← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 247 | Elk Month Kick Off - Targeting Bulls Early
00:57:59
In this episode, Remi shares expert insights on early season elk hunting strategies, behavior, and tactics to improve your success during Elk Month. Discover how understanding elk behavior and scouting can give you an edge in the field.
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Foreign. I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and yeti. If you really want to utilize a lot of this information from the podcast in the field, one of the best ways to do that is to be physically ready for the hunt. And that's really why I've partnered with Mountain Tough. So if you aren't familiar with it, Mountain Tough is an online training app designed for hunters with a ton of added benefit. In addition to the fitness programs built for that backcountry hunting, you also get access to nutrition and recovery guides for on and off the mountain mental toughness training and this really great in app community that connects you with other mountain Toughers and coaches. This app is packed with value to help you stay ready and right now Mountain Tough is giving our LiveWild listeners a free six week trial when they sign up for the monthly plan using code livewild. To get started in the journey, go to mountaintough.com that's MTN T-O-U G H.com One of the things that I really like about Yeti is the fact that they just design their products to really withstand anything that you're going to encounter out in the field. I've actually been able to go to their facility and see see some of this testing process that this gear goes through and even got to test some stuff out in the field and I just know how durable it is and that it's really built for the wild. Things like their roadie or their tundra coolers, they're just unmatched in that toughness and that cold holding power. So whether I'm on a hunt or going for multiple days, they have everything in sizes to hold meat from pheasants or small game all the way up to a moose. They literally have you covered with for hunting and in the field and then as we get into this time of year we start to plan and prep for the season coming up. One of my favorites of theirs is those loadout Go boxes. They're just gear cases that are extremely durable. They keep the water out, they keep the dust out. I Pack all my gear in them, throw them in the back of the truck, and I know that I'm set for the hunt. This is the time of year that I'm really planning on packing up for the trip and their go box gear cases are my choice because I know that my gear is going to be safe in them. You can check out all this stuff and more@yeti.com foreign. Welcome back to the Live Wild Podcast. Now this is going to be our kickoff to Elk Month. This is honestly one of my favorite times of year, especially on this podcast, because we're diving into the strategies to really target bull elk during the rut. So this month I have a ton of great stuff planned for you guys, including some bonus episodes to help fire you up and just get you ready for that September elk season. So this week we're going to kick it off with a real in depth look and breakdown of those early season bulls. So we're looking at what they're doing and how to turn your scouting into potential success. We're also going to highlight some of the struggles that that early season presents and some of the benefits as well. Then we're going to wrap it all up with a few calling tactics and other tactics for those early season bulls. So we've got a ton of info today. Let's just dive in and start talking elk. So the first thing we got to do today is we have to do a breakdown of what elk are doing and understand that behavior. Then once we do that, we can really start to see how our strategy is going to play out and the things that we might encounter. Now the one thing that we're going to talk about as well is some of those benefits of chasing elk earlier season. So when I talk about earlier season, we're going to just set a little bit of a time frame here. We're going to say the end of August through the first two weeks of September. What we're getting there is we're kind of transitioning from summer range and summer habits to that rut phase and that kind of pre rut. So I think that that last week of August, first week of September is kind of in that early stages there. And then that second week of September, we start to get more of that pre rut action. Then we start to transition into what will maybe consider the main rut and behaviors are going to start to change. Her dynamics are going to start to change. So let's first look at what are elk doing right now. Right now it is August. Maybe you've got the opportunity to scout. Maybe you don't. But what we're going to do is first identify, well, what. What are bulls doing right now? Bulls right now are generally in their summer patterns. They're like most animals. They're kind of preparing. Not kind of preparing. They are preparing for the pending rut. Thing about bulls is they're going to start scraping that velvet off right now. Now, unlike mule deer that are going to start scraping their velvet off and then they're going to rut in November, elk go from like, scraping that velvet and being in summer pattern to literally a month later looking for cows, and then a couple weeks after that, battling for these harems. They go from grown out to fighting and competing for breeding rights pretty quickly compared to other animals that we might hunt. And that does play a key into what's going on, because there's a preparation phase that needs to happen. So what's going to happen is bulls are in their summer range, they're bachelored up, and they're really focused on feed. You know, they need the stuff that they need. Food, water and cover. They need habitat. But really, they're. They're growing out. Growing those antlers takes a lot of energy. They grow a lot of antler very quickly over a short period of time. And then it goes into, okay, scraping that velvet off their antlers. So they're going to start rubbing the velvet off, and they're still going to be in this kind of summer feeding pattern. You'll notice that bulls will still be together through a lot of August, but what's going to start to happen is the band will start to disassemble as it gets closer to the rut. The first ones that are going to peel off are going to be those mature bulls, the biggest bulls of the group, because they, they need a little bit more preparation. They know what they're in for. They're gonna kind of go off and. And be in a little more solitude. They'll probably be in a pocket by themselves. They're feeding, they're strengthening their neck. They're. They're raking and rubbing on trees. Not necessarily to mark their territory, but they're building up those neck muscles. They're, you know, in. In the process, their antlers are getting stained up. They're. They're kind of in this, like, preparation phase phase now. They'll probably be in it, be in and around places where they were during that summer, like summer season. But they can also start to transition to where they're gonna, like, stage before the rut. As well. So every area is a little bit different. You know, if I can't really just give, like an exact. This is what these elk are going to do at this point, because every area is a little bit different. Some