Whitetail to Elk

[TimberRunner]

Similar experience. Have 5 elk now. Have adopted this. Put to bed in afternoon, try to kill one in the morning. If I couldn't find elk to bed, try to find a spot to ambush in the morning. Be prepared to move lots of different basins. Get in good spots to glass.

Like anything else, there's a lot of ways to kill elk. The above works fairly consistently, but it's hunting.

 

[Scoot]

Indian Summer is 100% spot on. Gman, no doubt killers can be killers, but for those who simply try to apply whitetail tactics and logic to elk hunting, most don't fare too well. Given how I hunt whitetails and elk, the main difference is: whitetail = patience and persistence, and elk = aggressiveness and persistence. I hunt elk with a totally different approach and mindset than I do deer.

Not saying the way I do it is "right". But... what IS said is really true most of the time.

 

[Wrench]

Be loud.....don't try to be sneaky. Break branches and move quickly.

Don't think you can keep up with moving elk. You can't.

Elk will not always use the same bedding area, trails nor anything except food and water sources.

Elk tend to be in much bigger groups with a lot more eyes open and they tend to spread out quite a bit.

Most whitetails will not go very far when bumped, elk will put 15 minutes of their pace on with little thought.....refer to the keeping up with them part here.....you can't.

I think elk are easier to kill than mature whitetails.

 

[Gobihawk]

I lot of whitetail hunters are turkey hunters. Turkey hunting is a lot like elk hunting. Just on a smaller playing field.

 

[Gman12]

Indian Summer is 100% spot on. Gman, no doubt killers can be killers, but for those who simply try to apply whitetail tactics and logic to elk hunting, most don't fare too well. Given how I hunt whitetails and elk, the main difference is: whitetail = patience and persistence, and elk = aggressiveness and persistence. I hunt elk with a totally different approach and mindset than I do deer.

Not saying the way I do it is "right". But... what IS said is really true most of the time.

I didn't say anything about applying deer tactics to elk hunting. All I said is that a good hunter who successfully kills deer, turkeys, waterfowl, etc can also figure out how to kill elk fairly easily. I also believe it is easier to kill elk than a mature whitetail based on my experience.

 

[Scoot]

You argued that a "killer's a killer's a killer" and it was pointed out to you that some great deer killers come out to elk hunt and they frankly suck at it. I've seen it as well. Can they figure it out? Well... some sure do, but some don't. In fact, plenty don't.

 

[Gman12]

I don’t buy that. I know guys who are amazing fisherman, and can’t kill a deer to save their life. Same thing to me. We all started out deer hunting. So I’m not saying a deer hunter can’t become an elk hunter. What I’m saying is that until you figure out that the big mountains out west are hunted differently than deer country back home you will not be a consistent elk killer. If you kill an elk early in your efforts, it will be mostly because of luck.

I can remember guiding some deer hunters who had taken lots of monster whitetails. I had one kind of bark at me and ask me if it was necessary to step on so many twigs. He was used to creeping through deer country at a snails pace where you might only hunt a parcel of a few acres. I told him we are heading to a place approximately 2 miles away and it would be a really good idea to be there in about 45 minutes. Right now we are just covering ground to get to where we want to hunt. We will hunt when we get there. That’s the difference between elk and deer. Deer are scattered pretty evenly throughout their habitat. As opposed to elk. They are in isolated pockets with a lot of dead zones in between. For that reason one of the keys is knowing when to put the hammer down and when to slow down. Not something a deer hunter is used to.

I’ve booked clients for elk hunts who asked me if they could bring tree stands. While I am aware that in some situations tree stands are legitimate way of killing elk, it’s not really a bread and butter tactic like it is with a deer hunting.

Their lifestyles are completely different. The location of an elk is based on seasonal changes and some extreme weather. Food sources that can be miles apart and change as the year goes on. Deer are in the thick stuff because their location is based on the fact that me you and 10 million other people are trying to kill them. Period!

Their survival tactics are completely different too. So is their yearly cycle. Small home ranges compared to giant ones that can take several weeks to make their way around. Migrations etc.

