Safety First!
How often have you heard that phrase? It gets pretty tiring sometimes hearing it over and over, doesn’t it? Well… here it is again, but this time, in a little different context.Regardless of the season, elk need three things for survival: food, water, and safety. While most of the time we probably think of "shelter" being the third item on that list, elk don’t really need “shelter” from the elements, and can get along just fine without it. Safety, however, they CAN’T live without.
For most us, we’ve been conditioned to look for the likely feeding areas in and around the places we hunt—often focusing on those areas in the early morning and late evening hours, hoping to catch animals up on their feet and possibly out in the open. While in many cases that can be a sound plan—one which accounts for lots of animals being harvested each fall—pressured elk seldom step out into the open, or even start heading toward “traditional” feeding areas during legal shooting hours.
If highly-pressured elk live in habitats where the highest quality food is out in open meadows and parks, in the vast majority of cases those animals will feed under the cover of darkness. Fortunately for elk (and unfortunately for most hunters) there are truly very few places like that in Colorado. The reason I put quotation marks around “traditional” above is because in many of Colorado's elk habitats, quality forage can be found in a variety of places, and pressured elk are masters at finding food in those less than obvious, and definitely not open, places. From pockets of grass, forbs, and browse within expanses of dark timber, to the thickets of aspen shoots and tall grass filling in many of our beetle kill areas, pressured elk are going to find food that’s tucked back in those places that offer them what? Safety!
The same goes for water. While in drier years, the lack of water can help to concentrate animals and overall habitat use in some areas, elk don’t necessarily need wide-flowing creeks or open lakes and beaver ponds to get their water. They will definite use those water sources, but they’ll also use that tiny, nasty smelling wallow tucked back in the dark timber that holds a pool of water the size of a dinner plate or that simply fills their tracks in the mud. They’ll use that trickle of water that seeps from the side of the mountain that flows above ground for 10 feet before soaking back into the soil, down in that impossible-to-get-to hole that no sane person would dream of trying to pull an elk out of. And if they have to use that flowing creek, or open beaver pond, that happens to lie out in the open? You guessed it—they’ll use it under the cover of darkness. For pressured elk in many of Colorado’s units, food and water can be found in a variety of places, so safety becomes the number one factor in their daily lives—whether we’re talking about early archery season, or the last few days of the 4th rifle season. And if safety is their number one consideration on a daily basis during hunting season, it definitely should be your number one consideration during your hunt!
Where or where has my little dog ELK gone?
Nine times out of 10, when asked, “Where do elk go when they’re pressured?” most hunters will tell you: “The deepest dark timber they can find”—or something to that effect. And while they’d be absolutely right if that sort of habitat characteristic can be found in the area you’re planning to hunt, what if it doesn’t? While elk will definitely bury themselves in thickest, nastiest, darkest timber they can find sometimes, “safety” goes beyond that. Now… if deep, dark timber does exist in your hunting area, let’s knock that one out right off the bat. How do you know, you ask? If you’re hunting middle to higher elevation areas (often times the timbered habitats roughly between 9,000 and 11,500 feet), “dark timber” can often be found on north-facing, or northeast-facing slopes. Before you head out this season, take a look at Google Earth, Google Maps, Bing, TerraServer, or any number of on-line satellite imagery resources, and pick your hunting area apart. If your area has north or northeast-facing slopes that have patches of thick pines across them (indicated by dark green colored trees that are all packed together tightly), then your area likely has “dark timber” tucked away in there somewhere.
For elk “safety” purposes, the thicker the better, and the steeper the better—especially if those steep, thick pockets have a bench or two tucked away in them. Use your topo maps to find the steep areas (or use the Google Earth feature that lets you “angle” the view of your satellite image), and look for places where the contour lines diverge momentarily, indicating a “flat” spot on the slope, or at least an area that’s less steep. Thick pines, on steep slopes, on north or northeast-facing slopes, with benches scattered across them can be GREAT areas to find pressured elk. Make that area difficult to get into, scatter in a few open pockets with good forage, and a wallow or spring seep or two, and it’s a safe bet that’ll be one of the first places I’ll be looking if I’m dealing with—or anticipate dealing with—pressured elk.
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| The author with a heavily pressured bull he harvested deep in the middle of a large stand of thick timber. |
But what if you don’t have that in your hunting area, or those areas aren’t that difficult to get to and everybody and their brother’s uncle is going in there looking for elk? What then? Well, evaluate…
If your area doesn’t have traditional “dark timber” like that outlined above, but it does have areas—or expanses —of thick cover (whether it be slopes with thick oak brush, beetle kill areas coming back in stands of thick, impenetrable aspen and grass, etc.), start checking there. Like I said above, if the area is thick, hard to get to, steep, and has benches scattered across it, it’s a likely area for elk to burrow into and hole up for safety. And in thick oak brush or aspen areas, elk are literally surrounded by food, so if they have any source of water available to them within that thick, nasty stuff, they literally have no reason to leave. And often they don’t!
