Next to sheep hunting, elk hunting is the toughest hunt in Idaho. They live in rough country and they’re tough animals. If you’re hitting it hard by the third day you’re so sore you can’t hardly hunt. So why do people hunt them if it’s so tough? The same reason that makes it tough. Because they live in rough country and they’re cool animals. It gives you a good excuse to get out and hike into areas that you never would.

There’s something cool about being up in elk country. You’re on top of the world in majestic country seeing sights that few people get to see which is all a side benefit.

But how do you be successful, after all, that’s why we elk hunt. We want to get one. I wish that I could give you a five-step plan for guaranteed success. If I had that plan I’d get an elk every year. But I’ll throw out some general rules that should help you be more successful.

SCOUT

The people that are successful year after year scout before season. Even if your family has hunted the same spot for 40 years and you know all of the routes they take when feeding, heading to bed or when spooked, you need to scout. Why? What if a pack of wolves have moved into your drainage and slaughtered everything? Or what if three other camps have decided to hunt in your honey hole this year?

One year a buddy invited me to go hunting with him up by the Rawah Wilderness area. I got there and he said we’ve got to move camp. How come? Unbeknownst to him, the Rainbow Coalition had decided to have a festival there and the day before when he was setting up camp and doing a final scouting, he’d run into some girl in tennis shoes hiking down the trail. And I mean only tennis shoes. Not conducive to a good elk hunting scenario.

While hopefully you may not encounter the above scenario things can change even if you did do due diligence and pre-scout. So the moral to the story is, you need to have at least three spots scouted out to hunt. That way if they aren’t at your first choice — jump. Go to your second choice.

I remember the first elk that I ever got, we moved camp twice before I finally got into the elk at the third camp. If there are no tracks, move. Elk can’t fly so if there’s no tracks, they’re not there. Granted, if you wait long enough some may get moved into your drainage but that’s a big if.

GLASS

I teach “Glassing For Big Game” (glassing = looking around with binoculars) seminars at a number of national sports and hunting conventions and shows and at retail stores and yet every year I’m amazed at how much game I see when I take time to properly glass. Hint: Use good optics. I use Riton Optics 10×42 binoculars and a Lucid Optics spotting scope that I am testing this year. When you take time to glass, it will amaze you as to how much more game you’ll see. But you have to use good optics or you won’t see anything plus bad optics will give you a headache.

SCENT COVER

The more I hunt, the more important I realize that scent cover is important. I like to clip on a couple of the Hunter’s Specialties elk wafers that have cow urine scent on them. They’re strong so let’s just say that you don’t want to be walking downwind of your buddy while he is wearing one.

Also, regardless of how much you cover your scent, always try to stalk in from downwind of your game. Whether it’s elk, deer or bear. And the thermals switch and swirl so it can be confusing. Stalk accordingly.

When setting up to call don’t have brush downwind of you. Set up so they can’t sneak in and scent you and scatter without you even knowing it.

CALLING

With the advent of wolves, most people tell you that elk have gone silent. There’s no use calling anymore. They won’t answer. OK, I agree they have quieted down a good bit but that doesn’t mean that they won’t still come in.

I learned the above by accident. Years ago I took an old buddy elk hunting. He could barely get around even with a walking stick but I’d try to take him out a few days every year. One year near the end before he died, we went to a spot where he’d seen a bull a few days prior. He sat in a spot and I hopped right over the rise 100 yards away. I usually set up and call for 15 to 20 minutes and then move. He said we’d set there about 1½ hours.

Everyone knows the above idea is a dumb idea. Except … the elk. We’d been calling for over an hour. Suddenly I saw a four-point bull sneaking up the mountain. He had not made one peep. I’ve had that happen a lot since then. So yes, elk may not bugle as much as used to when you’re calling but they still come in. Well, good luck!

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

I love eating wild game. I get some of the best ribeyes in the country and yet I still favor fried backstrap with milk gravy and french fries. Or what about a smoked forequarter made into chopped BBQ sandwiches?

I’ve even noticed amongst the young yuppie crowd that there’s an interest in hunting/eating wild game due to it being the undisputed king of organic food. With the dropping number of hunters, I’m surprised that Fish & Game isn’t playing this angle.

