PSA: yes, you have a sweet new hot tent, now please stop camping in the elk...

Elkoholic said:
I think its very dependent on the elk in your hunt location, the terrain and herd population. During archery season we camp right smack in the middle of where the elk are every year. There's been elk killed 400yds from a tent, elk walking through the small meadow we camp in, elk hitting the wallows in said meadow, commonly elk are bugling 360 degrees around us within few hundred yards. We can go any direction any day within few hundred yards and expect to find elk, rarely are we ever hunting more than a mile from our camp, or you can lay in your tent unzip door and glass from your sleeping bag sipping on coffee, while devising your evening ambush plan. To me it's totally situational, of course I've hunted in places where this approach is not ideal, but man I love our annual spot and the overall experience it lends!
In our case it sure as heck beats hiking 4 or 5mi out at dark, up at o'dark thirty to hike in again, that crap wears me out. I can only say; I hope any of you who hasn't had the luxury of this type of scenario gets to experience it at least one season. Best of luck to you!
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I think operative word is 4 or 5 miles... anything farther in than 3 or so and I'm probably camping, it's the camps that are less than a 30 minute walk from the truck that confuse me...
 
In CO 4th season last year about 5 miles up a 2 track, I watched a couple of jabronis hike all around a basin, fail to see or hear a herd of 100+ elk with at least a half dozen bulls that were very vocal, then proceed to relocate their truck offroad to exactly where said herd just fed down into the basin 10 mins prior and set up a tipi. I was absolutely stunned that they did not see, hear, or smell that herd. They seriously must have had to brush away fresh steaming elk shit to clear a spot for their tipi. I have done my fair share of dumb stuff while hunting, but my lord that was a sight to behold.
 
Ive seen it play out both ways. To me depends on the time of year as well. When they are rutting good it almost doesnt matter, early season hot bulls they go and do what they want. later in the year though they see one person and sometimes high tail it to the deepest darkest hole never to be seen. But music and loud talking thats just annoying to anything in the woods. I would get up and leave as well.
 
Around 17% of elk hunters are successful. Of that 17%, probably 80% kill elk every year.

Of that matrix, I doubt camping and other things that annoy people, really hinder the successful hunter. Finding a camp somewhere that you may hunt means you need to go somewhere else or hunt around them.

I have only killed elk where I found them…
 
millerkiller77 said:
This has to be a jab at Colorado outfitters.
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Can confirm
Hunted 1st rifle this year. 100’s of elk down low on private. Plan was to wait for thermals to switch and drop down near the line. Never seen so many people once we started getting close. Seen a guy with a pack string, said he had 31 hunters in his drop camps on that side. 31 in a 4 mile stretch. A tent in every small drainage.
It was a little funny seeing all the pissed off faces of guys sitting along the horse trail when we walked by, knowing how much they paid to be packed side by side
 
geewhiz said:
What I'm hearing you say is its annoying when guys that don't do their homework screw things up for guys that do their homework, and I wholeheartedly agree. And no, hunting an area once a year for 6 days is not "doing your homework".
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If everyone did their homework, the elk could be blown out well before the season.
 
I keep hearing this, then I keep seeing campers and wall tents all set up along the road to the trail head and not a soul once I get 2-3 miles from the road and set up my tipi.

I keep killing elk every year, usually on day one or two. I guess the one guy from the camper and wall tent village not too hung over to actually hunt gets pissed when he finds the elk and sees my tent.
 
BuckeyeRifleman said:
I keep hearing this, then I keep seeing campers and wall tents all set up along the road to the trail head and not a soul once I get 2-3 miles from the road and set up my tipi.

I keep killing elk every year, usually on day one or two. I guess the one guy from the camper and wall tent village not too hung over to actually hunt gets pissed when he finds the elk and sees my tent.
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The complaint isn't that tents are set up 2-3 or however deep. The complaint is where the tent or tipi is set up once you get back there. I too will camp off the road a couple of miles, but I try to do it in a strategic location, not right where the deer and elk are feeding all night or where my scent is going to get spread all over. I think this is the OP's take as well.
 
