Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tactics?

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futuredoc
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Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tactics?

Unread postby futuredoc » Sat Oct 13, 2012 1:28 am

I'm new to the Elk game, but as I've just moved to Idaho, I don't plan on being that way long. a few questions for those of you that have done this. When you are studying maps for elk, I've noticed that the northern facing slopes tend to be heavily timbered which I'm assuming tend to be elk bedding areas. I've read that people DON'T hunt these. When you are studying maps trying to pick out likely areas that will hold animals, what are you looking for? Growing up hunting whitetail, I'm mainly looking for bedding, but I assume this may not be the rate-limiting step when looking for elk. I've narrowed down my search to a few units, trying to figure out where to scout, but this will probably be for hunting next fall, not this year.

thanks,

Kendall


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Re: Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tacti

Unread postby Dor » Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:19 am

I hunt elk a LOT different than I do whitetails, but you are correct, finding the heavily timbered North Facing slopes is typically key to finding the elk and is a great place to start your search. The other key is water near by. I like to hunt vocal elk, so for me elk hunting involves (at times) a LOT of boot work. The other thing I look for is an area to place my base camp that has immediate access to several drainages. The easier it is to cover lots of different areas the great your odds to getting into elk day in and day out. Like whitetail hunting, the amount of pressure you can apply before blowing them off the mountain is directly correlated to the amount of hunting pressure the area receives. The same relationship can be seen in the amount of vocal elk you will encounter. Not sure that helped, but that is a few of the things I like to do.
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Re: Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tacti

Unread postby futuredoc » Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:27 am

That does help. Especially the bit about hunting different drainages. Don's suppose you'd want to Idaho?
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Re: Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tacti

Unread postby Dor » Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:48 am

futuredoc wrote:That does help. Especially the bit about hunting different drainages. Don's suppose you'd want to Idaho?

I have hunted Elk in NM, CO, MT and WY. Never in ID. I don't really know where I'm headed till all the draws are complete. ID would be a possible Plan B if I struck out on all the draws. However, the wolf situation concerns me there.
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Re: Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tacti

Unread postby futuredoc » Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:10 am

Understood. Can't speak much to the elk hunting yet. I can tell you that I almost hit a monster mule deer buck yesterday with my car! And the trout fishing is SICK.
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Re: Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tacti

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:45 am

does SICK mean good. I was just in Idaho last March. Saw a lot of elk, I was outside Orofino. Also hunted south of their in 06 around Dixie. That whole area around Dixie was very thick couldnt see in that black timber very far.

The thing I noticed this last March is look for a lot of roads, they usually mean clear cuts as they are logging roads. I was in some state managed lands and the adjacent federal land didn't have the roads or the clear cuts. Roads might mean more humans but it also means food in the clearcuts. Then maybe check on your north facing black timber for bedding.

Another thing we did in Dixie in 06 was run a couple roads to see if elk moved in to an area. Lots of sandy roads showed tracks and our friend out there taught us this. He came in from a couple hours away to his cabin where we had been for a few days. He went and checked a road, saw elk tracks crossing the road, came back grabbed his stuff and headed in a killed an elk. While me and my cousin were kinda like so that's how you do it.
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Re: Elk bedding, topographic map reading, hill country tacti

Unread postby futuredoc » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:16 am

Thanks for that tip UL. Sick means awesome.

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