Free: Contests & Raffles.
Late season does have potential to get on animals. I shot my biggest bull one year when everyone else stayed home due to being cold and wet. For sure get out during free time and have some fun trying to fill the freezer. Personally I would just stay close to cover hunting close in areas as by late season elk have been pressured heavily. But they are all still out there. Try to cover a little ground, find as fresh of sign as possible and narrow down a core area they are using and pound a spot.
Calling will be counterproductive, as you’ll be giving up your position. It’s a spot and stalk/still hunt show but keep a cow call handy for stopping an elk.
Quote from: Damnimissed on October 06, 2021, 10:03:44 PMCalling will be counterproductive, as you’ll be giving up your position. It’s a spot and stalk/still hunt show but keep a cow call handy for stopping an elk.Spot on. Only use a call to stop an elk if needed to get a shot using a cow call. But spot and stalk is what this season is all about and rut is completely over at that point. Use weather to your advantage to sneak into areas quietly. Wind and rain help hide your scent and movement to a point which is helpful too.
Personally I like to cover as much ground as possible until seeing fresh tracks. One benefit of this season is that they will leave a lot of tracks when you find the areas they are using. Wet soft ground can be a huge benefit. Walk across the cut or hole they hiding in or are using and you WILL know it.
Glad this thread has come up. Never had to hunt a late season archery elk before. I was going to shuffle cameras around and start locating now and see what patterns I can figure out. Lots of good tips so far. Thank you to all and the one that started the thread
Hunted late archery two years ago. We knew where some elk where for the opening morning and were able to get on them, but didn’t seal the deal. After that the area was full of other hunters, mostly on the road. Elk wouldn’t come out until almost dark and were back in trees before sun up.We got away from others by riding bikes into areas trucks can’t go. We were also in a smaller unit, and had clear skies and big moons every night, so take that into consideration.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I hunt sw coast range late archery just about every year in a 3pt or antlerless unit. The bulls are solo unless they are spikes or little rags with a herd and tend to tuck away and hide. Focus on finding small groups in all sorts of spots. Little pockets or blind spots in reprod that are not visible from the driven road. I'm not saying away from the road, just where you can't see them. A lot of times the 2 or 3 will tuck in these little patches to feed or bed and aren't noticed till you go over to look off a ledge or around a bend or ridge in a hill. The elk are skittish already and if you try and target larger groups it gets significantly harder to stalk with that many more eyeballs. As for gear, solid rain gear is a must. Use weather to your advantage. Pray you don't get freezing dry temps since it makes the woods pretty noisy. Bike behind gates if you can. keep your binos dry. Cow call only for stopping or trying to redirect a spooked herd/slow it down. If you by chance split a calf and cow, and she becomes out of of sight from the calf you can sometimes coax the calf into your calling. I like to hold my bow by the riser with a hand warmer between my hand hand grip to keep some dexterity or a water proof glove if you can shoot with gloves on. Also the days are short so pack a headlamp and flash light incase you do shoot one in the evening. Spare set of dry cloths if you plan to hunt all day and it's a soaker out. Staying dry and warm keeps morale in place, and leads to you spending more time and effort chasing animals and thus more chance for opportunity. Hope this helps a little!
