Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting never hunted elk,need lil advice

The most horrifying moment of you life will be when you look at that huge pile of dead meat, then look at how far you are from a road and ask 'what have I done?'

How do they differ from whitetails? They move. Today they're here. Tomorrow they can be several miles away. They're very difficult, if not impossible, to pattern so treestands have very limited value. You have to be in good enough shape to go find them. After the rut they'll be more bunched up but there will still be a lot of singles, particularly bulls. The worse the weather gets, the bigger the bunches will be.

Hunting black timber gets all the press because that's where they bed during the day. However, if you jump one in his bedroom you'd darn well better kill him because if you don't, you won't see him for a month. He won't be back for a long time.

I've had my best luck hunting open areas around black timber as they move out in the open late in the evening. If you find them moving out but too late to pursue, be there at 1st light and there's a good chance they'll still be there.

If they're in timber on a steep hillside, more likely than not they'll be 1/4 to 1/2 way down from the top and that's where they'll make their 1st appearance late afternoon.