Basics to patterning elk?

[Lark Bunting]

I know elk are all different and their patterns can differ, but I know there is some \"pattern\" to their normal routine. For example, I would be one of the easiest people to pattern: Up at 5:45, In my truck heading to work by 6:40 (I will normally take one specific path but sometimes deviate if traffic isn\'t bad). I am at work from 7-3:30 and backtrack my route home. This is where my routine gets more difficult...some nights I\'m coaching lacrosse, some nights I bring my daughter to ballet, some nights I go to the liquor store...but at 8:00 I\'m usually home again and in bed around 10:00. This is the case unless it\'s a weekend or I\'m on vacation. Work, home, activity, home, rinse, repeat.

There are constants in my schedule.

If you were to put bullet points on patterning elk how would you go about it?

-Elk travel from water/feed to bed at ??? in the am
-Elk tend to travel uphill to bed
-Elk prefer north facing, shady, relatively flat beds
-Elk hang around their beds during the day
-Elk move from their beds around ??? and head down hill to feed and ...


This might be helpful for me and other newbies for when we\'re out in the woods, trying everything we can to find elk and freak out. (It happened to me last year. I was getting pissed that I had put so much effort in my research, did everything I could think of out in the field and could NOT find the elk) I quickly got over it because about two minutes later a deer jumped her bed and stood there at 22 yards broadside...I just happened to have a deer tag for the unit I was in.

 

[iccyman001]

Lark,

I\'m still new to this myself.
I still haven\'t learned their timelines and when they like what, but I do have my own methods.

I find their water, food, bedding and travel routes.

Because I can\'t scout it often, that\'s why I have my cameras telling the story for me.
I just hope it pays off Sept 1!

 

[cohunter14]

Here would be my response to some of these things:

-Elk travel from water/feed to bed at ??? in the am
Yes, but that time can vary on a lot of things including what season it is, what kind of pressure they have on them, and also weather.

-Elk tend to travel uphill to bed
Or downhill

-Elk prefer north facing, shady, relatively flat beds
Sure, but again this isn\'t a hard fast rule. A single elk could also be bedding on a steep south facing slope

-Elk hang around their beds during the day
Yes, but they might wander a bit for a drink. Pressure can also obviously move them.

-Elk move from their beds around ??? and head down hill to feed and ...
Similar to earlier answer. There are a lot of factors to it. And they could head uphill to feed...


The bottom line is that elk are very difficult to pattern because their pattern can change at any given point. The basics of them feeding early and late and bedding during the day typically do apply, but that\'s about it. It\'s funny, but I was talking to an outfitter today and he made a good point...he said \"you know how elk are, you can have a prime piece of 1,400 acres of land and the elk can be there one day and be gone the next.\" There is a lot of truth to that.

I think if you hunt an area long enough, you are able to find patterns for that specific area that might not apply elsewhere. For example, the elk might typically use the same escape routes or the same feeding areas at certain time periods. In an area I used to hunt, we had the elk patterned well enough to know that if we sat in a certain ground blind long enough, a herd of cows was sure to come through. We didn\'t know what day, but we knew the time frame would be between 8:30 and 9:00ish in the morning. But those patterns only apply there locally and couldn\'t ever really be applied elsewhere.

 

[Swede]

I will try to give my best generalities. This is waited a little to the Archery season and can vary based on things like hunting pressure, weather and time of year.

Elk spend 90% of their time either feeding or bedded. They migrate and they have daily movements. These things change from area to area. Normally elk leave their night time feeding/bedding area and go to where they bed around 10:00AM-10:30 AM. They don\'t always go to a north facing slope. They go where it is cool and shady. Elk prefer temperatures below 70* if possible. Once in their bedding area, the elk will move around as the sun changes, to avoid being in the direct sun for very long. If it is hot and dry they will go to a nearby watering spot. Around 3:30PM-4:00PM the elk get up to feed and often for to water. Shortly thereafter they go to feed.
Elk generally like to bed on forested benches. They more often than not travel uphill in the morning to bed. That is a very weak generality, and I would not fail to check out flats and other areas.
That is the general highlights as I have observed them. The sad part, or depending on how you look at it, maybe the good part is, the elk don\'t always follow that script. I have seen them out feeding in the early afternoon when the temperatures are in the high 80s or low 90s feeding in an open area. I have found them in a bedding area soon after daybreak.

 

[cnelk]

Even tho we would LIKE to pattern elk, it can be difficult.

You never know what might bump them in their daily pattern, as they can travel long distances during that time.
They are a bit nomadic and may not spend each and every night in the same spot.

It may be better to find spots elk like to visit and hunt there, it could be a day or even 5 before they come back tho.
Since they are mobile, you should be too.

 

[Jaquomo]

I was lucky enough to hunt whole seasons for basically undisturbed elk for quite a few years. I was never able to really \"pattern\" many. Only in a couple situations where they hit certain feeding slopes when the were in that area, and bedded on the same general north-facing slope when they fed in that area.

When in an area they do seem to use the same crossings often, whether natural saddles or fence crossings. I\'ve made fence crossings by tying down the top strand, and when around, they often use it.

As others have said, I believe it\'s most important to learn the bedding areas, feeding areas, and water sources in a general \"elky\" area, along with the overall terrain and the wind patterns. One spot I\'m scouting this summer, where I hunted a couple times last year, is a puzzle. The elk often bed below the feeding hillside - an old clearcut - even though the best bedding timber and water is all above it. Elk do bed above too, but something draws them down below. Day before yesterday there were two bulls bedded down in there again. I don\'t understand it as it\'s just generic loose timber. But tomorrow I\'m going back in from way below to try to figure out the attraction.

 

[bowhunter]

Lou, Could it be they bed below in the loose timber so they can see what\'s coming after them and with water above maybe cool air falls to that spot? Those were my first thoughts of the area you described without seeing it.

 

[Swede]

Patterning elk is much different than patterning Whitetails. The elk cover a much larger area and are not using the same feeding bedding spots, and travel ways day after day. Instead they return to them as they go from place to place.

 

[Jaquomo]

bowhunter, I need to do more investigating. It\'s definitely not cooler down there than it is above on the other side of the ridge where others sometimes bed.. The \"water\" they use is just a little seep on a bench about 3/4 mile away from that area. I\'m thinking there must be some other attraction down there. Plunging back in on Monday.

 

[bowhunter]

bowhunter, I need to do more investigating. It\'s definitely not cooler down there than it is above on the other side of the ridge where others sometimes bed.. The \"water\" they use is just a little seep on a bench about 3/4 mile away from that area. I\'m thinking there must be some other attraction down there. Plunging back in on Monday.

Good luck solving the mystery. Let us know if you figure it out....