transition early. Some bulls will hang out in there for the first part of September in their summer range. It kind of depends on the year, the quality of food, and maybe even where those cows are at. So that's one thing that we're going to think about now. That other group of bulls, they're gonna. They're gonna still kind of be hanging out. They'll be in groups of bulls. You're gonna see the younger bulls start to jump in with the groups of cows sooner. So now we're like, through summertime, and we're starting to get into that elk season. Okay. It depends on when the cows start cycle and other things. A lot of that's just going to depend on weather, too, how much rut activity we're going to see. But what you're traditionally going to see with the herd is those bigger bulls are going to be a little more standoffish. They're going to be kind of on their own. They might be checking groups of cows, which they very well could be. They're kind of more in that cruising phase. They're going to cruise. They might go into a group, check some stuff out, but they aren't really trying to control the group. What's happening is those younger bulls are probably in those in that group. Now. That doesn't mean that there isn't going to be a nice bull in there. It doesn't mean that that can't be a really good strategy to target those groups of cows. It absolutely can. I'm just giving you the information to understand what the herd's doing. You know, honestly, for me, a lot of my hunts, in general areas, we're going to find the cows, and then we're going to start finding bulls in this beginning part of September. Now, we might not find the biggest bulls sometimes, but they will be in and around those areas. They might not be controlling the group, but they can definitely be, like, amongst them and in those similar kind of places on the mountain. So we're going to see a kind of a breakdown of that summer pattern. And then they're going to start to disperse and go to where they're going to be running, where they're going to be chasing cows. It's going to be generally like the younger or more satellite bulls kind of running the show. And what you're going to see is you're going to see like, probably a better bull running the show and then smaller bulls in and around. And if there is like a really good bull or like, the bigger mature bulls will often move in later and kind of take it from that more inexperienced bull. He's going to let all these other elk start to tire themselves out because he knows that as those cows get closer to that time to breed, it's going to be a magnet for, for all those other bulls that he's really gonna have to contend with. And then what's gonna happen is some of the smaller bulls and younger bulls are gonna start to get pushed out real early because, hey, they're tired, they don't have the body weight, they don't have the experience, all that stuff. So they're gonna get, start to get beat up early. And then as we get into the main rut now, it's gonna be like a fight for the herd. What you might see in different areas, depending on the structure of the age, class and type of elk that there are, you know, depend. It's like not every herd is going to have a monster big herd bull, right? Sometimes that can be a younger bull. That is the herd bull. That's just the bull that is, is running the herd. But in that transition, in that pre rut, what you're going to find is those mature bulls will go in, they'll, they'll interact. They're. They're looking to see like, oh, is anything ready? They're kind of taking the temperature of the zone and then they're, they're pulling back. This can actually be a really good time to target big bulls because they are a little more vulnerable when they aren't fully in charge of the herd, when they aren't in the middle of hundreds of cows and everything else going on, they can actually be easier to coax, easier to pull in, or easier to stock. So there are a few benefits. Now, a few of the drawbacks are that they can be harder to find. There's less activity, and you're going to have a few struggles there. And we'll go into that a little bit later. I'll really break down the this kind of cost benefit analysis of what, when might be the best time to go elk hunting. I really don't think that any given week there's a particular best time if you know all of the strategies and things that might come into play for each phase of the rut that you're hunting. As an elk guide, like I guided professionally for 2024, 26 years, something like that. And, and over that time, like, I would guide every day of the elk season. I pretty much would guide from the 1st of September in some state, you know, all the way through the end of November. And hunting elk every single week, for the most part now, seasons would change and maybe I'd go different places for different seasons, but for the most part, all, all of September, especially even like the first part of October and then maybe a little bit of a break and then going back into rifle seasons end of October through November, hunting every week of the rut. Over the years, I pretty much saw myself personally taking people was like the same type of success over the course of, let's say, a five, six week period. Now that was not to say that some weeks weren't way better than others, but some, you know, you'd have some slow weeks, but then you'd find success and you'd have some like absolute killer weeks where you're just in elk and it's just wild and crazy. Sometimes those are the weeks that you weren't actually successful, but you were in a lot more elk. So it kind of, you know, evens itself out. But over the course of the archery season, just knowing how to interact with elk, depending on what's going on out there in the time of the year, I could find success throughout the season. Different conditions, different parts of the rut, different areas and elevations, different units. So I was able to build a lot of success doing that. And that's where I think just the knowledge of understanding what elk are doing is first. And then we can start to figure out the tactics that are going to start to work. And you might see some of this stuff is like, we're going to talk about early season elk hunting. Now, I'm not going to call, I'm just calling it earlier in the rut for the most part, because you might, it might be the first or second week of September and elk are exhibiting peak rut behavior. Okay, that is definitely. Then we're going to switch to more peak ruck tactics. This is. So we're going to match more of these tactics not necessarily on a calendar date, although it's can be more consistent. We're going to, we're going to match it to what's going on in the woods while we're there, what's going on in the mountains while we're there. How do we get these elk to do what we want them to do, or how do we find these elk when the conditions are difficult and how do we, you know, make the best play for the conditions that we're given, and that's what we're going to really cover today. So we're looking at that early season, and it's, it's. It's important to know that, you know, elk are doing different things now. We just came off of, like, that summer time frame. I really think that if you have knowledge of a particular area, say you live in the area, let's say you've put in some time scouting, maybe you've got cameras running and you can see