How concerned should I be with Altitude when looking at a new area?

[WIelkHunter]

This fall will be my second year elk hunting, we gun hunted the middle of Idaho last year and will be going back this fall to archery hunt.  I've digitally scouted for months, along with gun hunting some of the area last year, and have a buddy that we hunt with that lives in Boise so he has had some boots on the ground scouting as well, with that we've narrowed down what we think are 4 or 5 area's that look like good options for archery hunting.  My question is how much do you pay attention to the altitude when scouting a new area, I think our best option to start is between 5,600 and 7,200 feet where as most of the other locations are closer to 6,500 and 8,000.  How much weight, if any, do you place on altitude?

 

[Elk101 Admin]

Great question. I have hunted elk all my life in central Idaho and I have found higher the better. I typically find elk 7.7K-9.5K during my season, this may have to do with other hunting pressure and moving elk to higher ground and or just how I prefer to hunt elk at higher elevation (to stay away from other hunters). I do not feel it makes that much of a difference, elk with be where you find them. I feel 5,600 is definitely too low but that also depends on how bad the winter was and where the cows/calf are in September. 


Hope this helps.

 

[montanaelk31]

I don't pay any attention to elevation personally. I've shot all my elk between 6000 and 8700 feet, but the only reason I know that is my partners keep tabs. I don't care much about elevation. Lower elevations generally hold more hunters I will say.

 

[ribo451]

I also don't pay a lot of attention to elevation. One of the areas I hunt is at most 3500'. We have shot four bulls in that area and have had a lot of encounters there as well.

I pay more attention to food, water, and cover and then look for hard to access areas that will limit competition. If that happens to be at 10k' or 500' thats where I will be.