I'll be hunting late archery elk the first couple weekends of the late season before fully switching over to deer. my question is should I be cow calling ever so often as I walk through the timber? How bout calf in distress calls? I'm hunting an antlerless only unit so I'm not looking for bulls at all.

Please let me know what late strategies have worked for you in the past.

I should probably add that I'll be hunting the west side.

I've read that cow calling periodically will put the animals at ease if they've heard you walking. I read "Bow hunting for Modern Elk" recently. It goes into great detail about "dogging" bugling bulls and such but there's really no info on late season tactics.

Hunting for late season elk, is just like deer hunting... glass and stalk.

Damn that was good. My calls come with me but are only used if I do something stupid(break a stick....ect.) Use the wind and move slow looking. Amazed we have filled out tags every year for three years running using spot and stalk. Actually it is more stalk then spot. Listen as the calves will give away the herd often before you see them.

thanks everybody. I'm excited to get back in the timber. this is my first year hunting. I didn't grow up around it as nobody in my family hunted so this is all new to me. I took hunters safety a little late and was only able to get out for 4 days in the early season. still hunting was extremely tough with the dry ground. got busted a few times before I even saw the deer. All I heard was thud, thud, thud as they bounced off. I had one morning on top of a ridge looking down at the clear cut below me when I saw a pair of ears pop up. I crouched down, nocked an arrow and ranged out the nearest tree to the deer. 30 yards, no problem was my thought. the deer started walking and it turned out to be a doe with two fawns, so I ended the stalk and let them be. it'll be nice not having those crunchy conditions in the late season.

I'm hoping to use all the road hunters to push animals towards me. I've got no problem going deep in the timber. how bout wallows? Are they still productive in the late season?

ok well hopefully I can find some snow then. I just invested in some rivers west cold weather camo and a buddy of mine gave me a nice pair of Irish setter gore tex boots so I'm ready for some long days out there. looking to get a decent day pack this week and a few other odds and ends.

Love huntin in the snow. Makes everything a little easier. I got 4 days on the eastside planned next week. Im jacked up already. Good luck.

And the beds will most likely be on the uphill side of their line of travel. If they stand, you won't have more'n a second or two to make your point. Think lungs. Their natural defenses against predators much more efficient than you are sight, smell, and sound. Try your best to eliminate the last two (including cow calling after modern rifle season pressure) and you'll get close.

Have fun in their classroom. And remember that after the release, you can't whistle a wayward arrow back to heel....

thanks everyone. Can't wait! Just picked up the Easton FMJ full metal jacket arrow shafts. total weight of the arrows with 100 grain muzzy MX3 broadheads, nocks and inserts is right around 452 grains. I'll be releasing them from my 70lb pse brute. these arrows have some serious kinetic energy!

Stick to the golf courses around North Bend...most of them hate the damage they do and when you shoot one you can rent a cart for the drag out...good luck, hunt where there's elk...

I have often thought of askin when I saw a herd stretched across a fairway. Never had the gall to ask. Do you have to yell "forrrrrrrrrrre" before you shoot.

No, but you do want to get a hole in one...yuk,yuk...

for sure dude!!!!

Last year I was posted up on a clearcut waiting for a mature blacktail when I heard some clown hunter crashing thru the woods tooting on his cow call. So a returned the call to let him know where I was posted. Five minutes later a cow snuck up behind the bush I was using as back cover and looked at me from five feet. By the time I got an arrow knocked and turned around she was long gone.

Being in only my third year of archery elk hunting the main lesson I've learned is that they are a very vocal herd animal. The more I've used and gotten better at elk calls the more I've seen.

I'll be carrying three mouth reeds, a cow call and a bugal.

As for tactics with blackpowder open and thus a much larger crowd in the woods I'll be concentrating on escape routes.

Good Luck!

I bought a few mouth reeds and started practicing. I'm getting pretty close to sounding like my bite and blow cow call. I think I'll leave the mouth reed at home this year. By next early season I should have it down though. I've been practicing daily on my commute to work. haha