The Cycle Of Elk Season

A bull elk's autumnal behavior is seasonally driven. A few evenings spent boning up on the wapiti's natural history and habits will do more to increase you odds than working overtime to put the latest long-range rifle on layaway. Here are some tips on the fall elk cycle that will give you a leg up in the coming season.

Prelude To The Rut

Bowhunters are often the first to get a whack at the year's elk crop. Montana, for example, opens its archery season around the first of September, as do many other Western states. What are bulls doing at this time of year? Mature animals have recently rubbed the velvet from their antlers, and bachelor herds, which grazed placidly together just weeks ago, have splintered. Lone, wandering bulls are the norm, bugling occasionally and polishing their headgear, but not actively seeking a harem.

Although many bowhunters avoid the early days of elk season because of the heat and the lack of rutting activity, there are some incentives to taking to the woods during this time. The main advantage is that bulls will likely be on their own, not surrounded by sharp-eyed cows. True, they may not yet respond to a bugle or cow-call, but their own infrequent bugles may be enough to let you pinpoint their exact location and sneak within arrow range.

Phases Of The Rut

Within weeks of this staging period, breeding bulls move into cow herds. By the third week in September the rut is in full swing. Dominant bulls have claimed their harems and have driven immature bulls out of the herd. During this time, bulls tending cows bugle boisterously, often accompanying their vocal barrage with the destruction of some hapless sapling or the rapacious raking of a larger tree.

If centerfire rifle seasons coincided with this segment of the elk cycle, few males would live long enough to attain the impressive six-point status so desired by hunters. However, for other than a handful of limited-entry or remote units, most states reserve hunting opportunities at the peak of the rut for muzzleloaders or bowhunters.

While bulls may be relatively easy to find during the height of the breeding season, they can be maddeningly difficult to hunt, especially for bowhunters. Stalking in close is almost impossible. You may get past eight pair of eyes, but the nose of the ninth cow will send the herd crashing into the lodgepoles.

Luring the bull away from his entourage may seem like the logical solution to this problem. However, the perfectly pitched bugle you scream in challenge is just as likely to incite the boss to round up his herd and move off as it is to provoke him within arrow range. Often, a cow-call is a more tempting method of baiting a bull, but even then he may not be willing to come within range of your leg-buckling broadhead.

Nonetheless, hunting the height of the rut can be as successful as it is exciting. Pushed hard enough at the right time, herd bulls will come roaring out to confront a rival. So, along with bugling, thrash a tree with a stick or step noisily on some twigs to replicate the footfalls of an approaching challenger; these tactics may just lure your target in before you've finished your act.

Under the right circumstances, though, you might score big without even dealing with a herd bull. As is the case with males of other species, large, mature bulls aren't necessarily the most aggressive.

Each fall I photograph rutting elk in Yellowstone National Park. On numerous occasions I've spotted tremendous bulls that have yet to gather a harem and don't appear anxious to acquire one. My older brother, Leroy, once arrowed a huge 8x9 nontypical that was completely alone though the rut was in overdrive. Doug McWhirter, a wildlife biologist with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, notes that "some very good bulls distribute themselves in areas of few cows. A good number of these bulls might not really be associated with cows at all."