Put Boots On the Ground 
in Elk Habitat

The Key to Finding Elk

Once you find reasonably good elk habitat in an area that meets your needs, spend the time to get know it well. Do some satellite hunts in other areas to put feelers out for something better. But eventually, stake a few claims and stick to them, if you can. The areas will be more productive if you know them well, even if the herds are not huge.

Take notes about where and when the elk move and you will begin to see patterns and habits the elk repeat occasionally. Click here for a discussion about patterning elk habits.

There is good elk habitat near my home with higher elk populations than the areas I choose to hunt, but I like to hunt the closest areas that I am familiar with and where fewer hunters go. My sons and I have been regularly successful around here because we are familiar with several reasonably good places to hunt. Familiarity makes them the best places to hunt for us. If the elk are not in one specific area, we hunt another place. We move around until we see elk or fresh sign. Then we hunt it as long as we are getting into elk or until we find that they have moved on. We return there later in the year or the following year.

Recent Articles

• 
• 
• 

1. Bugling Bull Game Calls made by Rockie and Corie Jacobson

   
   Bugling Bull Game Calls and Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls, by Rockie and Corie Jacobson, are available with free U.S. shipping over $50. The Jacobsons are the first family of elk calling! Steve Chapell…

   Read More

Hunting Experience Snowballs into Success

Finding elk improves as you get to know an area and as you get to know elk, personally. Spending time in a specific elk habitat will go a long way toward repeated success in years to come. “Where to hunt” will become a decision between several places on your “getting to know” list.

In 1989, my first elk hunting season, I had decades of successful deer hunts under my belt. I never even saw an elk that first season! I had scouted a specific elk habitat all summer and had seen lots of elk, but I had gotten sparse local advice. I was told later, “Yeah, those elk leave right before archery season starts.” Elk don’t stay put like deer do.

The next year I asked my old friend and well-known knife maker, the late Jim Sasser, to help me find the best places to hunt for my first elk. He got the Colorado regulations out and helped me narrow a spot down to a depredation hunt on a private ranch.

With permit in hand, I talked to the rancher and he told me of a place to hunt and when to go. I arrived before daybreak and slept through a blizzard in my pick-up. I then went out in the afternoon after the wind died down (which usually happens at sunrise or sunset). All the other hunters had been driven out by the storm. I killed a nice cow, right where the rancher said to hunt. After I quartered it, the rancher hauled it to my pickup for me on his snow mobile.

On my third elk season a friend took me to a private Montana ranch where he had permission to hunt. He told me I could go anywhere but “that way”, as he pointed in the dark to his preferred location. I respectfully went the other direction. At daylight I found myself in the only drainage around with trees. I killed my second elk. My host partner had gotten turned around in the dark and inadvertently pointed me toward his favorite place to hunt. “You killed my elk”, he lamely proclaimed as we hauled it out.

Document What You See and Hear

I had started finding elk because I was learning to find and document good elk habitat. Maps began to become more vital in my planning than asking others for advice, because I was learning how to find places to hunt in elk habitat from the geography. Pre-hunt cyber-scouting online or with hard copy topos and aerial photos helps hone your area down to increase odds of “close encounters of the herd kind”. (See the Hunting Maps page here.)

We have lived in the same place in Montana for many years now. I hunted the first two years in our current area without killing an elk, but I was learning the area and finding elk.

Since then I have killed an elk every year. Because of time spent with stealthy boots on the ground. I know where to go to find elk because I spend the time hunting or scouting elk habitat. I don’t see elk every day that I hunt, mind you. Some days feel like I’m just hiking with my bow or gun. Elk do move long distances for many reasons.

My family doesn’t hunt areas that are high in elk numbers. Patience and time spent hunting elk habitat produces inevitable opportunities, even in areas with smaller elk populations.

Start a list for your “best places to hunt” based on your pre-hunt research and on-the-ground scouting. Then tailor it to your hunting style preferences. Keep copious notes each year about what you see and learn. The data will add up and make finding elk more effective each year.

Once you find reasonably good elk habitat in an area that meets your needs, spend the time to get know it well. Do some satellite hunts in other areas to put feelers out for something better. But eventually, stake a few claims and stick to them, if you can. The areas will be more productive if you know them well, even if the herds are not huge.

Take notes about where and when the elk move and you will begin to see patterns and habits the elk repeat occasionally. 

Please subscribe to or our Quick Elk Hunting Tips and Updatesnewsletter or to an RSS feed (see left column for both) to be alerted whenever new information is added to the site.

We'd appreciate it if you would "Like" us on Facebook, or share this site with others.

Custom Search

Return to Home Page, from Elk Habitat page.

Comments:

Hector, TX: "Wow, that was fast!  It's very pleasant to see your sincere spirit of service and customer care... You are doing way more than selling products to customers like me...we are getting tremendous value from all you do with your site and your business." 

Tim, AZ: "This morning, she was 145# on the hook.  I definitely owe some of my success to your website and your products. Thanks again!"

Jesse, NM: "I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and energy in creating such an amazing and helpful website. As a new hunter, this provides an excellent guide to approaching elk hunting. I just wanted to thank you for sharing such a wealth of knowledge, and giving us new hunters a fighting chance of filling a tag. You guys are amazing!!!"

Skip, (Tucson, AZ) "Your Elk Hunting Tips Web Site is the best, most helpful one I have ever seen. I read and profit more than I can tell you. I just wanted to tell you THANKS!

P. Scott, (BC 2016) "I would like to thank my hunting partner for the great company & this website for the wealth of information that I have gleaned & also the gear bought as every bit of info etc. is required to harvest one of these regal animals." 

Thomas (OR), "Reading your tips has helped me to formulate a hopefully positive and safe game plan for the 2014 elk season!"

Travis (WI), "I just wanted to say thank you for your site, and helpful emails! I got several useful tips from you, and your site. ...got to put the smack down on my first elk, a beautiful New Mexico 300 class bull."

Tristan, Superior, CO: "I feel like I could go on forever here, I just get so excited talking about elk and I don't know many other hunters… Thanks again for the gear, and the website.  I have found it to be very useful and enlightening.

Jordan, MT: "Your website is a great help! I wanted to personally thank you for the great tips on hunting elk. I am extremely excited for this elk rifle season as its my first.  I wish you luck during your hunts and God bless!"

Shop Our Store

Newsletter Opt-in:
"I just get so excited talking about elk.." ~Tristan, CO

Hunting Gear Reviews

Free U.S. Shipping

Bugling Bull
Game Calls

ElkNut Productions

Free Shipping on
ElkNut Products Here

HECS Stealthscreen:
A New Type of Concealment!

$199.99,
Including U.S. Shipping

Montana Decoy Elk/Deer
Available Here!