Sometimes, you have to pull all of your tricks out of the bag to punch your archery elk tag
Finally, after 15 minutes of intermittent coaxing with cow calls, the satellite bull finally fell for my guide’s love song. I spied bits and pieces of tan through the thick oak brush as the bull meandered closer. I was on a management-bull hunt, and viable targets were any older 5×5 or any bull exhibiting a single brow tine on one or both antlers. Through my binos, I confirmed that one of the approaching bull’s antlers had a single brow tine.
Realizing that the bull was going to keep coming to within top-pin range, I drew back when he was 30-some yards out. At 15 yards or less, he paused and lifted his head high to scan for cows. This exposed the sub-volleyball-sized kill zone on the front of his chest. I held my top pin where his neck swelled into his chest, and my arrow buried to the fletching. The bull whirled, spraying crimson everywhere. About 40 yards downhill, he collapsed. The bull was mine.
Rarely do elk hunts — especially with archery gear — go so smoothly. I’ve done two guided hunts and eight DIY hunts on public land. I’ve pounded hundreds of miles of boot tracks in the Rockies, and I can attest that elk are one of North America’s most difficult of species to hunt successfully with a bow. They inhabit unforgiving, mountainous terrain. Their noses can detect human scent at even the slightest swirl or thermal change. They’re attentive to unusual sounds. And when they aren’t bugling, they seem impossible to find.
For those reasons and many more, elk success sometimes entails changing tactics. My last three bow-killed elk, for example, fell to three completely different strategies. When one strategy isn’t working, consider trying everything but the kitchen sink. Below are several tactics bowhunters should be prepared to deploy during a bow hunt for elk.
AMBUSHING
On my very first elk hunt, I found a natural seep on a north-facing slope where elk were clearly drinking and wallowing. I hunted over it from a treestand one afternoon but quickly climbed down to cut the distance on a bull bugling across the canyon. During my next hunt in that area, I found an even more highly used seep several hundred yards from the other one. I was on a specific bull in another drainage and ran out of time to hunt the seep.
The following year, I hung two treestands over that second, more prominent seep. The first afternoon, my wife and I observed several cows and a spike as they came in and drank. I passed. I hunted the seep some more, but I really hit the hills in search of a bull that would come to the calls. Toward the end of the hunt, I hadn’t killed a bull, and time was ticking. Bulls had also seemingly gone tight-lipped.
With conditions being dry, I jumped back into the treestand over the seep, this time alone. An hour before dark, I heard a cow elk mewing. Half an hour passed, and two big cow elk moseyed down the slope through the timber and came in for a drink. My tag was good for any elk, so I was happy after an arduous three weeks in the mountains to secure an elk for the freezer. The treestand paid off.
From that same stand, I nearly killed a herd bull when an entire herd came to drink. He didn’t stop to drink and walked by at about 35 yards through the brush, offering no shot. I’ve also captured numerous bull trail camera pictures on that little seep, sometimes at midday. I’m not one for sitting still, but when elk aren’t talking and temps are high and/or conditions dry, hunting elk over a water source can be extremely productive.
SPOTTING AND STALKING
Some elk-hunting units are conducive to glassing animals from a distance. Prior to or at the beginning of your hunt, identify a commanding view of open slopes and meadows adjacent to dark timber or aspens, especially cool north-facing slopes that offer elk shelter from the September heat. The best place to glass from is typically from a valley or opposite hillside. You can usually catch elk moseying out of the timber an hour or so before dark, as well as during the first hour or two of daylight in the mornings. As the rut progresses, it could happen at any given time of the day.
Another good glassing opportunity is to get up on a high ridge top that affords a view of the valley below. Where ag fields in the valley or foothills adjoin big timber or at least thick oak brush or junipers, elk can commonly be glassed at daybreak leaving the agriculture or in transition areas where open sage foothills meet timber or cover.
Once you glass a bull, it’s time to devise a stalk. If the bull is bedded down, it’s possible that you’ll be able to get close to him right where he lays. A moving bull is another story, and if he isn’t bugling, it can be tough to stalk him unless the terrain is quite open and you can keep tabs on his location. Once the timber or brush swallows up a silent bull, your stalking odds plummet.
