Elk behavior question

[Gr8bawana]

I have a question for you guys that have a lot more experience hunting elk than I do. I have found deer beds that are so deep you can tell they have been use year after year since who know when.
Do elk like to use the same areas to bed year after year also? This past year we found a ridge that a large groupp of bulls were using after a big snowfall. They were there again 2 days later. It was a finger ridge where they could see in 3 directions and bail of any side into the thick stuff in a couple of seconds.
Is this a spot we should keep in mind if one of us ever draws another bull tag?

This is one of the bulls sleeping there.

 

[ScottR]

May not be the same Bulls, but the same spots tend to hold elk regularly.


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[Tim McCoy]

I'd agree, with the operative word being regularly, not almost always. They just seem to use their range differently than deer, possibly because they tend to herd up more at certain times of the year, food is depleted sooner? Not sure. Where I hunt often in OR, they seem to have what I'd almost describe as a favored location rotation. They may stay a few days or a few weeks, and off they go, but are back regularly, if that makes sense. That is what I have observed where I hunt, other areas may differ. I do know there are some high mountain basins/draws where I have hunted in NW WY a number of times that seem to always hold elk late-Aug till it gets cold and snowy. Makes me wonder why, I am guessing the amount food and water are the keys or maybe I've just been there when they were there?

 

[Slugz]

I can only speak for the Aug/Sep time frame with any certainty....but yes as ScottR said. We have a few spots that we wont go into unless the conditions are perfect....more often than not the animals are there. Common themes I've found there have been....good look out.....good area to take in the scents.....deepest darkest nastiest.....water and feed close.....like with in 1/4mile. those are spots Im dropping GPS points and studying on Google earth post season.

 

[Laddy]

+1 ScottR

+1 T Mcoy

+1 Slugz

Elk LOVE finger ridges like fat kids love cake. I drop a waypoint almost anytime I see elk, so yes, mark that on your GPS for later hunts in the years to come.

I pay more attention to elk bedding areas than I do deer bedding areas, I just think elk are more prone to come back to certain areas after being spooked or relocated than deer....but hey, it all depends.

Last year I'm deer hunting here in ID on a general tag, same unit where I bow hunt for elk in Aug. It was mid Oct and it was hot, so everything was bedded by 10am. I'm hunting a canyon I've been in and out of a hundred times, take a break to glass and drink some water....it's around 8800ft, I just sit down up against a tree, and I hear a few cows a hundred yards away. Five minutes later a small 5 pt comes out and rounds em up, and heads them back into the timber. They never should have been there, and certainly weren't there a month prior when I was bow hunting. I eased my way out of the canyon not to spook them or deer.....when I came back three days later I realized why they were there. A small spring, not on any topo maps (certainly not on Google), made for water and wallows. That goes on the GPS for sure

 

[tim]

elk are species of habit.
with that said, I have seen 4 wheelers will push them out of there old habitual places.

 

[Rooster410]

100% mark the location and date, they'll be there or in the vicinity next year.

 

[John Bussard]

The same general area will hold elk generation after generation. The key to that spot is proximity to water food and security. One of the most important in my mind is confusing winds. A finger off a finger ridge facing the right direction with swirling wind and cover is a sure bet. How to hunt them successfully is the challenge.


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[Slugz]

Great point on the swirling winds JB.