Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting So THAT's where they are

I've been up elk hunting north of Ketchum, ID for the last few days. We haven't been seeing much. I got a message from my wife early this morning that her mother is in serious condition in the hospital so I quickly packed up and headed home.

About 7:30 AM, right at shooting light, I got to a group of subdivisions along the highway a mile north of Ketchum and there I encountered a herd of maybe 50 elk...standing in the middle of the highway. I came to a stop and they took off trotting down a subdivision street. We have cow tags and they were all cows. No way to shoot there, for sure. They ain't dumb!

In this region elk are numerous on private land and roam freely in the neighboring small town.
It isn't uncommon to see a Grizzly in town either.
Things are changing, they will live where it is safest, hence the predators following along.
The most remote country now will be barren of elk in what used to be summer range . I know this from experience.

I hunted Roosevelts four days up high then figured out if there were any numbers they were down low. Came to town and followed the GPS to some public land sandwiched among a bunch of private, on the edge of town. Yep. Big herd.

There are a lot of 4 th and5 th generation elk here in Montana that never leave the pivots on private land. Full time food plots with no hunting preasure. There are a lot of elk on public land too.

I forgot to add, this was a new area to hunt for me at the invite of a friend. I saw more elk in that one herd by town than the entire hunting party combined had seen in the last five years hunting the mountains, where elk are supposed to live.

Yeah, some of the elk have it figured out.

For being wily wild animals, they can sure get tame when they're in close quarters.

The residential Sun Valley/Ketchum area in Idaho is getting to be a real elk refuge. There are too many and the IDFG is trying to reduce numbers. They've extended the cow season to 6 weeks with liberal tags but many of the elk hang out on private land where you can't get at them. A couple years ago a bunch of them died by getting on the Sun Valley golf course and in peoples' yards and eating ornamental yew. It's deadly and there's a lot of people who've planted it for landscaping. Years ago, this was a major elk winter range that's now full of high dollar houses.

Sad but true, elk hunting is changing.

There was a toad of a 7x8 bull just north of Hailey during the archery season. Just hanging out in pature/yard 20 yards off the highway. All there was in the hills were out of state hunters.........

Up at Maxwell, NM - the game dept quit giving us depredation tags. Even though we have at least as many elk in the fields as ever.
Just normal tags, and we got cut from 10 + more, if needed to 6. WTF ??????

Some of the elk in that area now stay on private land most of the year.

Talked to a kid that lived close. He said those elk never leave that pasture and the hay field across the highway. The owners don't let anybody on to hunt and probably get depredation money for the damage done by the elk.

NO, none, zero, nada elk died from yew on the Sun Valley golf course, and as to it "years ago" being a major elk range that is now houses...the course has been here since 1937.

A total of 17 elk died from yew in Blaine County in January of 2016. 11 foraged the yew from the Hailey Cemetery, that has been here since the 1880's, 5 from the Valley Club in Hailey (which is a private club miles from and no way related to the Sun Valley golf course), and 1 from an adjacent home. Blaine County immediately took action based on these incidents and not another case has been reported.

Contrast to the Treasure Valley over the last three years, where this problem is endemic, with animal kills of over 50 at a time, involving deer, elk and antelope...with no resolution to the problem...

In 2018, Idaho landowners submitted a grand total of 44 depredation claims...wanna guess how many were in Blaine County?