Whats your best midday archery success tactic

[Jpugs]

If your not one to nap during those midday hours, I am anxious to hear which tactic you find works best for midday success?

 

[5MilesBack]

It depends on a few things such as.........which part of the season, will any bull do, where am I hunting, and am I cold calling or know where they are bedded. Tactics change with the situation.

 

[BrentLaBere]

Most of the time the wind wont allow you to get close enough to the elk in the areas I have hunted. I wish I could try some cold calling but it seems to negatively affect the hunting area. I usually go for a nice meal and nap.

 

[Coveyleader]

Sleep. Mid day for the most part = high chance of blowing elk out of the area due to inconsistent winds. I can't recall too many times when that wasn't the case. I'm speaking of mountain hunting. It would be totally different in areas where the winds blow steady such as praire/plains/breaks environments.

 

[ElkNut1]

Midday success can be measured in different ways! Sure a bull on the ground is a success but not an end all! This is a time especially in areas I'm learning to find their bedding areas. Elk will bed around 10 a.m. -- After that til 6 p.m or so they are in their bedding area. I like getting high enough where I can hear pretty well, this is generally closer to noon for me. I will sit for hours & watch & listen. If I see an elk but especially hear any elk, (bull or cows) I know they are in their bedding areas. This is a huge key to our success in taking the best bulls there.

I will take out my topo map & mark the location I'm seeing or hearing any elk at all from that spot. This is a quick way to locate where they bed, they will use the same bedding areas year after year! How I will hunt those spots all depends if there's a cow in estrus or not. Hot cows mean defensive herd bulls, no hot cows & no defensive herd bulls. When that's the case I play on their curiosity! Wind is always a factor at these times so caution is important here. In many cases I just sit & listen & mark down spots & not approach these elk, conditions will dictate that. In the course of a year or two you have a lot of bedding areas located by just sitting in one spot! Bedding areas are the # 1 spot we kill most our bulls from satellites to herd bulls!

Find the bedding areas & feeding areas & trails will link these destination spots together. These trails can be great ambush spots as elk will use these trails whether there's hot cows or not! Finding such areas is a success for me, they will lead to horns on the wall & meat in the freezer!


Of course there's always sitting water, hotter the better, if raining then not so good! (grin)

ElkNut/Paul

 

[danarnold]

mid day last year we were in a new (to us) area and ended up above their bedding, we spotted a bull 100 yards below that got up to stretch and let out a slight squeal, he headed downhill and we descended to the elevation he was at and we found a wallow nearby where we parked our asses for a break.
we had the wind in our face sitting the shade and the sun at our back when 2 spikes came from below to the wallow, I knocked an arrow while my partner ate jerky...wtf?, within another minute we saw antler tips heading up towards us from below, I thought for sure he'd hit the wallow that we were 20 yards from but he ended up changing directions after I drew and walked right towards us when I finally took the frontal shot @ 10-15 feet.

to answer your question, we found em and took em, not any plan other than workin our asses off and capitalizing on an opportunity. and I wont forget to mention the luck part

 

[530Chukar]

Glass. I like to get up high and check distant areas for more elk. Sometimes above a bedding area that you can see into and pick it apart.

I will take out my topo map & mark the location I'm seeing or hearing any elk at all from that spot. This is a quick way to locate where they bed, they will use the same bedding areas year after year! How I will hunt those spots all depends if there's a cow in estrus or not. Hot cows mean defensive herd bulls, no hot cows & no defensive herd bulls. When that's the case I play on their curiosity! Wind is always a factor at these times so caution is important here. In many cases I just sit & listen & mark down spots & not approach these elk, conditions will dictate that. In the course of a year or two you have a lot of bedding areas located by just sitting in one spot! Bedding areas are the # 1 spot we kill most our bulls from satellites to herd bulls!

Have you guys seen many bulls that will still be chasing cows mid-day during peak rut?

 

[JPD350]

If I have been working elk in the AM and they get away from me I will spend the mid day setting up as close as possible for the afternoon/evening, generally its not to hard to guess where they have bedded down. What I am after is to wake them up around 4 or 5 PM with a cow call or a locater bugle and then shut up and let them do the talking while I slip in, its very tempting to keep responding to calls but IMO it is usually better to stay quiet after that first response, as the time gets closer to late evening I will pick up the calling sequences if needed.

If I haven't been working elk in the AM I will basically do the same thing but around a different "possible" bedding area, I want to set myself up in their path to food and water, it helps to know the terrain.