The last two weeks I’ve written articles on meat and processing your game. It’s only logical to follow up with an article on recipes. But when cooking wild game remember a few things:

1. Big game doesn’t marble (intermuscular fat) like beef so it is not as juicy. Don’t overcook it or cook it as fast as you do beef. Cook your big game on the medium rare side.

2. Deer/elk haven’t been finished out the last 120 days on corn so it might have a slight off-taste that you need to mask.

3. If tough, use Adolph’s Tenderizer.

BACKSTRAPS/FILETS/CHICKEN FRIED STEAK

Backstraps and the filets are the all-time favorites. Here’s how the Claycombs like to eat them.

The filet mignons, I marinate mine for an hour or two and then apply seasoning. Right now, I’m favoring the coarse ground McCormick’s seasoning. Grill on medium heat. Also great for kabobs.

Now for everyone’s all-time favorite. I’m going to lump backstraps and round steaks together because I chicken fry these. My wife beats them with a tenderizer and sprinkles on Adolph’s Tenderizer.

Let sit 15 minutes. Dip in milk, roll in flour and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fry them in a black skillet until golden brown. I like them cooked medium but my wife cooks them a little crispy and that’s great, too.

I always make milk gravy with my CFS. Another twist is to sauté onions and make onion gravy and garlic toast. Fry up some French fries and drizzle the gravy on the steak, French fries and garlic toast.

A meal fit for kings. I can get the best beef in the country and yet this is my most favorite meat in the world. My family loves fried backstrap.

FLANK STEAKS/ TRI-TIPS

These make great appetizers. Marinate for an hour or two then lay on a pan and heavily sprinkle on McCormick’s coarse ground steak seasoning. Finely chop up some onions and green peppers and lay on the flank. Roll it up and pin it together with toothpicks.

Smoke on low heat for an hour and then turn up the heat. When done, slice paper thin across grain.

These make great hors d’oeuvres. After eating them once you will not believe that for all of these years you haven’t saved them.

KABOBS

Another way to use your steaks is to cut into 1x1x½-inch chunks. Marinate the steak, mushrooms, slices of green peppers, onions and squash for 2-4 hours. Skewer the above ingredients, sprinkle with Tony Chachere’s seasoning and cook on your Camp Chef pellet smoker. These are to die for.

FOREQUARTER

Now for my all-time favorite and after trying it once it will be yours too. The third most tender muscle on the carcass is in the shoulder, if you cook it slowly. Sprinkle the shoulder with your favorite seasoning salt. Smoke it on low heat for 3-4 hours. I used to lay bacon strips over it but haven’t in 30 years. Then put it in a black turkey roasting pan and put in about 2-3 cups of water. Put it in the oven all night at 180 degrees. If you wake up in the middle of the night check on it. If it runs out of water it is ruined. If it is low, add two cups.

When it falls off the bone with a fork, it’s done. If not, turn the heat up to 300 degrees. After cooking all night, it should finish in 30-45 minutes. But to make sure this is clear, if it doesn’t fall off the bone with a fork it is not done.

Pull the meat off of the bone. There will not be enough meat left on the bone for an ant to eat. All of the collagen and gristle has disappeared. Chop into ½-inch chunks. Sprinkle with Tony Chachere’s seasoning salt. Toast buns in a Lodge black skillet on both sides with butter. Throw on a handful of chopped meat and douse with your favorite BBQ sauce and a little Tabasco sauce. I cannot tell you how good these are. Your petite little wife will eat two. It will rival any beef brisket sandwich that you’ve ever eaten.

FAJITAS

Use the skirts to make fajitas. Peel the tough skin off of both sides. Slice ¼-inch slices cross grain.

Marinate the meat, onions and green peppers for 3-4 hours. Cook everything in a black iron skillet. Fill a tortilla and feast.

BBQ RIBS

Trim off what fat cover is easily removed and sprinkle with coarse ground McCormick seasoning.

Place on your smoker for 3-4 hrs. then put in a covered dish in your oven that is preheated to 325 degrees. Cook until the meat falls off of the bones. Douse with BBQ sauce and dig in.

