Your Single Most Deadliest Elk Tactic!!

[high country]

I have killed 7 elk within 300 yds of the same tree. I can see no reason to change a thing.......I hope they don't log my area for a good while.

[MooseStock]

Scouting....you just can't do enough even if you have known the area your hunting for years. Elk are very "cyclical" animals and your need to keep track of what part of their cycle they are in........Les

[runningboard]

to quote gunnery SGT. Highway of heartbreak ridge, "we move quick, we move silent, we move deadly."
When I was talking with my buddies about my success in three consecutive years, I told them along with a lot of luck I don't bugle, cow call or otherwise announce my presense. I tease them and say, "you guys tell them you're there, no one knows I'm there until someone falls over."
Sure there are many folks who can bugle, cow call, and coax them in but I'm not one of them, so I just try to be as stealthy as possible and let others chase 'em to me.

[popeshawnpaul]

Rocks! 

Whenever I start to call the elk in, I put 3 to 4 baseball to softball sized rocks at my feat.  When the elk get relatively close but hang up, I throw the rock the opposite way the elk is coming or in a direction that will take him right by me.  Last season, my bull hung up so I threw a couple big rocks down in front of me.  The elk thought it was the cow leaving so he followed the sound.  Walked right into my shooting lane.

I then bugled to calm him down and let him die.  As I was bugling another bull came in .  He hung up 50 yards below me.  I took the remaining rocks and threw them way up behind me.  He walked right into my shooting lane.  Too bad they don't give out 2nd tags...

This tactic works great because often I'm calling alone.  It also takes the focus of the elk off the cow that's calling and they begin looking for the source of the rocks.  I'm sure it sounds like a herd when i throw them.

Shawn

Shawn

[Slider]

Persistence!!! Pope were do you purchase the Elk Rocks?.............lol

[Elknut1]

  Lots of ambushers here, nothing wrong with that!! I've done it a time or 2 myself!! I guess I do mostly calling though because of the sheer excitement for sure! If elk hunting were like deer hunting for the most part in locating & killing I probably wouldn't have near the passion for it. I'm not there to just fill a tag, I look at it as the ultimate calling challenge, I love beating them at their own game. Calling bulls to bowrange is the ultimate adrenalin rush! It's what I live for! So when I personally think of "Tactics" I think of calling scenarios that are what it takes to seal the deal. Even if I started out my hunt with stalking/ambushing it seems calling comes into play more often than not because of the elk throwing a "wrench" into things! Anyway you look at it you gotta love it!!!

  Shawn, your "rock rolling" was the best one yet!! (grin)

  ElkNut1

[high country]

Persistence!!! Pope were do you purchase the Elk Rocks?.............lol

you can get them just up past the goat rocks.

[BLUEBULLS]

i guess i don't really have a deadliest tactic. I just do what I think I have to at that particular time. A lot of times I'll try an ambush and end up leaving to go find them, I guess you'd call me the aggressive type. I'm a little impatient.

[Fish4Fun]

Best advice I was ever given was get on a natural elk crossing be still, quiet and wait them out. Seems to work well for my brother and I, we have taken 30 elk between the 2 of us sitting on the same log staring at the same trail. Get there an hour or so before daylight and let the other hunters bring em on in. We are generally done shooting within an hour of daylight. Never fails to see some wild eyed guy show up after the shooting is done. Usually they say the same thing, jumped a herd about a mile back and never could catch up to them.

At least they get to see what it was they were in hot pursuit of laying on the ground.   

[WAcoueshunter]

During archery season when it's cold at night and warm during the day, the air at first light is going downhill then shifts uphill as the hills warm.  As the sun rises, the air should blow up each side of a ridge and go straight up from the crest of the ridge.  The elk work their way from the meadows below up one side of the ridge towards the top where they bed for the day.  My deadliest method has been to walk well around the elk, get on the backside of the ridge (or at least the crest) and drop right back in on them from higher up on the hill.  They make a lot of noise, so rolling a rock or two shouldn't be a problem.  The warm air should keep the wind blowing uphill, so your downhill descent should be right into the wind. 

[Alchase]

"were do you purchase the Elk Rocks?

Ebay just under the October 15th Mulie Rut Hunt

Sorry could not resist

[Opportunist]

Popeshawnpaul,

Man that's a good one! I do alot of calling for myself also and I usually make my last setup and if it looks like the bull is on his way I'll shift left or right 20 yards. I'm going to use the rock trick.

Hell, if you market it right you might be able to sell 'elk rocks' through Cabelas or Sportsman's. Think of all the people that bought 'pet' rocks.

[Elknut1]

  Hey, I'll take a couple, in diet please!

  ElkNut1

[popeshawnpaul]

It was kind of funny, it wasn't anything I thought about beforehand.  I thought more people would just laugh at my new tactic.

I was sitting watching my shooting lane below me which was only 20 yards.  I was in THICK repod so I could hear this elk coming for quite a ways.  The problem was he was coming straight at me as I had been cow calling.  If he came out on the track he was on, he would be 3 yards away.  It would have been impossible to draw and get a shot from 3 yards.  I was panicking, but I knew I couldn't move.  So here he comes...  He had those cow calls locked in from a long ways off.  I thought I was going to spook him by throwing the big rocks, but I knew I wouldn't get a shot if he came out right on top of me.  Additionally, his focus was going to be on me as the source of the calls.  When he was 30 yards out (estimate based on sound), I threw the rocks 20 yards down in front of me.  It completely took the attention off my position and I immediately heard the bull change course and he popped out in my lane at 20 yards.  I drew my bow before I could see him because I could hear he was right there.  When he popped out in the only shooting lane, he noticed me out of the corner of his eye and started to look up at me...but it was all over.  The slick trick went right threw him mid body and out the other side.  He never made it far.

Like I said, while waiting for this bull to die, I had another hot one that I heard come down the opposite hillside at me.  When I heard him slosh through the creek I was telling myself, oh no.  3 minutes later he was nearing my position below me.  He was heading too far to my right so I took some boulders and threw them 20 yards to the left of me.  He changed course.  He was now heading right for me.  I had a harder time hearing this guy come in, so I threw another boulder to my left hoping to draw the bull back to my left and into my infamous 20 yard shooting lane.  He must have heard the boulders because he just popped out in my shooting lane in the exact same spot I shot the other bull about 15 minutes earlier.  Too bad, he was a nice 5 point and I knew I had only shot a 3 point on the first bull.  That's always my luck.

I truly believe this tactic works good in reprod.  When you are crawling down in the thick stuff with them, you need to be able to lead them into you a bit as it is too thick to move quietly through that stuff.  As I think back to those previous 10 days of hunting, if I had used this trick in a couple of my other setups I have no doubt I would have got shots at some bulls that hung up.  On three other bulls, they hung up or came right at me hanging up sometimes 5 yards away through the reprod.  I definitely think this is a better tactic in thick areas.  It is especially useful in reprod.

So, rocks is my key and something I plan on using when calling in the near future.  And no, they don't get spooked by it as I thought they would.

[Slider]

POPE You didn't answer my Question?