Who hunts the dark timber?
Elk
I recently read a mag article about hunting elk in the dark timber,curious as to what input you elk guys have for,when ,why,how,or how often you'll find yourself creeping around in the thick of it???my first elk trip in August..thx for any input...
I like staying in the dark timber while circling around a meadow or wallow area.
More like a transition area from meadow to timber to bedding area.
Good luck, Robb
Shot my 1st archery elk (on my 1st archery elk hunt) creeping thru the dark stuff a few years ago. It was eerily quiet, just sifting thru as slow as I could. Heard some cows talking, sounded like they might have been bumped from somewhere else. I threw a few mews at them and was able to stick the 2nd one that came looking for me. Pain-in-the -butt-ocks getting her out solo but well worth it!
if you are looking for a close, close encounter with an elk, the dark timber is the place.
and sometimes the only place to see them is in the adjacent measows
and sometimes the only place to see them is in the adjacent measows
but there can be issues.
1. can not see the elk until they are upon you 2. when they cow call or bugle, they sound farther way than they actually are 3. being close, the wind can be a factor 4. yea, harder to track and to get out 5. harder to find if the blood trail is weak 6. elk can slip down wind and not be seen
Thx Paul ,,indeed your pics are close quarter hunting at its finest...
make sure you have a compass to keep and find direction of travel, easy to get turned around. A GPS with a way-point to camp or an adjacent known meadow. will surely help. If you kill an animal and find it after dark, using conventional trail tape to mark the trail out will server no purpose IF you have to return to the animal in the dark. USE reflective tape, reflective tree pins, white toilet paper, to mark the trail out to when returning you can find your way back. ONce, I ended up tearing up a topo maps and hanging the white strips along the trial so the headlight would pick up the white reflection when I returned.
the dark timber is a good place to set a well used trail. Or find a hidden wallow.
The areas I hunt 95% of the time resembles Paul’s 1st and 4th photos. I’ll second his comment that when chasing bugles, they’re always closer than they sound. Another thing I do is use my binocs ALOT! I rarely have the luxury of knowing what I suspect is an elk is, in fact, an elk. A patch of buckskin, an antler tine, part of a leg, etc, is all there is to see. Using your binocs is a must IMO.
Paul's points are great. For an up close encounter (I shoot a recurve mostly) the dark timber is hard to beat. However, there are few drawbacks. If you are looking for a mature bull it can be difficult to judge in close quarters, especially since the encounters tend to happen quickly. Guys that are picky and only shoot the biggest bulls will rarely hunt in dark timber for this reason.
I hunt thick, dark timber.
Love the 'rush' of seeing elk legs moving and not knowing what it is
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Paul, cnelk, BULLELK, etc..
Do you think more elk will hold up more in thick timber in heavily hunted OTC areas? What’s the best way to go about working the timber for elk? Common mistakes? Thanks!
Dark timber is my favorite place to hunt. Usually get very close shots. Here's one of those dark timber bulls everybody is looking for.
To your last question, yes. Common mistakes: going too fast, not glassing enough, not waiting long enough for them to come in silent to calls, poor setup location when they come in, not getting out before the wind switches when you've found them
"Do you think more elk will hold up more in thick timber in heavily hunted OTC areas?"....Of Course!
"What’s the best way to go about working the timber for elk?"....Slow down
Common mistakes?..... Going too fast, not watching the thermals/wind
otcwill and I were posting at the same time :)
I shot my first elk using cnelk’s method with his son. Every call set keeps you on high alert. I really like hunting the timber and as a result the close shots it can offer.
Be careful in dark timber. Can be very scary.
Charlie, very true. With all the beetle- kill coming down, I stay out of the woods when it’s windy.
I mostly hunt heavy timber these days on CO public land. The elk have travel routes/ridges/funnels and feed in little pocket meadows. That means they move a lot. The upside is that pressured elk are there. The downside is that I have a lot of bull encounters at very close range that don't produce a shot opportunity.
