Top down tactics

[AspenTimber]

Can anyone give some helpful tips when hunting from an area where you mainly camp up high and hunt from the top-down?

What are some good tips to keep from sending your early morning sent to the elk traveling up before thermals switch…or do you glass until they’ve switched and catch them from above once they’re bedded? Seems counter productive to get too early of a start unless you can get below them and follow em up

Thanks!

 

[Gapmaster]

Don’t camp in the same drainage as the elk if possible. I like to camp high for obvious reasons but just over the ridge from where I’m mainly hunting. But… elk move so you always run some risk if you’re camping too close to your hunting area. Practice good camp habits, (noise and scent control when possible). I prefer to watch and listen then try to head them off on parallel moves early in the day.

I never get up too early unless I have a long hike. I’m moving at day break, but the thermals will kill you unless you know where the elk are before you start down.

 

[AspenTimber]

i like the thought of watching and listening then cutting off from above. Do you think there’s still a good sense of realism cruising the spine and throwing some advertising bugles out, or I would it be somewhat unrealistic for a Bull to be patrolling across a mountain top right at day break and advertising himself from above?

 

[OkiechasingElk]

Planning to do the same thing next month. Coming in from an ATV trail on top of the mountain then working along the timberline and lower in multiple drainages.

 

[Gapmaster]

i like the thought of watching and listening then cutting off from above. Do you think there’s still a good sense of realism cruising the spine and throwing some advertising bugles out, or I would it be somewhat unrealistic for a Bull to be patrolling across a mountain top right at day break and advertising himself from above?

There’s nothing “unrealistic” about calling from any where in my opinion. I’ve seen/heard elk at places I never expected at all times of the day. I personally call sparingly. Every guy on the mountain seems to want blow their trumpet non stop anymore. Quite, suttle stuff is my bread and butter.

 

[ndbuck09]

Hunt from the top in an area a lot. Our camp spot is on the other side of the ridge top from where the majority of the elk spend their time, then we come over the top in the morning. Typically in our area, the elk have moved down for the evening and are working their way back up in the mornings. Depending on the mountain you're on, you should be able to be well enough above most of the elk to not blow them out. Obviously if a rogue elk moved in say 300 yards below where you roll over the top, they're going to get you but in big country that's a pretty small percentage chance.

Basically, we have good luck with being on the ridge at gray light to start listening for a while, then location bugling from the top. Then we'll work our way along the top bugling every couple hundred yards for the first hour of the day. We try to work the opposite way we had gone the previous day for that first hour or two. If we come up with no bugles, then we'll work back to the start and go the opposite direction. On the day that we don't hear any responses, we basically end up at 1030-11am still on the ridge. We'll usually sit down and chill at that point...been a good amount of times, at least twice during a week of hunting, that you'll end up hearing a bull bugle on their own between that mid morning and mid afternoon time frame. Another note is that we've had the elk within 100 yards of the top in the early morning as well as not getting up to within 500 yards of the top by 10am....so it all is variable.

In our case, we know elk are there so we tend to play it safe and not just go dropping into known areas they bed early in the hunt because if they're not spooked out, they'll eventually fire up, maybe not today but tomorrow. Contrary to some popular hunters, covering ground trying to get a bugle really equates to you having to make big moves to keep finding herds since you're blowing out a lot of them by stinking up a spot. That works if you know a lot of spots but we tend to like to hunt in a hard to get into spot where folks don't usually go and stay there rather than bounce to a lot of more easier to get into spots, since we know they're there and will eventually play. It's all about what you like, but don't think that covering 8 miles and 3000ft of vert everyday equates to being more successful. The elk don't care how much work you've put in.

 

[AspenTimber]

Hunt from the top in an area a lot. Our camp spot is on the other side of the ridge top from where the majority of the elk spend their time, then we come over the top in the morning. Typically in our area, the elk have moved down for the evening and are working their way back up in the mornings. Depending on the mountain you're on, you should be able to be well enough above most of the elk to not blow them out. Obviously if a rogue elk moved in say 300 yards below where you roll over the top, they're going to get you but in big country that's a pretty small percentage chance.

Basically, we have good luck with being on the ridge at gray light to start listening for a while, then location bugling from the top. Then we'll work our way along the top bugling every couple hundred yards for the first hour of the day. We try to work the opposite way we had gone the previous day for that first hour or two. If we come up with no bugles, then we'll work back to the start and go the opposite direction. On the day that we don't hear any responses, we basically end up at 1030-11am still on the ridge. We'll usually sit down and chill at that point...been a good amount of times, at least twice during a week of hunting, that you'll end up hearing a bull bugle on their own between that mid morning and mid afternoon time frame. Another note is that we've had the elk within 100 yards of the top in the early morning as well as not getting up to within 500 yards of the top by 10am....so it all is variable.

In our case, we know elk are there so we tend to play it safe and not just go dropping into known areas they bed early in the hunt because if they're not spooked out, they'll eventually fire up, maybe not today but tomorrow. Contrary to some popular hunters, covering ground trying to get a bugle really equates to you having to make big moves to keep finding herds since you're blowing out a lot of them by stinking up a spot. That works if you know a lot of spots but we tend to like to hunt in a hard to get into spot where folks don't usually go and stay there rather than bounce to a lot of more easier to get into spots, since we know they're there and will eventually play. It's all about what you like, but don't think that covering 8 miles and 3000ft of vert everyday equates to being more successful. The elk don't care how much work you've put in.

This is great! Do you find yourself glassing as much in the evenings from vantage point and/or run into trouble getting on their level if they are well below you before daylight runs out?

 

[ndbuck09]

Where I hunt, there are definitely openings but find that they stay in the timber so much, it's higher odds just working bugles rather than glassing very much. When we do drop on bugles in the morning, we'll end up staying down a lot of times through the whole day. And yes at 5-6pm with bugles below you, it becomes a bit of a toss up on how much you want to have to hike back up after dark. Definitely have had it get dark on us, as well as made calls to just go back up so that we're not getting back to tents at 11pm as well. Just depends on what the situation is looking like.

 

[NMonit]

but don't think that covering 8 miles and 3000ft of vert everyday equates to being more successful. The elk don't care how much work you've put in.

As a new elk hunter as of last season, I thought I could cardio my way to success, but having tried exactly that, I found it true that the elk don't care. I feel personally attacked now. This is a great thread and also describes the area I plan to hunt again from top->down camp.

 

[NMonit]

Definitely have had it get dark on us, as well as made calls to just go back up so that we're not getting back to tents at 11pm as well. Just depends on what the situation is looking like.

Hey ndbuck09, mind if I pick your brain about a spot I hunted last year, and am debating trying at again this year? Unfortunately since I've finally signed up on this website but am still new, I can't send a PM. I'm not sure if it's the other way around. Thanks.