what bulls are doing. I've had cameras, you know, be a huge benefit in many cases. They almost throw you off because what's going to happen is, hey, I'm scouting, I've got this knowledge, and I found a bunch of bulls. Cool. At some point, those bulls are going to immediately stop going from bachelor group summer pattern to thinking about the rut. And when that happens, they can move a long distance. Where they're going to go, that's going to be to where the cows are. Now some years you could be scouting, and it's like bulls are on their summer pattern and there's cows nearby. Okay, well, that's going to give you a little bit more intel. So scouting intel before your hunt can actually be. It can put you in, I would say, a speedier. Like, it's like the fast lane. Think about traffic, and you got all this traffic, and then over here you got the carpool lane or whatever. In big cities, it's like this is your free pass to the carpool lane. Sometimes it's a little slower, whatever, but you've got a little bit of a fast track to finding that success than just showing up cold turkey. And I feel like early season is really well suited for the people that do have previous knowledge of an area or real time scouting intel, because it can foyer into information that you can use for tactics sooner than if you were hunting later on in the season. So I really think that scouting, like scouting intel and then transitioning that to hunt is very well suited for early season elk. Anytime that I have early season intel, it gets me fired up to actually hunt earlier because I have some knowledge. And we just have to really understand how to dissect that knowledge. So we have to understand, okay, what are the elk doing in the knowledge that we have. Let's say you go out, it's like mid August, you're up on the top of the mountain, hey, there's some bulls and some basins, and it's just all bulls. Okay? They're in their summer pattern. That's pretty typical. Maybe you've got this hammer bull that you see in there, and you're like, that's going to be my target bull. That's a great bull. I'd like to target him. And there's also maybe a lot of other nice elk in here, so we'll see what happens. So you. You've got that going on now. You go back again. Is it like later in August and the big ones disappeared? There's a group of bulls that are kind of together, and they're still kind of in that same area. So you think, yeah, this is actually good. Okay, when the season kicks on, a week or two later, this is where I'm going to find myself. And that can be a really good strategy. Or maybe you've seen that the bulls broke, A big bull's broken off and he's just living in this pocket. Okay, now you've got some intel to go after this particular bull when that season kicks on. But there are a few things that we're going to have to consider as that season starts. The first is what you're going to. What you're going to kind of encounter is you're going to encounter the potential for bulls to still be in their summer pattern or the more likely to be within that summer pattern or summer area, but you're also going to encounter the potential for elk to be transitioning to the rut. So one of the things that I want to consider and think about as I am moving toward that rut timeframe is I really want to have knowledge of where the cows are as well. That that might be in some lower areas that might be in areas with more feed. There's more. More mouths to feed. So it's probably going to be places where there's really good feed or really good cover, really good security for calves and other things. Think about, like, the life cycle of a calf, right? We think about we're harvesting bulls and like, okay, what are the bulls doing? Well, we also have to know what were the cows doing? So up until this point, think about the cycle of a cow, the cows are in groups, and they're in those groups for safety. They're in the herd. The bulls are off on their own and they're joining the herd for the rut. And then some of the younger bulls are going to stick around throughout, like, later into the season. And then the bulls are going to be kind of bachelored up from, like, winter through, through that growing season. Spring and summer. The Cows are going to be grouped up in their herd because it provides safety, and then it also provides that safety when they calf. So, like June and springtime, like late, late spring, elk are dropping their calves, okay? And then they're going to be taking care of those calves up through that September timeframe. So they're in those areas that are really conducive for dropping calves, areas with good protection, good cover, but also really good feed. There's a lot of mouths to feed in some herds of elk. So they've got that food source needs to be readily available and handy. And so that's. Those are the areas that are going to potentially hold cows. Now, where that food source is can depend on a lot of factors of how is the rain this summer, where, what kind of winter did we have all those things. So understanding where those cows are is really, really good intel for elk scouting during the rut. Now maybe you're like, I'm going to hunt later on. Okay, well, where are some places that that elk are living? Cow elk are living. Places where elk are living are going to be places where they're probably going to be rutting. And that's going to be a place that draws in bulls later. So early in the season, you've got this interesting thing where you can scout a specific bull and with the right conditions, flip over and now target that specific bull. And with that kind of intel, I think that that's a really good tactic because it's. It's something that I've enjoyed doing because I can. I can watch a bull all summer. I can understand what he does in his patterns. I can maybe figure out where he might go and then also utilize knowledge of, like, where the cows at, where it might be, some rutting areas. And then with the right season and conditions, season kicks on. And within the first few days, you know, or even prior to the season, I've located a bull that I want to chase. Now when the season kicks on, I can go chase and target that specific bull. It's a really good way to target a big bull or maybe just a group of elk. My wife's bull that she got. She actually shot it. I guess it was the. It was like the last day of August, technically. Yeah, it was the season. Her tag, it was in Nevada. Tag. So it opened like August 15th or something. We didn't even. We were like, we're going to go out for the first part of September. I guess that year it was it. It might have been Labor Day weekend like before. I can't Remember, but it was like the last day of August 1, you know, planning on the first week of September. A buddy of mine had been out quite a bit in new some areas that we were going to check, you know, and then just also off of past information being in there, I had some deer tags in there and had seen bulls areas. So it's like we're going to go check these kind of summer range areas. We get in there and we had another buddy of ours had a tag. So all of us were hunting and we got into this basin where they'd identified some bulls while like scouting a couple days before. And we get up there and it was just like no signs of rut at all. Bulls were all still bachelored up like big groups in this basin. We saw like 30, I think it was like 30 