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Tell me about hunting elk with a bow.

Typically during the rut. I like to hunt thick cover. Lots of eyes when with a bunch of cows.

Satellite bulls will be on the periphery of the herd. The herd bull will often move the herd from area to area trying to avoid the satelite bulls.

The herd won't be too far from water. A mile or less has been my experience.

Bull elk are hot and bugle one day, not at all the next has been my experience.

Hunting cow elk is a different story. Success rate is lower.

Hearing a bull elk within a couple yards will definitely get the adrenaline going and heart rate pounding.

Gotta watch the wind. Their eyes can be hard to defeat.

Lots of people think simply hit the cow call or hit a bugle and they will come running. Not so. I always use bugles sparingly. Cow calls more often.

A really fun hunt.

Just like rifle hunting, you carry them a lot more than you shoot them.

Hunting during the rut is great fun and educational. I had an entire herd within 15 yards last September, but only a deer and bear tag in my pocket.I was sitting in the sun in the open, they were under pines. We hung together like that for 15-20 minutes while the bulls yelled at each across the draw. Great fun.

Very different hunting in the early season.

You need to get 'em in close, for a shot.

Seriously though, if you've never hunted elk, only deer, they are much easier to move in on, don't be afraid to press.

Pat you are getting the fever and you haven't even gone yet!
It's like hunting turkey (easterns) but they can smell too!

Yea, a 600lb spring gobbler!

I did it with a buddy 5 times in Colorado back in the late 80's - 90's. We did it on our own each time. We never killed anything but a had a number of unreal encounters.

Public land; BLM and FS. We had connections that helped with pointing the way and that should only be much easier these days with places like the 24HCF and all the guys that can give you some hot spots.

It was a long assed trip for us but worth every ounce of effort.

You get one of those pricks bugling at 15 yards you'll come unglued.................grins

I'm still trying to kill my first elk with a bow, so take this advice for what it's worth. A few lessons I've learned:

Watch the wind, always. You can move and make noise around them, but wind will bust you EVERY time.

95% of the time call sparingly, if at all. 5% of the time, call like crazy!

Know how to shoot and quickly. A shooting opportunity can materialize and disappear within seconds.

Tune your bow/arrow to perfection. Shoot enough arrow. Use strong, sharp broadheads and practice with them.

Keep your gear simple and reliable, particularly your bow.

Get in shape.

And the most important thing, have fun!

In my opinion, September on the mountain is the most magical time of year, and the pursuit of the might wapiti the noblest of endeavors. The woodstove smoke waffling through the air, the smell of cowboy coffee brewing in the cook tent, a star filled morning with the faint sound of bugling bulls slipping across the canyon, ohhh. Aspens begin to turn color, the animals scurry about, the streams so cold and crisp and clear. Then in evening the sunk sinks into the western horizon and the rays bounce and dart about the peaks. A man can live free and wild atop the ridge in the back country autumn woods. That is archery elk my friend.

Wind, wind, wind, wind...

If you don't have a caller, find their beds and beat them to it before they do...

If you have a caller, find their beds and beat them to it before they do.

If you find their beds, setup and wait for them in the evening.

Buy and use more than one cow call... if you have enough hanging off you to open a booth at the gun show... buy two more.

It's ok to move away from a hung up bull while cow calling... or run at them bugling... and sometimes not... but sit'n there ain't go'na do chit.

Learn to say... 'that GD F'n wind'

When the opportunity comes... KILL... you have to put everything that happened before that moment behind you and think... KILL... All the busts, bugles, chases, trailing stink, hang ups, misses, almosts... when that bull is finally in the kill zone, it won't last long, a couple seconds, you can't be thinking about if your glow nock weighs .036 grains more than the regular one and where to aim... if you can't clear your mind and think KILL, you won't.

Previous years knowledge of elk in that spot is the trump card, if you don't have someone with you that has previous years knowledge, start banking it.

