Scouting Elk

[BlacktailTracker]

What are your guys general strategies for scouting/locating elk? I've found that deer generally have smaller ranges and if you find them in one area you can go back to that area and find them again. Are elk similar? Or are they more nomadic? Is covering lots of ground better for finding herds or returning to areas that you have seen elk before? How do elk utilize their range? How are elk and deer different in their habits and patterns?

 

[CMcCormick1805]

I hunt spring bear to scout for Elk and have found it works wonders.

 

[jgilber5]

I've found my elk to be nomadic, but generally hit the same spots each year depending on pressure. I've had the best luck just following trails in the off season. Narrow trails on ridges and saddles? Probably just a travel route. Tracks start to spread out and slow down? Probably somewhere to check in season for bedding/feed.

 

[Indian Summer]

Elk are NOT deer. Unless you plan to tree stand hunt forget everything you know about deer hunting.


The natural progression is to cover lots of miles putting scent down in bedding and feeding areas, spooking elk, and beating yourself up. Exploring for both scouting and for having fun. Then you think back to the places you passed up and start over. Slow down. Can you e scout for deer? Yes. For elk? Yes, but not until you’ve actually put boots on the ground and learned about them, about mountains, and how to hunt them in the mountains. Good luck!

 

[justinspicher]

I’ve been hunting the same area for ten years now and the elk patterns have changed dramatically due the amount of folks in the woods and cattle/sheep being put on public land. Over the past couple of years it feels like I’m relearning how to elk hunt every year.

 

[cnelk]

Ive found the best time to scout for elk is after the early snow.
You can find bedding areas, wispy trails, travel corridors etc

 

[bz_711]

Living 15 hours away...I start scouting the second my hunt starts.
Only thing I've learned is that hunting in high pressured OTC/General units that almost nothing is the same year to year. Spots I've tagged bulls have never produced again yet. If sign is not VERY fresh it's almost useless. I base my hunts more off human pressure than elk sign/habitat and that is when I started having more success.

And yes - Elk are nothing like deer.
Good Luck.

 

[Coveyleader]

Elk are NOT deer. Unless you plan to tree stand hunt forget everything you know about deer hunting.


The natural progression is to cover lots of miles putting scent down in bedding and feeding areas, spooking elk, and beating yourself up. Exploring for both scouting and for having fun. Then you think back to the places you passed up and start over. Slow down. Can you e scout for deer? Yes. For elk? Yes, but not until you’ve actually put boots on the ground and learned about them, about mountains, and how to hunt them in the mountains. Good luck!

I know you're an elk guru, but from what I've seen, you can apply a lot from the deer woods to the elk woods, especially early on in the season. As a matter of fact, for me, I hunt elk the same way I hunt deer until about the 10th of September. If your plan is to kill an elk, you can apply many things from the WT woods that directly translates to elk. They may be even more deadly. One example, fence crossings. They are deadly for WTs, and the same for elk. For those that live in elk country, pinch a top strand and see where the elk start crossing.

 

[LCguy]

Elk are so nomadic that I don't even bother scouting for actual elk until the week or two before the hunt. Now, I DO scout potential glassing points, roads, access, hikes, etc., prior to that, so no matter where the elk are in the unit, I already have a plan to hunt them in that area.

 

[CBGunner95]

Just talking my experience, seems like its been harder lately to pin down patterns earlier in the year that hold true through elk season... Factors vary from different weather extremes during elk season (early vs late snow), late summer or early fall fires, ranchers running cattle later than normal, logging crews slashing junipers, etc. Found best use of time is to really put boots on the ground to scout about a month before the hunt.

 

[Hunterscamera]

I hunt spring bear to scout for Elk and have found it works wonders.

Are you finding good habitat, forage, water or actually finding the elk in the same spots come hunting season?

 

[CMcCormick1805]

Are you finding good habitat, forage, water or actually finding the elk in the same spots come hunting season?

Same general drainages just not the same hillsides.

 

[Coveyleader]

I think one could make a case there are two types of elk. Those that roam large vast wilderness areas with alpine above treeline environments. The other, low BLM type county elk. You could almost classify them as two different species in terms of the way they act and use the country. One of them fits the classic nomad, large distance traveled type elk. Here today, three giant drainages over the next. The other are much more condensed and easier to hunt. So depending on where you're hunting, you could throw my previous comments out the window keeping in mind I'm referring to WY and CO.

 

[Gerbdog]

Coveyleader has the right of it as usual

you could make it JUST like hunting whitetail deer depending where you wanna hunt.... go around asking farmers to hunt their fields ..... sit in a stand.... shoot an elk coming in to feed on the field..... practically no difference - depending on the time of year i bet this is pretty dang effective.

