Getting With the Times-Using Technology in Modern Elk Hunting

Originally published for the Colorado Division of Wildlife Elk Hunting University:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/ElkHuntingUniversity/EHULessons/EHUElkHuntTechnology.htm

Technological advancements have affected every aspect of modern life, so it is only fitting that it has affected modern elk hunting. Today’s hunters have tools available to them that were inconceivable even 20 years ago. None of these tools will revolutionize elk hunting, but learning to use them to your advantage can improve your knowledge, your odds of success, your comfort and your safety. Advancements in synthetic materials and metallurgy have created lighter and better performing gear, but the biggest leaps in technology have been in navigation and information gathering. Other articles will go into detail on specific gear selection, but I will touch on some advancements and how you can apply that to your gear. However, the main focus here will be navigation and information technologies to improve the way you hunt and select where or when to hunt.
Synthetic clothing materials have created lighter weight, waterproof, breathable, scentproof, silent fabrics that are all the rage. These aren’t cheap, but neither is wool anymore. Wool is the gold standard by which hunting clothes are measured, and no synthetic can yet rival the warmth and silence of wool, nor do they insulate as well when wet. However, wool is typically heavy, so outer garments are not well suited to the mobile western hunter. Light wool pants, sweaters or shirts, used as an intermediate layer is where wool still shines brightest, as modern synthetic undergarments and lightweight waterproof outer layers can be used over wool clothing. Another modern convenience is the hydration bladder. It hasn’t revolutionized hunting, but it is much more convenient than having to dig through a pack for a water bottle. If you are in the market for a new pack, you’d be wise to focus on those with hydration bladders. Titanium cookware, smaller stoves and lighter tents have also increased the mobility of the back pack hunter.
Rifle stock technology has greatly advanced for those looking to save weight and increase durability. Carbon fiber, Kevlar, Aramid and other materials are being used to drop firearm weight more than any other single advancement outside of titanium receivers. However, while using a titanium receiver requires the purchase of a new gun, simply changing the stock out on your old rifle can save over a pound. Aluminum scope mounts, and smaller, yet brighter optical coatings also allow you to save weight on your gun. Further advancements in gunpowder technology and case design allow hunters to save weight and/or increase power in lighter, more efficient, short action cartridges, and shorter rifle barrels. Archery equipment has also advanced over the past 20 years with lighter, faster equipment for extended range and more accurate shooting.
The above advancements are just that, incremental steps to decrease weight or increase performance for gear we already have. However, the common availability of the personal GPS, satellite phones and beacons has added to the gear we now use. GPS technology is the foundation of our modern star-wars weaponry systems, the way most land surveys are now conducted and preferred method for global navigation. The GPS has many beneficial uses for hunters and outdoor recreational users. It is beyond the scope of this article to explain all of what it does and how it does it. I suggest that you search some websites such as geocache.com (http://www.geocaching.com/) that has some very good articles on buying, setting up, using a GPS. Also, the site has information on almost one million hidden caches that you can search for and develop your GPS skills. Many are probably located right in your neighborhood. A good GPS will cost in the range of $100-400. You pay the extra bucks for more bells and whistles, such as added memory, color screens and better antenna systems. The better GPS receivers are capable of displaying topographic maps. Again, this is usually an additional cost but a wonderful improvement for elk hunting. Many GPS receivers have a built in compass. However, I still prefer to have the old tried and true magnetic compass. And IF your GPS conks out or your batteries die, at least you can tell north from south at anytime or in any weather condition.
A GPS is best used in conjunction with a topographic map that has UTM lines. These should be marked off in 1,000-meter intervals. You will need to setup your GPS to be compatible with this system of grid lines. In the GPS setup screen for “position format” select “UTM” or “UTM UPS”, etc. Under map datum you will need to select the datum that was used for produce your map. On a U. S. Geological Survey 7.5 minute topographic map the datum can be located in the lower left hand corner and it will usually say something like “Polyconic projection 1927 North American Datum. If this is the case, use “NAD27 CONUS” which is an abbreviation for “1927 North American Datum for the Continental U.S.). Other popular map Datums for Colorado includes NAD 83 and WGS 84. The map datum is the mathematical formula that is used to make a flat map from a curved surface. Failure to use the correct map datum will usually result in an error in locations on the ground up to 200 meters! While this may sound overly technical, knowing how to use the X-Y UTM grid system will allow you to find your exact position on a map, rather than just your proximity to objects you marked or those you have preloaded. This is a snap using UTMs. It is just reading a graph with the easting (X coordinate, the distance in meters from the central merdian ) and northing (Y coordinate which is actually the distance in meters north of the equator). The other parameter is zone. Colorado has 2 zones: zone 13 is east of a north-south line that basically runs through an area just east of Parachute CO. The rest of the state west of this line is all in zone 12. Zones are just a way of refining the accuracy of your position from the 3-D earth to a 2-D grid system. See http://www.maptools.com/UsingUTM/ for more info on using UTMs.
