Topo Maps

[Coloradokiwi]

Thought I would revive this thread for this season so people can see it and add more comments.
Cheers.

[Darrin Stark]

One thing i will remind you is you are not hunting whitetails so the elk won't feed in the same place everyday and they don't always use the same trails to enter the feeding area. Where i hunt i have found the elk have about three different areas and they rotate through them every few days so they don't stay in a area too long and attract too many prey animals and they also like to move to different feed areas depending on what they want to eat. What i would do if i were you is find a good vantage point via your topo map and get up there first light and start glassing all day try not to move much so you don't give your position away and just hang out pack a lunch and a bunch of water. It may seem like you are there forever but i will promise you that you will see more elk if you let the glass do the walking. I located three herds one day and i made a move and i called in a little spike for my dad. Good luck and hopefully this helps.

[ivorytip]

Darrin nailed it on the head. alot of your thick timbered ridges will have pockets,(small openings, meadow so to speak), that you will only find by putting your boots to work, this is where your mature bulls will be feeding. as far as water goes top only shows you a good place to start looking. topo will show water where water is in early spring but doesnt show ur isolated springs and wallows. again along with what darrin said, glass glass glass!

[jenbickel]

I definitely agree with Darrin. I have found that the elk to like to change locations. One of my favorite elk spots last year was a big canyon and in the bottom, there was a lot of vegetation and a little creek.. Then there was a few other spots on the sides of the canyon that had clearings.. It seemed like the elk were on a rotation of which clearing they ate in that night. I usually went to the bottom of the canyon and waited to hear bugles and glass the spots that I could. It put me in a ton of elk last year. You can definitely pattern them, it's just not quite as easy as whitetails and such. When looking at maps definitely look in the not so heavily human populated areas.. You definitely have better luck when getting off the beaten path!

[Huntilly]

Here in Oregon, when looking at new areas on my 7.5 minute maps, the first thing I look for are the biggest roadless north facing areas I can find. I have almost never been let down by these areas.