Elk in the rut aren't in the same pattern as elk during the other 10.5 months. Scouting the summer should be for cows, even that could be iffy as some areas only get used for breeding and could be mostly abandoned any other time.

Food, water, bedding areas... during your hunt day they will be in the beds the majority of time... hunt the edges when they come and go.

Wind... I almost forgot wind.

Kent

Lots of good info.
While I have killed elk with my bow, I don't have the experience of these guys.
The one suggestion that changed my dinner menu from tag soup to backstraps:

Find the elk.

Sometimes finding them means going to plan B.

Easier said than done especially when you don't live in an elk state. Some of my early elk hunts were just pleasant camping trips while carrying a bow and a tag.

I love this one because it really sums it all up:

>>sit'n there ain't go'na do chit.<<

Thank you guys. Great advice! Just what I need.

You know how we are Dan...24/7/365. It's what keeps us alive.

Yup !!!

I think there are a few things I would like to add. Wind is your adversary but THERMALS are your friend. I.E. get into em before the sun hits the side of the mountain. You will have a nice down word breeze in your face as you climb.In the afternoon the thermals are more fickle. Hitting one with an arrow in the morning will also give you all day to track and harvest. In September a dead elk will not stay very fresh over night if intact. If they smell you they will leave you, if they do not smell you, they will be close by the next morning. Cow calling works best early in September, Bugeling works better later if at all.

Here's some more fuel for the fire Pat!

Pat, save yourself a ton of money on tags, trips, expenses and time and pay big bucks for a good private ranch and/ or top class archery guide. I didn't. On national forest you can easily spend 6-10 years trying to get a good bull by yourself.

The years slip by and before you know it your knees and dreams of making other hard hunts turn into nightmares.

Well, that was uplifting. I think it all depends on what turns your crank, some guys would rather do it themselves. Also, how much work you're willing to put in to get a little farther back in, away from roads.

And also, where in the NF you hunt. I hunt the early season too, with a muzzleloader, on public land. If you find the right spot, you'll be in elk. With a bow it's never a sure thing though, no matter how many elk you're in.

I hunted them about 20 years in national forests in colorado and Montana ( and muley and moose in BC) because of the fun and on my own to save money and because I was one of those guys who likes to do it on his own, but I missed Alaska, its bears and sheep. I also spent many years and many days after BIG whitetails and Muleys. I got them big and elk too, but I wish I had done it quicker and hunted Alaska with a bow.

In Colorado I have backpacked in and stayed 5-6 days or camped at a trailhead (10,400 ft) and made it in 2-3 miles in by daylight many times, often to be screwed over by by guys coming through on horse back at 10-11 am after they left the trailhead at daylight and homed in on me talking to a bull.

If you know of national forest where bulls don't usually haul ass at the sound of more than a spike bugle I'd make a grateful friend. In many areas of SW Col the elk have learned to live pretty silent and haul tail at the first sound of a hoochie- mama.

Also, there seem to be more hunters and less elk every year. I hope to hear you say it is better in other areas, but it takes me a few years to learn how elk move in a new area and that's a rough proposition at my age.

I can't argue with much of anything you said, but I will say there are some areas that are better. You never know where the hunting pressure is going to be from year to year, I've run into a bunch of people (good people, just too many) as far as six miles in on foot. Places where one year there are multiple bulls bugling (and answering) in a basin, and the next all there seems to be is other hunters bugling.

So the key is (and this is the harder part for a non-resident) to have a few different places scoped out and make a quick decision to pull up stakes and move to the next if the first area is too crowded.

So if age is a factor for the OP and he doesn't have a lot of hunting seasons left to be able to hump it up mountains, a private land hunt could be just the ticket, if he wants to pay. I didn't get that from his post though.

If age is not so much a factor, then this could be the year he starts finding his own spots for plan A, B, and C, which is most of the fun IMHO. There's nothing like hunting new territory and figuring it out on your own, or with your buddies.

Right...we're DIY kinda guys. I guess we're stupid that way, but some of us just gotta piss on the sparkplug, you know?