Your personal experience hunting Deer/Elk in wolf country

[TraderMike]

I have lived my entire life in Colorado and have no firsthand experience hunting deer or elk in areas that have wolves present. With sightings becoming more common and the fact a wolf was killed near Kremmling last year it seems logical to assume we Colorado hunters are going to have to share our game eventually, like it or not, with wolves. So I would like to hear from the guys that are dealing with them and what they have found from personal experience. If any of you have been around long enough to have hunted areas "before wolves" as compared to "after wolves", your experience would be very much appreciated. I clearly see the differences in perceptions among hunters as to the debate (pro wolf vs anti wolf) and there is no need to re-hash what is going on through other threads. So lets hear from the guys that actually deal with Mr. Canis Lupus.

 

[airlocksniffer]

I've hunted a few areas in MT that have active packs. The Bob Marshall is huge and while I've been in there quite a bit, I've never seen hide nor hair of a wolf. There are plenty of elk in the area but many congregate on the front range on private land. More of a harboring issue than wolf issue. I just hunted an area last season in SW MT with active packs as well as griz. One evening in mid-September, we were greeted by 30 minutes of non-stop howling by wolves at sundown, followed by intense bugling from no fewer than 9 bulls within a quarter mile of our camp. Pretty awesome night. Saw a ton of elk, acting like elk with bugles and such. We returned to the same area for opening rifle and saw a white wolf just trotting down the trail the evening before the opener. My buddy had a tag in his pocket but we both agreed we didn't want to deal with reporting the kill (I'm not an SSS kind of guy). Still saw a lot of elk, some were still bugling that late in October. Don't really have any experience in these places prior to wolves as I was just a pup (although I think the Bob has always had them). For both places, not too much sign other than the occasional track or pile of scat. My personal theory is that elk and other ungulate populations take an initial hit from wolves because they forgot what the hell it was like to live with them but eventually regain a balance between predator and prey. No facts to back this up so it's probably bullshit but makes sense in my head!! I also think it can vary by area. I know some of the Idaho guys will chime in about elk being silent, etc. Don't doubt it but hasn't happened that way in my limited experience.

 

[Muledeerfanatic]

Elk seem to herd up all year now in big groups and some of the lower country deer areas I used to hunt are mostly void of deer.
Animals have changed there habits but I still see alot of game around here.

 

[jmden]

I've hunted elk in MT in an area that wolves hadn't gotten to yet in 2002. Took four days to shoot a cow. Family hunted there many years before that but soon after that started seeing less elk and more wolves and wolf sign. Got much more difficult for them to shoot an elk.

Recently, I drew a late season cow tag in the Teanaway GMU in Washington State. As I mentioned in another thread recently, I walked for miles in the snow and saw thousands of wolf trax and no elk trax that day. I also had a bit of an eerie brush with a very healthy wolf at 30 yds. (I've had many encounters with wolves up on the wild beaches of the west coast of Vancouver Island while sea kayaking it's length. Wolves all over the place up there. More than once, we've woken up with a ring of wolf trax around the tent in the beach sand. Woke up once with a huge pile of poop 5 feet from our tent that wasn't their the night before after accidentally pushing a breeding pair and two pups of wolves off a sea lion carcass a few hundred yards away. They came and visited us that night.) I was solo and was disgusted at my hunting chances there due to all the wolf trax, so I headed down a gated road back down to the rig. Went from a large open area to a very narrow canyon. Suddenly got a text as I got into cell range and so was replying to that. Meanwhile I could heard a strange swishing noise in the icy underbrush that I couldn't place. Most of us can hear a noise in the woods (deer, elk, squirrel) and ID it. This one I couldn't. Looked up a few seconds later to a good sized lone wolf right up the road looking at me. About 30 yds, maybe closer--I'm not a bowhunter... The sound was his long soft hair moving through icy underbrush. Turns out I hadn't heard that before. Because I was by myself and in known wolf area, I had decided for the first time ever to pack a sidearm while hunting. When I saw that wolf my first thought had been to take a pic with my phone that I already had out. But suddenly a little bit of situational awareness came in and I remembered the kind of perfect ambush place I was in and the way the wolves often decoy their pray and then the pack comes in for a kill. I drew my sidearm and launched a round well away from the wolf and checked my six immediately. The best way for this to end was for him and anything else like him that might be around (remember, I had seen literally thousands of wolf trax in the snow) to want to leave. He did leave and I walked the rest of the way to the rig watching my back. Great hunting experience.

