Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting To all of the New Elk Hunters.......

Rockchucker30 and I are working on a series of blogs that will be posted on the Seek Outside site. The subject matter will be anything and everything to help the rookie or non-resident elk hunter be successful.

My question to all of you, and I know you are out there because there are LOTS of threads everywhere, is what questions do you have about elk hunting? What can we do in a series like this to help you with your elk hunt?

What is a blog?

Base Load Orgasm Generator

How to field dress and pack out elk meat and cape and horns is a most important item.

Elk hunting changes from deer hunting after shooting the elk and mostly it's because of the enormous mass.

Try this. Gutless Method

The big thing us newbies want to know is where the heck do we find elk. How to locate, pattern and successfully get into position to take a shot. The other stuff has been covered in spades.

One thing I have never seen in print is a breakdown of an elk diet year round. That is a list of plant species and the times that the elk will utilize them for forage. This list would of course be different based on environment. Sage/juniper, ponderosa woods, oak scrub, subalpine/alpine areas.

I want to go bloggen!! Give a sizmik wiench.

Crap do you have to bring the beer to thease blogginns?

grin.

Bingo! Talk about using maps and other resources to help nonresident hunters, who are unable to scout an area, pick out likely places to find elk and good areas to set up base camp.

Another good topic would be basic hunting strategies for different times of day. Flatlanders aren't used to dealing with thermals, so we learn the hard way that tactics change depending on whether the thermals are moving up or down the mountains.

I agree. Some sample topo scenarios. This looks like good elk country on the map because...this looks like a good camp area because...

Keep in mind that most nonres hunters spend most of their time scouting from in front of a map. Logistically, most nonres hunters just don't have the ability to scout areas or the elk themselves in advance.

Would be good to talk about things not to do.Like once finding that good elk country and not camping right in the middle of it.

We have planned so far:

1. Figuring out where to apply.
2. Once you have a tag, picking out where to go.
3. Map Scouting, and scouting in general-I plan on a LOT of pictures for this one, identifying elk country.
4. Getting in Hunting shape.
5. Meat Care
6. Equipment needed.

The target is for the DIY hunter, to help them be successful.

Potential new elk hunter here.....That looks like a great list, especially the part about scouting via maps ahead of time and what to look for.

I would add: Animal movements, locations, habits and how they vary throughout the season.

#4 is easy... do P90X for 6 months (or 6 years )

+1 and forget this chitt of "patterning" the elk. Find and go shot 1 now!! Tomorrow they may have a new "pattern" in a new county!
Cheers

Yeah, if you breathe through a straw.

Focus on proper prep of lots of target practice, knowing your load and gun's max effective range and not taking a shot beyond that range, shot placement, meat care and be prepared to pack it out.
Don't be a freakin commercial for gear. The best gear is a prepared, in-shape hunter.

Agreed, gear is only as effective as the person using it.

Everything posted here is news to me. I favorited the blog already.


I just read a book on hunting by Tony Russ who mentions thermals and such; quite an interesting read.

Personally the information about where to find elk, what terrain they like etc is helpful to me.

Do you have video?

My question is ... where did those elk I spent all year patterning disappear to at 3:30 am on opening day? (I theorize they're back in town having coffee ... they go on vacation from being elk the day I go on vacation to shoot elk.)

I don't know how to ask this as a question, but my observation is most new hunters / new to area hunters are uncomfortable getting away from their rig especially in foul weather conditions. I see a lot of nice camps with lots of gear and camo-clad people cruising the graveled roads. People need to either spend enough time in the woods in general to be comfortable wherever they are or they need to spend enough time in the spot they'll hunt to be comfortable whatever is happening there. ... otherwise its much more of an uphill battle.