Hunting without getting busted first

[4_Plesur]

If your like me you've found an awesome area where you know holds elk and your just trying to be quiet, eyes open, and get to the area because that's where you'll glass or locate the heard by calling....
You get to the spot and you don't see anything and you don't hear anything. After 20 - 30 minutes, your impatient and decide to move to the next best spot. BUT, on the way you get busted! You were walking and next thing you see is the back end of an elk busting through the trees or even just the sound of the heard getting the heck out of there.

Is it just my poor hunting skills or does this happen to everyone a couple times a year? So many times I get so mad at myself and say, "Geez if I would have just looked a little sooner.."

I've heard a few people "say" they walk 10 steps and then glass with their bino's, walk another 10 steps and glass. I tried this one day and to be honest it was SO HARD. It seemed like it took forever for me to cover ground. I don't remember if saw more animals or not.

What's some good advice for a bowhunter to be sneaky and reduce the chances of being busted and having more success. Obviously it's probably what was mentioned with the 10 steps, but I want to hear some more experiences. Did you see an improvement to your hunting? Do you always walk and glass?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[proutdoors]

For elk, I walk and listen. While hunting in thick cover, I can usually hear or smell elk before I see them. I usually bust a few bulls each year because of a lack of patience when calling. I have been bowhunting elk for 25 years, and I STILL get in too big of a hurry from time to time. I usually cow call while walking thru dense areas, that way I am less likely to scare a bumped elk as badly.

PRO

 

[NMHUNTNUTT1]

Yep , I'm thinking I'm the king of getting busted , not just for elk but mulies too. I try to stay patient , I'll even set up longer , but once it's around the 10am hour I get too much in a hurry hoping to find em before they bed.Mule deer in one of the units I hunt stay up til mid morning and get up from beds early too, if it's not crazy hot , so I get a bit more time to chase em , but still get in the mid morning hurry.

 

[a3dhunter]

Sure, I think everybody gets busted by elk if you are actually hunting hard, but when I get busted the most is in more open terrain. If I find an area that I can see 20-40 yards I slow way down and I am good to go. When I can see 60-100 yards or more I get busted more often. Learn from it and you will know when to slow down, I get busted more often when tired, I just lose focus.

 

[coloradoelkhunter]

Yea, it's difficult to be patient. Even when your moving slowly and methodically, you still don't always see the animals until you're right on top of them.

I remember one hunt where I was really trying to move slowly and look under every tree branch. I would take only one or two steps and then look around in every direction before I continued to move. At on point, I turned to look behind me for a second and when I turned around again I had a bull staring right at me at 30 yards. I couldn't figure out for the life of me where he came from in just a split second. I finally figured that he must have been bedded down and stood up between the time I looked away and then looked back. I don't think he knew exactly what I was and thankfully I hadn't made much noise as to spook him. He stood there for a good minute or two while I tried to determine if he was a legal bull or not. After seeing that he wasn't, he finally moved off at a slow trot.

I think animals are always going to detect you first if you're moving at any decent pace especially during the day. When your walking, it's hard to detect moving objects because everything around you seems like it's moving because you are. When you stop every few steps it helps to differentiate between things that are actually moving and things that aren't. Not only that but you're less likely to spook an animal that's bedded down and you can hear better because your not making any noise by moving through the woods.

 

[pushin_30]

Okay, so it won't be called hunting if you didn't get busted a couple of times. I totally agree with colorado, no matter how careful and methodical you think you are being, the prey that you are seeking have noses, eyes and ears that you much more keen to their surroundings than a human could have wish to have. That's why we are called hunters. Hunting would be called something different if it was always a sure thing every time out. I also think that that is where the excitement comes from hunting is the missed opprotunites that keep you coming back, at least for me.