Chasing Elk: Be Ready To Pivot On The Fly

Arriving a day before the season opener, I was eager to set up camp and start searching for elk. In fact, I was so excited I skipped the camp part and went right to scouting. Nine hours later, I’d not found a fresh track, rub, wallow, or any droppings. Discouraged, I pitched my tiny tent in the dark. I was bowhunting the area for the first time and wasn’t able to physically scout the spot so far from my home. My online research and phone calls to biologists and fellow hunters pointed me to this location in the Rocky Mountains. It took seven years to draw the tag.

Shortly before 11:00 p.m., I was awakened by a pack of howling wolves. They were close. I sprung out of my sleeping bag, broke down my tiny camp, and drove four hours to my backup spot in a different drainage. I hunted all day and saw lots of sign. It was fresh. Two wallows were still murky with suspended sediment and reeked of bull urine. Sap oozed from fresh rubs on pine trees and elk droppings were moist. I didn’t see a single elk.

I camped in the backup spot that night. Not long after dark, I heard a distant bugle. Another bull followed. I laid in my sleeping bag, listening. Over the next hour, the elk got closer. The air was filled with elk chatter. Not just bulls, but cows and calves, too. I’d heard those sounds before, when calves separate from the herd as they feed and cows keep track of them by way of loud, verbal communication. About 2:00 a.m., the elk sounds dissipated. I hunted all day and didn’t see or hear an elk.

The next night the elk returned. Again, they were vocal. This time, when their sounds waned, I followed. Led by a full moon, I rarely needed to turn on my headlamp. My goal was to keep them in earshot so I could figure out where they were going. What I learned that night, nearly 20 years ago, changed how I hunt elk.

Dark Ops

The herd was traveling more than three miles from their bedding area high in the mountains to food and water near where I camped. By 3:00 a.m., they’d already reached thick timber to bed, where later in the morning rising thermals combined with shade would keep them cool for the day. Two days later, high in the timber, I killed a bull.

Scouting for elk in the dark is a game of patience. It’s a highly effective way to learn about elk in an area you’re hunting for the first time. The goal of nighttime scouting is to listen for elk and monitor their movements, but not get close to them. If you’re hard of hearing, like me, electronic hearing devices are invaluable, saving time and long hikes.

A dim headlamp and navigation device are must-haves, because often you’re scouting in total darkness. Scouting in the dark reveals when and where elk are moving and provides insight as to how you can hunt them.

In this case, wolves pushed the elk out of the first place I planned to hunt. I’ve had this happen multiple times since, and the presence of wolves is just one reason it’s wise to have a backup plan. Wildfires, drought, hunting pressure, and a simple lack of elk are other factors that can change even the best laid plans. While we have good intentions of scouting for elk during the summer, not many of us have the time or money to make a trip or two to distant places searching for elk. So, what do you do when the season arrives and you’ve never seen the land you’re hunting? Scouting at night is one move. That’s just the beginning.

Hunt, Scout, Hunt

When hunting a place for the first time, I rarely return to camp during the day. I hunt hard early in the morning, scout all day, then hunt the last few hours. I return to camp well after dark.

In the middle of the day I’m searching for elk sign, not typically calling or glassing for animals. My goal is to learn the land and how to hunt it. By midmorning, elk are usually bedded down. This is the time to search for fresh droppings, rubs, and tracks. Tracks can be hard to read on hot, dry ground, so locate water which attracts elk. Sometimes a tiny creek or spring to drink from will draw elk from miles away. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a wallow.

Look for three kinds of wallows. First is the traditional water wallow, where bulls frolic and urinate in mud and water. Once located, study the water closely to see if there’s a current flow. If there is, the wallow will run clear. If there’s not, sediment will be suspended, which can give a false read on when it was last used.

Get With The Flow

If there’s no current flow in a wallow, sediment can stay suspended for a long time. This gives the illusion that a bull just used it, when, in reality, it could have been days prior. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, take a stick and swirl the mud. Watch closely to see if the sediment gets carried away, or just sits there. If it gets washed away, you’re likely to be looking at—and smelling—fresh sign. If the wallow is stagnant, keep scouting because the bull that last used it could be miles away.

Also, look for moist-ground wallows. These wallows are made by bulls in dark forests amid thick ferns, as well as where the grass is green and collects moisture at forested edges. Bulls still roll around, rake, rub, and urinate in these wallows even though there is no water. Early in the morning, condensation retains the bull’s scent, and it’s easy to read tracks. By midday, many moist-ground wallows dry up, and though you might not smell them, they’re easy to identify by sight due to the worked up ground and tattered grass. Search for old rubs in such areas, indicating bulls have been using the area year after year.