While you’re stalking moving elk, it’s great when you can meet in the middle. In other words, an elk coming up the mountain toward you presents the opportunity for you to slink downhill and cross paths without calling. But, thermals can really inhibit this strategy’s effectiveness. In the morning, you’ll have to hang out in a neutral zone where the bull won’t get your wind and allow the sunlight to change the thermals from settling in low areas to rising uphill. Then, it’s safe to move down toward your target. Use your wind checker constantly. One little whiff of human scent will send a bull running away.
SILENT SNEAKING
Similar to spotting and stalking, the silent-sneak ploy is ideal when a bull is regularly disclosing his location by raking, bugling, chuckling, grunting, glunking or a combination thereof. There are two variations of this strategy. If you’re hunting alone, sneak a little bit closer — don’t forget to check the wind constantly — each time he discloses his location until you get a shot. Don’t make a peep with your calls unless he stops giving away his location and you don’t know where he went. Then, a location bugle could get him to talk again so you know where he is and can proceed confidently.
Another variation that works well with a partner is when you’ve sent a location bugle and a bull responds. Then, start working toward the bull silently while leaving your partner behind to occasionally send out a location bugle in order to keep the bull talking as you creep silently closer.
While hunting alone in 2018, I did the first variation. A handful of different bulls were bugling all morning long. I had tried some calling at first, but the herd kept moving and the bulls wouldn’t come in. So, I stayed with the herd, moving toward the bugles. Just before noon, I worked in between two bulls that were bugling hard at one another. With the thermals right, I nocked an arrow and waited. A big mature 6×6 came on a string heading for the other bull with no calling required from me, and I arrowed that bull at 14 yards. Silent sneaking certainly has its place in the elk woods.
CALLING
The bull I opened the story with fell victim to enticing and persistent calling. I’ve called in a number of elk, but I’ve also said the wrong things and sent elk the other way. My calling sounds authentic, but I don’t have an in-depth understanding of exactly how to call in certain situations like elk experts such as the Elk 101 crew do.
There is a lot of controversy on whether heavily hunted public-land bulls will come to calling. I’ve hunted OTC units and called in elk, so the short answer is that it is totally doable because I’m no expert. But, again, the experts who know the elk vocabulary like the backs of their hands call in elk more regularly, including elk in heavily-hunted OTC units. If you’ve sent bulls the other way, especially with bugling, odds are that you said the wrong thing. I suggest taking the Elk 101 online course, which provides lots of info on all things elk with an emphasis on calling detail.
DECOYING
Anytime you can add a visual component to your approach, whether it is to disguise you, bring life to your calling or both, the realism is often enough to draw the animal closer. There are a few options to consider. First, there are full-size 2-D decoys such as those from Montana Decoy that are often best placed in the open 50-100 yards behind the shooter. If you’re hunting alone, you’ll have to place it, do some calling and then run forward in the direction of the bull. If you’re hunting with a partner, he/she can hide behind the decoy as they call. Keep in mind that a bull will almost always start circling 50-75 yards away from the decoy, so plan the shooter location accordingly — you have to get your shot before the bull smells you.
Another option is for the shooter to be behind the decoy. In this case, a decoy like the Ultimate Predator bow-mounted option is incredibly slick. It eliminates a lot of movement since you can shoot right through it. If you’re hunting alone from behind a conventional 2-D decoy, you’ll have to draw your bow and then raise up to clear the decoy, and that additional movement can spook the animal in some instances.
Regardless of how you use decoys, you use them at your own risk. It is possible for another hunter to mistake the decoy for a real elk, and then you risk being shot and injured or killed. For that reason, never use a decoy when archery seasons run concurrently with rifle or muzzleloader seasons. Also, some archery tags are valid for antlerless elk, so it can even be a little risky during archery-only hunts, especially on public lands. Another thing is that you’re attracting an animal that could crush you. Decoys are effective, but you must use them with common sense and again, at your own risk.
EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK
Elk hunting with a bow is difficult as I mentioned earlier. Even when you have a bull fired up and bugling, things can fall apart instantly. That’s why it’s important to try different tactics when your main ones aren’t producing.
If you’re a waterhole hunter and things aren’t panning out, hit the timber and try to call in an elk. If you’re not having any success with calling, consider glassing for a bull to stalk.
I haven’t killed a pile of elk, but I’ve killed enough to know that adapting and trying different tactics is often what it takes to bow-kill an elk, especially in heavily hunted units. So, on your next elk hunt, be prepared to throw everything but the kitchen sink in your bag of tricks.
