Archery Elk Hunting in the PNW
I am no expert when it comes to chasing elk in September and I’ll be the first to admit it. I have only been on archery elk hunts for six years, a tag holder for three of those years, and have one elk mounted on my wall. I do, though, have a unique position in life where I get personal elk hunting lessons from many people who have been at it for decades. These people have many accolades to which I can comfortably define them as “elksperts.” Whether they have simply been hunting elk since before I was born, or if they have gone so far as to win world championship elk calling competitions, through my podcast I have recorded hours of tips and knowledge from those whom elk should fear. In the spirit of our rapidly approaching 2026 elk season, I wanted to review some of the best lessons I learned from these elk slaying gents and tell how they manage to get into elk every year.
Tony Gilbertson: RMEF World Elk Calling Champion. Phelps Game Calls team member. As you would expect, Tony is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to calling elk, but don’t think he doesn’t have anything to say about the other aspects of elk hunting. As a lifelong Western Oregon outdoorsman, Tony can find a bull in the most highly pressured places you can imagine. Here are some of his biggest takeaways for hunting public land bulls:
When you are hunting an area that you know has elk but you can’t get anything to answer your calls, try to get off the cat roads and into the hidden gullies. Tony likes to walk through the brush making lots of noise in areas that other people don’t like to walk. He will purposely snap sticks and make lots of cow calls to emulate a group of cows traveling through the woods. By doing so, he separates his approach to the elk from the dozens of road bugles the elk hear every weekend.
A world champion elk caller will always tell you that you need to practice calling, but Tony painted a great picture to explain why. Someone who is not great at calling can have a good day if the bull is hot enough, but when you become proficient at sounding like an elk you can trick even an old wise bull, or a tired bull into playing the game
Another mistake hunters make is changing their tune when something is working. If you are cow calling and you get a response, don’t randomly throw in a challenge bugle. When Tony gets a response, whether it is a group of cows or a bull, whatever they respond to, he’s sticking to it until it doesn’t work anymore. For example, if the bull is coming in and he has only been chuckling, Tony is only going to chuckle at the bull until it hangs up, then he can slowly up the pressure until the bull is ready to fight.
Nate & Gage Bailey: Father son duo who have elk hunting in their veins. Nate is the founder and leader of The Life Outdoorz, which means he is partially responsible for the fact you are reading this article right now! Nate got his start with recurve bows and has been passionate about traditional archery for many years. His son, Gage, who is a big part of The Life Outdoorz has also gotten his arrows into some elk so they had great tips about the equipment side of archery hunting.
Shooting your bow is the number one skill you need to build to be a successful elk hunter. Losing an elk after injuring it is one of the worst feelings in the world, but it is much more than just injuring an elk. It is letting your greed get in the way of sound decision making. Taking an iffy shot is a decision you make, not an accident. It is your responsibility to self limit and pass on shots you can’t make. The more you practice, the more shots that were iffy for you as a beginner become second nature. Don’t fool yourself! This takes years to master.
Don’t shoot at an animal that is too far away, even a 300fps arrow is easy for an elk to dodge from 70 yards away. I have personally had a bull duck my arrow like a Texas-crackhead-whitetail at 50 yards. Granted, I have a loud and slow bow. Nate knows that stick bows are even more limited than compound bows and trad brings most hunter’s effective kill range down to 30 yards at the furthest, some shouldn’t shoot over 20.
Practice all shot angles to know exactly where you need to hit in order to poke the heart. If the animal is quartering to, turned away, on a hill, below you, above you… all of these factors change the path your arrow needs to take to get the vitals. Instead of focusing on the point of impact, try to visualize the path your arrow will take as it travels through the animal's vital area.
Trent Fisher: Born and Raised Outdoors. Lifelong Western Oregon hunter from a logging family. If you have been hunting long enough, you know that it is always the loggers who know exactly where the elk, bears, and giant blacktails are.
Strategy is important for killing elk. Hunters often times focus so much on how to locate elk, that they forget to make a plan to capitalize on the opportunity when it finally presents itself. How do you plan to get a bull within 60 yards after you hear the first bugle of the season down in a brushy draw?
The hardest thing about hunting elk is finding them. With Roosevelt’s, once you do locate the herd they will be in that area year after year, unlike Rockies. Those coastal elk keep a 2-4 mile range during season, which is easy to cover in a day with boots on the ground. As always, spend more time in the woods to get more chances to learn which parts of the mountain hold elk. Rinse and repeat.
As a call making family the Fishers know different calls work differently for every hunter, so you need to find a call that fits your mouth. Pallet shape is the biggest factor, some have small pallets with big ridges which limits the calls that will work. Others have flatter pallets and can use almost any call. Try them out to know the right call for you!
