Old Salt (old fart) Elk Tip Thread.......

[WapitiTalk1]

A solo thread for you "seasoned" elk hunters (ya, I'm a card holder in that dusty group also) that have been down the road the younger hunters are traveling. Please, offer up a tip or two that you share around your hunting campfire to the new bucks on board. Perhaps these are bits of advice, jewels, that have bee lost in translation with the modern internet, "do this or that" and you'll be successful. I'm talking old school tips that have stood the test of time here. Well, whaddya got Saddlesore, WW, Swede, Elknut, etc., etc., etc...... (for the purpose of this old school thread, let's say a tip offeror should be at least 50 bones old, and, have been hunting elk for 30 years+)...

[saddlesore]

Move slow.When you think you are moving slow enough, cut that in half.

It only takes about 5 seconds to turn an unsuccessful hunt into one where you punch your tag. Don't give up.You can kill an elk on the last day of the season just as likely as the first day

Unless you are100% sure that you have to shoot a 6x bull, never pass up a legal kill if you are more interested in filling your freezer. A two year old cow is much better table fare than a stinky old 8-9 year old bull. Better yet if you have store bought teeth.

[Swede]

Saddlesore has some jewels for anyone. If you have been at it long enough you have learned these things or have given up long ago. #1 patience. #2 persevere.
Patience is more important than speed and being in great physical condition. Patience does not mean do nothing. Quite the opposite. Look and study an area. Look and see what is going on. Try to see what is not even there. It may appear. Never assume there are no elk around.
Persevering means not going home when nothing seems to be going on. Weather might have you move, but be sure it is not an excuse you will live with for a whole year. Elk move a lot and just because you were in an area yesterday is no reason to think they can't be there today.
Elk are stupid animals, but their senses are keen. They can and will react instantly. You can outsmart them if you are aware of everything around you and you are ready. Drop your guard and you will be busted. Then you will feel like the dope.

[Lefty]

Over 50 bones here, but only 15 elk tags.
So mine will be general hunting advise.
Hunt with your dad ( and other family) and be willing to trade meat for the freezer to have your kids in hunting camp!

[Elkduds]

Spend time looking through binoculars. Let them do some of your walking. They will help you slow down while still hunting. Let hunting pressure work for you by getting where elk escape to, before they go there. Hydrate all day, then don't drink water after 4 pm. The fewer midnight wakeups, the better. Keep your scope @ low magnification until sighting on distant game.

[saddlesore]

Use your binoculars in the timber as much as you use them in open country. Maybe even more so. Pick up that small section of antler tine, an eye looking at you , an ear, a patch of brown hair

[Tigger]

Whew! I don't qualify. Had me scared there for a minute.

[Lefty]

,.... Hydrate all day, then don't drink water after 4 pm. The fewer midnight wakeups, the better.,....

Or set you tent in a different location each night ,.. and step out one step to the right or left. when camped lone that was my procedure.

While on a boy scout overnight camp, one of the scouts performed such a maneuver ( 13 year-old with a jet stream that 60 year olds no longer have ) Yep he learned that technique at elk camp.

[saddlesore]

,.... Hydrate all day, then don't drink water after 4 pm. The fewer midnight wakeups, the better.,....

Or set you tent in a different location each night ,.. and step out one step to the right or left. when camped lone that was my procedure.

While on a boy scout overnight camp, one of the scouts performed such a maneuver ( 13 year-old with a jet stream that 60 year olds no longer have ) Yep he learned that technique at elk camp.

Yea, those 13 year olds can write their names in the snow.Us old farts are hard pressed to do our initials, BUT we can do it again in another hour and several more times after that every hour.

[Swede]

Talk about digressing and taking a thread off track. You characters are as bad as me, er I mean RJ.

[WapitiTalk1]

Stop, look, listen, and even "smell" as much or more time than you walk in elk country. You'll be surprised at how many less elk you bust .

[saddlesore]

Talk about digressing and taking a thread off track. You characters are as bad as me, er I mean RJ.

Sorry, I had to crawl out of tent too small for me ,in the rain,in the middle of the night in swarms of mosquitoes this past weekend to get it done.
I promise not to digress for awhile

[saddlesore]

Arrive at the place you want to hunt about a half hour before it even starts to get light.Elk are moving then.They might even move past you then, but you won't have enough light to shoot. However, in the AM, you have about 20-30 minutes of prime hunting time when the elk are moving .Later they could still be moving, more so in rut, but that first half hour is prime.You don't want to be walking to your hunting spot then.