Like I said, if you are going to shift gears from elk to deer, you can forget most of what you know about deer hunting. Anyone can hunt deer. You have to have a bit of a tolerance for pain if you’re going to keep chasing elk.

I'm not saying that anyone should use whitetail deer tactics to hunt elk. That wouldn't work out too well. What I am saying is that someone who is a good, smart hunter can easily adapt and figure out how to kill elk without too much trouble.

 

[cnelk]

What I am saying is that someone who is a good, smart hunter can easily adapt and figure out how to kill elk without too much trouble.

Yep. About 10% on average

 

[Gerbdog]

Get the wind right and figure out the rest for the techniques, everyone develops their own hunting technique. Its the physical demands that make or break folks. The mountains are just unforgiving, even living here, training here, hunting season is still a physically and mentally demanding hobby every single September. 10% success , as was pointed out above, and of the 90% that dont punch a tag, i'll bet 60% of that is because someone drives up, goes and hunts for 2 days and then decides the rest of the week is better spent at camp because their bodies are so physically busted they dont feel like crawling up that mountain even one more time. That 10% who succeed is filled with dudes (and ladies) who know what to expect and fill their tags every year. The guy who comes out for his first elk could be a well trained couch potato, an avid whitetail hunter, a crocodile wrestler, and if he's never tried to hike up a deadfall filled mountain with a bow in hand, (s)he's gonna get a rude awakening. I think a large portion of the learning curve for elk hunting is just physically preparing for it.

 

[Indian Summer]

I'm not saying that anyone should use whitetail deer tactics to hunt elk. That wouldn't work out too well. What I am saying is that someone who is a good, smart hunter can easily adapt and figure out how to kill elk without too much trouble.

What I’m saying is you’re wrong. A few others said the same. Adapt without too much trouble? Nope. Apples and oranges. A spring turkey hunter has more in common with an archery elk hunter than a deer hunter does. Those guys know how to run and gun.

 

[Behlftball]

My advice would be as follow:

Whitetails are far spookier from movement than elk
Learn the thermals
Elk do not distribute across the landscape like deer. Deer are spread out, Elk move and an area can be completely devoid of elk
Learn to shoot a long ways. A lot of whitetail hunters I know think a 100 yard shot is impressive. Depending where you hunt, being able to shoot 3-400 yards is very important.
Don't try to do scent control, but use the wind and thermal.
Keep shooting until the animal is down and dead.

The biggest things that carry over are unwillingness to give up, dedication, and dealing with disappoinment.

 

[Indian Summer]

You can laugh at me all you want G-man. It just shows your lack of experience. I don’t care if you killed an elk or two. It’s obvious you have a lot to learn. Good luck. You’re going to need it.

 

[IdahoBeav]

Just wait until someone comes up with a packable Redneck Blind and freeze-dried Little Debbie Cakes.

Bubba's eventually comin' up the mountain, clad in his Realtree splendor...

Little Debbie should make the wrapper feature a First Lite camo pattern and print Steve Rinella's face on the box. They could charge $30/box and western hunters would eat them up. The GoHunt store wouldn't be able to keep them in stock.

 

[Gman12]

You can laugh at me all you want G-man. It just shows your lack of experience. I don’t care if you killed an elk or two. It’s obvious you have a lot to learn. Good luck. You’re going to need it.

Some of ya'll act as if elk are some sort of mythical creature that is nearly impossible to kill and promote it as such. I have spent my whole life hunting everything from squirrels and rabbits to doves and ducks to deer and turkeys. It was always my dream to hunt elk out west and I have for the last 10-12 years. It quickly became my favorite week of the year and I look forward to every September. I don't claim to know everything about it by a longshot.
You are definitely right, hunting elk is more like turkey hunting. I still don't think you realize what I was trying to convey and that may well be my lack of writing skills. What I have found is that once you figure where the elk bed, eat and drink, they are not that difficult to hunt and kill. I have had opportunities to kill a legal bull every year except my first year. Several of the years I decided to pass on small/medium bulls in hopes that I would have an opportunity at a big bull and went home with nothing which is totally fine with me.

