Hey all,
I'm fairly new to elk hunting, hunted Whitetail all my life in the midwest and now learning how much different elk are! Anyway, this is my 3rd season of elk hunting and I've managed to find elk all 3 years. I'm learning to read maps better and wanted to check out this spot about a mile off any trails or roads up some pretty steep country, got up there and found sign all over the place, it had rained the day/night before so it was all really fresh within that day. The top was pretty open water all over for the most part, saw some moose and a lot of dark thick timber around the open areas.
Well we didn't see any elk while we were there so we were making our way down when across the valley in a small opening we spotted two cow, it was getting pretty close to dark at this point but we decided to see if we could cut the cows off before dark, we kept checking the spot and all the sudden we saw a nice big 6x6 (I would say about 500-600 yards away) who seemed like drove off the cows (why?) at this point down and back up pretty steep hills through thick timber. Well this was our last night of hunting so we pressed on hoping they would still be up there, got up there and could smell them, found a bed that had just been pissed in, still smelled real rank! Got to the opening where we saw them and a nice big wallow and tracks/sign everywhere but no elk. They could have heard us come in, smelt us whatever the case may be.
Anyway, my question is how would you have worked them? Would you have called at all? Did we do the right thing of trying to get up there or if we had the time should we have waited for morning? Should we try to set up on the wallow when we get back up there or next week or does it not make sense to go back to that specific location?
I'm fairly new to elk hunting, hunted Whitetail all my life in the midwest and now learning how much different elk are! Anyway, this is my 3rd season of elk hunting and I've managed to find elk all 3 years. I'm learning to read maps better and wanted to check out this spot about a mile off any trails or roads up some pretty steep country, got up there and found sign all over the place, it had rained the day/night before so it was all really fresh within that day. The top was pretty open water all over for the most part, saw some moose and a lot of dark thick timber around the open areas.
Well we didn't see any elk while we were there so we were making our way down when across the valley in a small opening we spotted two cow, it was getting pretty close to dark at this point but we decided to see if we could cut the cows off before dark, we kept checking the spot and all the sudden we saw a nice big 6x6 (I would say about 500-600 yards away) who seemed like drove off the cows (why?) at this point down and back up pretty steep hills through thick timber. Well this was our last night of hunting so we pressed on hoping they would still be up there, got up there and could smell them, found a bed that had just been pissed in, still smelled real rank! Got to the opening where we saw them and a nice big wallow and tracks/sign everywhere but no elk. They could have heard us come in, smelt us whatever the case may be.
Anyway, my question is how would you have worked them? Would you have called at all? Did we do the right thing of trying to get up there or if we had the time should we have waited for morning? Should we try to set up on the wallow when we get back up there or next week or does it not make sense to go back to that specific location?