So, do you need a GPS? No. But with one, you can use the GPS receiver to navigate to all those hidden and secret elk magnets that you’ve have identified from your remote scouting efforts. You can also use your GPS to locate your camp or car so you should not get lost. You can use your GPS to navigate to your hunting stand in the dark. Just turn on the “tracks” function in your setup and it will leave a “breadcrumb trail” that you can follow to your stand. Hint – make sure that you set your map scale to a low level by zooming in on the screen so you can tell if you are on the trail or not. Once you find your position on a map, you can also determine the best route to the nearest trail or you can find that heading straight back to your truck as indicated by the GPS will take you through an obstacle that is best avoided. The confidence of being able to hunt unknown country, navigate your way home or to a hunt area in the dark is a huge advantage in the modern era of short elk seasons and limited time off from work. I cannot emphasize enough to make sure that if you are relying on this tool for navigation that you have a backup system: a map, compass and extra GPS batteries (usually AA). Failure to find your camp in a late season or wilderness hunt could be fatal - use caution.
Satellite beacons, radios and satellite phones have become common place among hunters. Satellite beacons are useful, especially if hunting solo in a wilderness area. They allow loved one to know your last location, and some models also permit one to send signal letting folks know that you are either alright or in need of assistance. Satellite phones of course allow you direct communication with folks back home, but are expensive. There are services that also rent satellite phones. Radios are much more commonplace than either of the above devices. To avoid ethical and legal violations, radios should only be used to let others in your party know your location and status. Garmin Rino GPSes have the added function of having a radio built in to them. This can be used for direct communication with your party, but the digital radio also sends your location out to other Rino users within range, displaying your location on a map every time you touch the “push to talk” button.
The other major advancement has been in information technology. The internet has revolutionized the speed with which we can obtain information, but also created new sources of marginal, biased sources. Google Earth and Geographic Information System (GIS) overlays have revolutionized remote scouting. Google Scholar and the digitizing of scientific journals have given those with a thirst for knowledge beyond what the average hunting magazine can offer a new source of high quality information. The Colorado Division of Wildlife and other government agencies have also responded to the public’s thirst for previously low demand information by publishing harvest and population survey results, game management plans, habitat management plans and travel management plans on their respective sites for the world to access.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife’s website (http://wildlife.state.co.us) and those of other state game agencies are not just for posting regulations, seasons and license fees. Harvest stats are great if you know what you are looking for. Most people are only looking at success rates, while some also pay attention to hunter numbers. Yet few people bother to truly compare which seasons are best in an individual unit. Without getting into how to select a unit (covered in other articles), one can select the best time to hunt a unit by seeing how success rates and hunter numbers vary over time. Some units are better in earlier seasons, others better in the later seasons. In Colorado, of the four rifle elk seasons, first season is traditionally the highest success rate, which then falls off significantly in second season, bottoming out in third season, then increasing again in fourth season. Second season usually has the most hunters, but other seasons can vary wildly depending on access conditions in each unit, perceptions of historical game movements and tag allotment. Also available through the DOW’s website is the Natural Diversity Information Database (http://ndis.nrel.colostate.edu/maps). This allows a hunter to look over maps of game movements and landownership. The system is a little awkward to use, but it is free. It should be used in conjunction with Google Earth to view aerial photos of the areas in question.
A far more user friendly, but somewhat expensive application is Hunt Data’s Big Game Maps (http://www.huntdata.com). These allow one to overlay elk migration and concentration maps or landownership maps into Google Earth, right over the top of the aerial photos. A slider bar allows you to fade the overlay in and out to make sure you are looking at the correct spot in the photos. If you can’t interpret what you are looking at in Google Earth, then it won’t do you any good. While it may be obvious which features are trees, what hillsides are open and which mountain is bare rock, it does take some getting used to. Aspens and scrub oaks whose leaves have fallen off are extremely difficult to pick out from grassy areas. So look closely. Having some knowledge of what vegetation to expect at different elevation ranges also helps. Looking at a conifer at 6,000 feet or 11,000 feet, a little bit of knowledge should tell you the low elevation trees are pinion pines or junipers, not big spruces or firs. Google Earth will also show you where timberline is in your area, and just how high you may need to be hunting. In some places in Colorado, timberline is barely over 11,000 feet, in others; it is close to 11,700 feet. While some topographic maps will show you that a ridge is barren, you won’t know whether it is alpine tundra or rocky scree without looking at the photos. Identifying parking areas, trails and water sources are also important skills when using Google Earth. You also need to be able to tell the difference between rangeland and irrigated croplands that elk may be feeding in at night.

Your Google Earth maps will also allow you to create wind direction maps. By tilting the viewing angle, you can get a full 3D view. Having an understanding of thermals will allow you to create trails to your hunting areas that will not blow your scent to where you expect the game to be located. Knowing that your scent will fall early in the morning before the sun warms the mountains, then rises until the late afternoon when the sun falls below the horizon will help prevent blown stalks or blowing you scent from your vantage point into the game. In general, hunt up the mountain in the morning, and down it in the afternoon. The prevailing winds blow west to east, but use your maps to sketch out alternate plans for unusual weather patterns. The other great thing about the 3D view is that you can get an idea of the areas that will be visible from a specific vantage point.
