Elk Thread

[Arctic Lake]

Okay not looking for your secret spot for sure but I have a friend who lives in Vanderhoof . Is it worth a trip up there to hunt for elk around Vanderhoof ? We would have about 5 days
Arctic Lake

[mike31154]

Kootenays have a lot of elk, but also a lot of pressure. If you haven't in the past, consider putting in for Elk LEH on Van Isle. Odds are high, but if you don't try...... Friend of mine on the island has been putting in for LEH there for 30 years & hasn't got a draw. He had me starting to apply for same about 5 years ago & I got a draw in 2020! A lot less stress when you get any bull LEH, don't have to worry about counting points. Successfully harvested a nice young bull. Very tasty.

One of the last roasts I had prepared on the rotisserie by my daughter.


Served with German dumplings & 2 salads. Guten Appetit. ;-p

[Bugle M In]

The further north the better Arctic when it comes to pressure or as stated, an Leh.
Committed locals will have more time to pre scout and repeat hunts with more days in a year and also have some private property they have access to over us from LM.
Uf there is a bull around, close to town, most of them know about it and it’s an early a.m. race to get tho the desired spot before the rest of town.
There are some areas up north, a little less known that if you have a jet boat will get you to decent #’s without much competition but is reserved for those with the time, equipment and money.
Or you take the time to drive up often and hike the areas way before season starts and be there 2 days in advance if season.
A day to set up.
A day to scout before it opens after the summer long scouting.
So as to hopefully be on top of the the morning it opens.

[KodiakHntr]

As a fella who has skinned a few animals , beef , deer , moose , I’m trying to picture doing this if I’m going to gut it I’m trying to picture that as I have always skinned with the spine down as if in a cradle . Any YouTube videos I wonder ?
Thanks
Arctic Lake

I dunno, seems pretty straightforward, go around the wet black stinky hair patch with your knife and skin that off, fling it over your shoulder with a flourish. Don’t cut up the center of his belly and then wonder why elk meat tastes like piss.

It will look like you cut a big oval of hide off his belly from behind his pecker to between his front legs. Don’t touch it with your hands, or your knife. It will transfer over to the meat.

It’s really only an issue if you get suckered into thinking “it won’t be so bad to load him in halves, or whole” and decide to gut first. It ALWAYS takes longer doing that. Skin from the spine down, break them into easier to manage pieces. It’ll keep everything cleaner.

[Bugle M In]

We always skin first.
Use it as an open tarp ( hair side down obviously ).
Then remove quarters, put in bags or move to a clean tarp for deboning if need be.
When you get a bull screaming at you, and he is out in the open, you will know exactly what is meant by pushing all over themselves!
And yes, it tends to be the belly area where the hair is darker and longer, sopping wet and the legs and lower down by the brisket neck.
They certainly don’t have prostate problems!!!

[Arctic Lake]

Thanks fellas ! Maybe it’s best to harvest one closer to the end of the rut to eliminate the piddling contest !
Arctic Lake

[Arctic Lake]

That’s a hell of a fine looking meal Mike !
Arctic Lake

Kootenays have a lot of elk, but also a lot of pressure. If you haven't in the past, consider putting in for Elk LEH on Van Isle. Odds are high, but if you don't try...... Friend of mine on the island has been putting in for LEH there for 30 years & hasn't got a draw. He had me starting to apply for same about 5 years ago & I got a draw in 2020! A lot less stress when you get any bull LEH, don't have to worry about counting points. Successfully harvested a nice young bull. Very tasty.

One of the last roasts I had prepared on the rotisserie by my daughter.


Served with German dumplings & 2 salads. Guten Appetit. ;-p

[7thShmimz]

Newbie to elk hunting. Day before yesterday I finally found an elk. I had a back and forth with a bull who was way down in a big, steep, thick drainage, or perhaps even up the far side. He seemed to come a good distance closer very quickly, so I feel like it wsnt another hunter. I kept up with a 1 for 1 bugle and hung tight. Wind was good, but then he stopped bugling still a long ways away.

