Elk Hunting 101

By the time you read this, we’ll be elk hunting. For me, it’s the best part of the whole year. It’s like Christmas and my birthday and all the other holidays all rolled up in one. My family would tell you that I live for this time of year.

It’s different than antelope hunting. For one thing, it’s a lot harder work. We hunt on foot, and there’s a lot of hiking involved. It’s colder, and sometimes it snows. And the country is just plain hard. But it is wild. I guess that’s the beauty of this experience for me – the utter wildness of it. No trucks, no four-wheelers – the only quads we use are the ones God gave us. We are on the trail way before light, and we get back way after dark. And in between, we hunt really, really hard.

We’re pretty successful at it, too. I figured it up a couple of years ago, and our success over the years is about 75% - that’s twice the statewide average. I don’t say that to brag. I’m not half the elk hunter my dad was, and I probably won’t live to be. But I’m not bad, and I’m still learning – even at my advanced age. Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:

#1 – Know the country. Some people like to hunt a different place every year. More power to them. I don’t. I’ve been hunting the same place for decades, and I think that helps us be more successful. Over time, we’ve figured out what elk do when it’s hot, when it’s cold, when it’s dry, and when it’s just sorta normal. We know they’re not in the same places on the tenth day of the season that they are on the first day. We know where to be under what set of conditions. That helps a lot.

#2 – Hunt all day. Depending on the conditions, elk in our country may or may not spend a lot of time out in the open. If it’s hot, they don’t. They shade up pretty much as soon as it’s light. If it’s cold, they spend more time eating because they need the calories. If it’s snowing, they timber up and don’t come out much. But just because they aren’t standing around in a meadow doesn’t mean you can’t be effective hunting them. We’ve killed them in meadows, we’ve killed them in the timber and in the sagebrush. You gotta hunt where the elk are.

#3 – Pay attention. When you’re sitting on a meadow during that first hour of light in the morning or last hour of light in the evening, sit at the edge of the meadow, with something in front of you to break up your outline. Otherwise, you stick out like a sore thumb. If you’re walking through the timber, go slow and quiet. Pay strict attention to the breeze. Elk in the timber pay attention first to what they smell, second to what they hear and third to what they see. You can’t let them smell, hear or see you first.

#4 – Shoot well. It’s very vogue now to hunt elk with a starter cannon – .338 or larger. I shoot a .280 Remington, and nobody in our family shoots anything heavier than a .30-06. Since we very seldom shoot over 200 yards, and mostly under 100 yards, a big heavy rifle is unnecessary. What is necessary for us is one that is very accurate, and one you can stand to carry around all day. I want it to shoot exactly where I point it, and I don’t want it to punish me when it goes off.

Maybe more important than all the other things combined is the spirit with which we approach elk hunting. If my body, my mind and my spirit are all prepared for this experience, and if they are all in sync with each other, then hunting elk is an almost Zen-like experience. Time slows down, and your focus is completely in the moment. Things that would normally happen too fast or too subtly for you to even notice are suddenly and fully in your consciousness. It’s a magical experience that I can find few words to describe.

Good hunting, my friends. God bless you all.

Walt Gasson, Executive Director
Wyoming Wildlife Federation