Bowhunting elk the whitetail way may sound like a disappointment due to the lack of interaction, activity and simply seeing the country, but oftentimes it’s the best strategy. Locating a frequently visited waterhole, wallow, food source or the trail in between can lead to ample ambush opportunities. And despite the randomness of elk, they do pattern. The patterns may be more subtle than that of whitetails, but with dedicated scouting patterns emerge.
There are three key locations where a whitetail approach works best: water, food and travel funnels. Find one of these littered with fresh elk sign or revealed by a trail camera, and you may have the clues you need to tag an elk the whitetail way.
Travel corridors
Travel routes and funnels can be the most difficult to pinpoint because you are keying in on an elk’s travel habits. That is always a tough bet due to an elk’s nomadic travel tendencies. Even though elk go from point A to point B with regularity, they don’t always take the same trail like whitetails.
Instead of trying to find the same trail search for terrain features that cause elk to funnel into narrow ambush zones. Sheer cliffs, narrow saddles, downed fences, steep creek drainages and the like all can create narrow routes where elk will naturally pass time and time again while using the path of least resistance. Steep gorges are a great example and offer ample opportunities as elk carve out trails and use them repeatedly.
Forage
As diehard herbivores elk can munch a meal almost anywhere, but like people, they have their preferences. Heavy conifer forests limit sunlight from reaching the ground, thus limiting growth on the forest floor. To get the richest forage, elk need to abandon the safety of the woods and move to parks, meadows and hayfields for a nutrition boost. High mountain parks offer abundant grazing and browsing, and websites like Google Earth can offer great insight on openings that may not be noticeable from ground level or on maps. Scouting will show you if they are being used.
If your elk hunting area is near agriculture check those fields as well. Elk have a fondness for the good stuff and will travel miles to raid alfalfa, wheat or other farm fields.
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