Another way to “ground truth” or educate your mind’s eye is to use Google Earth’s embedded photos to get a more realistic view of an area. Look past the hikers posing in the foreground to get an understanding of the scale of the terrain, and type of habitat. Another way to find pictures of an area is to do a search for outfitters or professional photographer’s portfolios to look at the landscape. Looking through outfitter websites will also give you a feel for which trails are being used and possible camp locations. The USFS can also help you figure out where permitted outfitter camp locations are at.
Herd management plans and habitat management plans can also be found on state and federal websites. These will give you a leg up on other hunters for determining where the game may shift their concentrations. Hunters often exclaim that a specific drainage used to be great in the “good old days”, but the elk or deer are just no longer there. The game may have shifted their usage to an area where prescribed burns, wildfire or timber harvest has produced younger, more palatable forage, and the vegetation in the previous drainage is now older, more fibrous, decadent or grown over in a thick stand of lodgepole pines. The USFS will also post travel management plans, letting you know in advance which roads will be gated and which will remain open for hunting season. You can also find out when cattle are being removed from the public land in your area. The National Interagency Fire Center is another site to keep your eye on during the summer. If you aren’t paying attention, you may arrive to a completely blackened landscape in October. No forage and no cover, means no elk. You can also search for historical fire data to try to find 2 or 3 year old fires which may be attractive to game. CDOW herd management plans can also be used to identify problems with achieving desired harvest due to private refuges or other access issues. They can also give you a clue as to whether the DOW will increase or decrease tags and why. The plans typically contain more than 20 years of harvest and population data, so if when someone tells you an area “used to” be great, you may be able to put that information into better perspective.
Internet discussion forums such as those on 24hourcampfire.com, BigGameHunt.net and the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s new forums are a new way of getting local information on specific hunting areas. Asking, “Where is the best place to elk hunt in Colorado?” will not likely garner much response, but asking more detailed questions about an area that you have done your homework on will probably get you better information. If you haven’t done any homework prior to putting your questions out on the internet, you won’t be able to see through “smoke screens” put out by those who don’t want any additional hunters in “their” area. If you don’t want to openly ask a question, use the search functions to see if someone else has asked questions about the area you are interested in in the past. Searches may also turn up individuals who seem more knowledgeable than others, don’t be afraid to send them a private message instead of posting on the public forums.
The single most underutilized resource freely available to hunters is that which is produced by the scientific community. Scientific journals such as the Journal of Wildlife management are full of very specific diet, population, movement and behavioral studies. It is expensive for a private citizen to subscribe to JWM and other journals (about $700 per year), but they are freely available at many university and some larger public libraries. In these journals, place names will be mentioned, oftentimes maps will be incorporated into the document showing home ranges of specific elk herds and how they react to hunter pressure. Preferred seasonal forages will be discovered, and the peak date of the rut can be determined in a specific area. Your university library, if it has a wildlife or ecology department may also have theses by Master’s and PhD students on the elk or deer populations. These can be full books on the behaviors or demographics of an elk herd that you can hunt on public land. If your local university doesn’t produce its own wildlife research, those theses can be had for free through interlibrary loan. Also check out cattle and elk interaction studies in your area, and whether or not elk avoid them or the associated activities with public land ranching or whether elk will prefer to move in behind the cattle, which may be grazing down the coarser grasses, exposing the newer blades for the elk. Don’t forget, that in addition to the published research, there are graduate students conducting new research all the time. Don’t be afraid to find out what students at Colorado State University and other schools that produce significant wildlife research are up to. Graduate students and technicians might love to have someone tag along and help with their data collection. By volunteering your services, you may be able to see where exactly the elk are during the summer, or gain insight you never knew to ask about.
Weather research can also be utilized to better time your hunt or better prepare you for the conditions you will encounter. Weather Underground and Weather.com have historical weather data available, as well as averages. Beyond determining what kind of weather to expect during your hunt, you may be able to fine tune your hunting plans by monitoring how harsh or mild the summer has been. If you were planning a hunt in a canyon country unit, where water is much more critical, you’ll want to do some research to determine where the most reliable water sources will be. During wet years, marginal sources of water may hold game in an area better than a dry year. Many times, smaller creeks won’t flow at higher elevations if the snowpack and summer rainfall was subpar. So don’t place all your planning eggs in one basket, and do some early scouting to help you figure out whether or not a certain water source will be dry. This is another reason to have a backup plan.
It’s not enough to merely educate yourself on elk behaviors, movements, habitats and the like. If you’ve bothered to do your homework, you should have a plan on how to apply that new found knowledge. If your research has uncovered a plant which elk forage on significantly more than others in the Flat Tops, learn to identify that plant, and where it grows. If you’ve determined when the peak of the elk rut occurs in the Poudre Canyon by backdating calving dates, be sure you are out hunting during that time period. If you’ve uncovered a behavioral study that shows elk flee towards the nearest private refuge in South Park at the onset of hunting season, position yourself to take advantage of this. This is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. You must be able to act on the knowledge that all these new information sources can provide, otherwise it is useless and you have wasted your time.