I was along while Cookie worked this foraging pair for about 20 minutes, and I've seen this several times while hunting over the years. When the head/nose go up and the eyes are wide, they've picked up on something in the air. Five seconds later, they cleared out in a hurry.



If one notes this posture while taking up the trigger slack, he better get'er done. I've seen this several times when they were downwind and 300+ yds away. Seems like they'll wait for conformation on eye and ear cues, but the nose knows.

Yep. There won’t be any human odor unless a human is either there or has been there...

Looks like you could have filled 2 bull tags with one well-placed shot and a tough bullet.

I am familiar with that pose.

next move is "exit stage left!"

Yeah I'm not sure I'd hurry for that shot!

But my experience agrees: elk might question what they see or what they hear but never what they smell. If they smell you there is no coming back--they're gone.

There's no such thing as waiting for them to settle down. They'll do that 2 ridges over.

Reminds me of a time I snuck in on two bulls the week before archery season opened. I had the wind in my face and was laying in the grass in a timbered draw watching these two beautiful bulls, a 5x6 and a 6x7 from 40 yards. They were feeding w/o a care in the world. I was flat on the ground, no swirling wind at all, steady in my face. I watched them for a minute or two, when all of a sudden one then the other throws his head up and gives that look ^^^^^. A few seconds later they was gone.

My theory is that the birds quit chirping when I snuck in and laid down in the grass and the elk realized it got quiet after a minute or two. They headed out straight into the wind btw. Damn they're tough.

Ain't that the truth??

Seen many a herd cow do that. She barks and that is the end of the day. You are right in they will stop to check things out about 4 miles away.

OTOH, elk will sometimes do some very unexpected things, especially when they're in large groups and in an area where they feel safe. Here are 2 cases when elk seemingly didn't care if I was there. In both cases, though, this was AFTER the shot, now while stalking.

A few years ago, I climbed about 2000' up a steep bowl and shot an elk out of herd of 70 or 80. I guess they felt confident up there because as I was rolling it down a steep hill to a flat spot to dress it, 6 or 7 cows stood on a small knoll about 200' yards away and barked at me for several minutes. Then they just walked away. They didn't run.

Last year, I'd climbed a steep hill in the snow and found a herd of maybe 100 cows. I shot one and the rest took off. As I was dressing it, the herd came back. They were about 4 or 500 yards away for a long time while I was working in plain sight of them.