Elk

In the realm of the average hunter, elk are king. While the one-percenters busy themselves with $50,000 sheep tags, or African safaris to quickly fill up their trophy rooms, the Rocky Mountain elk remains at the top of the heap for most hunters. Why shouldn’t it? Bulls can weigh four times that of a...

For most hunters living on the East Coast, hunting elk usually involves traveling hundreds of miles to the Western wilderness stronghold states of Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado. But, after decades of absence in the East, they’re starting to reclaim their former range. They’re not as abundant as...

There isn’t a more coveted game animal for the common hunter than a bull elk. Sure, the one-percenters might get glossy-eyed over some type of sheep that lives in the mountains of some country most folks have never heard of, but for the average hunter, it’s the Rocky Mountain elk. This is a hunt...

If you’re feeling a little too cheerful about hunting, and you’re interested in inducing a bout of depression, do a quick search on over-the-counter elk hunting odds. They aren’t great, but what’s worse, is that most info you’ll find that is focused on easy-to-get tags, is far worse. The bitching is...

Blue whales have them. Songbirds have them. Turns out bugling bull elk have them too. Not just a song of their species, but local dialects that separates their tunes from others in geographic locations. In a discovery that may stir the coals of campfire debates for many Septembers to come...

This video shows a herd of elk booking it over a fence. Who knows what’s making them move—could be predators, could be hunting pressure, or maybe they just felt like running. The cows and calves make it over the barbed wire with some effort, but they’re moving remarkably faster than the 6x7 bull in...

Jason Phelps is quick to admit that you don’t need to sound like a verbatim elk to get one inside arrow range. He’s spent a lot of his life building tools for us to speak with the big tan-and-chocolate creatures, but he says a simple mastery of truck-cab bugling won’t prepare you well for actually...

As antler-obsessed humans, we usually look at pointy beams with awe and excitement. Rarely do we consider their potential for destruction. That is, until we come face-to-face with with a strong-willed animal like Tyler and Sheena Terryberry of Parshall, Colorado, did during a morning drive on Jan....

Scoring a bull elk is quite similar to scoring a deer but with some added complexity due to the sheer length of those much bigger antlers. The total score number will include the inches in the length of the main beams, length of the tines, the inside spread, and the volume of the antlers. And we'll...

Every day, our fellow meateaters send us more than 100 emails regarding hunting, fishing, cooking, conservation, and more. So, we decided to publish a series dedicated to our favorite FAQs. Ask MeatEater is powered by onX, creators of the best digital mapping tool for hunters and anglers. Snow gives...

“I was pinned down. I couldn’t move or he’d see or hear me,” I explained. “We were only 12 yards apart with a tree in between.” Greg looked at me blankly. “Why didn’t you just run in there and kill him?” This was a long time ago, but it was a revelation in my elk hunting knowledge. Greg has been...

Spin through an elk hunting website or magazine and you’ll see a lot of rugged backcountry—a mountain setting with a mule packstring, or at least hiking boots and trekking poles. But a new world-record archery bull taken in 2020 drives home an emerging fact: The world of North American elk is being...