Quality Encounters : Archery Elk 2022

 Idaho Archery Elk, September 2022

Archery elk hunting is something I'd been telling myself I needed to do for years. Chasing elk during the rut and interacting with them on a much closer level is what archery is all about. September of 2022 was here before I knew it. My buddies, Bryce and Ryan, would be joining me, and neither of them had harvested an elk with a bow. It would be a bunch of rookies stumbling through the woods. Archery is inherently more difficult, so I was trying to keep my expectations low. My goal was to simply have some quality encounters.

Ryan and I hunted a full day before Bryce could come up. We hunted an area where I set up some trail cameras back in August. Mid-morning, we heard a strange growly noise nearby. It didn't sound very much like an elk, but it was so deep, no human could have made it. We cow called back and it responded; this time with a couple chuckles at the end. It was clearly a real elk with an old, raspy growl. How cool was it to already be communicating with a bull on our first morning? The morning wind was wrong to sneak in closer, so we patiently waited for the thermals to switch before making a move. We'd hear him growl every once in a while, but he eventually shut up. A short while later, three people on horseback appeared out of the bottom of the drainage the elk was in. Well that would explain why the elk shut up. There were more people in the woods than we had hoped and maybe we wouldn't have the luxury of being patient with elk. 

We explored further up the mountain only to run into more people. We located a few good looking benches and saddles lower on the mountain and decided to focus our evening efforts there. As we approach some of those areas, the elk sign increased. We stopped at a promising saddle with a ton of fresh tracks and decide to try a calling technique called the "cow party". This involves simulating a heard of cow elk moving into the area and getting excited about something. You try to sound like as many different cows as possible in hopes a curious elk nearby wants to come check things out. We did our calling and then talked about splitting up and walking different ridges back to the truck. We sat in the area for only a few minutes and then went our separate ways. I had dropped a few hundred feet of elevation when I heard a bugle/growl back from where I came. I texted Ryan to see if he had bugled and he said he didn't. Had our cow party worked to pull the growler bull to us? Since I had already dropped a few hundred feet of elevation, I didn't know Ryan exact location. With the dark quickly approaching, I decided to keep heading back to the truck. It was very dark by the time I made it back to the truck and Ryan arrived shortly after, wrapping up a long but interesting day. We never saw an elk or heard many bugles, but we had communicated and then later called in the growler bull with the cow party. Not a bad first day.

A few photos from the trail cams.

That night, on his way in, Bryce had a "quality encounter" with a moo cow on the road. The black Angus cow standing in the middle of the road in the darkness of night was unavoidable and luckily for Bryce, missed all but the passenger mirror on his truck. It did collide with part of his trailer, however. The impact unfortunately killed the cow and Bryce had to contact the local sheriff who informed him that it was open range and a cow costs a pretty penny. (Luckily they never called to collect.)

Determined to put the traumatic event behind us, we hit the mountain hard the next morning in search of elk. We were slowly working up a gradual ridge when we came to a spot with lots of elk sign. The woods were fairly dark and thick, meaning elk could be anywhere around us.

"Shall we try a cow party?" I whispered to Bryce and Ryan. 

"Sure. We'll all just take a spot where we have some shooting windows and see what happens." Bryce commented.

"Let's wait at least 30 minutes this time." Ryan added with a wry smile.

We began our calling sequence, and I must say, we sounded pretty darn good! Then, from Ryan's side of the ridge, I thought I heard something coming through the woods, breaking a few sticks on it's approach. I couldn't see in front of Ryan, but I could tell something was coming his way. Then I heard a loud crash as a large animal bolted away from us. I tried to call to stop it without any luck. Either Ryan had just shot an elk or it had spooked. I never did see it, but it had come in within 30 yards of us. We walked over to Ryan to see what had happened. 

"Dang spike just came right in. He was standing right in front of me but I was shaking so bad my arrow came right off my string and he saw all the movement. He was only 20 yards in front of me! I could have smoked him if I hadn't had buck fever!" Ryan said, in clear disappointment.

"That's still pretty awesome. The cow party worked again!" I said.

We hunted on, working our way toward some of the country we were in the day before. Later that morning we ended up stumbling onto a couple of bugling bulls. We tried to go after them but got stuck in some brush that was so thick we couldn't really get anywhere without  making so much noise the whole mountain would know. We eventually found a way out of that thicket but lost the elk in the process. 

Ryan had to leave but Bryce and I would be able to stay all week chasing elk. The woods were quiet with very little bugling. One of the days, we tried a completely new area with some old closed roads. We tried a couple cow parties in some likely areas without success. We came around a corner in the road in the early afternoon and saw another likely spot to try calling. 

"Shall we try a cow party Bryce?" I said, almost jokingly. It was our only strategy that had produced any success. So far we'd had nothing respond to our bugles and the elk were simply not talking. The cow party had brought in at least 2 different bulls, so it was all we had. 

"Sure!" Bryce responded. "Let's give it til 3pm."

Bryce got into position looking at a trail coming out of some dark woods while I set up a short distance away looking at another potential area they could come from. We started our cow party. A short time later, I thought I heard something coming toward Bryce. I continued to call, hoping to lure whatever it was into Bryce's bow range. Then I heard the telltale crash of a spooked elk by Bryce. Had he shot an elk? I waited a few minutes and then wandered over to him. 

