Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk country lingo

Ok, I'm a Midwest guy who is new to hunting the west (colorado)and have run into terms that we don't normally use here in the Midwest. We use terms like thicket, slough, hedgerow etc... I'm looking for terms (that pertain to hunting)that you use or hear used and definitions or criteria that you use for defining them. Examples: what is a park, gulch, saddle, hay park, raghorn, etc...I hear some of these terms used, and while I think I know what they are...I'm curious to know if your ideas of what they are, are the same. Throw some terms out there and lets hear your definitions. I recently had a buddy say, "that's not a saddle, cause it doesn't ""dip"" far enough.".

If both agree you're looking at the same terrain, I wouldn't get too worked up over the lingo.

Enjoy the hunt.

park is kinda like a meadow, but could also be a dry open hillside. A meadow to me should have a creek running through it, but not everyone defines it that way. Saddle is the low point between two hilltops that you'd naturally cross at. Usually has a drainage going up one end. Gulch could be anything from a canyon to a minor draw, but implies some steep [bleep]. Raghorn is a spindly anltered 2 or 3 year old. Usually 4 or 5 points per side.

Exbio is right on, as per usual!

I don't hunt elk but 'don't shoot the lead cow'!

Exbio speak familiar language

Another one is 'doghair patch'. A thicket of sorts, ether of small but tall, very thick stand of trees or some sort of brush. Something to the effect of trying to walk threw the side of your pick-up kind of stuff.

And the proverbial chit-hole..... that term is universally applied but Commonly found in the vicinity of doghair patches. Usually an area found to have elk, but no elk while you were there and one has worked at from dark to get too and now looking at working your way out in the dark or just staying the night. "Man this place turned into an elk-less chit hole"

Man, I really wish elk season would hurry up......

I like the term 'satellite bull' too... describing a smaller bull that'll circle around a herd and kinda' torment a herd bull. You'll see this with bucks too...

Don't call it treeline. Call it timberline.

Don't pronounce the "e" in Coyote.

Of course you only count one side of the antlers. A 4x4 is a 4 point.

It's a creek.

Exio got most of it. These are just some other tidbits.

I've never used or heard anybody use the word "park" in the context that exbio used. We call an open area a meadow regardless of water being present. But that is not to say that nobody uses that. Obviously some do.

A guide we once used called a large meadow a "park". When he first started talking about the park, I was thinking picnic tables, jogging trails, etc. Couldn't figure out why they would put a park in the middle of a wilderness area. But, nope it was just a big meadow. Also, what we call gullies in my part of the country, the guide referred to them a draws.

I'll admit to using meadow most all the time, but if someone says park I know what they mean.

I never thought too much about it but I use meadow where the grass is greener and park where it's drier. On second thought, I guess it's pretty much what exbio said.

Quakers is preferred and quakies is ok but don't call them quaking aspen. Cedars means junipers. Hellhole means take your knife, fork, salt & pepper cuz you're going to have to eat it there.

Park - you see/hear this one a lot on SW Colorado

Gulch - drainage, draw, ravine, usually with some erosion adding to the steep.

Margin Bull - has a double meaning.
1) Has been exiled to the margins of the herd by the herd bull.
2) also very often tends to be on the 'margin' of being a legal bull in an antler point restricted area (raghorn).

Saddle - a col that is below or near treeline.

Coulee- draw
Swale- big shallow indent in the ground
Buck Brush- Waist high stuff where bucks could hide

Nobody mentioned 'raghorn' yet....

Yeah, they did.

Will mention that when talking about a 3-point or 5-point, we usually only mention the larger antler, even if the other antler's only a spike. An eastern friend once took a look at a photo of a raghorn 4x3 I'd killed, and said, "Nice 7-pointer!"

In my part of the west "doghair" usually refers to a stand of young lodgepole pine, the sort that springs up after a fire.

When in Montana watch out for the "greasy gumbo" and I'm not referring to lunch time.

Crick= Creek or stream
Basin= Bowl-shaped high mountain valley. Sometimes used to refer to a long wide valley-like canyon.
Black timber= Dark mature stand of conifers
Hollow= Deep narrow valley or canyon

Chet

I always wondered what a 'hollow' was. Thanks.

OK..I just went back through the thread and did see scant mention to a raghorn. But for the sake of argument, lets say I was right...
And discuss it over something that you'll need a little 'hair of the dog' ( as opposed to dog hair..) to get over.....