Scent management.

[Chris in TN]

This is another stupid question, a variation of the thread I posted last week. I'm just used to hunting in places where we have acres that deer don't inhabit, and acres they do, and as long as I go to the edge of where they are, with my scent blowing where they are not, I can largely control my scent's effect on game. Can't do that when you're hunting in the middle of a gazillion acres of 'they're anywhere and everywhere'.

So...there's a place I want to hunt. Yeah, probably me and a dozen other people. I'll cross that bridge when it comes. But let's say I get this ~2000 acre block to myself. A cliff divides it in half, more or less. I want to hunt the upper part first and the lower part be second choice for day 2 or three or whenever pressure (or my own mistakes) stink up the upper part. It looks like the ideal approach to hunt the upper part, depending on wind, is to skirt the edge of the cliff, glassing into the wind and sort of uphill-ish and across a few smaller meadows in the morning, also looking downhill all the while into the plan B lower area in case we spot anything there and perhaps work into position for a shot before the thermals catch up, which could happen under the described wind conditions. Maybe start the day looking over into the lower area (at a SE angle as we move S, glassing ahead of our scent drifting downhill).

Alternately, and this is what I *really* want to do....camp well away from where we want to hunt. I have the logistics of that more or less worked out depending on wind direction, with options for every possible wind direction (assuming I can get a 3-day window with similar/same prevailing winds). Then head upwind on opening day to a certain meadow and be set up right before shooting light (walking the line between going in blind and noisy in the dark versus being seen at daybreak).

With certain winds and assuming pre-season scouting shows elk in that meadow, this could be an opening-morning killer plan. Yeah, sure, it depends on wind and weather and a dozen other factors, but I have to play out hypotheticals now, to make this happen in October.

Alright, I do that. There's sign, everything looks great, we sneak in and get my daughter set up, we see elk, but there's no legal bull.

Problem: We were skirting that cliff, to get there. Now, the dawn thermals have dropped our scent across the lower elevation below the cliff and we just stunk up our entire Plan B area - but there's a good bit of fairly bare ground across that cliff face, so maybe it isn't *too bad*. Especially if we're being smelled by elk that spent the previous night feeding in a meadow full of human scent. Maybe?

See attachment. I could tweak this scenario a dozen different ways, for sure. And hopefully glassing and scouting a day or three beforehand can help me avoid the problem altogether by either killing something on day one or finding some better spot with better logistics for getting in and out. Depending on wind it's also at least possible that we could camp in a different spot.

The particulars aren't important. What's important is that I need to either figure out how to hunt 'spot choice 1' without ruining 'spot choice 2' when both might contain elk.

And again, I know that it's likely that we'll get there and have so much company that it becomes a high-altitude game of elk pinball as they move around until they get fed up and take off to the private land at lower elevation.

 

[Ross]

Unlike whitetail hunting, you don’t manage your scent when elk hunting. Elk hunting requires finding elk and to do so you typically are covering ground and will be sweating to some extent, a good portion of this time. Often a lot! You get to where you believe elk are or find them, then hunt into the wind and check it often. When thinking about planning your hunt, I would not worry too much about the smaller details like wind until the hunt plays out. Hunt hard and all day, every day.

 

[Gerbdog]

Ross said it, i think your gonna have to take it a day at a time and a moment at a time, the winds gonna change every day, and then again multiple times per day, and then once again just based off the micro terrain you find the elk in. You can get away with a lot in elk hunting but you arent going to beat their noses, if you dont do anything else right, just stay down wind. Back out if the winds not going to cooperate with you that day.

 

[LCguy]

I think you are overthinking a little bit. Your scent is always going to be blowing somewhere and just because one elk smelled you one day doesn't mean new elk aren't going to move into the area the next that didn't smell you. As Ross said above, you can't worry about it or predict it until you're actually hunting. Check the wind constantly. I basically go through almost an entire bottle of Wind-Checker on a hunt.

Also, in my experience, elk are not too worried about ground scent. Last season me and my buddy hiked into a glassing knob in the dark, got situated and at first light a herd of elk walked right across the path we took and didn't even give it a second thought. And this was three days in so I know we were stinking.

 

[Skerhunter]

For elk just worry about not blowing them out with your actual scent, not your ground scent.

A lot of times elk will bust you and run 5+ miles away, screwing up that days hunt. Other times they won’t go far and stay in that general area. But not uncommon for that herd or another herd to be in that exact same spot the next day (honey hole).

 

[Phaseolus]

If you aren’t finding elk on that 2000 acres you’ll need to hunt elsewhere. Pretty small area if elk aren’t on it.

 

[jgilber5]

Alternatively, go in there during the day when the thermals are pulling up away from the bench and go see, is there actually sign in there? Are the trails dropping down on that bench? Great, set up off the side of the biggest trail and kill one when they come back up that evening. If you don't know where they're at, you could, and probably should cover more than 2000 acres a day.

 

[Gila]

I check the WeatherFlow data on my phone, or throw up a handful of dirt…Taking a camp shower with scent blocker soap doesn’t hurt.

 

[nphunter]

Elk can hear you and not spook, see you and not spook but rarely smell you and it spook. Play the wind 100% of the time, wait until the wind is right, come in on the same elevation or in the backside of a ridge or draw. I’ve even sat in sunlit faces to get my wind right due to the warm hillside pulling my scent uphill.

If you walk across that hillside in the AM and the elk are on the lower bench they will be gone. Always start low and hunt uphill. Had a friend with me last year in the wilderness blow up an entire drainage with over 100 elk by doing what your mentioning. Right before dark he decided to beat feet across the head of a drainage and his sent was sucked down the entire drainage. I had no idea where he had gone until he showed back up to camp after dark. That drainage was alive with elk the previous 3 days while we tried to be patient, after that we didn’t hear another elk and had to relocate after I dropped him off at home.

There are lots of ways to manipulate the thermals, sometimes waking up a cool creek bottom mid day works. You’re better off to have patients and wait for the wind to shift before making a move. In general the air will be coming down until about 9-10, it will swirl for a bit and the switch to an uphill until just before dark. So morning hunts always come from below and evening hunts come from above. Get even on the hillside with them or over a draw or two if your there when the wind switches. Dark timber/north faces pull down longer, sunlit south faces or even logged off or burned faces switch sooner. If it’s raining your sent will be way less of an issue, because the rain knocks it down and everthing stinks more when it’s wet.