Lilhowie83 said:
The complaint isn't that tents are set up 2-3 or however deep. The complaint is where the tent or tipi is set up once you get back there. I too will camp off the road a couple of miles, but I try to do it in a strategic location, not right where the deer and elk are feeding all night or where my scent is going to get spread all over. I think this is the OP's take as well.
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It was a bit of tongue in cheek sarcasm. 😉

That said I definitely could’ve shot my bull from camp this year and almost did. First time in the area and there wasn’t a good spot to camp near the trail like I had planned, hiked up unto a draw about a half mile and saw a bull as I was setting up the tent about 350 yards away. About an hr later I shot that bull less than 200 yards from where I first saw him.

Obviously purposely setting up camp in the middle of a herd is stupid. But normally l like to set up where I can glass from camp and hunt up unto the elk. It seems to work out most years.
 
shrapnel said:
Around 17% of elk hunters are successful. Of that 17%, probably 80% kill elk every year.

Of that matrix, I doubt camping and other things that annoy people, really hinder the successful hunter. Finding a camp somewhere that you may hunt means you need to go somewhere else or hunt around them.

I have only killed elk where I found them…
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I would agree with that for the most part...I should be clear, it's annoying, but it hasn't really cut into my success, I've been on plenty of elk and passed a couple of bulls I maybe shouldn't have, time will tell, the weather is good to stumble onto a big one the next couple days...
 
Lilhowie83 said:
The complaint isn't that tents are set up 2-3 or however deep. The complaint is where the tent or tipi is set up once you get back there. I too will camp off the road a couple of miles, but I try to do it in a strategic location, not right where the deer and elk are feeding all night or where my scent is going to get spread all over. I think this is the OP's take as well.
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exactly, I will be the first one camping if the situation makes sense, in this case it is near the bottom of the list of effective ways to hunt these areas...
 
GrantK said:
Maybe this is something everyone else has already encountered, it's new to me this year...I have had multiple hot spots ruined, and a lot of the elk I scouted blown out from people camping right in the elk with their fancy heated teepee setups, by right in the elk I mean like right in the prime bedding areas, I had one guy tell me he had a hard time finding a spot that wasn't a frozen elk bed big enough to set up...we aren't talking far enough off the roads to require camping at all, all less than 3 miles in, some a lot less than that, really easy to day hunt areas where there isn't a good spot to camp until you drive down the road a couple of miles...

So far I've encountered 5 groups who are camping right where they saw elk, a couple have even gone so far as to tell me: "boy, we saw a lot of elk here when we were walking in trying to decide where to camp but they seem to have vanished" as they are listening to music in the tent with the stove rolling 10 minutes into legal light, on a ridge where I glassed up 25 elk bedded the previous morning...

From the guys I've talked to (almost all of the camps have people in them at prime time) it is too hard to hike in and out every day so they are setting up as close as possible and staying hoping to shoot an elk from camp...

In my experience even if you are pretty careful to be stealthy with your camping it's good to have close to a mile of buffer from where you want to be hunting or a really significant terrain feature as separation, does anyone actually have experience killing elk from your camp if you are doing this? I've hunted most of these spots for years and I've never seen anything as effective at pushing elk out as the hunting from-camp tactic...
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What if it's not a hot tent? Are you upset with the normal-tent people too? I mean, I have a teepee, but if I leave the stove at home could we still be friends?
 
LuketheDog said:
What if it's not a hot tent? Are you upset with the normal-tent people too? I mean, I have a teepee, but if I leave the stove at home could we still be friends?
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No, not one damn bit. It's not about the stove, it's the teepee and your desire to ruin hunting with your cultural appropriation. 😉
 
Question: is there something special about blasting music at 140 decibels? Do elk congregate to dance to it? I had couple guys swing by where my tent was and asked (more like begged) if ok to set next to us. They pulled their camp since they could hear the disco camp a mile away. Asked if we played music and we said no and thought they were going to hug us! They worked real hard not to interfere and just wanted a quiet place to sleep. Turns out, they had good stockpile of bourbon so good friends immediately.
 
I will never understand camping deep into deer or elk country from a vehicle. I get packing in deep and having a low impact camp on foot or horseback. But from a vehicle???? Camp in a damn campground or trail head and let the damn elk and deer sleep and eat in peace, then go get em in the morning. It makes hunting better for all.
 
LuketheDog said:
What if it's not a hot tent? Are you upset with the normal-tent people too? I mean, I have a teepee, but if I leave the stove at home could we still be friends?
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Oddly enough I haven't seen any of this sort of thing from the regular tent people since heated teepees hit the market?
There seems to be something about the stove that immediately makes the owner want to set up really, really close to elk...
 
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