 

[TraderMike]

I've hunted a few areas in MT that have active packs. The Bob Marshall is huge and while I've been in there quite a bit, I've never seen hide nor hair of a wolf. There are plenty of elk in the area but many congregate on the front range on private land. More of a harboring issue than wolf issue. I just hunted an area last season in SW MT with active packs as well as griz. One evening in mid-September, we were greeted by 30 minutes of non-stop howling by wolves at sundown, followed by intense bugling from no fewer than 9 bulls within a quarter mile of our camp. Pretty awesome night. Saw a ton of elk, acting like elk with bugles and such. We returned to the same area for opening rifle and saw a white wolf just trotting down the trail the evening before the opener. My buddy had a tag in his pocket but we both agreed we didn't want to deal with reporting the kill (I'm not an SSS kind of guy). Still saw a lot of elk, some were still bugling that late in October. Don't really have any experience in these places prior to wolves as I was just a pup (although I think the Bob has always had them). For both places, not too much sign other than the occasional track or pile of scat. My personal theory is that elk and other ungulate populations take an initial hit from wolves because they forgot what the hell it was like to live with them but eventually regain a balance between predator and prey. No facts to back this up so it's probably bullshit but makes sense in my head!! I also think it can vary by area. I know some of the Idaho guys will chime in about elk being silent, etc. Don't doubt it but hasn't happened that way in my limited experience.

Sounds like you had a nice season chasing elk.

 

[elkyinzer]

I hunted Idaho in wolf country and saw sign of wolves in tracks and crap but didn't hear or see any. There were a lot of elk and they and the habitat seemed healthy. I saw a several different herds and each had decent herd bulls with 5-12 cows. Bulls were vocal. Granted I never hunted pre wolf reintro but from talking with locals elk populations have been better the last few years with both wolf reductions by trapping and the elk seemingly adapting to the wolf predation after they had been absent for hundreds of generations which I found especially interesting.

Also I've hunted in Colorado and saw a ton of hunters even back in 5 miles, about the same amount of elk, but they were virtually silent from the hunting pressure. So that is my anecdote but I know it varies alot by locality also.

 

[MTredneck]

You can probably expect some pretty significant behavioral changes at first. Like Muledeerfanatic wrote, seems like they've been bunching up more and staying lower and closer to the highways than they used to. Where I grew up the elk started hanging during the day in a hayfield by the highway the same year they reintroduced them, whereas before they fed down there at night and worked their way back up onto the mountain to bed for the day. Maybe its just pure anecdote, but that herd had been doing the same thing for decades at least, and suddenly changed things up pretty significantly. As long as they're not getting hunted, they seem to realize that the wolves aren't as likely to go after them closer to people (and the ones that do go after them on the ranches usually don't stick around for very long).

In some places its the exact opposite, however, and they disperse into smaller bunches into the timber. Harder to see them when they go that route, so harder to definitively say that's what they're doing. I've heard that in some cases the elk have cleared out and moved to a completely district, but I haven't chatted with any game biologists to confirm if this is really happening.

Wolves are one piece of a very complex total picture, and every herd and every pack is different depending on geography, land ownership and use, other predators, feed types available, weather, etc. Take a few breathes and relax, you'll still have elk to hunt. Like airlocksniffer wrote, they do seem to make an initial dent in the elk population, but then it stabilizes. You might even be able to put a sweet hide up on the wall one day, depending on when you guys get a wolf season. You just might have to relearn how your local bunch operates. But when isn't that the case with elk hunting? That's what makes it so damn fun.

 

[cornfedkiller]

I went to college in northern Minnesota, but when I was there, the wolf population wasnt that high yet. I made plenty of friends that still live and hunt up there and have heard several reports from them over the past 2-3 years that the deer hunting is terrible compared to how it used to be. Granted, a few of the last several winters have been tough which is tough on deer, but it seems like the wolves are doing just fine.

My friends that still hunt in northern MN tell me that during a typical day on the stand during rifle season, they see more wolves than deer.

 

[airlocksniffer]

Sounds like you had a nice season chasing elk.

Best season yet. Didn't end up getting one in those areas but closer to town but saw so many more elk than this season than before. I've been really serious about hunting elk for 3 seasons. I think more than anything this year, I am finally starting to figure out where to find elk. The season before last, I saw precisely 1 cow during archery season. This year I probably saw close to 200 head during archery, all in groups ranging from 5 to 20. I'm hoping next year I'll finally be able to stick one with my bow.

To put it simply, I love wild places. Wolves and griz add to the wild feeling I get when hunting in these areas. As a kid, I often daydreamed about being in the Lewis and Clark expedition and exploring some of these places when they were straight up untamed wilderness. Now in the modern day with all of the crap we have to deal with in our daily lives, being able to head out and still experience those wild places is something I wouldn't trade for anything.

 

[jmden]

Forgot to mention this earlier but with the time I've spent on Vancouver Island and the wolves there, it reminded me of two separate attacks on sea kayakers by wolves there since 2000. The article is about another potential attack, but recalls these others I refer to. I know this thread is about elk/deer but people are impacted directly as well. I had my first wolf encounter up there in 2001 and have had several since. We see way more predators up there than deer and elk.

http://www.bcbusiness.ca/natural-resources/forestry-worker-fends-off-wolf-attack

There's way more encounters, attacks and even a couple of deaths of folks than what's mentioned, of course.

 

[mtluckydan]

In the places I hunt in Montana, there are fewer elk now and they are definitely not as vocal. Elk typically leave the drainage if wolves show up. We got some early season snow in 2014 in an area we hunt. We spent 10 days hunting hard every day. We never heard a single bugle in an area that we have consistently killed elk in. I have hunted the area for close to 15 years. We did consistently see griz and wolf tracks daily. Another party called a wolf in to bow range, but didn't close the deal.