Spose it all depends on what you want from your western elk hunt though - every year after ive dragged my arse up the mountain before daylight i contemplate what bad decisions ive made in my life that brought me to this point when i could be hunting low land elk. Then i hear the first bugle of the morning and it at least improves my mood even if my body still contemplates my poor decisions.

 

[Skerhunter]

Population, habitat, and pressure determine how hard they are to find.

Elk want to be (or naturally gravitate) to certain specific areas certain times of the year, but move to other areas due to pressure (ppl, predators).

If elk are fairly unpressured (always some hunting pressure) there is a good chance you will find them in the exact same spot (bench/meadow/ridge) year after year during that specific time frame. They will also go to less desirable areas if there is pressure where the prefer to be.

Most of my scouting involves just figuring out access in that area and I don’t spend a ton of time looking for animals.

 

[Indian Summer]

I think archery elk hunting is more like spring turkey than deer. Stay mobile. Run and gun. Call to locate but also know the area to set up and ambush.

But as far as scouting for them which was the original question they are nothing like deer. Deer are here. Elk are here today and gone tomorrow. Or vice versa.

You can e scout for deer and even in a new area get into game. If there is sign they are there. But there have been plenty of elkless elk hunts. In many cases it’s because guys who were pretty good deer hunters were just too patient and just didn’t cover enough ground. They were correct in thinking that the elk would be back. They just didn’t realize that it could take a couple weeks or more for them to show up.

Elk hunting is more pro active. You are better off making things happen than waiting for something to happen.

 

[Indian Summer]

But like the answer to any hunting question that depends on where you are hunting. If I was hunting private land, I would consider deer hunting tactics. That way I would be less likely to run the elk off of the land I had access to hunt. In some areas, commonly lower elevations, you can also pattern elk better like deer. My answers are usually geared toward public land mountain hunting.

 

[BlacktailTracker]

Population, habitat, and pressure determine how hard they are to find.

Elk want to be (or naturally gravitate) to certain specific areas certain times of the year, but move to other areas due to pressure (ppl, predators).

If elk are fairly unpressured (always some hunting pressure) there is a good chance you will find them in the exact same spot (bench/meadow/ridge) year after year during that specific time frame. They will also go to less desirable areas if there is pressure where the prefer to be.

Most of my scouting involves just figuring out access in that area and I don’t spend a ton of time looking for animals.

I think archery elk hunting is more like spring turkey than deer. Stay mobile. Run and gun. Call to locate but also know the area to set up and ambush.

But as far as scouting for them which was the original question they are nothing like deer. Deer are here. Elk are here today and gone tomorrow. Or vice versa.

You can e scout for deer and even in a new area get into game. If there is sign they are there. But there have been plenty of elkless elk hunts. In many cases it’s because guys who were pretty good deer hunters were just too patient and just didn’t cover enough ground. They were correct in thinking that the elk would be back. They just didn’t realize that it could take a couple weeks or more for them to show up.

Elk hunting is more pro active. You are better off making things happen than waiting for something to happen.

This is super helpful because for deer If I find them in a specific drainage then I can continue to go back and relocate those animals. Elk seems way different.

 

[Huntnnw]

I have found places elk like and they seem to always come back and be there off and on for a long time unless its burned up or logged that dramatically changes it. Places that are elky seem to stay that way and they always seem to be around

 

[nphunter]

If you are talking about archery elk, then I agree that scouting can be difficult, especially scouting a particular bull. However if we are talking late season elk, post rut, then summer time scouting can pay off bigtime. Most of the areas I hunt elk go back to their summer range as soon as the rut is over, unless there is an early winter with deep snow they are almost always showing back up.

But unlike mule deer I think e-scouting can be very effective for elk, they need feed and water every day, they only seek shelter/cover if pressured. Find an area with good feed and good water and it will most likley have elk in it. Deer don't need water daily and get a lot from feed and they are normally much more picky on feed than elk so they can be much easier to pin down via google earth.

For archery elk I am looking for places that have water first and foremost, don't have a large human presence, sometimes that is right next to a road and sometimes 5 miles deep, also areas that have cow activity. Bulls will split up cow groups and they can end up in some nasty areas but most of the time the bulls will leave their nasty sanctuary areas and show up where the cows are at. I also tend to avoid areas near private land because there can become a buffer zone that ends up void of elk due to the sanctuary they get on private land, nothing is more frustrating than watching a bull chase cows around 50 yards on the wrong side of a fence.

All the below pics are on public land with 100% draw archery tags, the cams were all less than 100 yards from open roads.

Aug.


Late Oct. 1000 yards apart


Aug

Oct rifle season


Aug

Nov (This bull was killed in 2025)