 

[ElkNut1]

Absolutely! When there's hot cows around it's not uncommon to have bulls bugling & competing for a hot cows attention at anytime of day. Doesn't happen everyday but it happens enough to have high expectations, I love those days when bulls won't shut up! (grin)

ElkNut/Paul

 

[oldgoat]

Taking a nap and being ready to hit it in the afternoon! That's when I'm hunting with my wife mainly, by myself I'll use that time to move to another area if I'm not already where I need to be!

 

[elkyinzer]

I don't have as much experience as a lot of guys that answer this question but this is always my gameplan:

If you have NOT located elk: Find elk. Basically be in stealth scouting mode. Maybe call into likely areas occasionally. Don't be stupid with scent but you have to figure out where some elk are for the evening hunt.

If you HAVE located elk: Camp out on them. Don't do anything stupid, you'll kill them when conditions are to your advantage. Find a high point above bedding, a nice soft place to sit. Maybe glass if that's your cup of tea. Make some lunch, have a coffee. Read, take a nap, whatever floats your boat. Maybe go check out some other area if you are trying to accumulate GPS miles like my old man does steps on his fitbit. When you hear a bull bugle, that's your alarm clock. Go time, start devising a plan to get in position. Worked for my first bull.

That's bowhunting by the way. Based on having only bowhunted, I think I could pull off still hunting/jump shooting elk with a rifle quite well. Elk tend to hang around quite a few beats longer than Eastern Whitetails do when they see/hear you.

 

[Bar]

My last post. My internet is being shut off today.

As for hunting mid-day? It's my favorite time to hunt. I still hunt into bulls with no calls ever. I've done it for decades and it's been quite successful for me.

Bye all..........

 

[Grumman]

Take care Bar and best of luck this season!


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[Coveyleader]

Throwing a twist into the norm, when you have elk bedded for the day, I don't like being as close to them as you can get waiting for evening. If you do that, you might as well go in after them. If I bed them in some timber, I actually move back to where I can see and hear what's going on, but far enough away that any swirling wind will not bust me.

Last year, I got on to 5-7 elk, I was watching them and there was no bull which I thought was strange. They made it into the timber so I pulled back and camped on them. Around 330, 4pm, they simply exploded from the timber up across a drainage and there were over 50 elk with 4 bulls. 2 guys had tried coming down on them mid day and got picked off. It happens to all of us, but to me, the risks are way to high to be going in after them mid day.

2 exceptions would be 1, Elk are bedded and I'm in a very heavily hunted area and it's only a matter of time they bust out. I might as well be the "Buster", and 2, sometimes if you get a big heavy storm, I mean heavy and it rocks the woods for an hour or two, once it passes, at times it turns mid day into a very calm setting. You have to watch it though as the thermals can be erratic.

 

[wytx]

If the rut is hot don't sleep, hunt mid day. Traveling bulls are not bedded down, they're looking for cows.

 

[Swede]

I archery season I like to wait in a tree stand at a water hole with good trails coming in from a bedding area. I stay quiet and relax. Sometimes elk will get up and go to water especially on a hot day. Just like us, they need more water when it is hot and dry. Even in bedding areas elk get up and move around as the sun changes position and exposes them. I think that is likely the time they will go for a drink.
Elknut said 6:00PM is when they get up. Where I hunt I see them up and feeding significantly earlier. I suppose that could be due to forage or lack there of in my area. Not sure, but I would definitely want to be in my stand by 4:00PM as elk are usually moving then.

 

[Maverick940]

I archery hunt bull elk in November, so my midday tactic probably doesn't apply.

 

[Finch]

I guess this post is assuming you are into elk? If not, I assume most are hiking trying to find elk. So you are covering ground looking for fresh sign and easing through potential bedding areas?

 

[Jpugs]

I guess this post is assuming you are into elk? If not, I assume most are hiking trying to find elk. So you are covering ground looking for fresh sign and easing through potential bedding areas?

Excellent point, lets say your not into elk, do you stop at first fresh sign, get to a vantage point, glass and wait for them to leave there bedding area? Throw a few calls out and if nothing responds keep hiking until you lays eyes on elk.....?

Thanks for all the input so far

 

[Felix1776]

Excellent point, lets say your not into elk, do you stop at first fresh sign, get to a vantage point, glass and wait for them to leave there bedding area? Throw a few calls out and if nothing responds keep hiking until you lays eyes on elk.....?

Thanks for all the input so far

An earlier post said to go into scouting mode mid day if you haven't found them.

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