Hi all,

I have a question I've often wondered, for those of you that have hunted red deer and elk which do you consider of the two to be harder to hunt? I mean this in terms of smarts, cunningness, alertness etc. or is it much of a muchness?

I've heard a couple of people give the edge to reds but I really have no idea?

Interested to hear some thoughts or better yet first hand accounts.

JP

high fence hunting to be its red deer by far. I've hunted both and seen both on numerous ranches. if the elk are on the ranch for an extended period of time they are VERY calm. almost too much so. red deer by a mile from my experience.

What about outside a ranch environment where both are wild? Had any experience with that?

Interesting on the ranch observations. On the high fenced area I guide on reds they generally have at least a 200-300m flight zone. In the wild they'll bolt if they spot you from 700m.

ive only hunted elk in the wild, not red deer sorry.

In that case would you class a wild elk as about the same as the red deer you've experienced.

no the elk were more wild for certain. however I didn't hunt the elk during the rut. I hunted them in thick woods and not open fields like you see a lot.

I haven't hunted either on free range properties yet, but I can say in the 16 years I have been running commercial hunting operations as well as guiding Red Stag have by far exceeded the Elk in difficulty to hunt. This has been consistent with even cows/hinds.

We had about 50 elk cows that would chase anything that drove into the 200ac pasture that we kept them in thinking they were getting feed. The ranch owner decided he wanted to cull the herd in half to cut feed bill that lasted about the first 5 we got. The others got the message quick and from then on it turned into a hunt I kid you not. If you think a couple dozen elk can't disappear like Houdini , the next few weeks we took maybe 6 more, and then they went nocturnal owner stopped selling hunts for them .

In NM the free range elk that smelled us moved a ways and we tracked them but when the cow and a calf spotted us and I watched them run 2 miles.

Hunt elk free range every year, and have hunted red deer free range in Scotland and Spain (fenced in NZ). I really don't see a difference in a wild setting that couldn't be attributable more to the environment and the how he property is managed. Spain, they were wary, but the terrain (which looked surprisingly like the Tx hill country without cedars) allowed for spotting and enough cover to stalk property also didn't recieve that much pressure so even if you bumped one they would not go that far. In Scotland they were wild as heck and it felt a bit more like a wyoming antelope or caribou hunt - skittish animals, open terrain, but there were plenty around to have a successful hunt. Experiences with elk have been similar - well managed NM or CO property they were plenty wild, but wouldn't go to the next county if you bumped them. Co OTC public land you bump an elk and they will leave a complete drainage in a hurry.