[Kentrek]

Rule number one in life and especially in regards to elk hunting....never trust anyone over 50....

just kidding


Keep it up ol timers !

[WapitiTalk1]

Rule number one in life and especially in regards to elk hunting....never trust anyone over 50....

just kidding


Keep it up ol timers !

Whatever. You may chime in as I know you spend half of each calendar year cavorting with the wapiti . You may have been born "50" years too late in life bud. You have the old school bark on for sure.

[Kentrek]

Rule number one in life and especially in regards to elk hunting....never trust anyone over 50....

just kidding


Keep it up ol timers !

Whatever. You may chime in as I know you spend half of each calendar year cavorting with the wapiti . You may have been born "50" years too late in life bud. You have the old school bark on for sure.

What I'd give to be born 50 years ago ! But I'l take what I got

It Really is a shame the new tech hunters are being heard over the old timers.....reading some of the older books it amazes me how much knowledge has been lost and or ignored.

My tip....elk hunting is a mental game, stay in the game...do what ever it takes to get completely tuned into the hunt....your mind should be focused on one thing

Easier said then done, esp on a long hunt

[saddlesore]

Use latex gloves when processing your elk in the field. Not so much for disease or bacteria control, but if you have noticed your hands/fingers getting those painful cracks a day or so after processing your elk,it is the blood that is causing it. Somehow it leaches the oils out of your hands. I use to use regular latex thin gloves,but now I take a pair of those yellow kitchen gloves. They are tougher,but not impervious to knife slices.

A small bottle of super glue will help with this hand /finger cracks

[Lefty]

hunting is a mental game, stay in the game.,,,,,t

You are so right!
I hunt to keep the mental aspect of my life going the correct direction.
Coming from a hardcore waterfowler and trappers perspective Ive seen a lot of fellows gung-ho, and realize it isnt for them, Same with many of the challenging activities.
If you don't like it, cant handle it ,.. go play golf

[>>>---WW---->]

Boots on the ground is the best advice I can think of. Just do it! Do what the elk are doing. If they are silent, maybe you need to be silent also. If they are talking, try mocking them. By mocking, you are learning how to make good elk sounds from the real elk. And one of my favorites is never answer an elk any quicker than he answered you. Let him dictate flow of the encounter so you don't push him too hard.

[Indian Summer]

Hmmm..... some good info here. Something to think about.....

I kill my elk more often than not. But there are people I hunt with... who sleep in the same tent and start off up the same trail who rarely if ever kill one. What makes us different? Two things. First I spend way more time looking at topp maps.... "online hunting" than they do. Some of them have never done that. So I always have a plan before I get there. They get there and scratch their head before pondering which way they might head. I guess the bottom line is I am a planner. I'm kinda overboard about it really. Not only do I have a plan but I also have a very detailed plan B, C, and D! A plan means no wandering aimlessly. It means no lack of confidence even if plan A doesn't pan out. It means I maximize every hour of every day of my entire hunt. It means I don't leave early and also that I hunt like it's day one when it's day 9. In the end all of this means that I learn way more than the guys who simply wander and let their emotions get the best of them halfway through the week. So I come back the next year with an even better plan while they come back with the exact same plan..... not much of one. Since I'm successful not only do I not wander on a daily basis but I also stay put from year to year. The guys who don't kill elk sometimes decide there has to be better hunting somewhere else so they relocate. That means they know even less about the area they are hunting. That's a lesson in human behavior because of the fact that they see me and others killing bulls consistently .... but still conclude that the grass is greener elsewhere. The fact is NOTHING beats knowing your area in serious detail. I've hunted areas where the numbers of elk crashed but it never phased me. I just laughed and said as long as there's one bull on that mountain I can kill it. You only need one right? Paul (Elknut) and many other successful hunters will tell you that the reality of it is you don't know $h1t about an area until you've hunted it for a minimum of FOUR years. So pick your area with GREAT care. Then spend as much time as you can hunting it each year.... maximizing every single day, and never second guess yourself as long as there are elk in the area.

The honest truth is I am NEVER done learning my area. I can and have hunted spots for over 10 years and I still learn a lot every single season. That means that even though I may have killed my elk there every single year.... my chances of success are even better every year. So that tells you I keep a very open mind and I never think I know it all. I actually get excited thinking about the things I will learn about my area this year even though I've hunted it for a long time.