Mike Thompson: Best Life Outdoors, Northwest Mountain Challenge, Veteran, and elk nut. (Not THE elk nut, but probably the most passionate elk hunter I know otherwise.) Mike is a full believer in the idea that elk have a language. I used to be a skeptic, but the proof is in the pudding. Knowing what to say is just as important as when to say it.
One of the best quotes from Mike in the last interview we had in my booth at the Northwest Mountain Challenge: “Talking to elk is a chest match. You have to be able to understand what they’re saying and how to respond to them.” In that conversation I learned that Mike loves chess. I also learned that you need to think ahead and respond to your bulls words and actions correctly. When you figure that out you become a master of the game.
Elk in pressured areas know one thing: trucks = hunters. They won't usually bugle if they hear a truck drive up to a landing. If you must bugle from the truck, try to give the illusion that you drove past the spot or at least give extra time after shutting the truck off (5-10 minutes minimum) The problem isn’t the road, it's the truck. Elk walk gated roads all the time, they like the path of least resistance. So calling from gated roads can still be effective.
To learn the language you need to study the beast. Get on youtube, watch elk videos and pay attention to what the elk are doing and what noises are associated with those actions. Even better is to go to elk viewing areas and study them in person. Download the “Elk Nut” app from Paul Medel to learn how to answer each of the different noises an elk makes.
Vaughn Hanchett: Vaughn Adventures. Vaughn is admittedly early on in his elk hunting career but very quickly picked it up with two record book bulls in the beginning of his elk hunting journey. Coming from the fishing and outdoor adventuring world, Vaughn has a really fresh perspective that I found helpful.
First lesson from Vaughn: you can't hunt elk like you hunt deer. With deer, you need to be sneaky and quiet. With elk, you actually want to make noise because elk are loud and you are trying to sound like an elk. You can spend all day in one spot to find the lone buck that is hiding in the brush undetected, just for him to appear at the very last light. On the other hand, elk are either there or they're not. If you go through an area and don't find any fresh sign, you should just move along until you do.
In the coast range, there are elk everywhere and the habitat restrictions that impact elk on the east side of the Cascades are not as much of a variable for Roosevelts. You can look at a map and mark watering holes, but you will find that there are many and the coast is pretty wet. On the East side, though, these tactics you hear on every other elk hunting podcast work quite well since it is hot and dry in early September.
In many places that we hunt there are roads and people everywhere, not even just hunters. Bikers, mushroom hunters, OHV’s, and even dog walkers. Sometimes in these super pressured areas you can wind out an elk and come back to that elk after just an hour or two or even the next day and get him excited again.
One time I called in the same bull three times back to back in a 1 hour period and he had winded me twice and busted, yet my cow calls kept him returning. I believe that to be the bull I killed the following week on the same mountain, only about a mile away as the crow flies. There was a herd with a giant bull in the area and this desperate raghorn I hunted was hungry for lost cow calls. As a guy who just wants meat and hasn’t gotten to the point of needing a giant rack, this is a dream scenario.
Tyson Healon: Blackhorn Outdoors. Tyson has made a name for himself as a shed hunter, but don’t let that fool you, he knows how to find antlers while they are still attached too. Because of his love for shed horns and for studying the animals, Tyson knows more about the antler potential in his hunting spots than most people know about their own backyard.
Do your research into the area you are going to hunt. As much as we’d like to think, there are not giant beasts around every single mountain side. In fact, a truly giant bull or buck is usually known by a handful of committed hunters. How? Time in the field during the Summer, shed hunting, and trail cams. If you are after big horns, you will luck into opportunities every once in a while. Finding them year after year requires intense work. Once you do find a truly remarkable creature, you better keep it a secret as best as you can unless you want competition.
Even though we have lots of stories about many different elk encounters, we are an outlier when it comes to the general hunting public. The reality is, many hunters will only get one opportunity per season. If you aren’t dialed in on your shooting and strategy, you will waste this opportunity. There is a reason why most elk tags hover around a 10% harvest rate. The best way to increase the number of opportunities you may have is to learn the landscape and the herd before the season opens so you won't waste the beginning of your season trying to locate the animals.
We owe it to these animals to do our best to practice and work hard so we can deliver the most efficient end to the animal’s life. It is never something to be taken lightly.
I have had the honor of interviewing each of these amazing guys on my podcast: Oregon First Hunting and Fishing. If you want to listen to those episodes you can find our show anywhere you listen to podcasts. The Life Outdoorz youtube channel also has a lot to offer when it comes to elk hunting, so if you are looking for September inspiration check them out!
Have a great season and make sure to send us pictures of your time out in the wild places!
-Bryant
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