Public-land hunting expert and OutdoorClass instructor Randy Newberg shares tips for finding cow elk.
What a Cow Elk Wants
The first step to finding cow elk is finding the best food in your hunting unit. Because the majority of cow elk are either growing a calf, nursing a calf or preparing to carry the next calf, nutritious food is the ultimate key to their survival and reproduction. Cows use a burst of energy in late spring and early summer when nursing their calves. Afterwards, they need to gain about 10% of additional body fat during hunting season. That takes a lot of eating.
Follow the Forage
Elk prefer forbs, grasses and woody shrubs—in that order. Forbs disappear by October, so during most hunting seasons, focus on finding grasses. If your hunting unit doesn’t have a lot of grasses, look for stands of aspens or shrubs with nutritional value for elk such as mountain mahogany and Gambel oak.
Cow elk select areas carefully to maximize their nutritious food intake. The amount and quality
What a Cow Elk Wants
The first step to finding cow elk is finding the best food in your hunting unit. Because the majority of cow elk are either growing a calf, nursing a calf or preparing to carry the next calf, nutritious food is the ultimate key to their survival and reproduction. Cows use a burst of energy in late spring and early summer when nursing their calves. Afterwards, they need to gain about 10% of additional body fat during hunting season. That takes a lot of eating.
Follow the Forage
Elk prefer forbs, grasses and woody shrubs—in that order. Forbs disappear by October, so during most hunting seasons, focus on finding grasses. If your hunting unit doesn’t have a lot of grasses, look for stands of aspens or shrubs with nutritional value for elk such as mountain mahogany and Gambel oak.
Cow elk select areas carefully to maximize their nutritious food intake. The amount and quality
of forage changes with time and conditions, like a wave, peaking and disappearing. Cows move to take advantage of this, so it helps to know where they are headed next and move with them.
Agency biologists and their published research studies are great resources for finding out the preferred forage for elk in your unit and where you are likely to find it.
Counting the Costs
A cow elk’s daily accounting system focuses on taking in the most calories possible while minimizing the energy they spend to get them. To refine your search for cows you should consider the level of human disturbance from other hunters, mountain bikers, dog walkers or other sources.
Thermal regulation is also an important factor, because staying warm when it’s cold or cool when it’s hot costs energy. On cold days
you should be looking for elk where there is less snow, more
sun exposure and cover from wind. On hot days, canyons and north-facing, vegetated slopes are your friends.
How much elk must move to get their calories is another big factor. Look for high densities of high-quality forage in one place.
Make sure to also consider predation pressure. Elk don’t want to be constantly losing energy running from humans, wolves or mountain lions.
Try to hunt the areas that have been rested the longest from domestic grazing animals, because that will mean more forage for elk.
Finally, make sure you look for areas less than two miles from a water source, as traveling along distance to get a drink wastes energy.
The Bottom Line
When hunting cow elk, knowing where in your hunting unit holds the tastiest and most nutritious grasses (followed by the most nutritious shrubs) at the lowest energy cost to the elk will boost your chances of putting delicious elk meat in your freezer.