some odd bowls. A lot of. Now this is a trophy area. Like you're not going to, you draw it once every, I don't know, it might take you 15 plus years to draw. And then you got a long waiting period and another. So it's like practically once or twice in your life if you're lucky. And so like the groups of younger air quotes or younger bulls for like 300, 330, 320, 335 type bulls, maybe a 340 bull. And so we're watching them and they're like, okay, you got these groups of elk. But the bigger mature bulls there was like two really standout bulls. Her bull and then another bull. They were like the 350 to 370 type bulls. Those two bulls were in that area, but not with those other elk. They were doing their own thing. They went into a thick pack. We like, we watched them. They weren't messing around. They kind of like went into this thick patch of timber and didn't pop out. They were just in there probably raking, bedded, doing their thing. Now the other groups, you know, throughout the day we'd see them get up, we'd see him move over to this area to water bed, you know, moving around a lot, interacting with each other in some way, kind of like following each other. Yet there was two bulls that we would have targeted and the biggest one was the one that she ended up killing and that those ones were by themselves. Now it was, you know, we ended up like cutting it off and ambushing it. As we saw it going, we're like, okay, these other elk went this kind of route. I think we know how we need to go. There's some water here. We're going to try to intercept it as it goes from this to this water. And it worked out like she, she shot the bull. Epic hunt. One of the coolest hunts, you know, that I've had the privilege to be on. But it was early season, and those bulls were still in their summer pattern, which is awesome. On those early hunts, sometimes you can catch bulls locked into that. The biggest bull that I ever killed, it was, it was early September, a very high elevation unit. I didn't have any, like, real knowledge of what those elk were doing, but we had the right weather, so we got in there. It was. I. I didn't have any pre scouting, but we got in there and it turned out that, like, those bulls were running. It was completely different. Those bulls were in and starting that pre rut phase. So they were starting to pre rut. They were calling and bugling in the mornings. But then it died off. Because what's happening is those bulls are not fully engaged in rutting activity in this colder mornings. They're going to call, they're going to do their thing. And especially the big bulls, they might be calling, bugling, figuring things out, and then they're gonna pull off from that group and go do their own thing. They're gonna go find a thick patch of timber to bed in. Maybe they'll be with some cows, maybe they won't. And so I killed that bull by moving through those areas, an area that I expected a bull to be bedded real thick, like, dense place where nobody else is hiking, nobody else is walking. Casting calls, get a response. And I knew from that response that we're gonna kill this bull. And it just so happened to be about 390 bull that came in, in an area that wasn't known for 390 bulls. Let me, you know, and killed the biggest bull of my life. September, I guess it was September 3rd, September 3rd or September 4th, like first week of the season. But that bull was susceptible because he was by himself. He was curious. I made the right calls in the right places, and he came running in to see what was going on. And the rest is history. You know, thank God I made a good shot and the bull expired within seconds after, you know, shooting him. And. And it was just an absolute perfect hunting experience. So those kind of things happen. And that can happen early season because of the behavior that these elk are doing that allows you to kind of target those bigger, mature bulls. And we'll kind of go into some of the pluses and minuses of early season and then just Go into some strategies here in a minute. Before we do that, though, I do want to mention an incredible supporter of this podcast. Montana knife company is doing their blaze drop. So one of the cool things about the blaze drop is you're going to get a lot of the. If you're not familiar with it all, it's, it's like think about Black Friday, but for hunters. So it's before the hunting season and they've built up stock on a lot of knives that might have been hard to get on other drops. There's a lot of inventory. Now, one of the cool things that that does is because there's a variety of blades, you might have been on other drops and been like, man, I really wanted this knife or that knife, but didn't get it because that was the singular knife that was getting dropped during the blaze. During, like this, this blaze drop, there's going to be a lot of different variety. And so that kind of spreads out some of the buying when you go on when it, when the drop happens. I say that to also say that I'm very excited to announce that tonight. My elk knife, the, the one that I designed with, with mkc, is dropping in the blaze drop. So it's blaze orange color. It's got the, you know, the, the normal sheath and everything like that, Kydex sheath, but it's got the, the blaze handle. And it's going to be a really good way to get in for those that are like, man, I really wanted your elk knife. I couldn't get it. You know, the last drop, we did a traditions one. Those sold out pretty quick. This is, this one is going to be your opportunity to potentially get the elk knife. So to do that, make sure you're signed up for their email list. Today's Thursday, so go on tonight when they drop and try to get one. You know, I don't know if there's going to be some. If there's enough that, like, maybe there's enough knives in this drop that some elk knives will survive longer into tomorrow. So if you're listening to this later, go check it out. Like, they might, there might still be some there. I'm not going to guarantee it, but I'm saying that on any drop, this is the one that's most likely to be able to get this knife. And I think that that's just because there are so many other knives available during it that when it's just the elkhorn or. Sorry, when it's just the elk knife, it becomes difficult to get. So go on there, go on their website, montanaknifecompany.com and when you're in there, make sure if you've never bought a knife from them before, I'll give you the secret because like I went on and bought my dad a knife on one of the drops. And you know the, the key is you gotta be logged in, like have an account and so everything's easy. So you know, if you have a, it's. I think, I think it is on a shot. Like I have a account from buying stuff in the past, but go on and maybe just buy something small like beforehand a shirt or something, whatever, just so you've got your cart and everything ready with, with your payment and save your payment method. Then log in, make sure you're logged in and when that knife drops, add it to your cart and check out. You can, you can lose out being in the checkout if you don't check out fast enough. So that there is some strategy to it. It's just, it's, it's different than just walking into store and being able to buy whatever knife. But it is, it's, it's, it's kind of fun actually. You're like, okay, can am I going to get one this time? So that's