Rocky Mountain Elk vs. Roosevelt Elk: Yin and Yang

It was opening morning of archery elk season. I’d only covered half the distance, as planned. That’s because bulls were bugling in a drainage below, unexpectedly. As daylight revealed the valley, I watched a bull with a harem of over 40 cows graze in a meadow.

The bull would eat, tend the cows, bugle then go back to eating. Then it fed away from the cows. That’s when I let out a loud bugle. The bull postured, a mist mingling on its nose. Then the sounds of its distant bugle reached me.

With over 1,200 yards to cover, I had little confidence the bull would move that far from the cows. But it was worth a shot. I dropped into the ravine, crossed it, then scrambled up and down a small timbered knoll on the opposite side. Dropping into the bottom of another little draw, I let out a bugle to let the bull know I was coming for the challenge. The bull bugled right back, inside 400 yards. It had covered more ground than I had.

Then I cow called. Another bull bugled in the pine trees up the draw. That set off the target bull. Before I knew it, two bulls were closing in, bugling all the way. I nocked an arrow and hunkered down in waist-high sagebrush. When the first bull I called to busted out of the pines, it was even bigger than I thought. A mouth call stopped the bull, broadside at 42 yards. The arrow hit the mark.

How Vocal?

Walking up on that Rocky Mountain bull, I couldn’t help but think about a recent Roosevelt elk hunt in Oregon’s Coast Range. That’s where I called in a bull that never made a sound. I couldn’t even see it until it was 15 paces from me due to thick cover. I arrowed that bull at 11 yards. That’s only one of the differences I’ve noticed during my years of hunting these two subspecies of elk; Roosevelts can be more silent than their Rocky cousins. Then again, catch them in the right frame of mind and they might bugle with the best of the Rocky bulls.

Roosevelt elk live in western Washington, Oregon and northwestern California. They can also be hunted in Alaska. In the Pacific Northwest, they thrive in the Coast Range, farmlands of many valleys, all the way up to the Cascade summit. Their range overlaps with Rocky Mountain bulls in some places high in the Cascades.

Roosevelt elk are big in body, a mature bull capable of tipping the scales to 1,100 pounds or more. A 700-pound Rocky Mountain bull is a dandy. The antlers of Rocky Mountain elk are larger than those of Roosevelt’s, while Roosy’ racks are more compact with greater mass, on average.

Rocky Mountain elk can be found from the summit of the Cascade Range, eastward, into and through the Rocky Mountain states. They’ll range from the highest mountains to sage brush flats, and everywhere in between. I’ve hunted them in river bottoms, sage that looks more like pronghorn habitat, to more than 10,000 feet in Wyoming’s wilderness.

Migratory Group Dynamics

Rocky mountain elk are largely migratory, escaping the cold and snow at higher elevations than they occupy in the summer months. Roosevelt elk are homebodies, often living their whole life in a single drainage. But Roosevelt elk will go on the move, and sometimes herds relocate for better food sources.

Some areas where I grew up hunting Roosevelt elk in the Cascade Range are now void of elk. At the same time, places on the valley floor are now overrun with big herds of Roosevelt elk; they were never in this habit when I was a kid. Today, it’s common to see Roosevelt elk while driving the Interstate 5 corridor in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. There have been some monster bulls killed in farm fields over the past decade within a stone's throw of the freeway, with both bow and rifle.

Rocky Mountain bulls tend to gather larger harems than Roosevelt bulls. I think this comes down to one factor: the habitat. Rocky Mountain bulls live in more sparse, open habitats than Roosevelt elk do. This allows the Rocky Mountain bulls to see, keep track of, and corral a greater number of cows.

Roosevelt bulls have thick cover to contend with, which makes managing high numbers of cows, difficult. Some lowland bulls will gather big harems, but the further into the Coast Range and Cascades they live, the denser the cover, the smaller the harems typically are.

A Numbers Game

Smaller harems can equate to a higher percentage of Roosevelt bulls having cows to breed. Conversely, Rocky Mountain bulls that retain larger harems continually have satellite bulls to contend with. So do Roosevelt bulls, just not to the degree their Rocky Mountain cousins do. For example, three Roosevelt bulls might manage a harem of only 10 cows each in a given drainage. On the other hand, a Rocky Mountain bull might have 30 cows in a harem. Many factors go into how big a harem is, including a bull’s age, status, and ability to fight other bulls, but the habitat plays a big part in whether or not a bull can even keep track of a high number of cows.

As you’d hypothesize, the biggest harems I’ve seen with both Rocky and Roosy’ bulls have occurred in open habitats. The more open it is, the less likely cows can escape because the bull can see them moving away, and quickly gather them back in. That’s hard to do in habitats with limited visibility.

My experiences bowhunting for both elk subspecies have found Rocky Mountain bulls to be more aggressive in answering calls as well as coming to them. Where bull ratios are high, it’s common to call in multiple Rocky Mountain bulls at a time.

With Roosevelt elk, I’ve had more bulls come in silent to my calls. Oftentimes they don’t make a sound. They just materialize in front of you, 20 yards away. How an animal so big can get so close without being seen or heard, will heighten your respect for these beasts.

Dominant vs. Submissive Approach

I’ve found Roosevelt satellite bulls to be more timid when coming to a call versus younger age class Rocky Mountain bulls. Again, I think this has to do with visibility within the respective habitats. A Rocky Mountain bull can often see what it’s coming to. If there’s no big bull visible, a young Rocky bull will often close in fast. A subordinate Roosevelt bull, however, often comes in quiet and very submissive, taking time to survey the surroundings from a distance. A Roosy’s habitat offers limited visibility, and if they surprise a mature bull, they’ll end up getting the short end of things. And they know it.

When bowhunting any elk, I’m not overly concerned if a bull sees or hears me. But I’ve never killed a bull that’s smelled me. Always work the shadows and keep moving. If you stay in the shadows, bulls often aren’t sure what you are. Back in my TV show hosting days, time was a major factor. I had a lot of hunts to go on in a short period of time. As a result, I adopted a very aggressive elk hunting style. To this day, some of the moves I got away with, boggle my mind. A lot of bulls died because I took chances, moved when I otherwise wouldn’t have, and pushed the situation.

If you break a limb or step on a branch, follow it up with a quick cow mew. Elk make noises in the woods. But if the wind changes, back out and come in from a different angle or return another day. You’ll never fool the nose of an elk. If you think you did, it’s likely due to rising or shifting air currents.

Elk hunting during general rifle season is a different story. By rifle season, big Roosevelt bulls are solitary or in small bachelor groups. They live in thick cover, and slowly hunting through dense timber and tall ferns is often the only way to find them. If you locate a small open patch where they’re grazing on grass, you can sometimes set up near that and hope they come out of hiding.

Both Species of Elk are Cool

Rocky Mountain rifle hunts are easier for the simple reason that the habitat is more open and herds are often on the move, migrating to lower elevation wintering grounds. Because their habitat is more open, you can cover ground with your eyes, not your feet. There have been days hunting Rocky Mountain elk where I’ve hiked for miles.

There have been days in the Roosevelt elk woods where I started before daylight, got out after dark, and not even covered two miles. This happens when you know elk are in the area, and you’re tediously searching for parts of them, playing shifting thermals all day long.

The more time you spend hunting Roosevelt elk and Rocky Mountain elk, the more you’ll learn about their individual behaviors and herd dynamics. You’ll develop a clear understanding as to their similarities and differences, thus the best ways to hunt them in their respective habitats.

Note: New to elk hunting? Check out Scott Haugen’s popular DVD, Field Dressing, Skinning & Caping Big Game at scotthaugen.com.

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