Hunt
Elk the
Old-Fashioned Way
by Wayne Van Zwoll
They haven't gotten smarter and more elusive. We've gotten dumber and lazier.
Elk hunting is best when elk abound, as they now do. But many tags still go unfilled. "Elk are the same as ever," a veteran hunter once told me. "They're big and clumsy and not very bright.
Bulls live in the same kinds of places they've lived since the Dust Bowl. They eat, sleep, and get sex the same way. Elk haven't changed. But hunters have. They've lost the will to hunt hard and the skills to hunt right. They look for shortcuts. They'd do better hunting the old-fashioned way."
A couple of decades later, having guided several dozen elk hunters and having been outfoxed by many bull elk, I mostly agree with the old fellow. Elk are indeed big and clumsy and dull-witted. But so are many hunters. And elk have longer, stronger legs and know the country intimately. They know hunters better than elk used to. They still have sharp eyes, superior hearing, and a sense of smell so good that any comparison to the human nose is laughable. Elk don't have to find a camp at night. They don't have to know where we are, only where we aren't.
So elk ordinarily win without much effort. Traditional hunting skills may work better than ever now, mainly because modern elk have had little practice outwitting hunters who use them. Few elk hunters these days have grown up hunting elk. Many hail from the East, where they hunt deer from tree stands.
The biggest difference between whitetail hunting and elk hunting may be the size of the country. It's big on the map and bigger on the ground because a lot of it is vertical. Elk don't use the same trails every day, and that fact makes the country bigger still. Unless you're hunting ranch fields late in the season, you can forget about a stand. You must move to hunt elk, often over roadless terrain a mile and a half above sea level. You may trek several miles to where the elk are. The scope of your task can be intimidating. Nonetheless, the fundamentals of successful elk hunting are easily learned.
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Many hunters hunt where elk are not. Some go there because it's easy country or because old elk sign is abundant. Elk move in response to weather and hunting pressure. Their day beds are not where they lounge at night. While elk eat more grass than browse and like to forage in meadows and burns, they usually lie in the shade and will seek heavy cover in early fall, because shade has spared forest plants the withering effects of the sun.
In warm weather, look for elk to bed on north slopes where timber is heavier, rather than on the south slopes mule deer generally prefer. Key on benches with lodgepole pine and young Douglas-fir trees. Elk like to forage in the open, but mostly early and late in the day and at night, and during winter, when deep snow forces them off the mountain onto more open range.
In October, hunt small, wet meadows wedged between blocks of timber. These offer succulent forage and quick access to security cover. Light snow won't move elk. A heavy snow that comes early may not initiate migration. Elk forage ably in deep snow if it is not heavily crusted. Late in the season, look for elk in patches of Douglas firs that keep snow off the ground and offer a windbreak.
Elk have thick hides and heavy coats. They're unperturbed by cold snaps but like cool places with lots of water in warm weather. They bed high to catch daytime thermal drift from the valleys and give themselves several escape options. Elk may dive into canyon bottoms to evade hunters but seldom bed there because they can't see far. Wind coverage is poor in the gutters during the day, and moving water covers the sound of approaching hunters. Elk threatened in a ravine have only one way out. Climbing is slow and drains energy quickly.
More hunters waste time on ridgeline than in the bottoms. Elk learn that hunters like the easy walking and great visibility of mountain spines. So elk stay a third of the way downslope, high enough for a quick exit over the top but concealed from hunters patrolling the crest.
Hunting the crest can pay if you can put yourself within rifle range of a seep, meadow, or well-traveled saddle (wallows produce poorly after the rut). You must get to your post early and stay late, mind the wind, be still, glass constantly, and hope very hard that a bull passes by.
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Elk hunting demands physical effort. Besides limiting your range, fatigue can dull your senses and impair your decisions. There's no benchmark level of fitness. I certainly can't hunt now like I did at age 25. But weight, muscle tone, and aerobic capacity all respond to a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet and exercise. Walking is easier on your joints than is jogging. Choose steep terrain where you can find it and carry a pack on occasion to load your muscles and lungs.
