By Jack Smith

By the time I got settled in, a cow and her yearling were directly under my stand. Although she could detect the faint remnants of scent lift by an intruder she could not figure out where the danger was. She stood very still for a long time, then left the yearling and circled downwind. Unable to get a fresh dose of human scent, even though it was traveling only a few feet above her head, she calmed down and resumed her normal morning activities. She licked the baby and the pair bedded down about fifty yards away in the high grass and salt cedar that surrounded my tree.

This is a typical. Western big game animals are not accustomed to hunters in trees. They behave like the whitetail deer did in the early 1970s when portable stands first came on the scene. Agriculture has also increased similarities between whitetails and elk.

The typical method for scouting early season whitetail bucks in western Kentucky is to glass the large soybean fields at dawn and dusk to see where the best animals regularly appear. This same strategy will work in the west where agricultural areas have created massive feeding opportunities for elk.

My first trip to hunt elk was made to Utah. I hunted a 3,500 acre Alfalfa ranch that was bordered by a major river. The irrigation from 3,000 acres created a massive 500-acre swamp full of salt cedars, cattails, and other western swamp species. As a result of the thick vegetation a daytime sanctuary exists that is virtually impenetrable by man. As many as 200 elk will spend the day in this swamp and move out to feed in the evening.

The technique we employed that first year I now call, "chase the elk around the pasture." An elk is an animal with the fantastic sense of smell. We tried to defeat this by hunting the downwind portion of the swamp in the evening. Our problem was the thermals.

Every evening in this valley thermal currents come rolling down the surrounding mountains. Instinctively the elk know this and wait until this occurs before leaving the swamp. Think about when you pull the stopper on the kitchen sink. What happens? The water naturally begins to spin. The same thing happens as the air settles into this valley. No matter where we set up the elk were treated to a nose full of humans when these swirling winds settled on us each evening.

The reverse happened each morning. We focused on the upwind side in the morning hoping to catch the stragglers as they entered the swamp. But as the air heated and began to rise, the scent swirled in much the same way. The elk would remain well away from the swamp until they had the wind they wanted. By the end of the hunt I was convinced I could hunt these animals just like deer and succeed. Being kind of hard headed, I booked for the same time the next year. I did however remember my treestand.

I arrived three days early and sat upon a high ridge above the ranch every morning and every evening. I glassed and with no impact patterned the elk. Then I took my GPS and placed a stand in the edge of the swamp directly in the path that the elk used each of the previous mornings. After the cow and calf bedded down I started to hear the bugles of the advancing herd bull. With so many elk crowded into such a small area a lot of trash talking occurs between the various herd bulls. Because this is going on calling is very effective. I began answering with my magnum estrus cow call and getting responses from the approaching bull and his 15 or so cows.

The first cow stepped into the clear about 45 yards away and I realized that I was a little to far from the trail. Waiting until I heard the bull bugle within 100 yards I called quietly and pleadingly on the single spruce diaphragm. These bulls are very jealous and overprotective in this crowded atmosphere so he came straight for me and before I was truly ready he was 15 yards away directly in front of me. Although he looked right at the base of the tree I was in he never saw the camouflaged blob up in the branches. After a few seconds of looking for the errant cow he laid his 6x7 antlers back and slid under a salt cedar. I took this opportunity to draw my bow. He detected the movement but never looked up in the tree. When he stepped out I bagged my first elk.

Last year a friend and I traveled to New Mexico to hunt a larger ranch, hoping to experience some more typical western elk hunting, or so we thought. Upon arrival we found a very similar situation. Although the ranch was much larger, Elk used agricultural crops growing along the properties boundary river as the primary food source. Nearly all the animals in the area bedded across the river on the high ground and came down in the evening to feed.

I fell prey to my "guide" and let him talk me into taking a group blind upwind up the trail the animals use. You can guess what happened. The first cow crossed the river, smelled us, barked and ran back up the mountain. The next morning my friend and I did our own scouting. We found another crossing and set his tree stand. That evening he bagged his first elk, an outstanding bull that scored about 320.

Remember, when you go for western animals don't forget the things you have learned in your own hunting experiences. If it makes sense try it. It will be a new tactic that the game animal has never encountered, if nothing else.