Elk Hunting. North vs. East

[todbartell]

best to go when it isnt a fuller moon or the other way..a

full moon will make for more activity during the night. Elk can be heading to their beds before shooting light, which will make for some good hunting mid day when they get up on their feet and browse around before bedding back down until evening. Best not be in camp napping! Be downwind of bedding area and work the calls. You have lots of time before next September to master calling and know what you're saying

full moon will be Sept24 2018. In 2017 we seen a new moon (dark) on Sept19 which overlapped nicely with the fall equinox and majority of cows coming into heat

[Rob]

Thanks for the info Mark.

[Rob]

I'll be hitting the chris roe videos hard after hunting season

[Bugle M In]

full moon will make for more activity during the night. Elk can be heading to their beds before shooting light, which will make for some good hunting mid day when they get up on their feet and browse around before bedding back down until evening. Best not be in camp napping! Be downwind of bedding area and work the calls. You have lots of time before next September to master calling and know what you're saying

full moon will be Sept24 2018. In 2017 we seen a new moon (dark) on Sept19 which overlapped nicely with the fall equinox and majority of cows coming into heat

good stuff....never considered when "fall equinox happened"....always something to learn, no matter how long one's been doing it....thanks

[Rob]

full moon will make for more activity during the night. Elk can be heading to their beds before shooting light, which will make for some good hunting mid day when they get up on their feet and browse around before bedding back down until evening. Best not be in camp napping! Be downwind of bedding area and work the calls. You have lots of time before next September to master calling and know what you're saying

full moon will be Sept24 2018. In 2017 we seen a new moon (dark) on Sept19 which overlapped nicely with the fall equinox and majority of cows coming into heat

Would the elk still be as vocal during the day if they have been up feeding all night? Any recommendations on good elk books to read?

[todbartell]

Bulls will bugle from their bed but it's often a real half hearted bugle. Ultimately bull vocalizations will be peaking when there is cows coming in, or in, estrous. Herd bulls & satellite bulls will be screaming their heads off if theres a hot cow. This can happen at any hour and in any temperature

[j270wsm]

Not being a dick, but the elk numbers in the EK are ridiculously low. Not saying there isn't any elk but there might be better places to look than the elk valley.

[J_T]

Would the elk still be as vocal during the day if they have been up feeding all night? Any recommendations on good elk books to read?

You generally won't find bulls bugling in the day time in the EK. At daylight, they will do a short location bugle to round up the cows and move to bedding grounds. If you are hunting in the rut, a bull might continue bugling for an hour while they are moving. Normally, unless you engage that bull prior to full daylight, you won't find much bugling in daytime hours. However, if you are able to get them started and you 'do the right things' it's possible to have a lot of fun keeping a bull active through the morning into early afternoon. If you are hunting in the rut, a bull might initiate bugling for an hour while they are moving. The trend here is for bulls to keep silent. Bugling brings in predators. They do more raking of alders.

Elk hunting:
1) Google Maps - find out what your looking for and look for it (terrain, aspect, vegetation, water, road networks)
2) In the field stay mobile, all the bs about "boots on the gound" and getting away from other hunters is nonsense. Hunters hunt elk, where the elk are, in the GOS you will hear other guys bugling, you will have a hunt impacted by other hunters. That's just how it is.
2a) If you come across another group of hunters and they might be working a pocket of elk, move on.
3) Look for logical pockets that might hold elk - it's not whitetail hunting, you don't have to sneak
3a) Keep your nose up. Elk smell, if you catch a wiff, they're in the area
4) Look for active/current sign in these pockets. vegetation chewed off, fresh shit....
5) when you find sign, slow down
6) depending on the time of day, consider backing off and watching it, or setting up and calling
7) if it doesn't pan out, don't hesitate to move on
"If" you are on a bull and morning is getting late and he doesn't seem to be closing that last 100 yards, don't give up, change your calling. If you are bugling, shift to a cow call. Stay hard on the cow call and don't give up.

Preparation:
1) learn what bugles to use, when to use a long high pitch location bugle, when to keep it short, when to sound aggressive, when to chuckle
2) there are to few cow calls, but never to many. Mix them up, sound more like a herd moving through the bush. Like fishing, you never know which lure is the right one for that occasion (sometimes soft, sometimes loud)
3) keep a quiet cow call at the ready, as you walk in the bush, make soft sounds (I keep mine in my hand most of the time)

Remember, elk are loud (when they move through rough timber), big animals and they know who they other players are out there. Come off as a hunter (bugle from a road with a view - everyone does) and they won't be interested. Come off as that shitty little 2 year old upstart from across the valley who is all of a sudden in their kitchen and they'll want to hurt you.