the strategy. Like that's what I do. I go in, I log in oftentimes like I'm on the computer, my wife's on the computer. It's like drop if there's a knife that I want and boom, go in and, and try to grab it that way when the other person's like in the checkout, I just, I back out or whatever and be like, all right, go. But that, that's the strategy and it's, it's really effective. You just have to be on when they drop and have everything ready, especially for the ones that are in high demand. And honestly, like the, the design of the elk knife, I, I'm a little, I, maybe I'm a little biased to it. You know, it's got my name on it for the most part, but I had a lot of input with it. I think it's, it's my favorite knife for so many reasons. I just love the way it fits and feels and works in my hand. I love the fact that like I've done so many elk with it now and so many other animals. Like, it's just a great all around knife. It's incredible for skinning, but has just like a lot of speed to it and a really good fit and feel. So it goes Fast and so if you're interested in it, get on the drop and, and be ready to, to pounce, I guess. So I think let's go now transition into those benefits and some of the struggles of the, the pre write or that earlier season alcohol the benefit. I mean we've, we've talked about a lot of this, but I'm just going to kind of bullet point it here and a little bit of a summary because I think there's so much information, it's like some of it gets lost. But the benefits and the things that I like about early season. We're going early season and we're talking like beginning of the first couple of weeks of September, elk hunting. And you could even consider early season. Some states have August seasons that would also be early season. Those ones I'm not necessarily talking about, but let's touch on it a little bit after this because there are some strategies for that like summer pattern elk. The benefit to that would be you're hunting elk in their summer pattern. Bulls are going to be grouped up. You're going to get to look over multiple bulls at once and that gives you like a pretty good estimation of the potential elk in that area. Also when they're in their velvet, you know they're going to be feeding heavily in the mornings and evenings. It's good for glassing, it's good for locating and then they're going to be real tied to water if you're in an arid area because honestly most the seasons that start then are like fairly arid type country, I guess Utah, Nevada. Trying to think if there's any other. There's a couple Idaho seasons that start early. I think they're more like depredation areas around ag, but I could be wrong. Maybe they got rid of those. That's. I got years of, years of regulations and applications in my head. But yeah, there are places that do start early. If you've got one of those tags and you're like, I want to, I want to target one early in the August season. Okay, yeah, absolutely. Scouting is going to be your best friend now. We're going to kind of transition to the benefits of that first part of September. It can be, I think early and late can be probably the best time to target bigger, better bulls, more mature bulls because they're the most vulnerable, because they aren't controlling the group. I think that peak rut is the best time for elk action and activity and finding elk. So you can't. Let's go back to my three steps for taking. Let's go. Three steps for taking an elk with a bow. Step one, find the elk. Step two, shoot the elk. Step three, pack the elk back to the truck. Three easy steps. Step one is you can't do step two without step one. You gotta find the elk. Earlier season, some of the struggles are finding the elk. Later season, some of the struggles are finding the elk. Peak rut. Finding the elk is not your struggle. It's actually taking the elk so you can balance that scale. Have you seen that thing? It's like fast, easy, cheap. And it's like you can only have two at once. That's kind of how it works with elk hunting. It's like if you want to be able to find them easy, sometimes it's going to be a more difficult to take them or, or essentially immature bull, but it's easier to find them. You can look him. You want to know where a big bull is. Like September 12th to the 24th, it's with. It's right in the middle of the biggest group of cows there are. That's where the big bull is. And he's not leaving. He's going to be there, easy to find. Beginning of September, end of like end of September or beginning of October, he might be with the group, he might have moved off. He might check in in the morning and slip off somewhere on his own. So they can be more difficult to find. Now the benefit is if you've got pre knowledge of a certain elk or a certain area that you want to look into, that that's the best time that it can transition to a specific animal is that early season, because they're most likely to be within that same time frame for a short amount of time until things start moving. Once they start moving. I've had this happen too where I've found a Washington elk all summer and by the time the season kicks on, like, he's absolutely ghost. It's not because he, in, in my opinion, like knowing that there was no one else around and whatever. It's not because that bull knows that I'm there and it's like, oh, there's a calendar date and the season time. Now I'm going to go do something else. No, it's like it's getting toward the rut. He goes and rut somewhere else. I don't know where that is. He disappears. I can't find him. Right, That's. That happens a lot. So that's one of the struggles is you can have that knowledge and they can vanish fairly quickly. Now, if you have knowledge of where the cows are and where the bulls have been hanging. Now you can do an intercept like, okay, check the cows or first I would like, I always would go, like, where. Where are the bulls that I've been watching? Let's go check that area. Oh, yeah. Okay. They're up. They're still up here. Because if there's a few cows around, man, those are going to be the first cows that they hit. And it might even keep them in that area a little bit longer. So that pre knowledge, that scouting knowledge is really going to determine how I'm building out my, my hunt for that season. If I like, I've got some places that I've got cameras, I. And when scouted for a buddy and it's got like, there's some cows in there. I didn't spend a lot of time, you know, traditionally I've hunted it a lot. Peak rut, there's always elk in there. It's like they're always scream. Like there's always elk somewhere in there. But unfortunately, like, we're hunting it. The time that we have allotted to hunt is the first week of the season. So I'm gonna put some cameras, we're gonna pull them before the, the opener is, you know, we gotta go physically check them because there's no cell cams. There's no service in there. You can use a cell cam before the season, but it wouldn't matter anyways. It's like, it's a mute point. So we're gonna go check those cams and see like, what's happening. I put them on some wallows and some water sources because I know that the. As it gets hotter, like there's a potential that cows and other things will start hitting that water. Now if I'm seeing a lot of cows and then I'm seeing the occasional bulls in there. Okay. Now if I'm seeing a bull where it's been there every