Welcome to the site Lozzie. Are you rifle hunting or archery hunting? What zone?
My advise is cover ground, you need to find out where they are. I have spent years in my same elk "spot" and it still takes a few days to find them . Boots to the ground or hooves. Learn to call and when to use it. That's a lot of fun, sounds like elk dying when your first learning,( I suggest first thing in the morning in your bed room, gets the wife up to make breakfast pretty fast). Most important have fun learning, don't give up they are not ghost like some might make you believe. There just a dam Elk.
Don't spend much time in crown land for elk these days, so really can't add to much to what Lever said but will mention a couple things anyways. If your looking for elk in a completely new area especially in the crown general zones (I'm assuming you haven't drawn a long awaited tag) the best time to scout is spring. The elk are out looking for that prime graze and are pretty relaxed. Scouting is never a waste of time but the easiest time to see a herd out in the open is spring. It gives you an idea of what general area they are and often they won't be far away come the opener. After the pressure is on it's a little different ball game and they can move a long ways but most importantly stick to the basics and look for sign. They may still be around but not leaving their beds until so late that you'd have to cut them off in the timber. I you find a big aggressive bugling bull good on you but hunting the general rifle zones I'd imagine your going to run into some quieter elk where it's best to focus on the cow calls. Main reason I left for the farm land archery season where the bulls still seem to bugle (which I can't get enough of). I did call in some elk when they were quiet but they come in stealthy and weary you have to have patience, be pretty conservative with the calling. Getting in on a herd bull and ripping out the bugle might make him take his cows and go but every elk is different. A herd bull nowadays migh be an immature 5 point. I like to hunt the farmland in archery season but it's a completely different ball of wax. You can't chase elk where you don't have permission so often your best friends are trail cameras, a full gas tank and a willingness to get told no. Lots of elk to see though and eventually they end up where you need them to but you can have sections worth of permission and nowhere to hunt when you get time to actually hunt so it's not for everyone. One thing that might be a given and a dummy like me had to learn the hard way is always have enough food, water, whatever to last the whole day or more when you leave camp in the morning even if you don't think you're going far. Never plan to make it back for lunch/supper. That really could go for anything you're hunting but with elk it really pays to be able to stay as close and downwind to the herd for as long as possible.
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Topic: Elk Newbies. (Read 2410 times)
