Preferred elk food sources in November, Lemhi Zone

[FreeRange]

Preferred elk food sources in November? Lemhi Zone

I'm a total rookie when it comes to elk and my brother drew the November bull tag in Idaho unit 51/Lemhi. At this point I'm attacking the map to narrow down the areas we'll focus on but am not confident I know what I'm looking for in regards to locating food sources for bulls in November.

I'm sure the cows and young bulls will be utilizing the ag land on the valley floor but for locating bulls at higher elevation are they going to be feeding on grass on south facing slopes as the snow cover allows, browsing on brush on the "greener" hillsides or in grassy meadows? Or will they be utilizing streambed willows? I realize this all changes as snow cover increases and from what I have read it takes a LOT of snow to push the bulls down out of the hills. We'll be hunting mid-November without horses or ATV's so plan to rely heavily on hoofing it up into less roaded areas and putting in the time behind the glass.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer and if there's any good resources I missed via the search function I'd really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction, thanks.

 

[hobbes]

Randy Newberg's YouTube channel has a set of elk series videos that discuss finding bulls during different phases of the hunting season. One video discusses late season bulls. They are short videos, but I thought the late season discussion was good.

 

[FreeRange]

Yeah I've watched that video and it's super helpful but he just mentions finding their food source without giving specifics, I'm curious what that food source typically is in the late season for elk.

 

[hobbes]

I'm far from a late season elk expert, but the elk around me appear to be eating bunchgrass wherever they can find it. They'll dig through snow for it if necessary. I suspect the bulls do the same just in more secluded locations by that time of year.

 

[FreeRange]

Thanks man, that's the kind of info I was looking for. I had figured once there was much snow on the ground they'd be doing more browsing but insights like that, that they'll dig through snow, is the kind of stuff I need to learn. Thanks again.

 

[Seth Hatecke]

I hunted the Lemhi zone last year during the archery season. We found them quite easy to pattern, but was very difficult to get close with the archery equipment. First and last light are the key. Definitely feeding in the ag fields during the night.

 

[IdahoElk]

You may get lucky and get snow which will push them down with the other Elk,if not they most likely will be feeding on south slopes up a little higher.