Last is the dry-ground wallow. I’ve seen bulls roll on the hardest, driest, most open ground, totally enveloped in dust. Bulls will scrape, gouge, urinate and roll on dry ground and it seems to happen when water is scarce. If you can smell urine in a dry-ground wallow or scrape, you have the advantage because moisture and odors quickly dissipate on hot days.

Midday Calling

We wait all year to hunt elk, not spend time in camp. If you locate fresh sign when scouting in the middle of the day and you think elk are close, it might be wise to make a move. Because they’re likely bedded in timber—either in a ravine or high on a ridge—check the thermals to make sure they’re steadily moving uphill. If they are, approach from above. Never give up the wind when bowhunting elk. I don’t care if an elk sees or hears me as long as I’m in the shadows, but I’ve never killed a bull that’s smelled me. We can’t begin to comprehend how incredibly powerful an elk’s sense of smell is.

Many times, I’ve located elk herds bedded in the middle of the day. I’ve tried all sorts of moves to kill a bull, from stalking in on the herd to subtly calling to moving with a decoy. Stalking can find you close, but often there are lots of eyeballs to contend with, and it’s just a matter of luck as to where a bull might be laying. Subtle calling to a herd of tired elk can be futile, unless you happen to catch a bull with ramped-up testosterone levels. Creating a sense of urgency is the key.

I’ve had my best success bowhunting bedded elk at midday by moving to within a couple hundred yards and aggressively calling. Start with loud cow and calf chatter, simulating a calf that’s wandered too far from its concerned mother and they’re relying on loud voices to reconnect. If you’ve ever heard this in the wild, it’s very loud, fast-paced calling; mimic that.

Follow the cow and calf chatter with bugling sounds of an insubordinate bull. Make the bugles crisp and short. No lip bawls or chuckles. Often, the entire herd starts talking. If the bull gets nervous, it’ll move to keep the herd in order and often head to the lost cow and calf sounds you’re making. If the bull bugles at any point, immediately cut it off with bugles that sound exactly like what it’s delivering. This sends the message that you’re a big bull willing to fight for cows. Even in the middle of the day, this aggressive move can work. If it doesn’t, back out and hunt the herd when they start moving, right before dark.

Trail Camera Benefits

When hunting an area for the first time, try to set out trail cameras. Check them in the middle of the day. This takes time and effort, but it’s an efficient way to learn about elk and predator movement. Set them on video mode, for the sounds and movements you’ll capture will be extremely useful.

One season I set cameras in an area I hunted for the first time. I was seeing fresh sign but no elk. It took four days of moving cameras and covering ground, but what I learned was the herd I was targeting moved nearly seven miles every night to feed and water.

If you’re not seeing elk, trail cameras can reveal why. One season I couldn’t find an elk. I caught a poacher on trail camera who was using an ATV in a non-motorized hunting area. I followed a trail the man had cut and found a gut pile. And his cell phone. The cell phone and footage were turned over to the police.

I’ve caught many predators on trail camera during elk season. The presence of coyotes and cougars don’t seem to bother elk to the point the whole herd will leave an area, but bears can, and wolves almost always do. By September, calf elk are big enough to make it hard work for bears to kill them—not like during the calving season when bears kill a lot of elk. If I’m catching cougar, black bears or grizzlies on trail camera, I’ll keep hunting the area. If I catch wolves on camera, or hear wolves howling, I’ll leave. The only thing I’ve seen run elk out of a drainage faster than wolves is a wildfire.

Move Out

Before leaving home, monitor wildfires in your hunt area. This is something you can do all summer, but many fires spark during elk season, when the forest is dry and lighting storms are on the rise. Every September, hunters are afield when a fire flares up and they have to vacate.

I’ve changed locations due to the intrusion of fellow hunters, too. If they’re hunting an area, educating animals, elk will quickly go into hiding. It’s hard enough killing a bull, but trying to kill a bull on constant alert can be impossible.

I like having a plan B and C. Make sure your backup spots are within your legal hunting area.

Last season I ran into a hunter where I’d not seen elk in over a decade. I asked if he had any luck. He said no. “But we used to kill bulls in here all the time.” While that could have been, the man overlooked the fact that a string of wildfires and increased logging in the area forced the elk to move somewhere else. If you don’t have time to scout for elk before the season begins, don’t panic. Look, learn, and move, and the chances of killing a bull greatly increase.

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