"Well, what came in? Did you get an elk?" I asked.

Bryce just shook his head. "Big ol' bull came in right on that trail. He came up the trail and then turned uphill right behind that bush. I could see his antlers. All he had to do was take another couple steps forward and he would have been broadside at 20 yards. But he saw me move. I think I was shaking too bad." 

Another elk had come in to the cow party and another elk spooked from movement/nervousness. At least we were having some success. Then we heard a bull bugle in the direction the bull had run off to. Was he taunting us? We decided to sit and let the area relax while formulating our next plan. After close to an hour, we decided we would circle back the direction we had come and try to climb up to a saddle where we suspected the bull had retreated to. Bryce and I set off with a purpose down the old road we had come. We'd only gone a quarter mile when I looked up the road and saw a bull elk standing in the middle of our road. Of course he immediately took off, crashing down the hill, gone forever. That bull had made a huge circle around us, still trying to check us out. We assumed it was the bull that had come in to Bryce. It seemed with archery, even after spooking an elk our chances weren't over. Another lesson learned.

That evening we located another good looking spot for a calling sequence. And yep, you guessed it: The cow party! Sure enough, after a long excited cow chatter, we heard the tell tale sounds of an approaching elk. This time, a spike came into view directly in front of me. He held up at 70 yards and froze for what felt like an eternity. We tried calling some more to convince the elk to come closer. We also tried not calling for a long period to force the elk to approach closer for investigation. It eventually became too dark to continue hunting. Only then did the spike move a muscle and wander off. The cow party had done it yet again. 

The woods were absolutely full of bear sign, including two bear sightings.

Fresh elk rubs also littered the woods, keeping our optimism high. 

One morning we awoke to a light drizzle; maybe this would get the elk talking. We decided to hunt some of the lower, "overlooked" areas again and immediately we were into elk.

We were slowly following a prominent elk trail when I spotted a spike up the hill from us. The wind was swirling this morning and surprisingly, the spike hadn't winded us. Bryce and I got into position on a small table-ridge below the elk, perhaps 100 yards away. We began our cow party and right away, the one spike turned into 3 spikes, all approaching for further investigation. The 3 spikes came down the hill with a purpose and made it to about 70 yards when suddenly we heard something below us approaching. The spikes froze in their tracks and up from our right came another elk. I turned to look and just as I did a nice 6 point bull came trotting up the hill and let out a scream of a bugle! The spikes scattered as the true boss of the forest made an appearance. The bull worked his way from our right to directly in front of us at about 60 yards and froze, scanning for the source of the cow sounds. Bryce was closer to the bull. If I could just pull that elk a little closer to Bryce he'd have a shot... I decided to slowly back away and begin some subtle cow sounds, attempting to pull the elk our way. I slipped behind a tree I was near and slowly stepped to my right to grab hold of a bush to sound like an elk feeding. As I stepped to my right, I looked up to see the elk staring at me between a gap in the trees. The gig was up. The elk turned and trotted back the direction he came from. Crap! Bryce and I met back up and decided we'd simulate through calling, that another bull entered the scenario. I moved down and over to a thicker area where I could bugle and rake on some bushes out of sight and hopefully pull the bull back in from our right. I had almost made it to my chosen spot when I looked between a gap in the forest and the same darn bull was standing there staring at me! The bull had circled down below us and was attempting to come in from another direction. Once again we had been complacent and forgotten that these elk weren't necessarily spooked once they saw you. This time though, the elk ran off further down the hill. The gig was really up now.

Bryce and I moved on and agreed to return to approximately the same area in the evening and try another cow party, hoping that nice bull would come in for another opportunity. An hour before dark we pushed our way into a thickly forested section of woods near the same area. We hoped this thicker area would force the elk to come in close to investigate and hopefully be in range when they appeared.

 

We began our calling sequence and once again it didn't take long before we heard approaching elk. Our thicket was surrounded by huckleberry bushes and we could hear the bushes rubbing against the elks' legs. At one point it sounded like we were surrounded by circling elk, daring one another to enter the thick pocket. One of the elk made a long chuckling sound that sounded more like an ape than an elk as it approached. It repeated the sound again, this time closer. As darkness approached and no elk made an appearance, Bryce decided it was time to get more aggressive. Bryce began simulating another bull had joined and began raking and chuckling and braking sticks. He sounded like one fired up elk. I continued to wait in silence hoping his tactics would pull one of the elk into range. Then I saw them: elk legs! To my left I caught a glimpse of some dark elk legs slowly moving through the woods toward me. They were already within range but the woods were too thick to get a full view of who's legs they belonged to. Then, Bryce let out a full on scream of a bugle. It sounded great to me but perhaps a little too aggressive for the approaching elk. The elk turned around and the legs disappeared. Before we knew it, it was dark, wrapping up another exciting day in the elk woods. 

The last couple of days we tried some of the same areas, as well as some new ones, without any more success. Before we knew it, it was time to head home, finishing up an exciting hunt. Would I have liked to have harvested a bull? Of course! But I was totally satisfied with the number and quality of encounters we'd had for a couple of newby archery elk hunters. Next year we would be more prepared, hopefully turning those close encounters into success.