Tradhunter - Traditional Archery Bow Hunting Forums

I consider myself to be quite qualified in the area of elk hunting.I am here to answer any questions about elk hunting,gear etc.Ask away and I will try staying on top of it.Some responses may be slow as I work swingshift but all questions will be addressed A.S.A.P.Feel free to chime in and share your knowledge also as I do not know everything and love learning new things about elk hunting and elk behavior.

Hi Larry,
I have had many exciting times getting elk to come “near” with calling techniques (I am not super good at calling yet and I can’t use a mouth piece) but I have not been able to get all the variables to come together to get an arrow shot at an elk yet. So I get them to answer my calls, and to come in but they seem to hang up in the heavy brush maybe 60 or 80 yards out and want me to show myself (as a cow elk) before they will come out. I have killed one buck deer with my bow and shot at a number of other deer and had them duck or I shot under or over but have not killed an elk with a bow yet. So if you could write a little bit about the best strategies to hunt at the first couple of days of the season, and then towards the last week of the season (rut) that would be cool.

Also, this year we will have the full moon right in the peak of the last week of the season, so some strategies in that situation would be helpful to many of us.

I am actually a compound bow hunter at this point in time, and I hunt mostly the Blue Mountain area but sometimes Central Oregon northeast of Bend. This year I hope to utilize both a treestand and a shooting blind some where near water.

Thanks in advance!

The trick to getting an elk to come past you is to call behind you,as in turn your head and cup your hand and call behind your location,giving the impression the cow or bull is in a different location.If this doesn't work then you may need to hunt with a partner who can call from 50-100 yds behind you to get the elk to come past you.check your wind so the caller can stear the elk in your favor with directional calling.very effective during the gathering stage.
The calling I use during the rut is either all cow calling or the bugle,if a bull is responding to your bugle then pour it to him.try and match his tones and variations exactly.A herd bull is a tough nut to crack as he will be very hard to lure away from his cows.The best way I have found to do this is to get so close to him that he comes to either herd you (cow talk) or lay a beating on you (bugle).either way is very exciting and you wont soon forget it.Trust me you will make mistakes but learn from them and soon you will be eating elk steaks.I really think the moon being full is not to much fun and all you can do is call like the moon was not there.I have called in a lot of bulls during the full moon and have really not noticed that much of a difference in a bulls reactions.The weather actually plays a bigger roll in how hot a bull is in the early morning hours in my opinion.I could be wrong but that's just been my experience.

Thanks for the good advice Larry. I will practiice the calling behind me in those tough situations by myself. Also have a brother to hunt with in the upcoming rut.

We will try to match the bugle tones of a bull at the peak. We wont worry too much about the moon. It didn't seem to bother them just before the opening days. We saw elk from dawn up to 11am, then also at 12:30, and 1:45pm, not to mention the last hour of the day.

We say plenty of elk the first couple of days. Hope that lasts!

Good luck erveryone!

hmmmm.....maybe you should take me to this spot of yours so I can do a thorough physical examination of your elk population just to be sure they are fit for eating...heh...heh...

Also, when "setting up" you ALWAYS think about just this situation.
An elk that is coming in, is looking at the source of the calls, and expects to see another elk, or a reason why they cannot see one.
If you can see the elk, it usually is going to stop because elk do not hide from each other, and it expects to see another elk.
Set up where the elk has to come within range in order to see the source.
Just under the crest of a hill, or behind an obstruction large enough to hide an elk, forcing it to come around.
Visualize your shooting distance, and lanes. make them be in range in order to see the source of calls.
Avoid calling in open areas.
An elk also will avoid traveling through large openings (usually) so put them behind you, with the opening on the downwind side.
This forces them to either come out in the open, or across one of your shooting lanes to get downwind.
I also carry a Montana decoy that I put weights on the legs and a bungee on top to hang from a branch (provides movement, and easier set up than messing with the darn leg stakes), then move downwind 20-30 yards.

Great advice

Just wondering what an out of state tag for elk cost in Oregon Larry? Just comparing right now.

Larry where did you go? I believe you may be the only one who knows about elk.

What is your favorite bugle to use? What about cow call? I use 2 different cow calls, and I am looking to get a bugle. Last year was just to amazing not to have a bugle for this year.