the elk we take, yes elk can still be called in on heavily pressured units, you just have to know what you're doing, this means Reading each Individual Situation you're in, you must sell yourself as one of them, this in itself is the game changer to avoid being one of the 7,000 tag eaters. We hunt where the elk are, here, they are in the thick timber & those tough to get spots because of the hunting pressure, we locate them through calling, we do not sneak around in the timber like hunting deer. Most these elk are taken in the 1-2 mile range from where we park, a few others have been deeper but not many. We basically hunt where most hunters do not want to go, these areas can be found anywhere & everywhere if you seek them out!
Number one piece of advice I can offer is this, good elk hunters are good suffer's! Be persistent & don't easily give up! 30 seconds of jubilation with an elk on the ground can erase days of frustration!
ElkNut1
If Trailheads are in use, stay away from them, they are virtual people magnets. If no one at Trailhead & you can tell by shoe prints it's had very little use then go for it but have topo's of the area & have certain areas picked out that look elky to head towards that lead you away from the trail, elk prefer areas with few human encounters. Seek out those less used areas or you will need to be prepared to out distance hunters in front of you.
Truck camp or base camp but be prepared to bivy one or two days if the need arises. You would bivy into an area you were just at & had lots of elk action but too far for you to go in & out daily. Consider it then & not before otherwise it's a crap shoot with days wasted in areas you are not familiar with.
When to hunt primarily depends on what guys want out of their hunt? If into Bugling/Calling action go after the 10th. If into Spot & Stalk, hunting Water Holes, Wallows, Treestanding Travel Routes, lots of Blind Calling Sequences, etc. then early can be good. Your choice! I prefer after the 10th for higher odds of Bugling Bulls, they are more exciting to locate & hunt at that time if into calling & glassing but mostly calling.
Don't concern yourself with lots of hunters, hunt where they aren't! It's rather simple really, most will start at access points, avoid them & you will be alone in many cases. In time as season progresses elk will also avoid the pressured areas & seek areas most hunters are not at! Look for elk where they are during your hunt not where you want elk to be! Big difference there! Find steep or rugged Timbered/Aspen or Brushy country where most hunters would drive right by because of difficulty & consider starting your hunt in areas as this! Have a topo of the area so you can see if trails or old roads are on the other side of these mountains, there will be plenty of solitude areas as this! Elk can be within calling distance for location purposes in these areas. A high note bugle from you can reach over a mile away, it's a great way to locate from vantage areas & save unneeded wear & tear on boot leather, but be prepared to walk 5 to 8 miles per day. You will find elk sooner or later, be persistent & in shape. I'm 61 & have no issues with these distances & whatever the terrain has to offer! You can do it! (grin)
As a sidenote, we hunt Idaho a lot, it too is an OTC State but zoned, this means there are several units per zone, you can only hunt one zone here. Here are last years hunter numbers in the zone I hunt. 681--2330--3267--991 -- This totals 7269 individual elk hunters that can & do hunt any of the 4 units. That's a heck of a lot of hunters, add wolves into that equation & it seems even worse! Who would pick such a unit? Your odds of success there is 5.9% for a cow or bull, most would consider this a lousy zone to choose! This statistically shows that just under 7,000 hunters will go home empty handed, this happens every year! Most feel this zone is crap & would avoid it if looking for a new area to hunt. Actually it's a decent zone, you just have to be smarter than the other hunters out there & know how to find & hunt those elk, this can apply to any state or unit ! My Son & I are 100% for taking elk in this zone for 25 straight years, we basically take 5 & 6 point bulls regularly. All OTC DIY where everyone else hunts. We mainly base-camp & return daily. We do not hunt out of camp per say, we drive away from it every morning to a pre-determined area that we've discussed the night before.
Most our elk are taken after the 10th of Sept. because we prefer hunting rutting bulls, we call over 95% of the elk we take, yes elk can still be called in on heavily pressured units, you just have to know what you're doing, this means Reading each Individual Situation you're in, you must sell yourself as one of them, this in itself is the game changer to avoid being one of the 7,000 tag eaters. We hunt where the elk are, here, they are in the thick timber & those tough to get spots because of the hunting pressure, we locate them through calling, we do not sneak around in the timber like hunting deer. Most these elk are taken in the 1-2 mile range from where we park, a few others have been deeper but not many. We basically hunt where most hunters do not want to go, these areas can be found anywhere & everywhere if you seek them out!
Number one piece of advice I can offer is this, good elk hunters are good suffer's! Be persistent & don't easily give up! 30 seconds of jubilation with an elk on the ground can erase days of frustration!
ElkNut1
