How To Utilize All Your Senses When Interpreting Elk Sign

I had hit the jackpot, and the dusty, elk-tracked trail before me proved to be my winnings. The sloped opening held scattered signs of elk—droppings, tracks, and even the hint of elk in the air were all the clues I needed to confirm elk nearby.

I had never ventured this far from my spike camp to this distant mountain hideout, but the hour hike to reach the slope would be my focus the next several days of my backcountry hunt after experiencing a glut of elk evidence. The dark recesses of timber below likely held a restful herd of elk. That evening, I waited on the edge of the opening, believing that at any minute a line of cows would slip from the timber to feed followed by a disgruntled, overanxious bull.

The next morning and evening I revisited the same slope with unchanged, quiet results. As the elk smell disappeared and the dusty tracks faded from mountain breezes, I realized the abundant amount of sign was an anomaly left by a hurried herd on its way elsewhere. Weeks after the hunt ended (yes, tag soup), I happened upon another hunter and while we shared hunting stories, he provided insight on that herd’s behavior. It seems most of the elk in this hunting unit exit from the public land in haste to reach a private-land sanctuary where hundreds of elk gather. Instead of a bowhunting adventure, I wasted my time in a desert of elk nothingness.

The moral of this story? Understand elk sign thoroughly to diminish the gamble of elk hunting on public land or even private property. Elk sign gives you confidence, but even when it’s in an abundance, you need to be meticulous in deciphering its worth. A tan body sighting or bugle provides solid evidence of elk ahead, but residual sign could be a mistake if you read it wrong.

Turdology 101

Nobody likes to step in a fresh, steaming pile of crap…unless an elk just left it! Elk droppings get all diehard wapiti chasers energized. The very sight of a fresh pile indicates the fact that whoever left it behind could be as close as your uncle who stunk up the bathroom on Thanksgiving and is now snoring on the couch waiting for the next NFL game to start.

You likely will not get a glimpse of an elk in that position, but you do need to be able to evaluate droppings to see if they benefit you or if you should ignore them and move along in your hunt for elk. Being a worthy elk poop assessor begins with understanding that elk cover lots of ground and use different zones for specific purposes throughout the seasons.

First, male and female elk have different-appearing droppings, especially when it comes to mature animals. During the September and early October rut this rarely matters as any herd of cows generally has one, if not multiple bulls in tow. Once the rut wanes and the sexes separate, this evidence can be highly informative in determining if you have stumbled across a bachelor herd of bulls or a crowd of cows.

Male droppings are larger, broader and even somewhat flatter, like a quarter-sized, pathetic pancake. Females have a robustly round or slightly oval-looking pellet that will be smaller than a male, approximately the size of a Brazil nut. Fresh pellets may steam on a cool, humid morning, but do not bet on being that lucky. Look for pellets that have a sheen on their brown or greenish outside, squish when you pick them up (do not be squeamish) and have an overpowering smell of elk when you give them the sniff test. Although rain or snow can make older droppings appear fresh, the squish test usually causes old droppings to crumble whereas fresh ones still compress without falling apart.

Elk droppings to ignore are those turning gray, cracked or as hard as a pine cone. And do not get caught up in quantity, especially the old stuff. You may be examining elk droppings from a location elk use in summer or winter. Instead, I will survey the area for rubs, which I will focus on in the next segment, to indicate that some of the older and possibly newer elk droppings were deposited during breeding season.

Scan for urine spots to reinforce dropping evidence. In arid areas urine deposits may stand out for weeks with a stain on the soil, but in most forest or dusty areas they dry up quickly. A quick swipe of your finger provides a moisture test for an estimate on if the spot is a stain or a fresh release. And, yes, smell your finger if you dare as it will be super strong-smelling when newer.

When you see, feel and smell the spanking newness of elk excrement, solid or liquid, keep the hunt going to determine if this was from a single passing event. Slippery stuff everywhere, and in varying states of aging, could mean you hit the jackpot.

You will not stumble across it often, but you may discover a pool of grayish-white, jelly-like substance on the forest floor. Yes, it is what you think it is, since bull elk need sexual release as well from time to time. Google the interwebs if you need to see how bull elk pull that off without an opposable thumb. I have only stumbled across this once. The deposit was impressive, and I will leave it at that.