day, yeah, we're going to, we're going to set up, we're going to do like an ambush strategy, especially if they aren't calling and try to target that bull and hope that it continues that pattern. It very well might. If we see, you know, we can, we can utilize that info of what we get to determine how we're going to hunt the first couple days. Now we're also going to kind of take the temperature of what's going on around us during the season because things can change quick. If it stays hot. It can. It can be a completely different type of hunt than if it the weather breaks and it's cool. If you have prior knowledge, scouting and the season stays hot, you're in the money. Like, when I know of a bull that I want to go after, I hope for hot weather. I'm like, no cold snaps, please. Hopefully the beginning part of the season is still unseasonably hot because he's still going to be doing more of what he was doing pre rut. Now, as the temperatures start to cool, he's going to start thinking about running. Those cows are going to be. Start getting more active, and things are going to start to change. So we're going to play off of our knowledge based on the conditions and what those animals that we've been seeing are doing. So the benefits of early season are also that some of the prime benefits are easier to target big bulls because they put themselves in more vulnerability. They might be alone. They might have a better curiosity to them that time of year. They might be more susceptible to your tricks. They haven't seen it for a while. Those are all. Those are all great benefits. The struggles are you can get hot weather and slow activity. Bulls and elk in general can be harder to find. And there's the variability of certain elk transitioning and kind of, if you have certain knowledge, still missing them, no matter how much knowledge you have, because they've moved somewhere that you might not know, those are, those are some of the things. So I think early season is best for hunters maybe that are like, look, I've had, you know, some, some successful elkons. I'm really looking for that next level bull, and I'd rather have, you know, a really good opportunity to take that bull. But I'm okay without like, crazy elk action. That's great for early season. Early season is good for people that are honestly have really good knowledge of an area. If I've gotten good knowledge of the area, the behaviors of the elk, what they do when certain conditions hit early seasons. For me, if I am coming in from somewhere way off, and I'm just excited because it's opening day, the first time I've ever in this area is going to be the opener of the season. It could be hit or miss. Honestly, you might go a while before finding out when you could go a little bit later and run into elk nearly everywhere. Now, there's often another benefit. Sometimes there's fewer hunters in early season. I don't know. Sometimes there's more. Sometimes I transition when I'm hunting based on when the hunters are like, middle of the rut. Sometimes is just like an absolute zoo. You hear a lot of bugles. Most of them are an elk. Lots of dudes out and about, and you still struggle. So it can be. It just kind of depends on the area and what you got going on, but those are some of the things. I also think it's good for guys that are willing to kind of bust a little brush, as I like to call it, get into some. Some places that are just a little more remote that will hide and conceal a big bull. It can be tougher hunting, tougher packing, you know, but they, those better bulls are going to be in those places where they're just in that transition between riding in summer group. And it can be a good place to maybe throw out some tactics that entice them to your location. So let's talk about early, early September tactics. Step one, find the elk. What am I doing? Well, I'm hunting the way that I would hunt even later in September. I really want a bullet to bugle. To me, I love calling. That's the way that I get joy out of elk hunting. I'm not saying it's always the most successful tactic. It's really successful for me because that's the thing that I do the most. So it works, right? So I'm trying to find a bull that'll bugle. Like in pre light. I'm up at a glassing vantage and I'm throwing out locator bugles. I'm probably not getting crazy aggressive unless I'm hearing, you know, some, some aggression back my way. But I am still calling early. Glassing is also going to be important. Like I'll probably check those summer areas and I'll think about the potential to ambush elk that maybe I have prior knowledge on in their particular homes or bedrooms. I'm probably going to be me personally. I'm going to be focused on hunting elk that I know about in those little pockets where I know that they live or have been living for the last month. I'm going to hit those areas first. The type of calling that I might do would be potentially cow calling and, and, or bugling. Bulls will still bugle beginning first part of September. What I'm probably going to notice is in the mornings they'll be a little more fired up. The daytime they might slow down, and in the evening they might pick back up. So I'm going to find the elk however I can. It might be location bugles, it might be throwing out cow calls, and it might very well be glassing a lot of times early, especially if I Have knowledge of where elk might be or maybe let's say, let's just take it. I don't have knowledge. I'm just going into an area called Turkey. I'll probably be on a like a place where I can glass multiple places and potentially call. I like, I like to throw that combo out there where I'm like, I'm throwing out some bugles, see what happens. But I'm at a glassing vantage and hoping to glass some feeding areas off in the distance and see what I can turn up. Then as I transition like after that morning time, I'm probably going to transition into steel hunting, moving and calling. Probably throwing out a lot of cow calls and then also throwing out some bugles to see what kind of response that I get. One of the things that you're gonna notice is you'll probably get like if I get a response to a cow call, like I throw out a cow meow. That was just. I don't have any calls with me right now but mouse a little dry, that was a little bad. But it's just a little voice squeak, something like that, you know. Let's say I call, I'm throwing out a couple cow calls and I'm waiting to hear a response. I'm doing that because I don't want to like spook anything off with like a real aggressive whatever bugle. Because as I'm still hunting like I'm. I'm still hunting through areas in topography where elk are likely to be bedded or elk are likely to be traveling. I'm moving through those areas super slow. I'm looking and glassing. I'm working into the wind. I'm looking for bedded elk and I'm throwing out a few calls. If I get a bugle to that cow call, especially like mid morning midday, I'm stoked. First couple of weeks of September I've already got an arrow on at this point now because I got that bugle and I'm waiting to see what happens. I'm going to continue to do what it likes, maybe give it another cow call and if I get another response, it seems like it's coming in, I'm in. I'm pretty confident that I'm going to call this elk in. I'll probably keep giving him what he likes and I'm going to expect that the last distance that bull