Whitetail hunting is my thing and in areas there are alot of wolves, the deer are so spooky they are extremely hard to hunt. They do not linger - if they think they see something, they are gone. They also spend more time blowing or snorting alerting every deer in the area. There have always been a large cat population in these areas. The behavior change has occurred since the wolves showed up on the scene.

 

[jmden]

http://www.amazon.com/Alaskas-Wolf-Man-Wilderness-Adventures/dp/1575100479

Speaking of personal experiences with wolves and ungulates, the personal experiences of Frank Glaser come to mind, detailed in the book above. I read this a number of years ago and thought it interesting.

 

[wyodan]

http://www.amazon.com/Alaskas-Wolf-Man-Wilderness-Adventures/dp/1575100479

Speaking of personal experiences with wolves and ungulates, the personal experiences of Frank Glaser come to mind, detailed in the book above. I read this a number of years ago and thought it interesting.

That is a great book! Glaser had some pretty sweet adventures.

 

[alecvg]

From what I have seen and heard, I think it really for some reason, depends on the area with how hard it gets hit. My experience with hunting wolf areas is from the Frank Church, and the Bob Marshell. From what I understand, wolves were released into the Frank about the same time as Yellowstone. The Frank was hit hard - at least the West side where I spend the majority of my time in there. Keep in mind that wolves seem to go after the easiest animals first - moose, then elk, mulies, sheep. What used to be a very huntable moose population in the Frank is all but gone now, and the elk populations are getting there. What used to be phenomenal elk hunting, has turned into something not even worth hunting elk in imo. I spent some sixty odd straight days guiding in the Frank, and only saw twelve elk, not a single calf. The calf survival rate is horrible, the only bulls we killed were old mature bulls, as there were no young ones. The mule deer populations still seem to be strong.

In the Bob, wolves don't seem to have made as big of an impact as what I saw in the Frank, at least not yet. The elk are still strong, but their habits and behavior has definitely changed to an extent, but nothing dramatic yet. I feel like it is a matter of time before their impact is greater felt, with so many protected area's in the Bob (all the protected winter areas, and the Sun River Game Preserve) Don't get me wrong, I am happy we have these areas, but they not only work as a sanctuary for deer and elk, but for wolves as well. The hardest hit animal I did notice in the Bob Marshell was the whitetails, I would assume they are an easier prey than the elk.

 

[KHNC]

I hunted the Selway/Bitterroot area of Idaho in 2005 for elk. We flew into moose lake area from Orifino and rode horse 4 hours back to camp. We had elk all around us every day and both of us tagged out in 3 days. Heard wolves one night and saw tracks daily. Now, that same outfitter has moved his camp completely out of the area due to elk almost completely vacating the entire area. He has hunted that area 20+ years with great success. I take him at his word that as of 2008, the elk were killed out by wolves or relocated due to the same. Also, there were a few moose that seem to have the same fate.

 

[airlocksniffer]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe wolves were ever re-introduced in the Bob, they just never left.

 

[CoSwede]

I'm originally from Northern MN and started hunting there in the late 70s. We've always had wolves up there but it was rare that you'd see one. This past 10 years or so I feel the wolf population has really started to expand. I recall sitting on stand on many occasions hearing several packs sounding off simultaneously at dusk. Two years ago I called in two wolves using a grunt tube. I hunted 16 days up there in 2014 and saw only one deer - deep in a cedar swamp. Virtually every deer track I saw had a wolf track next to them. As cornfedkiller mentioned, yes they have had a few tough winters and this population decline cannot be blamed entirely on the wolves. I didn't even bother hunting up there this past fall but the rest of the crew showed up. First time in probably 40 years that nobody took a deer. The area I hunt here in Colorado already has a sizeable population of Mt Lions as this past fall I found three bull kills - two of which I could attribute to Mt Lions, the third I couldn't say for sure. I am a bit concerned wondering what would happen by adding another apex predator such as a wolf to the mix.

 

[alecvg]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe wolves were ever re-introduced in the Bob, they just never left.

No I do not believe the were re-introduced, I am sure there have always been some in there, but the populations of wolves have gone up in the Bob since the re-introduction into the state as more packs moved into there.

 

[wyodan]

Best season yet. Didn't end up getting one in those areas but closer to town but saw so many more elk than this season than before. I've been really serious about hunting elk for 3 seasons. I think more than anything this year, I am finally starting to figure out where to find elk. The season before last, I saw precisely 1 cow during archery season. This year I probably saw close to 200 head during archery, all in groups ranging from 5 to 20. I'm hoping next year I'll finally be able to stick one with my bow.

To put it simply, I love wild places. Wolves and griz add to the wild feeling I get when hunting in these areas. As a kid, I often daydreamed about being in the Lewis and Clark expedition and exploring some of these places when they were straight up untamed wilderness. Now in the modern day with all of the crap we have to deal with in our daily lives, being able to head out and still experience those wild places is something I wouldn't trade for anything.

I feel the same way! It's why I moved from non-griz country to where I live now. Ran into a bunch of wolves last year, still had success on deer and saw a lot of elk in the same area.