Food Sources. Food sources can
mean many different things. Some-
times it’s just an open hillside with nice
grass, or a small meadow in the middle
of some thick timber. Or, it could be
Farmer Joe’s alfalfa field that rests at the
bottom of the mountain. All of these of-
fer opportunity for an ambush, if done
right. If elk are not being pressured, this
can be a great place to set up a blind and
wait. With areas like small meadows,
you can set up right on the food source.
With larger feeding areas, you are better
off catching the elk coming or going to
that area. I have often found these areas
by glassing the same herd constantly us-
ing an area and then determining their
pattern of movement. That done, I hike
in during the time of day when the elk
are not active, so I don’t disrupt their
pattern, and then I set up my blind in
the path of that movement.
Saddles. This terrain feature is
quickly becoming my favorite place to
hunt elk from a ground blind. While
scouting and setting up trail cams in
elk country over the past several years,
I’ve found saddles to be frequented
more often by elk than any other lo-
cation. Elk and other animals are like
humans, in that they generally take the
path of least resistance when travel-
ing from one basin to the next. Trails
through these saddles and moun-
tain passes are usually easy to iden-
tify. These areas vary from the small-
est saddle, from one draw to the next,
to mountain passes at 10,000 feet be-
tween two major drainages. Although
I’ve yet to take an elk in one of these
spots, I have passed on several, and I
know it’s only a matter of time before
I do. Also, this is one situation where
other hunters can be used to your ad-
vantage. If you stay on the mountain or
can reach the area before other hunters
comethroughonagivenday,taking
an elk that is evading other hunters is
a real possibility. These hunters tend to
disrupt a herd’s pattern, and the elk use
saddles and passes to escape that pres-
sure, which puts you in the action.BLIND SET UP
There are plenty of ways to set up a
blind and be successful. After packing a
blind in five or six miles on my back to
a 9,500-foot saddle, I want everything
to be perfect. The last thing I want is for
an elk to spot my blind because I didn’t
take the extra time to set it up correctly.
Wherever I decide to set up my blind,
I try to find a clump of trees, a pile of
rocks, or anything that naturally breaks
up the outline of my blind. I always
carry a small collapsible shovel to level
the ground beneath my blind. A small
saw is a must-have to remove any brush
or branches that are in the way. Once in
place, I use the brush loops on the blind
to attach plenty of natural vegetation
from the area to completely break up the
outline in any way I can to help it blend
into the scenery.CONCLUSION
With all of my elk hunts, I am pri-
marily planning to run and gun for elk
and utilize calling or stalking. However,
I always have a blind at my disposal, and
I’m always looking for that special place
where I can set up my ground blind to
ambush an unsuspecting bull. Although
hunting from a ground blind probably
accounts for maybe 15 percent of my elk-
hunting time, I know that when I find
the right spot, I’m 99-percent sure I will
see some action.The author is a freelance writer and a County
Road Department equipment operator. He lives
in southeast Idaho with his wife and three kids.Setting trail cams in possible blind locations in the summer can give you
a good idea of what’s in the area.