Those are my secrets to success.

[Swede]

Indian Summer's post reminds me that not only do you learn an area over time, but you learn the elk's habits including where they are early and where they go.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Man... Good call on the rules, RJ! I wanted to start spouting off right away, then realized I'm only halfway to the age requirement.

I guess I still need to learn how to shut up, and listen.

[saddlesore]

Yea,I pretty have much stuck to one or two areas over the years.I usually don't have a plan B or C.The elk are always within a quarter of a mile of where I hunt because I have found out areas to hunt where others don't go and know each area very well.One such area,I have killed two bulls and three cows in that last five years shooting from within 50 yards of the same place each year. That was in rifle season. Two areas, I have hunted 25 years or more switching back and forth every few years.. In the ML season, I have killed four cows in as many years within a 1/4 mile of each other.

I'd rather hunt an area with less elk that I know well than an area with more elk and I don't know

[Swede]

Elk move around a lot. Some may stay in an area for days and even weeks, but many forage over an area that may exceed 50 square miles. They return to a location anywhere from 7 days to 14 days. This is not an ideal situation, but if there are few herds in a unit, you may find they are several miles from where hey were when you scouted the area. This is another reason to know your area and your herds.

[saddlesore]

Agreed, but there are two small resident herds ,10 animals or so where I hunt. Unless they get pushed ,they never move more than a 1/2 mile.I go in quiet,shoot one, keep relatively quiet and pack the elk out.One area,we shot two out of there another we shot three in three days.
But if you spook them they are gone.
I just took a friend down to another area where I have shot several elk. The elk were still there and I expect them to be there when archery season arrives.No one hunts this spot.They all pass it buy,and the elk live there until rifle season starts.. I sent him down there last year and he got into elk also.

Another member here,I gave him a good location.He was not seeing elk where he was,but moved to where I told him to go and he was into elk the first day. Again,it is spending years in one location and getting to know it.Go into an area and blow the elk out and they will move out to another drainage.

Last year, ML hunting, after I killed my elk, I told two hunters I didn't even know where to go to shoot an elk. In a half hour they had a cow down.

Those are not just coincidences. The biggest problem is learning what elk do in a given area and where they go once hunting pressure starts.Anyone can find them if they are not hunted.

[Indian Summer]

I'd rather hunt an area with less elk that I know well than an area with more elk and I don't know

Bingo! All the guys who go home empty handed have hunted where there are elk. That's only half the battle. Finding them is the big half. Finding them without blowing them out of the area is even more important. If you don't know your area you don't know when to slow down or where to sit. If your idea of finding elk is watching them run off you might not be getting any shooting. Of course that's part of the learning process. You can learn the lay of the land in maybe 2 years. 3 even better. But to learn how the elk use it is a never ending process.

[Grousewit]

This will be my first year.I have never hunted elk, but I have hunted whitetails for almost 50 yrs and the strategy u old farts are sharing worked very well on whitetails. Keeping your head in the game, always expecting one to be around the next bend, hunting an area with elk in it, knowing their travel routes, etc. Are all key points. Thank you (HOT TIP for young bucks-save this thread)

[WapitiTalk1]

Saddlesore: "A two year old cow is much better table fare than a stinky old 8-9 year old bull. Better yet if you have store bought teeth." Classic .

OK, back to the all important topic of whizzing at night. Take an empty 32 oz Gatorade bottle and throw it in your tent at night (the 32 oz size is important as it has a wide mouth); when nature calls, simply whizz in the bottle (the 32 oz size will hold a good three whizzings). One more on whizzing.... In "mule deer" country, do not whizz right by camp our outside your tents or you'll have Mike and Molly Mule Deer in camp, waking you up in the middle of the night. They like to lick the salt (gross, I know) out of said whizz. I've observed this phenomenon quite few times over the years and it seems to vary from state to state, area to area. I do know that NW MT and N ID muleys are whizz lickers .

Back to our regularly scheduled thread.

[Charina]

I'm still about 6 years short of the age requirement (and far more short on the experience requirement), but having a prostate and bladder of a 70 year old, I think I'm qualified to second the Gator aid bottle technique. The 1 liter Mt Dew bottles work well too, as they have the extra wide neck. Always hydrate heavy early in the day, according to activity/sweat level, and cut off most serious hydration by 5pm unless you feel you've fallen behind on hydration. Being elevated on a cot or high loft air mattress helps minimize disturbance. Easy pee-zee. Having to get up and exit the tent 5 or more times during a night is a rest killer for me.

