Weather and Elk

[cohunter14]

We have all witnessed or heard that weather has an impact on elk. It seems like they are more intelligent than our weather experts on television and always seem to know what is coming

So, share your experiences, myths, etc. What do elk do, or what have you heard that elk do that may be true or false, before and after storms (rain and/or snow), during periods of high winds, when it\'s unseasonably warm, cold, dry, wet, etc. Another one we can throw into this is moon phases and an elk\'s reaction to that. Let\'s hear it!

 

[Olympushunt]

When it is really hot......realllllly hot and dry out... they get thirsty. A lot. :dk:

 

[Olympushunt]

Ok Derek...I see you are rolling your eyes at me.
I have heard and noticed when a storm is rolling through they seem to button up. I no longer think calling is fruitless though. I have had two seperate times when I\'ve been burned thinking I was in for a tough hunt and let my guard down. A terrible idea but there are times every hunter lets his or her guard down and gets punished. At least I think I am not alone there.
Once I drove out from my home in Medford for a hunt, mid September and one of those rare storms was rolling in. By the time I got up to where I wanted to go it was snowing. I sat in the cab of my truck pouting as I have heard they aren\'t vocal when this happens. I figured...well...I drove 2 hours to get there I might as well get out and go for a hike. It was DEAD quiet when I hit the timber. No birds, no squirrels, no NOTHING. I could just hear the dead quiet of snow flakes falling. I was dejected. I didn\'t even put on my release from my pack. I needed some noise or I thought I would go crazy. I put a diaphram in my mouth and grabbed my grunt tube. I let er rip..... I started to take a step up the hill and settle in for a long boring hike when here he comes. SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!! Pants around ankles. DOH!
So I no longer think calling won\'t work when a storm moves in. It also happened last year on the opener. This one wasn\'t as bad though...but I am a slow learnererer at times. My buddy and I had been hiking and calling when mid day the sky turned mad. We decided to hunker down next to a wallow we found and cow call. We did that for a few hours waiting for the weather to improve and contemplate our next moves. Finally we decided we better get out of this nasty canyon as the weather was going south on us big time. We had a long ways to go and it was going to get miserable...soon. We picked up \"Jeff\"(the elk butt decoy slip system) and headed up the draw. If we had waited 10 more stinkin minutes we would have been in business. We let our guard down as it was storming pretty good and here comes this bull down the draw coming right to where we had been calling from. He caught us....of course. So lessons learned...when it is storming, I think it gets them up and moving and they just might come to your calls.

 

[Swede]

\"Elk don\'t get out and feed during a hot afternoon.\" Well somebody should tell the elk, because they are not reading from the same magazine article.
\"Elk bed down on north slopes.\" That is true as far as it goes, but they also bed on east, west, and south slopes. They bed, even in hot weather, where it is reasonably cool. That could be in the cool shade, on any slope.

 

[Deertick]

That is true as far as it goes, but they also bed on east, west, and south slopes.

Things come in 3\'s. (And 1\'s, 2\'s, 4\'s and all the other numbers, right Swede?)

I find that many of the things we \"know\" are really things that we\'ve convinced ourselves are true -- with no evidence at all.

I\'ve heard people say that \"Deer bed during the day, so it\'s no use hunting mid-day.\" Those same people, of course, are never out during the mid-day, so how would they know what deer are doing? They don\'t realize that they have provided the conditions that will make their hypothesis seem true and also exclude any inquiry into it.

Another one is \"This weather will get them moving\" or \"This moon will be good\" ... if you are convinced you are seeing \"good\" conditions, you\'ll be more likely to hunt hard, and if you do that, you\'re more likely to see animals. The reverse is true, too ... if you believe that \"This weather is no good\" then you are likely to not see anything.

Pronghorn hunting is a great way to learn this. Those animals are visible, all day. So they teach us that animals don\'t disappear just because of weather conditions, or moon phases. They\'re there, and the elk are, too. They don\'t disappear just because of weather.

Now, I haven\'t been elk hunting long enough to say I understand elk behavior and weather, but in my limited experience it seems that heavy rain shuts them down (of course, how would I know? I don\'t hunt in heavy rain!) but after it passes, things are back to normal.

 

[cnelk]

Wind is a weather condition that seems to shut elk movement down.
I didn\'t read this or hear it, but have experienced it

 

[cohunter14]

Wind is a weather condition that seems to shut elk movement down.
I didn\'t read this or hear it, but have experienced it

I, too, have witnessed this. The two worst weather conditions for hunting, if you ask me, are during high winds or during a heavy snow. I know you can move around the woods better when it\'s windy because elk can\'t hear you as well, but it also makes it very difficult to hear or smell them. And trudging through deep snow in a blizzard is just no fun at all.