So over the last 10 years that I have been bowhunting elk with my brother we have learned a few things. Back when we started we found what we call the honey hole. It was a awesome spot to hunt elk. we would hike in a couple miles set up base camp and go elk hunting. There were 3 different elk herds that would talk all morning till 10ish then start back up around 5. we would lie awake at night a make plans on which herd we would hunt the next day. We would hear bugeling all night long. we took alot of elk out of the area. (We can shoot eighter sex with our tags in idaho.) Well about 4 years into it my brother shot the herd bull of one of the herds. The next year we went back to the honey hole and realized that the herd that we had shot the herd bull was no longer there. The next year they reintroduced the wolves. The following year the elk in the honey hole no longer bugled. We would get some cow calls out of them but other then that they were silent. No longer were the days of letting a bugle rip and hearing a freight train come thru the trees. I was always the front silent guy while my brother who bugles better then me was 30 yds behind me. Well the wolves and a forest fire took care of the honey hole a couple years back. Last time we were there we only saw 2 elk. We decided the elk in the honey hole needed all the help they could get to survive so we stopped hunting them. We set off and found an new spot were the wolves haven't completely invaded. It is a 5 hour drive for me. But to insure we have a herd to chase every year we have decided on a couple rules. 1. we don't shoot the herd bull. only satelite bulls. spikes or cows. 2. we shoot the first animal we get a good clean shot at. (Not including the herd bull or a cow with a calf.) 3. no fires. The last couple of years we have noticed with these rules we have run into elk every year. Now if we could just get the elk to start bugeling again that would be awesome! They should have introduced the wolves into a better habitat. I think central park would have been a better choice.
Killing the herd bull would have little to no effect on future elk being in that draw or basin. Other things to consider are the dates hunted, bad water year so they are elsewhere, breeding times, other hunters pressuring area, elk not in that area yet as they do move around every 7-10 days depending on water & feed per area. Catch the cows coming into estrus or in estrus & everything changes, no cows in estrus no rutting! It would take an act of God to stop bulls from bugling when there are hot cows! Cows lead the herds not the bulls, wolves will have some effect but not the 1st few years of introduction. ElkNut1
This coming season we are going to do some pre season scouting at the honey hole to see how is has been doing. I agree with you on all of your points. This last year we had some new bowhunters move into our new spot and ruin it. we found were they cut a path for a atv to retreave a animal I'm assuming. That was very uncool!
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