Scratches on the Furniture

Like your clawed cat, elk can be equally hard on the forest “furniture” in their home. Fresh rubs begin appearing late in August and continue up until early spring when elk shed their antlers. Most of the intense rubbing of antlers occurs in September, especially just prior to breeding season. This coincides with the timing of elk being fully charged with testosterone a week or two ahead of when the first cows come into estrus.

With a full tank of testosterone, they need to release some of the pent-up aggression and a good amount of anxiety is taken out on shrubbery, saplings and adult trees. Bulls take out aggression on anything nearby to liberate themselves, for a short while, from the effects of this overwhelming male hormone. Rubbing and sparring with vegetation also strengthens neck muscles and prepares them for the fights ahead. Some even take it a step further with actual sparring that soon transitions into intense fights as cows come into estrus.

Rubs, particularly large ones on trees with diameters exceeding two feet and raked barkless, are unmistakable indicators of mature bulls in the area. Immature bulls may also tackle a larger tree, but tear the heck out of saplings and brush patches throughout the elk woods.

To get the most from rub information, be on the lookout for both new and old rubs. The reason for being observant for old rubs is obvious. It tells a story of an area being a breeding hideaway for possibly decades. Aged gray rubs, weathered bare portions of tree trunks and broken understory wilted from time provide a time capsule that shows elk have spent part of their breeding period in these parts.

Unfortunately, what happened yesteryear may not help your hunt today. In addition to antique rubs, study the tree landscape for fresh rubs. Shiny, tan, stripped trunks of trees oozing with sap are your mark. Be careful as last year’s rubs could still be tan and oozing sap, but any branches that were raked off last year will be wilted and brittle brown. Fresh rubs will still have green boughs or branches hanging or lying underneath the rub. When you find old and new rubs, you could be in the neighborhood of an elk herd. Do a ground scan for fresh droppings and add in the following clues to check off your list to determine if you have found an elk expo center.

Wonders of Water

Like you, elk require water daily. They may skip a meal, but that daily dose of water is vital for survival. Elk do not require Lake Michigan as a resource. Small seeps, creeks and ponds suffice if major water sources do not exist. Depending on elk size, temperature and physical activity, elk require from 4-12 gallons or more per day.

Tracks can be important to reveal if elk are utilizing a water source. Check the edges for mud imprints and evaluate them for crisp, clean indents that have not been weathered by climatic conditions. A few tracks should be taken with a grain of salt as it could merely be elk passing through, as in a satellite bull looking for a herd during the rut. Heavy traffic, particularly in arid, water challenged areas, should make you take notice. Elk may be utilizing a source like this daily or every few days.

Water opens ambush opportunities to wait for thirsty elk. The animals appreciate a refill before bedding for the day to aid in digesting a bellyful of grass and have a parched thirst once they rise from their naps. Dawn and dusk watches over a water source should be considered, as should utilizing a trail camera if legal.

A bonus to any early-season water source is the elk evidence left from wallowing. During the run-up to the rut and throughout, bull elk wallow with passion. Wallowing refers to elk thrashing in muddy areas, urinating in the mud and on themselves, and then rolling in it to plaster their bodies with the odorous concoction. Biologists surmise elk wallow to cake themselves in scent and carry it along like a mobile public service announcement. Whitetail hunters can think of it as a traveling whitetail scrape. Although most bulls prefer muddy edges for the plaster effect, over the years I have watched many a bull walk into belly-deep water and aggressively wallow without mudslinging.

This includes watching one bull jump into a steel stock tank long enough for me to sling an arrow into its side.

Wallowing leaves even more evidence than waterhole visits, especially with gobs of mud available. Use common sense during your assessment. Although mud dries quickly when slung from water, you can still estimate if it made its flight that day or days prior. Cracked and diffused mud likely equals elk with a day or more head start. Mud with some mush left in it or still in the state of mud could mean a napping bull nearby. And if you discover the water is still murky when it should be settled and clear, do some additional recon in the area.

One bow season I bumped into a band of bachelor bulls at the end of the breeding season. Walking up to where they had been I discovered a small, natural spring they had been using for hydration and wallowing. Three days of patient waiting awarded me with a 36-yard shot on a plump 5x5 bull for the freezer.