If you can walk 8 miles in two hours (less pack, on an undulating road or trail) without feeling tired, you'll quickly adjust to the thinner air of autumn elk country and be able to hunt comfortably.
Most hunters need to improve their marksmanship. What's needed is more practice to refine position, breathing, and trigger control. While elk rifles must be zeroed (at 200 yards) from a bench, subsequent shooting is best done without a rest, primarily from the sit, because that is the steadiest useful hunting position. Kneeling is tougher, and standing is a last resort for close, urgent shots. All positions require practice because you must accustom your muscles to new tensions and learn to use bone structure to support your rifle's weight. Practice also breeds confidence.
Don't shoot at bull's-eye targets only. Use cardboard elk silhouettes without visible aiming points. A big bull's torso is about 30 inches deep at the shoulder, including hair. To improve range estimation, note the relative size of the cutout against the reticle at a specific magnification (use 4X on a variable). If you can't set targets out at long range, make them half-size and pretend they're at double the distance. Note where the first shot from a cold barrel strikes, because that is the most important shot. Consistency counts, too. On a calm day I like to think I can keep bullets inside three minutes of angle from a sling-assisted sit. Make that 6 inches at 100 yards for kneeling, and 9 inches for offhand. It seems to me unethical to shoot at an elk unless you know you are all but certain of a fatal hit. Practicing from hunting positions, you'll know your maximum effective range for each. Wind, steep angles, and excitement can reduce it on the hunt. My rule of thumb: Shoot only as far as you can put 9 of 10 bullets in a 12-inch circle.
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Diligent glassing plays a big role in elk hunting. Unless you're hunting on private land, you probably won't see many bulls in the open, and certainly not any big bulls. They've learned to stay back in the trees, so that's where you have to glass for them. When you're in the thickets, be sure your binocular is focused for a close-up view. Don't look for an entire elk. Look for a glint of sun on eye or antler, a cream-colored rump, the flick of an ear. Have patience. A glance won't show you all there is to see.
Always look carefully before you come out of cover into the open. Begin when you're well back in the trees. Elk like to hang around edges, and they're alert to movement across a clearing. You won't get a shot if they see you first. Spooked elk often move miles.
Elk can hold whitetail-tight in dense cover. Once I "pushed" a small canyon for a deer hunter. When I joined my client, he asked me if I'd seen the bull elk. I hadn't. "Take a look," he said. With the spotting scope, I made out an antler in tall grass. The elk was lying within 40 yards of my path. It had quietly gotten up in front of me, sneaked around a serviceberry bush and bedded back down.
Concentrate your glassing at dawn and dusk, when elk are most active. Watch meadow edges, burns, or mountain passes, keeping the sun behind you as much as possible to illuminate elk and hide your own image. At midday, poke around in the trees. In bedding cover I move slowly and spend about half my time glassing. But because elk country is big and not all thickets promising, I sometimes walk in high gear between coverts without glassing en route.
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Rutting bulls can be bugled up or enticed with a cow call. But lots of bugling, from elk or other hunters, reduces the effectiveness of your music. I don't bugle. I use a cow call mainly to settle elk when my step is noisy on the last stage of a stalk. That cow call can also stop a bull.
Some years ago a hunter and I were hiking out of a canyon when we rousted a bull from his bed. He sped off through the aspens, but a squeal on my cow call brought him up short for the shot.
Most rifle elk seasons occur after the late September rut and before migration, when bulls naturally seek cover and solitude to rest and put on winter fat. Bugling can get a response after the rut (I once zeroed in on a bull that bugled in November), but it won't happen often. When a bull replies after the rut, chances are slim that he'll come to you or even answer again. If you bugle without effect, all you've done is alert nearby elk to your presence.
In much of the Mountain West, early November brings the first serious snow and prompts elk to migrate. Snow enables you to track. Elk can travel far in a day, so you're smart to pick up a track first thing in the morning and disregard tracks you think are more than a day old. Fresh snow is important because it covers old tracks. When you find a trail that shows elk moving with purpose, follow briskly. Elk with more than a couple of hours' head start can stay ahead of you until you must turn back.