 

[Indian Summer]

Nobody said they were a mythical creature. But everybody did say that there’s really not much correlation between deer hunting and elk hunting.

The other thing is this, deer hunters for the most part have deer close to where they live in their home state. They can look for deer and get to know their areas and the habits of the deer in that area 12 months a year. An elk hunter gets one or two weeks a year, and with the way draw odds are trending some can only hunt elk every 3 to 5 years. Imagine if you had one or two weeks a year to figure out how to hunt deer. It would take years. Especially if you thought that all of your squirrel and rabbit hunting tactics should make the transition pretty easy. But even if a guy did have plenty of time just the fact that elk have huge home ranges and live in some areas that have difficult access it just takes longer to learn. You can learn the patch of woods near your house like the back of your hand in one year. It will take you at least five years to learn an elk hunting area that well. Maybe more. One year there’s a big snow pack that winter and it’s wet. The next year there’s a drought and the elk are nowhere near where you found them the year before.

There are so many variables that any given area might need to be hunted differently from year to year. Does that hold true with deer? No. I could go on. But I’ll get back to my original comment. If you want to learn how to hunt elk you can pretty much forget everything you know about deer hunting than patience and persistence.

When is the last time somebody bailed out of an expensive deer hunt and went home halfway through their hunt? People bail out early. on elk hunts all the time. There’s a reason. Most of those guys will never try it again. And lots of those guys are very successful deer hunters.

 

[hoosierhunter11]

Born and raised on whitetail hunting the midwest. I went on my first western hunting trip in September '24 and had a blast! The main skills that translated for me were woodsmanship, mapping, and understanding thermals. I mainly hunt public land for whitetails which helped me develop those aforementioned skills - elk hunting was just the master class version of all of that.

My advice:

1. Get in the best damn shape of your life.
2. Get your gear organized and get comfortable with everything. Don't do this once you're on your trip.
3. Keep your mind in the game. Once your mind starts drifting to negative thoughts you'll give up.
4. Find elk - this means move on your feet, in your truck, etc. and bugle and glass until you find elk. Identify some key characteristics of things to look for on the map, mark them, and check them while you are there (content from Mark Livesay really helped me here. Check this out: https://www.treelineacademy.net/podcast-main--b42b4).

I was fortunate to shoot a bull on day 8 of our 9 day hunt! It was unreal. I'm hooked now to say the least and hope to be going again in 2025.

You can check out my hunt recap if interested here: https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/co-archery-elk-first-hunt-write-up-tag-filled.375936/

 

[Wrench]

Little Debbie should make the wrapper feature a First Lite camo pattern and print Steve Rinella's face on the box. They could charge $30/box and western hunters would eat them up. The GoHunt store wouldn't be able to keep them in stock.

Don't forget to market that it makes your breath immune to their noses.

 

[Wrench]

I'm a mediocre whitetail hunter at best.....but I sure do have good luck killing elk.

 

[Kurts86]

Eastern hunting doesn’t really have a lot to do with elk hunting. Full Stop. It doesn’t matter if it’s deer or turkey that some eastern hunter specializes in it doesn’t really translate in to elk success especially in early stages.

The best thing an experienced hunter can do is to swallow their ego and accept that they are a beginner and they need 30-60 days in the elk woods to have some idea of what is going on.

I think a lot of successful eastern hunters also forget how much accumulated knowledge they have of a few hundred acres that led to frequent success. With no knowledge of an area you are just throwing darts on the map until something sticks. It takes a while once you have found some elk to see patterns. Remember every dart throw out west takes a significant amount of time and exertion just to try.

 

[Scoot]

Gman, see cnelk's response above.

Can deer hunters figure it out? Yes. Do they? Typically no.

I'm a deer hunter from the midwest and I understand what you're saying- nothing magical about elk. But the success rates are not good for NR unguided (again, see cnelk's comment) so it's obvious lots of NRs just don't figure it out.