Tracks and Tracking

As I referenced in the opening, tracks tell a tale, but sometimes it may be a short story. Elk live in herds and leave lots of sign, even when just passing through. As in the turdology section earlier in this article, finding one fresh pile is good, finding dozens of fresh piles in varying degrees of freshness is great. Look for lots of sign in the dirt, mud or some cases, snow.

Distinct, sharp tracks stand out from weathered leftovers of the past. In addition to looking for plenty of tracks, other dirt clues can build confidence that a herd may be lingering and not just transiting through. First, still hunt through dark timber, especially north-facing slopes, and look for beds. Why still hunt? You may sneak up on a herd ambling its way through, or even sneak up on a bedded herd (you really need to be sneaky here).

Deer beds have an approximate oval length of two feet while elk leave an impression of three feet or longer. And both like to paw out a space free of rocks, pine cones and sticks to form a comfortable bed in the duff. In grassy areas they just plop down in the cushiness of the turf. When you discover bed after bed on various levels of a mountain you know they use that location consistently for its sanctuary character. You also should examine any disturbed dirt areas. Elk, especially bulls, paw out areas in testosterone frustration and I have witnessed them dirt wallowing when not in proximity of water.

As a benefit to your tracking, brush up on the difference between elk and cattle tracks. The two intermingle, especially at water and public range areas. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the two. Adult beef cow tracks are large, blocky and quite distinct, but livestock calves leave a track that is like that of adult elk. If you find yourself in this situation, and you likely will, look for other tracks and search for fresh elk droppings or cow pies for additional confirmation.

Two seasons ago I still hunted into a dark bench where I’d found ample dirt sign of a bedroom on a prior pass-through. Surprisingly, I slipped up on a bedded trio of spike bulls. The sighting was promising as young bulls tend to tag a herd. I watched them leave later and the next day planted myself in the same corridor. At high noon, a satellite bull strolled through below me and using the bell end of my Bugling Bull tube, I made glunking sounds to lure the bull within 40 yards of my Prime bow. It took me the rest of that day and most of the next to pack that general-unit bull to camp.

What’s That Smell?

Lastly, use every sense you have, but definitely sniff the wind. Solo elk bulls or an entire herd reek. They leave a distinctive aroma wafting on the breeze. Like all scents, wind sweeps it away relatively quickly along with a good rain shower. In arid areas scent does not linger as long as in humid areas where it hangs with the dampness. But rest assured, if you catch a nose full of elk scent, you are either standing in excrement or urine, or elk are nearby or just passed. When you put all other clues together and repeatedly smell the strong odor of elk in an area, the math adds up to squatters staying there for an extended period. Do your diligence to intercept them.

My top-scoring, DIY, public-land, solo-hunted bull finally succumbed after the smell test strategy. Starting out from camp early I heard a bugle across a dark canyon and jogged after it. Unfortunately, we passed each other at dawn, based on more bugling from where I came. At sunrise the winds turned fierce and I could not hear any longer over the din. Luckily, I spotted the bull back across the canyon, trekked back and slipped into the edge of the herd as the bull wallowed and cows drank.

Unknowingly, another hunter heard the same early bugles and commenced to boy-band bugling above the now alerted herd. They scrammed and I tried to keep up, but without bugling clues I just started guessing as to their location. Then a huge wave of elk scent slammed into me and I peeked over a ledge to see the herd. A few tense moments later the patriarch stepped from behind a bush and I hit him with my BDX rangefinder for a distance of 61 yards. My Montec found its mark and soon I was granted the rapture of hours of smelling a rutting bull as I extracted him from the backcountry.

Stink It Up

I spend days chasing whitetails in the Midwest after a long fall in elk country. Thus, one of my favorite ploys is to create and accentuate mock scrapes.

Although elk paste their scrapes across their massive bodies by wallowing, I still use scents around wallows and water sources to attract and ultimately distract elk for the shot.

As midday approaches, I try to rest up in elk country while elk herds are typically bedded. My goal is to find a location where an anxious bull could pass during that midday period. Known bedding areas and wallows top my list with wallows being the best. Once I locate an upwind hide, I sneak to the water’s edge to mist an estrous elk scent on the edges and nose-level vegetation. Sometimes I dip a wick in the scent to place upwind of where elk may arrive as an attractant.

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