Are You Elk Ready?

What do you mean you don’t have time to come out and scout with me?” I asked my hunting partner who lives in the Midwest and had drawn a general-unit elk tag with me. While his whitetail scouting at home primarily revolves around an army of trail cameras, general-unit elk hunting demands more significant commitment. Elk may be patternable enough to justify the use of trail cameras, but even that requires a boots-on-the-ground, preseason scouting mission. General-unit elk require a scouting plan, a hunting plan and a camping plan, and the hunting plan, especially, requires multiple backups, as elk rarely adhere to a food-plot lifestyle once human scent begins wafting through the woods.

A lengthy explanation of this failed to persuade him, and I soon gave up the deliberation. Instead, I produced a plan to fulfill our scouting needs myself. He would potentially reap the reward of my mountain recon sweat equity, but I could also win if my arrow found its mark first, enlisting him for an elk extraction. I do not mind spending time planning for elk success, but I also understand that bartering information for pack-out duties is a valuable card to hold in reserve.

That scenario always spurs me into action during the summer to ensure in-season prosperity, regardless of the tag I may be holding.

GENERAL-UNIT ATTACK PLAN

Regardless of the elk unit you plan to hunt, whether general or permitted, rarely should you settle into a contented state. A handful of once-in-a-lifetime units offer first-class elk hunting, but for those with success rates of 20 percent or less, you have your work cut out for you. Therefore, it’s imperative to know your unit inside and out.

You must familiarize yourself with the terrain, access options, hunting pressure and herd behavior to fully build a hunting season plan. All of these have importance, but I rank herd behavior slightly above the rest because what the animals do during the season affects your success more than any other factor.

Throughout the West, elk herds experience hunting pressure, they routinely flee to vast private ranches where access is limited. Montana recently held symposiums to address this issue, and as I type this article, burgeoning private-land elk herds are being debated in the Wyoming legislature. With elk density above most objectives, the increasing number of elk on private lands limits public hunting success and neither landowners nor hunters seem happy. Forget trying to solve this yourself, but be aware that your targeted herds may flee to a fenceline you don’t have permission to cross.

Call a game warden, biologist or regional supervisor in the unit you plan to hunt. These folks deal directly with these issues and can explain herd behavior. Ask pertinent questions. Do the elk stay scattered in the unit? Do the elk escape to more rugged terrain when faced with hunting pressure? Do the elk run to private lands that do not allow hunting? If a move occurs, when should you expect it—early or late in the month? Do the elk ever return to the public land they flee? Questions like this help you draft a plan and set goals based on reality, not what you see on YouTube.

When you have a wildlife professional by the ear, ask him or her where to expect most of the hunting pressure. You might get the standard “everywhere” response, but they might offer up some sage advice to hunt away from a major national forest campground or stay away from a particular basin due to its easy access. This information, combined with herd behavior, helps you determine whether the opener, mid-month or later provides your best window for success.

SAFETY SECOND

Next, assess the unit for safety concerns. Review the terrain for steepness, ruggedness and deep-water crossings. Be especially mindful of boulders and scree slopes where twisted ankles are born. Understand the weather variables during the time of your hunt. Snow can occur at high altitude every month of the year, but it can really dump once fall arrives, possibly leaving you stranded. Also be predator aware, particularly in grizzly country. Educate yourself on predator precautions and tactical responses when confronted by grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, mountain lions and even coyotes. In some states these predators receive little or no hunting pressure and behave dangerously different than hunted species.

Next, develop a detailed and comprehensive gear list. Depending on your hunt, you may need to include backpacking essentials, bivy components, specialized clothing and footwear, first-aid equipment, survival gear, a complete menu, plus water necessities such as filters and storage options. Take your planning a step further to include extraction tools if successful. Lastly, ensure your vehicle is up to date on maintenance and has recovery tackle if travel becomes difficult.

Be weapon-ready. Whether you’re hunting a general unit you can draw every year or land a tag that requires a handful of preference points, you’ll likely only get one or two opportunities at most to fill that tag. On most of my archery hunts in general units, I typically get one chance in an 8- to 10-day hunt. You must be prepared to make the most of that fleeting opportunity. Get dialed in early and spend enough time to make your weapon an extension of your body that works on autopilot when the adrenaline hits the red line.

By this time of the summer you should be in mountain shape—not just gym shape. Elk country is unforgiving and requires hiking 6 or more miles per day, ascending 1,500 feet per day and keeping up this energy for a week or more. Be honest with yourself during your summer assessment and set limits on what you can and cannot do in elk country.

FOCUS ON THE NURSERY HERDS

For the season opener, my objective is to find the nursery herds of cows and calves. Locating where these elk herds spend the summer and understanding their first movements after opening day goes a long way toward immersing yourself in action early. Not only will you be amid a cow harem in the event you just want meat, every bull elk, especially younger bulls, will be making their way to the hookup site. Mature bulls may stay in the background during the first few days of the month, but expect that to change day by day as the herd vitality surges.

During your call to a local wildlife professional, ask where to locate any late-summer herds of cows and about their movement pattern from summer into September. Female elk traditionally return to the same general area year after year to birth and raise their newborn calves. Biologists and game managers will be familiar with these nursery 
areas, often characterized by high-country meadows with lush vegetation. Most include nearby escape cover, but it is common for some herds to go beyond and utilize alpine environments free of insects and chock-full of lush vegetation.

Of course, these masses of cows become an attraction for bulls as the pre-rut testosterone begins to surge, but the same nutritional value that lures cows to the best feed on the mountain also attracts bulls. It is common to glass several hundred head of cows and calves, then turn your spotting scope in the opposite direction and spy a bachelor herd of bulls a short hike away. Cows seek out high-energy foods for optimum health and milk production for their young. Bulls are committed to piling on fat reserves for the rut and growing antlers—nearly an inch per day during the peak of the summer. These energy-sapping activities require tons of green feed.

Although a simple query about nursery locations may reveal a black-and-white answer, it’s always a good idea to dig deeper. Seasonal variations, such as drought or early snow, may move these herds prior to the hunt, plus human scouting and hunting pressure can nudge elk to more remote locations. As more folks escape to public lands in fall, elk do not differentiate between hunters, mountain bikers and a caravan of ATVs braaap-ing down the trail.

Add to these factors the very natural behavior of massive nursery herds breaking into smaller units during your hunt. This breakdown into sub-groups opens the opportunity for bulls to take charge of a harem and relocate it. When this happens, good mapping skills come into play, as you can bet on herd movement away from summer range as the bull tries to put distance between his harem and others.

PATHS LESS TRAVELLED

Depending on what information you gleaned from your discussions with wildlife officials or even peers familiar with the area, check for roadless areas, rugged terrain, nearby quality food sources and the heads of drainages herds may use as jumping-off points prior to the winter migration. Also put into play any information on whether elk will take off to private sanctuaries. Although elk fully understand what side of a fence to be on for safety, the September rut does spur satellite bulls to drift between herds and off private lands as they nomadically look for love.

A quality hunting app like HuntStand or onX Hunt exposes these private borders in addition to helping you scout for large expanses of roadless areas in rugged terrain. If the elk do not have a private party to attend, bet on them finding refuge in the harshest of public terrain if hunting pressure exists.

When someone asks you if you have time for a boots-on-the-ground scouting mission or several hours to spare for summertime research, consider your answer carefully. September is just around the corner, and being lackadaisical now will snowball during any hunt that does not have a plan.

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• This article was featured in the August issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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