And . . . while you are still young, take care of your bladder and prostate!!! Make sure you stay hydrated properly and whizz often. Holding it for lengthy periods of time stretches and ages your bladder so it looses elasticity.

[saddlesore]

I have one of those store bought red urinals that you can whiz laying on your side in bed.

[>>>---WW---->]

RJ: Most of us use the Gator Aid bottle trick. But I heard that an 8 oz Pepsi bottle with the small neck would save on pack space and work for you just fine.

Sorry! Couldn't resisit!!!!!!

[Lefty]

We need to rename this tread
Old fart, peeing techniques while in camp.

I took the wrong blood presured med last night. With a diaretic. Nature called at 10:40, 1:30, 4:30. If I had the flow of a 13 year old I could have rolled to the edge of the tailgate, and let it rip while laying on my side.4

[WapitiTalk1]

RJ: Most of us use the Gator Aid bottle trick. But I heard that an 8 oz Pepsi bottle with the small neck would save on pack space and work for you just fine.

Sorry! Couldn't resisit!!!!!!

Peeping Tom, err Bill . Truth be told, I have to use a 5 Gallon bucket for personal use due to my physical makeup ; I was just trying to be kind in my recommendations for whizz container size so as not to hurt anybody's feelings .

[WapitiTalk1]

I'll try to get this thread back on track .

Don't get a cocklebur in your shorts (possibly panic and consider moving areas as a first resort) if you realize other hunters are camping/hunting in your general area. Talk to them! Most often times, they are good folks and after some discussion, you can determine where everybody plans on hunting. These conversations/meet and greets, can also result in some assistance (or offered assistance) in packing out big stinky from the elk woods.

[Lefty]

Truth be told, I have to use a 5 Gallon bucket for personal use due to my physical makeup ; .

Yeah my wife's physical make up forces her to sit on a 5 Gallon pail too.
Sorry to hear about your condition RJ

[WapitiTalk1]

Truth be told, I have to use a 5 Gallon bucket for personal use due to my physical makeup ; .

Yeah my wife's physical make up forces her to sit on a 5 Gallon pail too. Sorry to hear about your condition RJ

thCAKA3OVD.jpg (15.21 KiB) Viewed 36475 times

Ref throws a flag! Like I said, its damn hard finding good help these days.......

[Swede]

RJ is definitely not old yet. He does not understand what being old is like.
E.g. A 32 oz. Gater Aid is good for 32 times relieving your bladder which amounts to just three nights. After you wake up from a long night of getting up to walk out and relieve yourself, you are tired. You wake up tired and stay that way. By the afternoon you need a nap bad, like a two year old. You get cranky and may have a melt down. You can be a pain like a two year old, but only no one knows what to do about you and they think you are an old crab.
Parts of your body don't work right. Your pain level may be a constant 4-5 unless you have been packing out an elk. Then it goes to an 8-9.
Lets go hunting. Everything looks better from a hunting camp perspective.

[Swede]

I know RJ was trying to salvage this thread, but it is hard to do after it has been wrecked by over the top cynicism and humor.

[Grousewit]

Yep post 27 was the last sensible post. Try to stay on subject guys. I consider myself really lucky after reading this. I'll b a 61-year-old in less than a month an didn't have to get up at all to whiz last nite!

[Elkduds]

Gee whiz, this thread sure took a leak. Makes me pissimistic. Urine titled to your own opinions

[Indian Summer]

I guess I can add my 2 cents to the current subject.... unfortunately from experience.... Do not pee into the wind under any circumstances!

[WapitiTalk1]

That's it.... no Xmas bonus's for any of you stinky moderators... And as for Elkduds and WW, you both need to write on a chalkboard 1000 times "I will always be kind, considerate, and respectful when posting on the Wapiti Talk Forum; RJ loves us and does not deserve this kind of delinquent behavior" .

Geesh, its hard to keep a quality thread on track these day.

[Elkhunttoo]

Leave it to the old farts to forget the topic ... just glad everyone stayed with the number 1 business and didn't try teaching any tips for the number 2!

[Kentrek]

Always go number 2 after the rain storm passes....never try and beat it.....

Wet tp sucks

[Grousewit]

Here come the tips for #2!!! We knew it was gonna happen.