If the animals bed, you're in luck. A herd about to bed typically "loosens up." Individuals separate from the group and meander from the central line of travel. They often hook to watch their back trail. They start nibbling at forage. When tracks show this behavior, slow down and follow to the side to avoid detection.
I can't tell cow tracks from those of immature bulls, but mature bull elk weigh half again as much as cows, and their prints are noticeably bigger. Bulls with wide antlers may split from other elk to skirt thickets or trees with low limbs. Bulls urinate in the middle of their beds, which are often located in thick cover apart from a herd. Big bulls commonly travel alone or in pairs.
When tracking, keep an eye to country ahead. Changes in elevation can mean differences in snow cover. I once tracked a bull uphill for several hours into deep powder snow. Then he reversed directions and dropped into a basin where there was no snow-and no track. Whitetail hunters who are used to following bucks in loops in tiny woodlots must shift their perspective in elkdom.
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The most important elk-hunting gear is clothing. You can't hunt well if you're not mobile and comfortable. In warm early seasons I hunt in jogging shoes, T-shirt, and shorts, with a light wool Filson jacket knotted around my segmented belt pack. Later I switch to 8-inch Red Wing leather hiking boots, baggy cotton or light wool trousers, and layers of cotton and wool shirts. I still carry the Filson jacket, but I trade my baseball cap for a wool stocking cap. I never wear long johns because they impede leg movement. Jeans do, too, and wick away body heat when they're wet.
Do not bring the bulky jacket or insulated pants you'd wear on a whitetail stand. You'll cook as you move. If you need added warmth, pack a down vest. In very cold weather I wear wool Malone pants, a heavy King of the Mountain wool jacket, and insulated leather boots. Deep-lugged Vibram or Air-Bob soles both work. Bird-hunting boots give you insufficient traction.
Binoculars are not only a must for cross-canyon glassing but also help you see detail in the woods. The best buy is the best you can buy. One of my favorites is Leica's 8x42 Trinovid. Zeiss, Swarovski, Nikon, and Bausch & Lomb also make fine binoculars. Yes, they're expensive, but they'll outlast you. Steer clear of compact glasses because they're not bright enough in thickets or at the edge of day when elk move. If you choose a binocular with 50mm objective lenses, you'll need a harness to bear the weight. High power (anything over 10X) reduces brightness and field of view. If your hunting is mostly in timber, 7X should suffice. In open country you might choose a 10X, but 8X is a fine all-around choice.
A high-quality 4X scope is perfect for most elk hunting. In variables the 1.5X-6X and 2X-7X seem about right. As with binoculars, scopes should have fully multicoated lenses. Stay away from models that are bulky and heavy. I always mount a scope as low as possible on the rifle to speed aiming and to keep the package compact and well balanced.
Useful elk rifles are those you can shoot well. Useful cartridges include the .308 and .30/06, because they're pleasant to shoot and, with ammo like Federal's High Energy, can easily deck elk out to 300 yards. The .270 and .280 will, too. The most popular elk round after the .30/06 is Remington's 7mm Magnum. Next come the .300 and .338 Winchester. Bullet placement is still more important than energy. Before World War II, the .30-30 was a premier elk cartridge.
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It's your willingness to work. Some elk hunters say they don't hunt hard places because they don't like to pack elk out in steep terrain. But there may be no elk to pack from easy places. Remember that you can take care of dead elk at your leisure, and that if you try to find elk only where they're easy to handle, you'll kill about as many as you will looking for them where they're easy to shoot.
Field care of an elk is like unloading a furniture truck. You do it a piece at a time. Unless I must leave the carcass quickly, I don't field dress it. I skin and cape the animal, then quarter it, boning the meat if it's to be backpacked but leaving the quarters whole if it can be reached by horse. All you need to work on elk is a 4-inch knife and a sharpening steel. Some hunters leave the hide on to protect the quarters from dirt, but I think fast cooling is more important.
Old-timers figured the hardest part of shooting elk was finding them, so they worked at that. They did a few old-fashioned things exceedingly well. They persevered. They succeeded.
