I need help...

[Simonthehunter]

Hey fellow outdoorsmen!

I'm looking to hunt Elk this season again. I'm a new hunter, I don't have a mentor and my hunts are DIY on crown land. I solo hunted WMU 346 and 444 last season. I failed to find and elk last season. I think it was due to my lack of skills and experience. So prior this season I read everything I could on elk, called biologists, learn to bugle, watch tons of videos and did more scouting. I scouted WMU 360 and 344 a couple weeks before opening. I didn't see any trace of elk in 360 in crown land just deer and grizzly tracks. In 344 I bugled to two bulls in thick timber so I decided to hunt that area. I was that area for 3 days and nothing... No answers to my bugles, no trace of elk or deer for that matter(I was willing to take a whitetail if I had too) and the timber was so thick I don't understand how Elk were able to move in there. So here I am I want to go hunt this Thursday until Saturday and I have no idea where to go. Should I head to totally new WMU with no scouting or head back in 344?

I understand that the success rate for elk is extremely low and being a total new hunter doesn't help my odds. I'm not looking for someone's secret spot or honey hole but just a bit of direction/advice.

Feel free to PM. Thank you to everyone who replies.

[Maxwell87]

it takes time, enjoy the process. i’m far from a expert and am doing the same. it is not suppose to be easy!

[JeanCretien]

When you said you bugled in two and ended up in brush so thick that you couldn’t believe it, it made me think you might be close to where you need to be. They are like ghosts- And I don’t get how they live in that stuff either. I’ve had them walk up on me without making a peep where the wolves are bad.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kurthunter]

Glad to hear you are getting out. I hunt 344 as well and from my past experience the elk get harder and harder to find every year. With all the logging, oil and gas, hunters, wolves, bears, cougars you name it.

Its still a decent area but if you could find a zone closer to farmland you would have better luck. Hunt the crown that border fields and ambush them coming into feed.

For example I have been looking closer to the zones near Edson. Best of luck

[obsessed1]

In high pressured spots that hold elk look for the thickest nastiest bush. They will likely be there

[DeadEyeGardner]

The journey is the reward.

Took me 4 years to shoot one with a rifle, and 6 years to shoot one with a bow since I first started elk hunting. I don’t think you need help, I think you need experience.

Best of luck!

[Stinky Buffalo]

It's a process - unless you have access to a spot where you know elk regularly visit (raiding farm bales late in the season, for instance) it is very challenging.

Depending on hunting pressure and the time of year, they can be in different kinds of places. Also, if they get pressured/spooked, they can be up and gone, miles away, or hunkered down in thick stuff, like Obsessed1 said.

This time of year, I look for travel corridors between feed and water.

I'm still trying to figure it out myself. And there's been a few times where I just found myself surrounded by them. Hard to describe, but quite the experience.

Also gauge your capabilities realistically - sure, you can hike ten miles into the bush to find your quarry, but you need to be prepared to haul the whole thing out before it spoils.

Most of all, have fun with it, and watch your six! If you are calling, you may call in predators.

[fishnguy]

My personal opinion, and take it with a grain of salt because I know nothing of the management units you are talking about (don’t really know where they are exactly, actually, lol), but I would stick with what you have already scouted and actually know that elk is there because you saw/heard it. In all likelihood, if you were able to call them in before and the amount of pressure hasn’t changed since, the elk is still there, almost a certainly. They may now have cows and don’t really care about your calls for the time being. Could also be that your calls are not what they currently want to hear.

In my experience, and it’s only my personal experience, which isn’t that extensive, once they really start going and have cows around them, they aren’t going to move much. Obviously food and water. If both are within a short travel distance, however, they will stay in the thicket and do their thing all the way until it is done and over with.

Yes, I would head back to 344 and the worst thing that can happen is you will learn more about the territory and maybe about the animals as well. And believe me, I know exactly how it feels when you are there every day, numerous days in a row, and “nothing” happens.

Don’t give up. Do your thing. Ask on this forum, people are helpful more often than not. In the bush, arguably the hardest thing is locating a bull. You need to know the territory, so scouting is important. Also to note, in my mind, this time of year when you hit a new ground with no real direction, so do hundreds of other hunters and some/many of them know exactly where they are heading.

[Savage45]

Haven’t hunted this area in 11years and I’m sure things have changed. Was wondering if anybody has been out there recently and how the elk population is doing there.

[Khrfn]

Originally Posted by kurthunter

Glad to hear you are getting out. I hunt 344 as well and from my past experience the elk get harder and harder to find every year. With all the logging, oil and gas, hunters, wolves, bears, cougars you name it.

Its still a decent area but if you could find a zone closer to farmland you would have better luck. Hunt the crown that border fields and ambush them coming into feed.

For example I have been looking closer to the zones near Edson. Best of luck

Yes agreed x2

[lyallpeder]

Originally Posted by Maxwell87

it takes time, enjoy the process. i’m far from a expert and am doing the same. it is not suppose to be easy!

Amen. Me too.