Caribou Gear Tarp

Elk migration, how long how far overnight

MITCHMO

MITCHMO

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Joined
May 19, 2016
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751
Location
Lake Michigan
Talked with Montana FandG and I was told the elk In the unit I am hunting will most likely all be gone by the first week of November. I’m wondering how fast they typically move through an area while migrating? I will be a mile from the unit border where they are migrating. We plan to hunt late, but wondered how easy we could wake up and they could just all be “gone”? There is not a huge number of elk where I plan to go if that matters. There is about 3 miles of ridge tops that lead down to flat lands, which is where they are coming from.
 
Tough question to answer. There could be small groups moving along migration corridors with others left to follow behind. Or there could be a large mass on the move with very few left in that area.

I hunted the high country one year around 9000 feet, with 6 inches of snow and fairly warm temperatures. First morning of the hunt bulls were still bugling and we knocked a couple down, and got them on there way to town the next day. The next 10 days we followed tracks that were on their way to winter range, and never saw a live critter, or fresh sign that anything was still in the unit.

Another year I hunted the same unit with 18 inches of snow with cold temps and wind, and we seemed to run into bulls anywhere there was a patch of grass sticking through the snow.

Not sure what actually gets them all out or why, I guess I’ll never know
 
Not all migrations are weather dependent. Some are simply a habit of seeking refuge.
H
 
A biologist buddy of mine had a game camera in a remote drainage in Idaho. There was a big snow event later in the season and all the elk that were appearing on the camera headed out immediately. He also readily admitted that a migration can also be a more gradual creeping down the mountain based on snow and temps. I think it can be a little of both.
 
From what I've gathered, bulls migrate down after the cows have left. If you're seeing cows at lower elevations, try gaining some elevation and you may run into more bulls.
 
Sounds like there are more variables at play than what I first considered. I guess that’s the risk you take when it’s a hunt dependent on the migration. I will probably try to hunt longer duration and start earlier to make sure we don’t miss anything. I bet there’s some neat research out there about the different migration habits. I’ll do some internet digging.
 
A lot of elk on the east side of the Bighorn Mtns. will move down to green alfalfa fields (on private land) about the third week of August. This is because the grass in the higher elevations will become "cured" and it looses palatability. With some hunting pressure, these elk can be pushed back up on the National Forest. Wildlife biologists in this area refer to these movements as "seasonal movements"; they don't consider these movements "migrations".

During the hunting season the elk may be down on private land or up on the Forest, then after the hunting season is over, the elk will tend to spend the winter on areas owned by the Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. where human presence is not allowed.

ClearCreek
 
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