Mid day elk

[Bob Frapples]

How often do you see elk roaming around during midday? Is it rare or fairly common? I\'m suspecting wx will play a big part of it but is it fruitless to sit daylight to dark, or should I commit downtime for a nap during the hottest part of the day?

 

[elkmtngear]

Rare where I hunt, but not unheard of.

Last Season, three of us had just returned from a long morning hunt, and we were heading back to camp. We start to cross a big park near our camp, and a 5x5 jumps up right in the middle of the park...1 PM !

No cover around for 100 yds in any direction from where he was :crazy:

So I guess, expect it when you least expect it.

Also, mid-day is a GREAT time for a bull to quietly slip down into a waterhole for an afternoon drink / dip !

Note the time on the photo, we had just set the camera and walked out of that waterhole an hour beforehand!

 

[OldMan]

All the time, but it\'s in the timber.

 

[cnelk]

If a person is going to sacrifice part of the day for \'down time\', mid-day would be my choice.

Fruitless? Not a chance.
But the odds are definitely not as good as mornings or evenings, at least where I hunt.

 

[bnsafe]

as a rookie im making some assumptions, but i would think there are some factors involved to answer the question. early in the season in extreme heat where the elk bed early i would think they would be more likely to get up an get a drink. closer to rut maybe catch some bulls roaming an looking. so my answer would be most the elk are bedded an i wouldnt wanna kick them out of there bed an ruin the prime times, but finding a good trail or water hole might be worth setting at. you cant kill them n camp.
one other thing. for whitetails in mo. i firmly believe the time to kill a big buck is in the middle of the day. your sightings go way down. but i believe the big bucks know hunting pressure is early an late. i believe they lay up at daylight, get very restless in the mid day due to rut, so they start cruising. get it out of there system an lay up later in the day til dark then go cruising again. i believed that for years when i lived there an have some stories that back that theory up. in affect they patterned the hunters an moved accordingly. the conservation did a study a few years ago that backed that up. im not sure that translates to elk due to the extreme amount of territory they have, but its a thought.

 

[OldMan]

the elk are bedded an i wouldnt wanna kick them out of there bed an ruin the prime times

That\'s funny.

 

[Swede]

I am going to assume you are talking about during the regular hunting seasons. The get up and feed some. I think it depends on how much good food is available. If their gut is full of good forage, they don\'t need to be roaming in the early afternoon, but where I hunt I have seen them out feeding in the open, when the temperatures are well up in the 80s at 2:30PM. Elk will also move from shade to shade or just get up and go to water etc. I often hunt midday, but hunt slowly and set up and wait more.

 

[WapitiBob]

Killed my bull last year on 9/16 at 12:00 noon with a 90% moon. Snuck up on 2 bulls the day before when they bedded and they didn\'t bed down till after 9. I spent an hour with the 1st one and 2 with the second. I had 7 cows get up and water around 11: and another herd came by at 11:300 on their way to bed.
From what I have seen, how they act depends more on the state they\'re in and the kind of routine they\'re used to. Elk I\'ve hunted in AZ and NM don\'t act anything like the Elk I hunt in OR. In OR I generally don\'t hunt mid day. In NM or AZ, most of the time I\'m out all day but not moving much mid day, generally listening for the bulls that like to bugle every half hour or so all day long. Moving in close to those bulls and using some subdued cow herd talk works on occasion to bring him in for a look.

 

[Bob Frapples]

?..........
So I guess, expect it when you least expect it..............

I find this is the case in most of my deer hunts. I also agree or have noticed in the WT woods during the higher pressure hunts and rut the bigger bucks are seen more frequently during midday when your not expecting it. Lots of folks get into the early morning late evening routine. I figure I got 10 days to get it done and can sleep the rest of the year. :lol:

After doing some research my area is going to be a killer physically so I\'m planning to take it easy, pace myself, take in the whole hunt and bivy around instead of trying to walk in and out every night to town or even a base camp.

Thanks for feedback reinforced what I was thinking. :upthumb:

 

[Bullnuts]

It\'s hard to kill an elk at mid day when you\'re sitting in camp. I have been giving the late morning more credit lately as being a good time to be in the woods. Most people are I camp and most elk are still in the woods, so as long as that is the case, the chances improve. Sit on the edges of bedding cover and call a little bit, or set up in ambush near a wallow or other water source in the middle of the day.