I worry I called too agressivly, or maybe it was too hot to hope he'd come out of the cool to my hot ridge. He was giving me shorter bellows, but I was going long. Mistake? I moved down my side to get closer to him, and then let another bugle rip. Nothing. Moved further down, bugled. Nothing. etc. Eventually I pulled back out, came back yesterday, and heard one from him even further up the other side of the drainage/mountainside in the early morning, maybe near the top. Then silence. I hucked a few bugles. Nothing. went to the bottom and up the other side a ways once the wind changed. Fair amount of elk sign that seemed pretty fresh, day or two old. Cow call, bugle. Nada.

I got the sense they moved over the hill, but maybe just went quiet, maybe I pushed him w/ calling? Wont be back out until tomorrow or weds, thinking of trying to come in slow from other side.

Do elk move much in the heat, can I expect them still in the general vicinity? How many location bugles are advisable without a response? Is bugling the way to go all the way through the season, or inadvisable between 1st and 2nd rut? Advice appreciated!

[KodiakHntr]

Match what you are getting back. If he is going short and aggressive, then match that.
And they are almost always closer than you think.
If a bull is charging towards you, then throw your last bugle and move ahead as quiet as you can, to the other side of any openings. They’ll hang up and look and won’t often walk out into the open.
If it sounds like he is coming, either he’s coming to fight, f*ck, or watch, so read the situation. A bull slinking in is coming to watch and then try and steal a cow. A bull screaming and crashing and raking is coming to fight. Match his energy.
Mimic the sounds of a cow leaving a bull and going to him, and you’ll potentially salvage the situation. That means a lot of work, cow call and then bust a move away and bugle. Sound like you are trying to round up your sister in law fresh after a divorce and she’s trying to slip away over to the skanky goof across the bar that bought her a drink.

Elk hunting is a mobile game, you have to be prepared to move fast and (relatively) quiet (a 700lb animal moving through the timber makes noise, they expect to HEAR noise), and to hunt them where they are not where you want them to be.
You won’t pull many bulls way out of where they are out into the open, or to where you want them to show themselves. It does happen, but rarely. That is what separates the guys who have killed an elk once or twice, from the guys who are great and successful elk hunters.
Learn to read the situation and adapt to what the elk are telling you, and you’ll be successful.

[Bugle M In]

My dad shot at a big bull the first evening of the hunt on the river.
Ling story but he missed as it was too far a shot/s.
We spent the next day trying to figure out where he went as he didn’t show or call the next morning.
We never figured it out, except we saw sign of 5 elk crossing a road from the mountain side towards the river.
But for days we hunted and walked the river and never found their sign where they came out and even walked a real between road and river.
Last day, noon, a small bulll pops out into the open bugling at my dads and he drops it (still had 3pt or better then).
We debone and pack across river.
Just done before dark, and low and behold, there is that big Bull with 4 cows, coming out of the trees onto river almost bang on from where they czz as me across the road days before!

Si yes, they can hold tight for days, don’t know why.

Did your bull have cows?
He may have and you may not know.
Wind will travel uphill so it’s possible when you went downs and back up that wind went towards him.
He may of had cows, but came down to block you but was not going to leave them completely and come look for you.
This happens a lot.
Had a bull last season who came out, bugled and chuckled, got closer to us on the other side of river and have lots of video ( but he was a 5pt) and then held his ground.
If he was legal he would have been down.
Anyways he eventually walked back into the woods.
We assumes he was just a so bull.
Next day we are chasing some other elk high on another cut blocks a couple clicks away.
Aftef he hat stalk I look over to the river where that bull had been with us the day before.
Liw and behold, there he is with 6 cows going down river and getting out of there.
Once it got quiet, he fee Ed let it was a good time to leave and we never found him again!

Tou could try more cow calling when you bugled with him.
I would have used cow calls exclusively when I walked towards him.
Inly bugled if I felt he had left or hadn’t heard him in eons.

This is when co calls can work their magic more then bugling.
A worked up solo bull with a combo of bugling and cow calls will come in.
A bull with cows does not want a bugling bull to come in.
Tou have to be right on top of his cows if you are going to bugle then.
Some cow calls is much more inviting and less stressful on him and him deciding to flee with his cows.

Tou would have to get way beyond and above him now.
Always better to hunt “all game” from above, whenever you can.