Hello!

As the title says, I am about to go on my very first elk hunt. This hunt will occur from mid October until mid November. I have a general tag that allows me to hunt in four areas near my home here in Wyoming. My goal is to get a cow elk. Honestly, I am hoping for a broad side shot at 200 yards or less. I have grown up in Wyoming playing in the mountains my entire life, and I am an experienced varmint shooter. However, I have never hunted big game. I have all the gear, including a 4 wheel drive truck and an app on my phone that helps me to know where land boundaries are (onX). My wife will be going with me. With these details in mind, I am writing to ask the forum for basic tips that will help me be successful.

Thank you!

Jim

I've never hunted, but my hunter friends tell me when hunting elk, bring enough gun.

New hunter: "Where's the best place to shoot an elk?" Me: "Next to the road."

Have a plan in place if you can't shoot it by the road (pack-frame, 550 cord, bags).

Don't shoot into a herd, especially with a cow tag. Seen it more than once where they start moving after the first shot and guys get flustered when the animal doesn't drop immediately and end up with more than one elk down.

Get it quartered and cooled ASAP, even in cooler temps they hold a lot of heat.

Remember, finding and shooting the elk is the easy part. Make sure you you save enough energy for tracking, bleeding, eviscersting, quartering, and transporting the animal out to your vehicle.

Have you ever rough processed a big animal? It's not for the squeamish. You might want to talk with a local guide or meat processor and get some instruction.

Here is a decent video on one method.


Make sure you bring a scalpel-sharp knife, a sharpening stone to keep it sharp, a saw or a hatchet, several pair of 9mil latex gloves with textured fingers, a roll of blue paper shop towels, a dozen rubber bands, five 4'x6' 6 mil plastic drop clothes, 100 ft 550 cord.

quote:

I am an experienced varmint shooter. However, I have never hunted big game.

I mean no disrespect. If within your budget, consider hunting with a guide. A whitetail deer alone gets my heart pounding, it just seems like you will have a better experience if you bring someone with you who can help you know when to take the shot, and where to place it.

Best of success to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:

quote:

I am an experienced varmint shooter. However, I have never hunted big game.

I mean no disrespect. If within your budget, consider hunting with a guide. A whitetail deer alone gets my heart pounding, it just seems like you will have a better experience if you bring someone with you who can help you know when to take the shot, and where to place it.

Best of success to you.

This x 10. Not only will you learn alot from a guide, it will greatly increase your chances for a successful hunt. You will need to learn how to stalk, track, call, learn signs etc etc. This was knowledge passed down from father to son over the history of the human race. To do learn it any other way is to cheat yourself out of a very human experience. That to me is what hunting is all about. Forget the fancy gear, optics and weapons- its all about the knowledge you gain to cement your place at the top of the food chain as an apex predator.

I went on my 1st elk hunt two years ago, public land CO. This was the 2nd rifle season, North of Gunnison, generally.

A relative & I hooked up with two of his friends from MI who had gone every few years, 4 of us total.

Once I knew where we were camping I ordered 2 ‘big game maps’. I also looked what google earth had to offer.

I looked over this free book, http://diyhunting.com/ebook/DIY_ELK_HUNTING_5.pdf

There were helpful tips. I shot a 5x5 at 0900 opening morning at 30 yards. My relative shot a 4x4 the next afternoon at 100 yards. These were the only elk seen while hunting.

It was a great time, I need to go again before to long. That book linked above references CO, much applies anywhere.

Fitness, get your fitness up to speed. Guys experienced in the various hunt zones know what to expect. As a first timer, you're going to be smoked with all the tracking over the terrain.

Elk is a big animal, besides fitness, you're going to have to hump it out, make sure you're up to it both gear wise and ability.

Always shoot an animal on your side of the valley.

Shoot her close to the truck.

I have never elk hunted but I have hunted in elk country. Just be safe. Have a good plan ICE. Have a good First Aid kit. If you're camping in backcountry, always keep the length of the day in mind and make wise decisions about how late in the day you can shoot an animal. Have a plan for packing the animal out. Most use trash bags for the quarters and the backstraps. Have good knives and a saw. Have good lights. Do as much research as you can on the area.

Sharp knives and flashlights. A headlamp is good to have if you have to dress the game and/or walk out in the dark.

Also bring some survival gear (matches, space blanket, etc.) and food in case you get stuck overnight.

DO use enough gun, but they aren't bulletproof.
PLACEMENT is everything. I've killed cows with a .257 Roberts and 115 Nosler partitions as well as the .375 H&H with 300's. Get both lungs with a pass through and your soon cleaning a dead elk.

Use a premium bullet up towards the top of the weight scale for your caliber. A 180 gr thirty caliber, 150/160 in a 7mm, etc.

Hunting Elk is somewhat like hunting Moose pick where you shoot very carefully. Unless you have an ATV and a chainsaw winch. If so not so much. Also do not shoot from horseback if you have a horse. I could tell two bad storys about that.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
I've never hunted, but my hunter friends tell me when hunting elk, bring enough gun.

Literally 1000s of elk have been taken with good old 30-30 rifles. I hunted elk in N. Idaho several years before I left to join the army. Used a 30-30. Later, I used a bolt action 30-06. Both work very well!

I would suggest what ever rifle is used that it have a scope sighted at about 300 yards. Bullet selection is not critical but I would not recommend less than 180 grains. This assumes reasonable shooter accuracy. Elk are big animals and getting them out to a road is a big job.

One of the first things I learned was to hunt uphill. Lots easier to roll that several 100 pound carcass downhill. Unless of course you have pack horses. Which we never did.

I'm going to be a bit blunt here. You say that you never hunted anything but varmints and want to hunt elk now with no experience with your wife in large game hunting. Sir, you are looking at the possibility of having the worst experience you and your wife have ever had. Seriously!! I could go on and on about how ill-advised that is but I'll hope that you do more research on this endeavor. God help the poor animal that you kill.

Jim

I've only gone one time, bowhunt for Elk in Southern Colorado. I had a cow elk 50 yards upwind of me broadside, and a tag in my pocket, and refused to shoot (in fairness, she had been seen for 3 days in a row with a 6x7 bull, so....).

My little bit of advice is do road work now with a pack on and your boots, and study topo maps like mad to look for good approaches to likely spots they'll be sunning on the slopes. If you can get a feel for prevailing wind tendencies, that always helps. You won't fool their noses, so you have to play the wind. Some of the creek and streams might provide a sneaky approach.

Have fun and good luck!

Watch the wind, take the best binoculars you can find, take long rubber gloves for gutting. Get off the roads. Walk slow and glass a lot. I hunted 7 years before I killed my first elk. Use a cow call to get moving elk to stop for an easier shot. A bipod or shooting sticks can really help ya out. Don’t silhouette yourself on ridges. Find benches where they like to loaf during the day. Good luck and enjoy the outdoors and the beautiful mountains this time of the year.

Hello!

Thank you everyone for the comments thus far. I’m reading and paying attention!

Jim

Find a small town bar in Elk country. Make friends, buy the locals drinks. You will be invited to shoot a cow elk. hold out for an offer that includes a front end loader. I'm being serious.

OZ

Bring a good fork and solid steak knife.
Just in case it dies in a steep valley.