is going to be very cautious coming in. Unlike prime like rut. That's a fun time because they get a little dumb brained, they come in hot, they come in Heavy. They're drooling, they're slobbering, they're snotting. Their eyes are in their back of the head. Like, last year, I called in so many bulls that were just absolutely out of their gourd. Like anybody probably could. Anybody could have called those bulls. And I. I would assume. And you and I got. And you could get away with a lot. Now, they weren't necessarily bulls that I was going to kill because I was being a little picky and not that I don't know, I ended up shooting a bull. Like, ones. All the oak that I shot last year were like, about the ones that I'd passed up, which is fine. But I did encounter not a ton of big bulls, but a couple really good bulls. One of them got shot, so I. When the bull that I was targeting got killed, I knew it was time to switch over. Right. Like, that was really good knowledge to have. And then on. On one hunt, I ended up. Well, you get to see the video. Ended up clipping a branch and missing the big bull. And in that bull, you know, he wasn't like crazy brained, but there was a lot of other elk that. Throughout the hunt. And another elk hunt that I was on that did call in. It's like peak rut. They were frothing at the mouth. They were. They were coming in steaming hot. Like you. You'd nearly have to bump them off to go after the bull you're trying to call in. And sometimes you'd recall that bull in. That's fun elk hunting, especially when you love bugling and calling and whatever. That's great. Beginning of September. It's generally not like that. The bulls are super cautious there. They might come in, but before they commit, they're probably going to try to walk in and see what's going on. They might even try to circle and get some wind because they're like, well, what. What am I going in for? Am I going in for a cow that's got a. Like, what are these cows? Is. Is there a bull that's going to chase me off? Like, there's a little bit of timidness to their approach. So if I know that the bulls coming in, my strategy is now going to be like, hold up, wait, and I'm killing time sometimes. Like, it's a lot harder to actually play an elk then because they aren't so worked up. You're like, you're using more patience. I've blown out more opportunities moving in like. Like I would later in the season, early in the Season and bumping an elk that I didn't see because it just happens. Like they come in, they're looking, and it's like, dang. If I would have just shut up and, or continued to call and just waited a little bit, that bull would have popped right out in my lap or tried to circle around here. But I got too, too aggressive. Now if the elk's being very aggressive, you can switch and match up your tactics with that. I have been very, very aggressive with elk the first couple days of September and had some incredible, like, encounters because that elk, whatever, was fired up to a certain level. And then I responded in kind. The thing about early season is with early season calling tactics, I like to start taking their temperature, like knowing that they, they might not be so worked up and see how it develops. Now if I get one that gets worked up, I'm absolutely going to respond with that. But the, the, the thing that is beneficial to that early season calling is you are likely to call in a bull that might be above the class or type of bull that you would call in later because he's, you're in his, his zone, you're in his bedroom. Maybe you had that knowledge, maybe you didn't. You just kind of happened upon it and he got curious. He's like, oh, there's elk here where I'm at, or, oh, there's a bull here that I really don't want to deal with. This is kind of my little territory here. I'm just gonna go see and confront and see what's going on. And by doing that, I've had a lot of success taking bulls and calling them in. Now, on the flip side, it can also be good strategy to glass, especially if the bulls are not grouped up with cows yet. If you're the type that's like, I'm a spot and stalker, or, hey, like, I'm here to punch a tag, fill a freezer, spot and socks. A great tactic, right? Especially if you got a little bit open country. If we're targeting open country, early season can be the best time to spot and stock. Because if you find a bull, you can often put them to bet they might move off and be off on their own. Or you find a herd elk, you can shadow that herd elk, watch that herd elk. And at some point mid morning, those bulls are probably, or some of those better bulls are probably just going to break away from those cows and go bed. It gives you an opportunity to single out one particular animal and make a really good play. Also, the other benefit and Bonus to early season is they actually stay put longer during the rut. They're moving around a lot more. When an elk is stationary. If you're, especially if you're stalking or even if you're just trying to get to where that elk is, the longer it stays in one place, the more opportunity you have to make a play. If it's early season, you're likely to get a stock at a bull or a small group of bulls and you're likely that they're going to bet in more shaded areas and it's likely that they're going to stay there longer. So it gives you more opportunity. Now another great tactic for early season elk hunting is targeting water and or wallows. It's hotter that time of year. One of the things that I stress all the time is find the thing in least supply. If you're in an area that's arid, water and wallow hole hunting can be extremely beneficial. Now that especially goes for guys where that season starts in sometime in August. That can be the absolute best tactic to target a big bull or just target elk in general. So targeting water holes in wallows can be a really effective tactic. My dad shot his bull, I guess it would have been like the first part of September. His best bowl was like a 350, 360 bull. With his bow, he set up a blind. Groups of cows were coming in. You know, it was fairly hot. He just sat there all day and, and waited. And after about three or four days, a bull came in with the group of cows and presented a shot and he shot it. And it was, it's, it's a giant bull, like a really wide, just absolute stud bull. By being patient and targeting what those elk needed. It was an arid area. He's like, he was, he was solo hunting. He was by himself. He's like, I'm not going to good at calling. I don't want to like try to have to find in stock. I want to shoot a big bull. I know that elk are using this water hole in wallow. I'm just going to set up and wait. And that patience killed him. The best bull of his life and you know, a phenomenal choice for the type of hunt that he was doing and, and the options available. So water can be a really good resource especially too like if you've got a wallow or a water hole. It's like elk are hitting in September or sorry, August and it's, it's hot in September and everything's slow and quiet. Go sit that Water like it. It's a concentration point. It's a. It's a pinch point, a choke point. A strategy of where a bull has to go and can give you an edge. So, like, when I take my buddy out first part of September this year, we are. That's. That is not off the table. We're going to go check those areas, and if it's slow, that's