In the morning elk often feed until the shadows recede, then they move into nearby wooded areas to bed, usually near water they can use during midday. If you know where these bedding areas are before the hunt it makes it much easier to locate the elk once the season opens. Check wooded areas you think may be used as the bedding sites. When you find bedding areas determine if there is a way to stalk or ambush the elk while they are in the bedding area, or as they move into or out of it. Do not go into the bedding area as long as the elk are there; wait until you are sure the elk have left their beds, realizing that most forested bedding areas are used during the day, not at night.

When you see elk, take note of where they appear, the time you saw them in relation to sunrise or sunset, and which way they came from and left. When you hear bulls bugling, try to locate them by sight, or pinpoint them by sound, and record the time and place on your map and in your journal. Be careful not to disturb the elk during these scouting trips, particularly if you are using private land. If you “bump” the elk they may leave the area and not return for some time. You may drive them off the property – where you can’t hunt, but someone else can. The best tactic is to scout, observe, record and pattern the movement of the elk without disturbing them.

Becoming a Predator
One of the reasons humans aren’t successful when they hunt is because they don’t become a hunter. Putting on hunting clothes and picking up a hunting weapon does not make you a hunter. Taking a weapon into the field with the intention of hunting does not make you a hunter, or maybe it does. It does not make you what you should be if you want to be good as a hunter, that your ancestors were, which was a predator. The difference between a hunter and a predator is that the predator has an intimate knowledge of the game in the area, the area itself, and knows where to find the game under the current time of year, time of day and current environmental conditions. If you have hunted the same property for several years you understand what I mean.

The more experience you have on a particular piece of land, the more familiar you are with it. The more experience you have hunting, the better you’re hunting skills and hunting technique is. The more experience you have hunting particular species, the more you will know how it reacts at particular times of the year and times of the day under different environmental conditions. The more experience you have hunting a particular species on a particular piece of land, the more you will know where to find the animals on that land under all conditions.

A predator knows where to find the game under all conditions. To be successful as a predator you have to know the land, and the species; understand how the species will react under all environmental conditions; and have experience hunting the species, use proven, successful hunting techniques and be a good hunter.

One of the biggest problems for hunters is not knowing the lay of the land. Hunters don’t know the lay of the land because they may have never hunted it before or have not spent enough time and effort scouting it. No one can teach you the land. You have to learn the lay of the land yourself; and the more hours and years you spend on it, the more you will know about it. You can cut corners by getting information from someone who knows the land, and by having and being able to use topographical maps and aerial photos, which will give you an idea where the preferred habitat of the game is.

But, if you don’t understand the game you won’t know what type of habit it prefers or where to find it under varying environmental conditions. You can learn about the game by reading, listening to others, watching videos and by watching the animals themselves. The more time and effort you put into trying to understand the animals, the better you will be at predicting where to find them under all types of weather conditions. The best way to learn about the animals is to research them thoroughly and gain all the knowledge you can, then spend time and effort watching and hunting the animals yourself. Knowledge is only a partial substitute for personal experience.

You can learn good hunting techniques, but without good hunting skills, learned through personal experience, even the best hunting techniques won’t do you any good. Hunting skills (being quiet, unseen, unscented and a proficient shot) must be sharpened by putting them into practice over several years. The traits of patience, perseverance, persistence and curiosity are possessed by predators and can be taught through self-discipline. These traits and skills must be combined to make a good predatory hunter.

Knowing you should stay downwind of big game, knowing when to sit still and be quiet, knowing that if you hunt all day you’re chances of seeing game are good; and doing it is not the same thing. Knowing there may be an animal just over the next hill; and going there to find out is not the same thing. Knowing that sitting it out in cold, windy, wet weather will probably help your chances of seeing a trophy whitetail buck, or a flock of bluebills; and suffering through the weather is not the same thing. Knowing that putting in more time and effort will help you learn more, see more and become a better hunter; and just thinking about it, is not the same thing. Reading and listening can help you know and understand, but you have to supply the time, effort and experience if you want to become a predatory hunter.

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