SAUSAGE

Years ago I decided that I like a good hot dog but not the Joe Cheapo $.99/pack hot dogs. So now I make hot dogs out of sausage. Everyone will die for them. Smoke your sausage and then for condiments put out bowls of chopped onions, avocado slices, Wolf Brand chili and spicy mustard. Eat one of these and you’ll fall back in love with the lowly hot dog!

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

You hear about aging meat but does anyone really understand what it means to age meat? So first off, what is aging? It is basically controlled rotting. So why do people age their meat?

1. It makes the meat more tender.

2. Some people favor the aged flavor.

DRY AGING

Dry aging is when you hang meat to age in an open environment. You’re supposed to hold it at a certain temp, humidity and for a certain time period. If you want to age your meat just do a rib rack or a loin rack. If you age the whole carcass the trim will be green and you’ll waste a lot of meat.

WET AGING

Now, I bet over 99 percent of the beef is wet aged in a cryovac bag. If you’ve been to a supermarket and seen a “primal” displayed in a bag that’s what a cryovac bag is. (Editor’s note: According to nebraskastarbeef.com, “primals” are the large muscle groups from which commonly known steaks, such as ribeyes, T-bones, etc. are cut.)

Aged in a bag changes the environment. The bag creates an anaerobic condition (lack of oxygen) so a different flora of bacteria grows as compared to meat that’s hung in the open (aerobic — oxygen is present) so it will age differently.

You can get by with aging beef longer for a couple of reasons:

• Usually you’re doing so in a cooler that has a controlled temp.

• Beef starts out much cleaner than your wild game due to the environment. So the initial bacteria load is lower.

When you age game it’s usually in your garage. It’d be best if you could keep it at 32 to 36 degrees. Equally important will be how clean your carcass is. If it has hair/dirt on it there will be a high load of bacteria present. The dirtier it is, the less time you can age.

RIGOR MORTIS

At a bare minimum, you want to let it go through rigor mortis before you bone it, though. If it’s boned out before going through RM, it will be tougher. It’s going to shrink up but if it’s tied to the bone it can only shrink so much. If you bone it hot it will shrink twice as much. In the backcountry, sometimes you don’t have a choice but given the opportunity, let it hang at least one day. Or if you can just quarter it out so it is still attached to the bone, that would be the next best option.

One good thing is that a lot of bacteria, though not all, will have visible indicators. If it starts to get a slight off odor or turns a slight off color, don’t panic, just cut it up and freeze it.

I know it sounds complicated. That’s because it is. So how have people survived? Because sometimes we worry way too much. I remember my nutrition professor from South Dakota said when they had a horse die they’d tell the local Native Americans. They’d always wait three days to come get it. They lived. I am just giving you rules of thumb to go by.

One of my past bosses would age his beef ribeyes in cryovac in the fridge for six to eight weeks. Anymore, I won’t even cut up a ribeye unless I’ve aged it for a minimum of 45 days. I’ve even had them up to 90 days old. But, that’s beef in a cryovac bag in a cold fridge.

Don’t age your meat loose in the fridge. It will pick up odors.

Here’s what I’d recommend. Start off cautiously. Age a few days more than you normally do and progress from there.

Five things make your meat tenderer: 1) Letting it go through rigor mortis before boning, 2) let it age, 3) young animals are more tender, 4) use tenderizers before cooking, and 5) cook your meat slower.

TIPS

• Remove the hide. It acts as a blanket in warmer weather and spoils your meat.

• Game doesn’t have a fat cover like beef and will dry out faster.

• A hanging carcass derives most of the benefits of aging within the first nine days.

• The end of a cut, for instance the ribeye, will dry out and look almost like jerky. Before you cut your steaks slice off this layer of tough, dried up meat.

• Don’t cut your meat into steaks to age. Either hang the whole carcass or as primals. By primal I mean a whole shoulder, hindquarter, etc. If cut into steaks it will deteriorate faster. This is due to oxygen and bacteria hitting all sides of the meat.

Hopefully I’ve sparked your interest to experiment with aging your meat.

It will surprise you as to how much tenderer it is. Let’s end on a quote from Ben Franklin: “After three days fish and company both start to stink”! Don’t age fish.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.