Yesterday I was helping my dad on a elk hunt in some high desert country. The elk there like to get into the flats that are covered in pinion pine and juniper. It can make finding the elk hard sometimes. So I cut a track of a bull we had seen and followed it for several hours and close to 5 miles before catching up with it. I was able to get in on the bull in close range twice. I had never used tracking as a main hunting tactic before so it got me wondering how many have used tracking an animal as a hunting tactic?

Interesting. I know back east there are a couple guys who dog a big whitetail buck for miles, tracking him, until the shot presents itself. Its their main strategy.
I have never done this myself, but I believe it is a viable method in the right area. Where I hunt elk its NOT a smart option given the terrain and timber. They would just walk off to one side of you, get the wind, drift away into the distance.

Joshua

I have done it in the Adirondacks on snow. Makes for an exciting hunt if all goes well. You have to be ready to go for a long time in some cases. I'm getting a bit long in the tooth to do it anymore, but it is a great way to hunt!  

I have tracked elk and deer like that a lot here in montana. also bear in the spring. I have also seen them hook up hill and back track then bed. Watching there back trial? maybe being that I found empty beds that held elk moments before I showed up. I always glass the up hill side of a track now.

I do it a lot for Roosevelt elk. If I find fresh tracks I can almost always catch up to them within a few hours.

John

Wow!  I could see trying it on Midwest whitetails with a tracking snow, but I can't imagine it on elk from my very limited experience.  It seems to me that when they are strolling and feeding at a leisurely rate, they are still moving at twice my speed!  I'm impressed with whomever can pull it off.

No easy task, but FUN. Win or lose.

Have a damn good compass that DOESNT require batteries.

It is a tough way to hunt with a short range weapon.One of the problems,especially in the mountains is wind direction.Not a problem if the animal is way ahead but you are having to stay within sight of the track regardless of wind direction.It is easy to say just make a wide loop when wind direction is wrong and come back to the track but in mountainous terrain,such detours can wear you out long before you hit the end of a long track.Animals also tend to watch their back trails and when bedding,they often make a loop and lay watching their back trail,with the wind at their back.Most animals,mature ones for sure,are very aware they are leaving tracks.

"It is easy to say".....you got that right Jim. Mountains, swamps, briar thickets....it can happen anywhere. Natural roadblocks(including wind) that can kill a good tracking session on the spot.

Roosevelt elk usually do not travel to far or to fast when feeding or going to bedding areas.
Tracking is actually one of the most common ways of finding them, mainly because a lot of the areas they are using the visibility will be from a few feet out to maybe a hundred yards.

John

Seems to be a western thing over sitting in a treestand. The late blacktail season out here provides this type of hunting in the snow. The bucks are cruising for does and allows you this opportunity also.

Yes when I lived in Colorado, not so much in Texas... hard way to hunt without deep snow..

QuoteOriginally posted by Gentry:
I have tracked elk and deer like that a lot here in montana. also bear in the spring. I have also seen them hook up hill and back track then bed. Watching there back trial? maybe being that I found empty beds that held elk moments before I showed up. I always glass the up hill side of a track now.

Yep, some books speak about this, whitetail hunters almanac is a decent source for this sort of information.

Anybody remember the Benoits in Maine about 30 years ago? That's how they did it.

i trac during recon to find where they're moving routs are which are most current and figure out all their options so that when i'm hunting,i can consider from my intel gathering and the conditions that moment where they may spook to from where the wind puts me that day,then of coarse it really gets to be fun when the wind changes and weather turns you gotto think in the moment,those are my favorite ways and days to hunt coastal and columbian blacktail.tracking is the only way for me.even if i'm gonna ground hunt from a natural blind,my tracking gets me to the choice ambush position.

Thanks for your responces everyone. I have know a few people to hunt this why over the years but just didn't know how many trad gangers did. Personally I have always been more of a ambush and still hunter more than anything else.

My Dogs Do

I know this is an older post, but I'm new here and didn't get to chime in...

When I was fishing in Big Bay, Michigan this summer I stayed at a small cabin for the week and there was this old (from the late 80s) vhs of deer hunting in the upper peninsula. In the video, there were these two brothers who mounted all their big deer from over the years and it wasn't that many years, they were probably in their late 30s... It was ridiculous how many huge deer were on this wall, ridiculous. They said they hunted only by tracking.

I've also seen a documentary about this tribe in Africa that hunts by tracking/running down the bull with the biggest horns. Apparently the heavier the horns the harder it is to long distance run in front of a pursuer. After a long time the runner finally catches up to the animal that is so exhausted its laying down barely breathing. Then he spears it from 3 yards or however close he wants to get.

I just wonder where anyone finds enough public land to track whitetail. How far can they go before you catch up with them?

Ill track hogs when the conditions are right, after a hard rain and in wet conditions. Where i hunt if its dry the tracks are hit and miss and that,s most of the time, at these times its spot and stalk or still hunt.

Have done it when hunting with a rifle but never a bow.