If your area doesn’t have thick pockets of cover that few people get into, then start looking in “overlooked” or “out of the way” places that other hunters aren’t thinking about. Sometimes it might be off a small point along the ridge that everyone simply walks by because “it doesn’t look like much.” With the emphasis these days on “backcountry” hunts, and “getting away from the road,” sometimes the least pressured areas are by the road, or right off the trailhead. In some areas, while 98% of the hunters are “heading back in,” the elk are sitting there silently – watching hikers, hunters, and even traffic go by, and going completely undetected.
When dealing with pressured animals, the bottom line is – go wherever other hunters AREN’T, even if to you the area doesn’t look like much. What you think might be a “good area,” and what an elk might think is a SAFE area, might be two different things! Think outside the box, pay attention to where the other hunters are going, where they’re not going, and how they’re hunting. Find the places they’re overlooking, and maybe even hunt the elk a little differently than how everyone else is, and often you’ll be headed out of the hills
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| The author with a great bull taken within a stone’s throw of the main pack trail on a small point everyone else had overlooked. Highly pressured, and all alone, this bull hardly made a sound that would carry more than 100 yards through the thick oak brush as the author worked him in to 30 yards for the shot. |
A couple of tidbits on tactics for pressured animals
We could spend a week talking about tactics for pressured elk, but in general, keep these things in mind:- Often, pressured elk aren’t very vocal (if at all). When a group of cows has their bull, and they finally find a place to escape the hunter pressure and pressure from other elk, many times they’ll simply “mind their own business” and be content with the group they have. Bulls will stay silent not wanting to attract attention from hunters and other rival bulls, and cows will be suspicious of any other “elk” sounds they hear that don’t either accompany an animal they actually see or at the very least smell, and will often move away from elk sounds they deem suspicious. If the cows leave, the bull is going to follow—and most of the time without a peep! For late season hunts, when bulls are off on their own, bulls will often times remain motionless and wait for the “other elk” they hear to walk into view, or they’ll silently circle down-wind and scent check any elk sound they hear before even thinking of coming in.
- Pressured elk are often nocturnal. If they have to move (stressing “have to,” given what we talked about above in that in some areas elk don’t have to move, and therefore won’t), most of their movement will be under the cover of darkness. Elk talk more when they’re moving, or just as they “arrive” in a new area. Given that, stay out after dark and listen (or even call to get a response) to see if elk sound off after everyone else is back in camp and gone to bed. Figure out where the elk are under the cover of darkness, and you can be positioned to capitalize on the animal(s) you heard better than everyone else come first light. Also, nocturnal animals can often be “active” during mid-day hours. They may not move much (if any), and may not say much (if at all), but they can get restless. Find where they spend their mid-day hours (those “safe” areas), watch the wind but get in close, and sometimes you can have an elk wander a few steps away from the group and wind up in a freezer.
- If you want to call, be strategic! Most other hunters out there calling will be “generally” calling. Pressured elk QUICKLY learn to avoid “general” calling. Take time to learn how to be specific in your calling efforts (Lost Mews, Assembly Mews, Long Mews, etc.) and use them sparingly and only when those vocalizations are absolutely needed in order to get the elk to do or say what you need them to in order to position them for a shot. Often times with pressured elk, less is more—so don’t overdo it. Also, if everyone on the mountain seems to be cow calling, don’t be afraid to try some strategic bull vocalizations. If a bunch of hunters are out there hammering away with bugles and bull vocalizations, maybe try more cow calls. Being different in these instances can sometimes yield results. And if you’re hunting the later seasons, even after the rut, don’t leave your bugle back at camp or in the truck; even in the last rifle season, sometimes a "contact" bugle can be THE thing that gets an elk to step out and offer a shot, or to vocalize back and give up their location (remember what I said about listening and calling at night?)!
Pressured elk aren’t easy, but they ARE harvestable. Given that many of Colorado’s elk these days seem to be growing increasingly “educated,” learning how to deal with these elk will go a long way in helping you fill more elk tags each year than the other hunters you’re out there competing with. By thinking “Safety First,” and keeping some of these tactics and tidbits in mind, you’ll be well on your way towards minimizing the amount of “tag soup” you’ll have in your diet!
About the Author:
Chris Roe is a Certified Wildlife Biologist, behavioral ecologist, an elk behavior and vocalization specialist, and a passionate elk hunter based out of north-central Colorado. Chris operates Roe Hunting Resources where he offers advanced online educational resources for hunters interested in learning more about the animals they’re after. Concepts discussed in this article and many others can be found in Roe Hunting Resources’ Elk Module, or in The Elk Hunter's Strategy App available through the App Store or the Android Market.
