Successful AM Glassing - What's your next move?

[Sinkinglizard]

For those that are successful at "bubble hunting", how do you do it? I ran into the following scenario many times this year during Sept archery elk. First light, glass up a herd with a bull, watch them until 830-900am or so, they eventually move out of the meadows and into the timber for bedding. From this point on, what is your next move? This is specifically early Sept, so bulls weren't talking much. I had 5-6 different herds each with their own bull(s) in the area I was hunting that I could watch in the mornings, but had no idea how to approach them late morning / mid day. How are you guys getting in close to their "bedrooms"? Is it really as simple as go slow, then go slower than slow when moving in on them? The timber is dry, grasses, ferns etc are noisy when you are sneaking in, there is deadfall everywhere, etc. Is this "ninja mode" a developed skill?

Next question - what happens when you do eventually get within eye sight of the herd? There are eye balls everywhere from the cows that can pick off movement and noise. Are you just sitting tight, patiently waiting for the bull to get up and make his rounds? Once the bull is up and moving for water or checking cows, do you try to peel him off with a cow call?

Reading posts here or listening to others describe their kill process is helpful, but it feels like there are 100 micro decisions that the true killers here are making in route to get the job done between the time they glass a bull and let an arrow fly.

 

[HunterGatherer]

Ive

For those that are successful at "bubble hunting", how do you do it? I ran into the following scenario many times this year during Sept archery elk. First light, glass up a herd with a bull, watch them until 830-900am or so, they eventually move out of the meadows and into the timber for bedding. From this point on, what is your next move? This is specifically early Sept, so bulls weren't talking much. I had 5-6 different herds each with their own bull(s) in the area I was hunting that I could watch in the mornings, but had no idea how to approach them late morning / mid day. How are you guys getting in close to their "bedrooms"? Is it really as simple as go slow, then go slower than slow when moving in on them? The timber is dry, grasses, ferns etc are noisy when you are sneaking in, there is deadfall everywhere, etc. Is this "ninja mode" a developed skill?

Next question - what happens when you do eventually get within eye sight of the herd? There are eye balls everywhere from the cows that can pick off movement and noise. Are you just sitting tight, patiently waiting for the bull to get up and make his rounds? Once the bull is up and moving for water or checking cows, do you try to peel him off with a cow call?

Reading posts here or listening to others describe their kill process is helpful, but it feels like there are 100 micro decisions that the true killers here are making in route to get the job done between the time they glass a bull and let an arrow fly.

I’ve posted a few times about what my tactics are inside the “red zone”. The short answer is, every situation is different and you have to put in a lot of reps to see what works for you. Every hunter has different strengths and weaknesses and has to tailor those tactics to those individual factors. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at any given discipline and I believe Archery hunting is no different. Put in as much time as possible every season and at some point success comes more frequently. The 10% that are killing 90% of the elk started out in the 90% that don’t kill and just figured it out through trial and error. Ninja mode is definitely a learned skill and it has it’s place But elk are noisy animals compared to deer and you can actually get away with making quite a bit of noise in the elk woods as long as the noises you make aren’t human noises.

You’re correct that there are many “micro decisions “ that have to be made and often, even when you make all the “right” decisions, you still need some degree of luck for it to work in your favor. Learn to recognize the difference between a high percentage scenario and a low percentage scenario and wait for a high percentage opportunity to make your move.

If you want some specific things that will help you kill more elk I would say this : first, learn the language. Not every bull can be called in but we hunt mostly by sound and sound is the easiest way to trick a bull and/or to convince them that you’re not a threat. If an elk makes a sound, you need to know what they are saying to know how to respond ( or not respond).

For the specific scenario you mentioned where elk are in the open feeding early and then going to bed, try getting into the vicinity of elk earlier - in the dark. Then you can try to predict where they will bed and as first light dawns, move to their bedding location and be waiting to ambush them. It might take a couple days of patterning the herd to be able to make good predictions. Hopefully you’re not in a high pressure area where the elk are getting constantly bumped by other hunters and you can take some time to figure them out. If you don’t have that luxury , you may have to be more aggressive and make plays on them as soon as the first decent opportunity presents itself instead of developing your plan over the course of multiple days. Also depends on how many days you have available to hunt…

Learn about the various stages of the rut. There are different strategies for each stage. Especially learn to recognize when there is a cow in estrus. These are by far the easiest days to kill elk as the bulls will often throw caution to the wind to pursue and protect a cow in heat. Learn to recognize the difference between a herd bull, satellite bulls, and
small bulls that just hang with the cows all the time and won’t really act like a bull…

Before this post turns into a book, I’ll let some other guys chime in .

 

[CoHntr82]

Mind the wind always. Once bedded I try hunt the closest water or wallow to where I think they’re bedded. I sit that for the mid day hunt. Two years ago that strategy worked and I shot a bull midday after he came down for a drink just before 2pm. Water hole was at the bottom of a tight bowl I watched him go into with a couple cows.

Then mid afternoon get set up put yourself into an ambush lane for their trek back to feeding grounds. I’ve had bulls bugle back from the bed but never been able to get them back up after they’ve bedded. Or as HG said get up earlier. Cut them off on their way to bedding.