# Interesting Trail Cam Study/Elk Movement



## UtahMountainMan (Jul 20, 2010)

I own about 70 acres out near Scofield. We have a pretty good number of elk in the area, it is obviously a LE elk area. I have put trail cameras on our land as well as the bordering forest service land the last 2 summers.

I just got done analyzing data from the months of June, July, and August of 2009 and those same three months (still have 5 weeks to go to finish August) of 2010.

The trail camera that I studied is set up in the bottom of a ravine/canyon. There is a small spring that drains through the bottom of the ravine and so the deer and the elk cross it all over. However, at the mouth of where the spring really starts there is a wallow, I have captured bears, mt lions, deer, and elk at this spot. My tree stand is set up above this wallow.

What I have determined is that the elk especially are MUCH more prone to hang out there and drink/cool off in the morning hours as opposed to the evening hours.

For instance, the odds of an elk (cow, bull, spike, calf, doesnt matter) visiting the wallow hole between 6am and 1130 am is 58% every morning of June, July, and August. The odds of an elk (cow, bull, spike, calf, doesnt matter) visiting the wallow from noon until 9pm is 23%.

Basically on AVERAGE the elk visit the wallow every other morning, vs every 4 evenings. I would have thought that it would have been flip flopped. I would have assumed that during the 3 hottest months of the year the elk would have been extra thirsty and would have gone to this site more often in the evenings. Maybe they go somewhere else to drink during the evenings or they usually just wait until the next morning.

Does anyone have an idea or study that shows how many times per day an average elk herd will visit water?

Also interesting, the odds of an elk visiting this wallow between the hours of 9pm and 6am is only about one in 7 days. So they are not going there in the middle of the night.

The elk definitely frequent this spot more than deer. Anyway, I dont know if any of my fellow bowhunters have any comments, questions, thoughts, about the idea of elk going to water, feeding, hours of movement, etc., but I would love some feedback and interpretation.

This is all in the name of flinging a successful arrow here in a month. 
What this study has shown my is that my plan of attack is to hunt the wallow in the mornings, and try to set up over a feeding area in the evenings.

If you would like to see some of the videos I put just a few of them on my youtube page.

Just scroll through the videos on the right, there are probably 5 or 6 different videos of elk, deer, cougar, bear, on this wallow

*http://www.youtube.com/user/JeremiahJohnson1981*


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## mikevanwilder (Nov 11, 2008)

Cool videos, my guess is the elk are getting water elsewhere in the afternoons and nights. Where by Scofield is your property? There is a ton of water in about every canyon near scofield so it wouldn't be much for them to move from your property to another in a day.


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## Mountain Time (Sep 24, 2007)

Some interesting observations you've made. My first question would be, do you know where the elk are bedding and feeding? The reason I ask is I wonder if that would play a role in the order of there habits? We noticed something similar on my dads LE elk hunt last year. We left a trail cam up near the head of a small stream during the hunt and noticed some patterns. The herd seemed to be around the water early in the morning more so than in the evening. As far as we could tell they would water in the morning, feed away from or sometimes around the water and then make there way to the bedding area in another canyon. In the afternoon/evening we would see straggler bulls but not the herd. The trail cam would catch pictures on and off through the night of cows/bulls and into the early morning. They would feed away from the water to bed and then back to the water. Versus feeding, then water, then bedding or the like........ I'd be curious to hear others experience.


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## UtahMountainMan (Jul 20, 2010)

Yes, your dads experience seems similar to mine. For instance, there are probably 6 or 7 days a month that the camera first picks up the herd at the spring around 7am. They will then feed within a few hundred yards of the wallow, and they will show back up on the camera at 10am, 11am, 1pm, 4pm, etc. They will basically stay within a couple hundred yards of the area all day long. 

As far as them bedding and feeding, there are 4 main drainages around the area that they frequent and they seem to stay fairly close (within a mile or so). 

I wonder if elk dont like to drink water on an empty stomach? Are they eating all night and then finishing their meals by drinking water? At the end of the afternoon they have been sleeping all day and start by drinking water rather than feeding. 

Another question to ask you guys, since the elk are already frequenting this spot whether I am calling them or not, when the hunt starts (pre-rut) in a couple weeks would it be worth cow calling from the position or would it be worth laying low and not messing with a good thing, i.e. making unnatural calls. 

What do you guys think?


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Try things and see what works. If not for anything else. a good cow call will relax them if they smell/see/feel that something is different in the area. A bad cow call will do the opposite. Tough call.


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## DR_DEATH (Sep 10, 2007)

If you have them patterned then why would you want to do anything different. Go sit in your stand before daylight and shoot the first Spike that comes in. You have also got to remember that the bigger bulls will begin to start ramping up for the rut and patterns will soon start to change as the rut kicks in. 

Last year we had some Elk patterned when we were hunting cows and spike and things changed after the 1st weekend of the hunt.This was on public land. Maybe being on private land it will be different.


Thanks for sharing the pics and videos.


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