Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting coming up dry

Rock Chuck,

So, do you pick a high spot and work the bino's and spotter?

Rough but pretty country for certain.

It wasn't much better in October. I had a Bull tag in 49. We saw 5 bulls on opening day, thought it was going to be good and I could hold out for a big one........uh nope. The elk were GONE after the opener. I hunted (hard) 11 of the 16 days the season was open and after opening day only saw 2 more bulls. Ended up shooting this weirdo on the next to the last day of the season.


I did see a few cows, if you are in 49 PM me and I'll tell you where they were.

On another note, we caught a poacher. SOB shot and left a 5 point bull and the party he was with shot an extra cow and left it to rot also.

That's some nice looking area. Bet it's got some good bird hunting. I need to explore the more open areas of the state

Thanks for the update, best of luck .

Will be more elk next year.

Just got home from a 3 day hunt in a different area. We did see 9 cows....at 600 yds and on posted private land. We talked to a couple people who'd seen a few but the herds aren't there yet. We watched these 9 move from shadow to shadow. It's way too warm and they're staying out of the sun.

Nice looking terrain there,also looks like it would be a tough pack out.

Good luck

We are having the same troubles.

We're taking off for a T-day trip so this morning was my last day of elk hunting for this year. We had a good rain overnight but it was still too warm for the season, no snow up high. The big problem was a 40-50 mph wind all day. I couldn't possibly hold on sight for a shot if I'd seen one.
Oh, well, after our trip I still have time for a few days of antelope hunting.

Bull looks like a goodie to me, any time, any place.

Same problem this year in Lemhi Zone, due to work training I was stuck in Boise the first full week, I only got to hunt 4 days. We did get some snow towards the end I followed some fresh tracks one day for 4 miles, never getting close enough to shoot, I saw them twice but they were in heavy timber and on the move. Closest I got was probably 200 yards, too far for me with a flintlock and no good shot through the timber anyway.
Last day of the season I found some elk WAY up high, after working my way closer I was able to determine it was a bachelor group of bulls, cool to watch but no good to me this time of year. Could have killed a moose easy that day if I had a tag. I spent the rest of the day chasing a lion on foot never able to get a shot at him either. I surprised him right off the side of a road, just caught the face peeking out at me from behind a big Doug fir about 15 ft away. I stopped the SxS and drew my .44 waiting for him to peek out again but he took off. He just kept running and never wanted to tree. I was hoping if I couldn't kill an elk I might at least be able to save a few for next year. A nice big tom rug and some sweet meat wouldn't have hurt my feelings either. I'll go back with a rifle and try to call him. Deer season was rough too, highs into 70's and only saw one decent 4x4 all season, managed to get my wife a good meat deer. I'm all in on a MT elk B tag in Feb now or I'm skunked for big game this year, never happened to me before.

Yes. Water and forage everywhere, and weather is yet to force movement. Also, elk are great at figuring out where they might be safe. Tough seasons for most here in SE Oregon as well.

Hope your luck changes,

I loved hunting in Idaho but after I moved they changed the system for non residents, and there is little or no chance of drawing a tag. I primarily hunt Wyoming and Oregon now.

OTC tags in Idaho are very difficult to get. They had to do something, though. The non-res demand was getting too high. There were more hunters wanting tags than there are animals to hunt. If it wasn't for the huge number of non-res hunters wanting tags, they wouldn't have had to adopt radical means to sell them.