My Bivy Hunt

[Swede]

I\'m new to an area and need some advise. It is very early September and I have just arrived at my new base camp. This will not take long as I plan to hike out and bivouac tonight. The days have been warm and dry and the forecast is for it to stay that way. What I have been looking at is a long deep, one or two mile wide, moderately timbered draw. It has a stream and meadows in the bottom. The canyon runs north and south and averages 600 - 800 feet deep from top to bottom.
I plan to hike out about four miles from the truck, and stay in a little meadow well back from the canyon for tonight. From my bivy. camp I can go either direction as I will be 4-5 miles max. from a road, either to the south or back to my truck.
I plan to try calling elk or spotting them as much as possible. What I want you to help me with is planning where to travel and call from. Should I hunt from the canyon rim, from the bottom or somewhere in between? Should I hunt some of both? If so how and when? I am prepared to hunt two or three days before I return to the truck, but could stay another if needed. I may go about two miles from my bivouac. camp. If I plan to go farther I will relocate.
Note: If you feel you need more information in order to answer this, please feel free to make it up. I did, but I am considering an area that meets this general description.

 

[elkmtngear]

John,
From your description, I think I\'d want to ideally be in the bottom of the canyon way before daylight, and try a weak location bugle.
If no response, I would get to a good vantage on some of the bottom meadows at first light, and see if anything moves, perhaps stillhunting the timber\'s edge with the SLIP Decoy deployed. Then, I\'d probably spend the morning slowly working my way to the rim, looking for sign, trails, wallows, etc. Perhaps do some cold calling if I find some \"elky\" spots. Once the winds get shifty, I\'d lay low for a while.

Midday if the thermals positively shift up, I\'d still hunt the biggest/freshest trail I encounter back down toward the stream, and set up for an evening ambush. Hopefully by this time I will have found evidence of an active population of elk in the drainage.

I\'m basing this from areas I hunt that fit your description somewhat.

 

[Swede]

I think there are elk feeding at night in the meadows at the bottom of the canyon. What should I do about them? I like Jeff\'s plan, but now I want a little more information.

 

[cnelk]

Even tho you know there are elk in the lower meadows, I wouldnt bother them. With the description you made its is big country
The elk that are low will be cycling in the area at some time. Hunt them when the time is right.
And those probably arent all the elk in the vicinity
I would work my way uphill into the thermals and try to encounter an elk with the wind in my favor.
Remember you arent hunting for a bunch of elk, you are hunting for ONE elk

 

[elkmtngear]

I think there are elk feeding at night in the meadows at the bottom of the canyon. What should I do about them? I like Jeff\'s plan, but now I want a little more information.

Depending upon how easy it is to navigate, I would try to move parallel with the canyon, keeping a ridgetop between us early on, until I got down to the lower end of it. Then, I\'d pop over in there. This would all have to be done in the dark with a headlamp.

This could keep you from blowing them out, and would allow you to start with the wind in your favor as you were looking for that \"one elk\" that Brad mentioned

 

[americanbwana]

If it where me, I\'d hunt the elk in the meadows in the evening, provided I can find a spot with favorable wind. I\'d look for some \'secure\' open spaces within a 1/2 mile, then setup between that and the meadow. Why? The elk may \'stage\' up a bit higher, then start moving in earnest just before sunset.

Since I can\'t out walk an elk, I\'d probably try to get up about 1/2 way up one side of the valley before shooting light, then hope to catch them on the way up. My guess is they\'ll be heading up that way to bed before it gets to light. Of course the wind would be the determining factor. Those elk will holed up high, in a cool area to escape the midday heat.

I\'m also one to look for the head waters of that stream, hoping to find a wallow that I can sit on during the day.

But then again, I haven\'t actually harvest an elk with a bow.

AB.