Advice to aspiring elk hunter..

[WapitiTalk1]

Howdy!  My name is ######.  I’m getting ready to start hunting elk next year. What are some things, maybe top three things, I need to start concentrating on to improve my success/experience? 

[Kingofthemountain83]

#1 don't hunt where there are't elk...
#2 figuring out where to consistently hunt elk... Even when the hunting pressure changes...
#3 this ravanive may hide them today... Tomorrow?

[Pathfinder101]

Drive until the road ends.  Walk three miles.  Start hunting.
Never leave elk to find elk.
Until you see all four legs go up, keep shooting.
 

[BeerBugler]

By hook or by crook, become a tribal member. Basically the best hunting advice ever given.

[Falcon]

Watch endless YouTube vids 

[CarbonHunter]

Relocate to a state that has good elk hunting
Get a good job with plenty of vacation
Get in shape and shoot straight

[MADMAX]

Do it while you’re young
Steep and deep

[TheYoungSelfStarter]

No success yet personally (3 solid years in) so take this with a grain of salt haha.

1. Go ruck, get elk fit and stay fit.
2. Make sure your gear works (scouting trips help- plus you can put cams out on those trips)
3. Get in early, stay late. Become friends with the dark because that's when you will be going in and out.

Hope that helps! Great question

[HunterStrait]

Repetition, get familiar with where the elk travel, where they feed, where they get water/wallow, and find a good vantage point or long corridor to sit and glass from shooting hours to noon and wait for the elk to come through. You wont see an elk most days usually.

Got my two elk just out of luck of being in the right place at the right time.

[fowl smacker]

Elk hunting in this state isn't what it used to be, especially on the West side hunting Weyerhaeuser land.  There are still a few.  Our point system is a joke.  If I were just starting out I wouldn't waste my time putting in for special permits here, instead, I'd take all the money I was going to spend and put it away and save for a good out of state hunt.  Buy points in a different state, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada. 

[Fidelk]

Do you live near elk hunting woods where you can easily drive to where you hunt and are familiar with the area? That's one thing. Eastern/Western are too different things.

If you have to drive some distance to where you hunt, you're more into safari/expedition mode. Some hunters stay in a hotel......some buy wall tents with wood burning stoves. In that case, you might need to build a crew.....to share camp setup/takedown, cooking, firewood cutting, hauling out an elk. That is the full blown elk camp model.

In Eastern, very long odds on locating a spike elk. Buy special hunt applications for "antlerless"......the general consensus is that none of us will ever draw "Bull Elk" or "Quality Elk"........I quit buying those points after I hit around 20 points for each.

[HunterStrait]

Elk hunting in this state isn't what it used to be, especially on the West side hunting Weyerhaeuser land.  There are still a few.  Our point system is a joke.  If I were just starting out I wouldn't waste my time putting in for special permits here, instead, I'd take all the money I was going to spend and put it away and save for a good out of state hunt.  Buy points in a different state, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada.

Year before last i was hunting during general season, spike only unit, i had a Jeep drive by me with Oregon plates right through an elk corridor i was sitting at. Some people want to come here to experience the struggle i guess.

[jason stevens]

Learn how to call, have energy an go where you don't think you should go.. also have friends to help pack out of hell holes that you should have never been in lol. Oh an last thought. Don't drive past something everyone else drives past because there's elk there.!

[Kingofthemountain83]

Elk hunting in this state isn't what it used to be, especially on the West side hunting Weyerhaeuser land.  There are still a few.  Our point system is a joke.  If I were just starting out I wouldn't waste my time putting in for special permits here, instead, I'd take all the money I was going to spend and put it away and save for a good out of state hunt.  Buy points in a different state, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada.

Year before last i was hunting during general season, spike only unit, i had a Jeep drive by me with Oregon plates right through an elk corridor i was sitting at. Some people want to come here to experience the struggle i guess.

I ran into a guy from Pennsylvania last year... He's been coming here to hunt elk for 15+ years... He got a spike in velvet that I scouted out 3 days before the season on day 2...    We were hunting the same spot...

[metlhead]

Buy property on the coast and dump feed.