Another downside is that bulls can sneak in very close to a calling setup so for a solo hunter it can be very tricky. Team calling can be really effective, especially cnelk's triangle setup. They like to sneak in and stand motionless, watching the source of the calling, and half an hour later when I stand up to leave they run away. I never knew they were there.
They can see you before you see them. They watch "gaps" and when you move through a gap they see the movement. But by using terrain breaks and the timber you can move in close. Most of the bulls I've killed in this stuff are from shots ranging from 3-15 yards.
It seems like heavy timber bulls don't bugle as much in daylight as their more open country brothers. But where I hunt the daylight bugling is becoming rarer and rarer as more guys run around in the woods honking on bugles, getting busted, educating bulls.
From what I've been told and read,,there won't be much if any bulging the last week of August in northern CO..correct?
"From what I've been told and read,,there won't be much if any bulging the last week of August in northern CO..correct?"
Not by elk :)
I like to hunt it when wind conditions allow. Trouble I have is that isn't much of the time.
Not a large sample size, as I've only killed five bull elk, but two of those were in dark timber. My favorite being a bull I spotted, stalked and arrowed @ 22 yards in his afternoon bed. It was a hot day and both my hunting partners were relaxing back in camp. They actually made jokes as I strolled out of camp in the midday heat. Fortunately, I got the last laugh! As already mentioned, the wind and thermals need to be right...but hunting dark timber can be quite productive.
Last year on Northern CO, my partner and I heard bugles almost every day and the last afternoon we were there we had NON-STOP bugling for the last 2 hours of the afternoon - so - bugling in CO in early season - absolutely.
Was that opening week Bob???
Another plus about hunting dark timber is the amount of noise elk make when moving through it. If you spook a herd just run with them .... there is usually parallel trails and I have had success chasing them making chirps and location calf calls. A lot of times the Bulls will be following or on the fringe and shot possibilities arise.
I love to hunt dark timber, because you never know what you'll stumble across. Go slow and you'll find them.
Dark timber is getting harder to find in some areas of Colorado due to the beetle kill. I’ve always gone early season, last year I went the last week and heard a bunch more bugles
Patrick, yes, that was the first 8 days of the season last year. I will however say that last year was way out of the norm, as in the past if we heard 3 or 4 bugles for the entire week that would be about right / average.
cnelk, like that pic. Makes me chuckle as to where we find ourselves sometimes! Been in that or some of the big stuff you have to climb over and said to self, "what the hell am I thinking!"
Out of 15 years years hunting publicl land elk I can count on one hand the number of times Ive seen elk out in open areas. One was a giant bull I called in for my buddy who missed him standing right in the middle of a forest service road so it can happen. But...the rest of all the elk is in the dark thick areas. If we can see an elk, he is usually in bow range. You have to pay attention to your setup and anticipate where the elk might come from. Plan when you will draw ahead of time if that makes sense. When we first started we heard and interacted when tons of elk it seemed like but we never seen them. They were like ghosts who made a lot of noise.
I found a little elk sign in this piece of dark timber
Scrappy, 137buck, awesome photos! All I hunt is dark timber, just look at those above photos, how can you not want to hunt it! For myself calling is king for yearly success in dark timber! Putting bulls on the defense & having them make the last move gives us a huge advantage over us trying to slip in on them with such noisy conditions!
ElkNut/Paul
If there's a good bull in my "normal" hunting area, he'll be bedding his cows on a bench, or shelf in the dark timber.
Usually very steep and impossible to approach silently. Finding well-used trails in and out of those pockets can really pay off. I agree with others, moving very slowly is the key. Oftentimes, I smell elk right before I see them.
Best of Luck, Jeff
If your a new elk hunter I would suggest sitting tight on a wallow or water especially in August . It’s hot and calling on public ground will just give yourself away.
Never said I call anything....sitting tight I can do,,,thx
