How to Find Bull Elk After Other Bowhunters Quit

With the end of elk season winding down, the woods usually start to look, and honestly feel different, at least to me. The crowds at the trailheads have begun to thin out, the leaves are turning more every day, and the mornings feel a little colder. Another thing that always hits me this time of year is how the alarm clock seems to go off earlier, even though it’s actually darker for a little longer as the days grow shorter. My reluctance to wake up is due to my tired body and mind.

By this point in the season, the peak of the rut has faded, and bugles usually aren’t as frequent as they were just a few short days or weeks ago. The wild chaos of mid-September has given way to quieter, more calculated behavior from the elk.

With most hunters tucking their tails and dragging their weary bones back home to sit on the couch and watch football, it’s easy to be tempted to do the same. But don’t make that mistake. This stretch can be one of the best times to catch a bull during a weak moment, when he’s burned out, still with cows, and maybe letting his guard down for a second. If you can stay after it when others quit, this is when buzzer-beater bulls get killed.

Adjusting Your Approach

At this point in the season, success often comes from slowing down. Early in September, I’m usually covering ground, chasing bugles, and trying to stay in the mix. But as the rut fades, I find myself hunting more deliberately, spending more time behind the glass, and paying attention to where the elk are feeding and bedding. It’s less about calling your way into a bull and more about spotting and hunting your way into one.

This shift in mindset is what keeps a lot of guys in the game while everyone else burns out. Slowing down can give you a bit of a break while still being effective.

Understanding the Rut’s Mood

A crucial step during any phase of the rut is understanding what’s happening right now. The late season isn’t the time to be running around bugling nonstop or blowing an estrus cow call every few minutes. By this point, most elk have heard it all — bugles, chuckles, cow calls, and everything in between, for weeks straight. To say bulls are reluctant to rush into calls this time of year would be an enormous understatement.

Sure, they might still bugle back, but most of the time it’s just to keep tabs on you while keeping their distance. Every hunter in the woods has educated them, and they know better than to charge in mindlessly.

Because of that, calling less is usually the smarter move. In many cases, not calling at all until you’re close can be the difference between blowing elk out or getting a shot. Spend more time glassing or still-hunting quietly until you’ve found a herd or a lone bull. Once you’re inside their bubble, then it’s time to make a sound.

When you do decide to call, start soft and pay attention to how the bull reacts. If he’s holding his ground, you can slowly build your calling. If he’s moving away, go quiet and move in instead. Late in the season, soft cow mews on a diaphragm or a light touch on an open reed call are usually your best bet. A little calling goes a long way when bulls are cautious and call-shy.

When to Turn It Up

This doesn’t mean you should toss the grunt tube on the seat of the truck and forget about it. There are times, even late in the season, when bulls will turn back on and go absolutely bananas. It’s not always the case, but when cows or yearling calves that didn’t breed the first time around come back into cycle, the rut can fire right back up.

I’ve had some of my best bugling action at the very tail end of September and even into October here in Montana. I’ve been in the middle of full-on buglefests when most guys had already hung it up for the year.

Late in the season, herds tend to get bigger as elk start bunching up again. That can be the perfect recipe for intense rutting activity. With large herds, though, there’s often so much chaos that calling even a satellite bull away can be tough, much less the herd bull. In those situations, you’re usually better off getting in close, or even better, setting up an ambush along the herd’s travel route.

If you can slip in tight to the edge of the herd, ideally within bow range of the outer nucleus of cows, that’s when a well-timed bugle can light a fire. Sometimes, giving your best challenge call from that range will bring the herd bull storming in, ready to defend his group. When it works, it happens fast, and there’s nothing quite like being right in the middle of that kind of chaos.

Find the Cows, Find the Bulls

I’m going to tell both sides of this one. Most of the time during the rut, the old saying “find the cows, find the bulls” holds true. If you can locate a herd of cows late in the bow season, there will almost always be a bull somewhere nearby keeping tabs on them. You can try all the tactics I mentioned earlier, and they can absolutely work in these situations.

That said, by the tail end of the rut, the biggest bulls in the area don’t always accompany those herds of cows. By this point, mature bulls have been chasing cows hard and getting chased by camo-clad bowhunters for weeks. It’s not uncommon to see those older bulls off on their own or grouped back up in small bachelor bunches. They’re usually not far away, maybe just a drainage or a draw removed from the chaos.

I don’t believe they’ve given up on the rut completely, but I do think they let the smaller bulls handle the day-to-day herding while they rest, recover, and wait for another window of opportunity. When a cow or two in those herds cycles back in, those big bulls often slip in quietly to breed again.

These situations can give you a unique shot at a mature bull in the final days of the season. Use your glass to pick apart likely bedding areas or secluded pockets near the main herds. When you spot one of these bulls, make a move. A careful spot-and-stalk or a close-in calling sequence can be deadly when you’re working on a bull that’s still tuned in to the rut but trying to stay out of the spotlight.

Another thing that changes late in September is where elk spend their time. As frosts start hitting the high country, green feed disappears, and elk often drift lower to find better forage. South-facing slopes that were empty earlier can suddenly be full of sign again. Paying attention to feed and fresh tracks can tell you as much as bugles this time of year. I’ve killed several late-season bulls in spots that had been dead quiet for weeks, just because the food brought them back.

Finish Strong

If you’ve been hunting the whole month or even just a few weeks, this final stretch can be challenging to gut out. Feeling mentally and physically worn down is entirely normal. The early mornings, late nights, long hikes, and a little homesickness can all start to pile up.

When you watch other hunters pack up camp and head home, it’s easy to justify doing the same. My advice is simple: don’t quit, take a breather. Take a rest day, do some glassing, or run to town for a hot shower and a good meal. Then get back after it. You’ll be surprised how much better you feel with a clear head and fresh legs.

It always amazes me how quickly elk go back to normal once the crowds thin out. The bulls are still there, they’re just a little wiser and more cautious. You’ve got to hunt smarter, call less, and sometimes push a little farther than the next guy. The extra effort is worth it when you’re standing over a last-minute bull with a punched tag.

Every year, I’m reminded that persistence kills more bulls than calling ever will. The hunters who keep showing up, even when it’s quiet and cold, are the ones who fill tags. Those final days are when you find out what you’ve got left in the tank, and sometimes, that’s all it takes. When you walk out of the woods with that tag cut, it won’t be luck. It’ll be because you were still out there when most weren’t.

Besides, you’ve got all winter to rest, and football doesn’t even get good until the playoffs anyway.

---