How far away can elk smell you?

cohunter14

Administrator
Jul 10, 2017
5,347
We have all heard about keeping the wind in your face, using thermals to your advantage, etc. My question to you all is how far away do you think or believe elk can smell you?
 
It varies a lot. How strong do you smell and how much wind is there? I am satisfied it is easily over 100 yards, but the wind drifts so it is seldom a straight line from you to the animal.
 
There\'s gotta be a ton of factors. Wind speed, direction, humidity, temperature, strength of smell and other factors I can\'t think of. I\'d be willing to push that over 100 yards guess to 1,000 yards which is over half a mile if the conditions were \"perfect\". Think about a forest fire....that strength of smell is such a factor we humans can smell that for many many miles, and our noses suck compared to an elks.
 
I can vouch for it being at least 100 yards. One year I was sitting in a ground blind I had used for multiple years. This blind was about 200 yards from the top of a hill and sat at the base of a meadow that had a game trail 100 yards uphill on the opposite side of the meadow. We took lots of animals out of this stand and it was always fairly early in the morning when we did, before the thermals changed. I had a nice bull enter the meadow along the game trail at about 8:15 in the morning. I had my crosshairs on him, but I waited for him to continue down the trail to open up a better view of his vitals. Big mistake. As I\'m watching him in my scope I see him lift his nose in the air, take one whiff, and turn around and take off the way he came. I was shocked that the thermals changed that early and was also a bit surprised that he got that good of a whiff of me from that far away.
 
A little to add....How long after can you smell elk? When the conditions are right, I can still smell elk then next day. They are stinky creatures!
 
i think the answer will vary depending on the duration of the hunt. the longer into the hunt, the further the olfactory message to the elk.

all else being equal.
 
\"JohnFitzgerald\" said:
A little to add....How long after can you smell elk? When the conditions are right, I can still smell elk then next day. They are stinky creatures!

Frick!!! I thought the question was how far away can you smell elk. (Palm plant to forehead) I\'ll be over here in the corner if anyone\'s needs me. (Exit the dork) :cool:
 
Im not sure of the distance of smell, but along with that part, noise and movement also play a role.
Unless you are sitting perfectly still, only then will just smell travel.

Like Derek mentioned, if the slope isnt broken, scent will travel with the air currents a long ways.

How many of you have smelled a campfire or a cigarette a long ways away?
I think it would be like that or even further
 
when I rifle hunted I saw elk flare when they caught our wind roughly 6-700 yards away it was a strong wind during a bluster switched and went straight at them you could see the herd flare and start heading for timber as they were feeding in a large meadow. Conditions do play a role and how hard the wind is and as stated if its flowing straight or is it bouncing around makes alot of difference but I imagine that morning if the elk would have been a 1000 yards they could have smelled us just as easy as they did at 600 all depends on the power of the current and I think to a degree how spooky the elk are its hard to say just cause they didn\'t react crazy they didn\'t smell you that might have to do with the strength of your scent or past interactions with humans. I don\'t know for sure I would think their nose is among some of the best in nature and I have heard it said a bear can smell a candy bar from four miles or something crazy like that.
 
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