going to be our strategy. I'm going to be like, dude, you go sit there. I'll go glass around and come get you if I find anything, something like that. But, you know, like, I probably won't sit here with you, but good luck. Best of luck. It's a really good strategy. I. I get happy feet, man. I. I just get. It's hard for me to, to sit there for too long. But I do think at some point I would really like to take an elk from a tree stand. I think it would be so cool to, like, have a bull come in underneath in the wallow and do that. I've helped clients do that. You know, me personally, I've never taken one like that, but maybe that's the next way that I take a bowl. But that's a really good strategy. So if you're like, that's a. That's a great strategy. It can also be a really good strategy for targeting sitting wallows during the peak of the rut. Can be a really good strategy for taking the herd bowl because it's the one vulnerable place where he might be away from the herd and give you a chance. So there are a lot of. A lot of different strategies you can work. Early season can be very effective. It can be a really good time to target a mature bull. It can be a good time to target bulls that maybe you have prior knowledge of. And it can be a good time to even call in a bowl that you might not otherwise call in. Because he's more susceptible to your. Your tricks and tactics because he's not with a herd, he's not running a herd, and he might be just more curious to see what's going on or more apt to just kind of go in and push a bull out that might be in his bedroom or in his zone. So early season is definitely a great time to hunt. You know, for me, it's a scheduling issue of I've got that time frame to hunt elk because I'm taking my dad moose hunting in the middle of September. So that's when I'm going to be out helping people. Elkhon is early season. So A lot of these strategies that I'm talking about are things that I'm going to be doing. And a lot of it is going to come down to the conditions during that first part of September. Hot conditions versus cold conditions. We know that the moon phase is pretty good, like as far as not a lot of light at night. So if we get that, I think honestly the heat's the biggest factor. Like, you get some weather, you get some moisture, you get some of that. It can be really good. And a lot of tactics can start to ramp up toward the rut. It can also be slow and hard to find elk and maybe more waiting, more patience, more glassing, more struggling to find elk. But when you find them, you might have better opportunity for stalking and or potentially calling. So that's kind of a rundown of early September elk hunting and some of the tips and tactics, things to consider for your next hunt. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. Our kickoff to Elk Month. If you guys have any questions, get those questions ready. I'm going to try to do so this is Thursday, tomorrow at some point Friday, I'm going to try to do either Friday or Saturday live Wild calling live. You got questions? I've got answers. I might even try to do two of them this, this timeframe. Not, not then, but like later on in the month. So stay tuned to my social media. We've also got so I released my wolf and caribou hunt part one and part two last week. That this response has been incredible. You guys have loved that. I think, like honestly, this, this coming up, I've got some of my favorite hunts, like some incredible encounters. I think I probably have. I know for a fact I have my best elk, like two elk hunts with the best encounters of elk and like calling I've ever had a lot of my hunts. It's like I might be calling but I may have been self filming. It was hard to get all the, the nuances are like I've got a microphone on me here and not like capturing a lot of the bugling in the distance or whatever. You want to hear some bugles and see some rip rut in action, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. There is some phenomenal elk hunts on its way. I've got two archery elk hunts in the pipe. I've got, you know, some rifle on some mule deer hunts, like all kinds of stuff that's going to be, you know, trickling out and then on our shorts and stuff. I've got for elk month, just different clips of elk Bugling and all that kind of stuff. Go check it out. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have try to put a lot of stuff on Instagram as well, but check that stuff out. Like I said, watch to know for the calling Q A. Just watch Instagram stories and I'll make a post as well. So if you. I don't know. Some, the guys, some guys have figured out, I think they've got like notifications on for something. I don't know how they do it because there are people that have like called in multiple times and it is very difficult. I do have an MKC knife to give away for that call in Q and A. So you, you better be looking out. Like that's a. That's. That's going to be a good way to get Montana knife company knife. So that calling Q and A. I've got one of those up for grabs. I've also got a Onyx membership up for grabs. As we go into Elk Month. I can't. I have to mention it. If you get the opportunity, if you aren't a member of the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation, go in, sign up, be a member. You know, I'm, I'm a life member of rmef. It's because my life has been spent chasing elk and I see the benefit of what they've been doing. You look about like most of the. When I, this is when I grew up elk hunting. The state of Nevada had elk. There wasn't very many states, like on the other side of the Mississippi river had no elk. And a lot of, like there was, you know, elk in a lot of places. But right now is the absolute heyday of elk hunting. There's more elk now, I believe, than there has been in any recent history. Like now is the good old days. They have brought elk back to places that haven't had elk for a very long time. Those, those herds are flourishing and thriving through transplants and restoration projects. Also, like the amount of land they've conserved. It's. What is it, like a square mile per day? Something like that. And this is all stuff that hunters are able to access, that gives access to other places that is habitat for elk. Elk are kicking butt right now, and that's in large part, in my opinion, to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. So if you aren't a member Elk Month, I can't not say that. Right. That's my conservation piece for this month. Rocky Mountain Elk foundation get a membership. That's where you start. And then from there you can, you can dive in. You can do projects, you can attend dinners, you can donate. You can, you can do so many different things. You know, you can spread awareness, all kinds of different stuff. So think about that as we go into Elk Month and you're like, man, I'm not an elk hunter. I don't elk hunt yet. You want to be someday? If you want to be someday, that's a great start. And you get the Bugle magazine and you'll see my article in there. I think I always throw in articles. They aren't always elk specific topics because, you know, I, I like to talk to about a lot of different hunting strategies for different species, but they're in there. There's a lot of awesome, awesome articles and other things in there. So check that out. And I'm gonna say, until next week, Elkon. Catch you guys later. Sam.