Western Elk Part 6: Late Season Elk
Like many other species, how you hunt elk changes as the year progresses. A late-season elk hunt could not be more different than during the pre-rut and rut. They are a completely different animal and this requires a completely different tactic. Weather is king here.
Catch the full video discussion here!
James: How does late season elk hunting differ from hunting during the rut?
Joe: "Rifle, anything post rut is going to be significantly impacted by weather much more than what your rut will. Obviously, if you have nice cool mornings and the pressure is nice, the moon phase is right, like the rut is more amplified, but I've also been out on 90° days where the bulls are freaking going nuts 'cause there's a hot cow in the area. It's more determined by her than it is the weather. Late season, much more the opposite. Weather is king, it determines almost everything. Then you have pressure mixed into that, and then where they're at after the rut as far as how depleted are they."
James: What factors do you consider when choosing a late-season hunt?
Joe: "What I'm looking at this year is fourth season rifle because I'm looking at historical data of when they have bad winters, what do the elk do, when do they come down from elevation, when do they all move off of the public and into the private bottoms, and where can I go to intercept that activity. The other thing that you look at in those areas is historical migrations. So when they do get that weather, there is historic migration just like caribou."
James: How do elk behave in late season?
Joe: "The boys are back together, they're beat up, they're tired, they're just trying to survive now. The spikes, the rag horns, even some of yothe ur younger five points might still be in with the cows, but just like an old whitetail after the rut's done, he doesn't want interaction with the others, he just wants to do his own thing. This is when they're arguably they're most vulnerable from a survival standpoint."
James: What are you looking for when scouting for late-season elk?
Joe: "Similar stuff as far as what I look for during rut as far as bedding goes. However, I do like to find spots that are a little bit further in. I'm looking at what's close to private where they can get really good food like pivot bottoms and things like that. The other thing that I look for is just a lot of downfall, dead timber, stuff that's tipped over that they can just kind of hide up in, just like a deer."
James: How do you approach tracking elk in the snow?
Joe: "If you have fresh snow, that's the biggest killer to a late season elk bull particularly is being able to find his tracks and then just kind of dog him to his bed. You're following this track into an area where you can walk in like, 'Okay, I think I'm fairly close now.' I should find a vantage and put the rest of this puzzle together. Where is his one little spot that he's coming out to feed? Where's this hole that he's hiding in?"
James: How does elk behavior change throughout the day in late season?
Joe: "You'll see a lot of their movements like they'll be in their bed before light, but then they get up at 10:00 a.m. to feed a little bit. They might come out onto a hillside for 15 minutes and feed and then they go right back into that timber. So what I'll do is get to a high vantage and glass and I'll look not only for elk but in the fresh snow, obvious signs of tracks on the side of the hill."
James: How do older bulls behave differently from younger ones in late season?
Joe: "Usually those older bulls that have seen season after season after season are completely isolating themselves in that later part of the season. If you find a pile of cows and spikes, they're probably not right there. The bulls don't want to be by them, they just don't want the stress of the other animals around them at that point."
James: How does your hunting strategy change in late season compared to during the rut?
Joe: "This is probably the one time on an elk hunt that I would take a spotter or I would take a big set of like stabilized 18s or something like that. You're spending a lot more time glassing, looking at the map, planning, and not so much the running and calling. You're exerting a lot of energy in a different way. It's more of a mental churn than it is a bull in a china shop."
James: What's one important thing to remember when hunting late season elk?
Joe: "People get too lax about [meat care] during that late season, particularly if there's a lot of snow on the ground. So if an elk dies and there's two feet of snow, the side he's dead on is completely insulated by the snow. An elk's 104° when he's live. The heat has nowhere to go 'cause it's insulated by that snow. The first thing you should ideally do if you can is flip him over to get that hot side expelling some heat. I don't care if you're cold, you should go down there, tend to that animal, get the meat off the bone or at least get it up in the game bags, get it hung up because it allows that meat to cool."
Thanks for reading!