How do you elk hunt

[Lefty]

9 seasons ago for the first few years I was exclusively sitting in a blind on water tanks. then daytime glassing.
Then I started following early morning herds listen spot and stalk.
Im certainly not proficient as I want to be in elk speak. I call, trying for mature bulls.
Location bugles trying to locate and talk to the bulls.

Saturday a neighbor kid 10 years old killed a cow elk sitting on a wallow.
His grandfather took his cow at a wallow earlier that day, And dad had some great bull video on his wallow. one video of spikes at 5 yards.

So fellow elk hunters, how do you hunt elk, rifle? bow?
Long-range rifle and glassing? archery cow calling? Archery trail ambush?

[BrentLaBere]

Archery is my choice and it all depends what the elk are telling me. If the are vocal I will run and gun. If the weather turns, I will hunt the timber. If I can glass elk and they are quiet, I will try to ambush them. I have never had very much luck sitting wallows or any type of water. Adjust to the weather, time of year, and what other hunters are doing and try to adapt to the situation. I would prefer to have them vocal all the time.... just never works out that way.

[Swede]

I hunt archery from a tree stand.
I am going to start a thread on the Tree Stand forum and talk about some mistakes I saw this season regarding poor set ups.

[Indian Summer]

I’m with Brent in that you have to adapt. I love bow hunting. Who doesn’t love just hearing bulls bugle!

But I have hearing aids in both ears. They are expensive and moisture is the worst enemy of hearing aids so I don’t wear them at work or anytime I’m sweating a lot. Being next to deaf and trying to call blind and locate animals by sound is extremely difficult at best.

When I was outfitting and living in Montana I still bow hunted because it didn’t matter if I killed my elk. There was always gun season. I had more than 2 months to hunt. But once I moved back east I had to pick a week and choose a weapon. So I gravitated toward gun hunting. Any time you have a limitation you adapt. I’m pretty good at reading lips. Likewise I use my eyes to hunt elk. I’ve invested in the proper tools to do the job too. Swarovski binos and spotting scope. Seeing elk before they have seen or smelled you is a great start to killing them too.

I’ve also found places that are not only semi open to glass but where the elk feed and even bed out in the open when weather conditions are such that they want some sun. That strategy is a very consistent way of filling the freezer. Even if you’re not hearing impaired you might want to give it a try. It’s been a long time since I’ve been busted sneaking through the timber blindly searching for elk.

[ishy]

I'll do whatever. Run and gun is the favorite option, but hunting heavy wolf areas and some years extremely limited calling I have to try other options.

[stringunner]

Location dictates how I hunt elk. Primarily I hunt tree stands for Elk.

[Roosiebull]

Archery is my choice and it all depends what the elk are telling me. If the are vocal I will run and gun. If the weather turns, I will hunt the timber. If I can glass elk and they are quiet, I will try to ambush them. I have never had very much luck sitting wallows or any type of water. Adjust to the weather, time of year, and what other hunters are doing and try to adapt to the situation. I would prefer to have them vocal all the time.... just never works out that way.

same exact for me, I like calling, did plenty of it this year, but I seem to never try to close by calling, I seem to use calling as keeping tabs, and getting a feel for how a bull is feeling and go from there.


more than anything, I find fresh sign, follow the clues, and go from there. a little fresh sign can say a lot. started my season in an elk mecca, almost every bugle at any time answered, even in late august, the strategy was a little different, but also similar. always just wing it, go hunting and work out the details as they come.