Post Rut Big Bulls

Maxxis31 · Jan 14, 2020

IMO they are easier to find in the late-season than during the rut. Killing them is another story altogether, of course, this is dependant on the areas your hunting as well. The areas I hunt the big bulls return to their summer sanctuary areas after the rut and stay there most of the winter and well past hunting season. I like to set up across drainage at daylight and glass, during the summer you can set up in these areas before dark and the elk will normally start coming out into the open to feed before dark, however, I have never had good luck in the late-season spotting bulls at night. I think the biggest factor is day length, in the summer they get tired of sitting around all day and start to move, in the late fall the days are so short they just haven't gotten around to moving until right at or after dark, the nights are long and dark so you can typically still find them feeding or moving to cover just after daylight.

I think the best method is patients to get one killed, patterning them and set up in the dark for the shot would be the best way IMO to kill one. As mentioned above it really depends on the area, summer range for some elk are in the very tops of the wilderness areas and there is typically too much snow for them to return back in the fall. Most of the elk however in the lower elevations don't necessarily go high before or after the rut, they just find areas where they don't get bothered, sometimes that is right next to a highway and sometimes it's several miles from the closest road. Scouting early season it critical IMO, watch what bulls are doing and which other bulls they hang out with, if you start watching elk they are normally pretty distinct by there individual antlers and who they hang out with. I have been watching several elk for multiple years and they are always in the same areas with the same other bulls, very seldom do new bulls show up and when they do a lot of times I can go find pictures from the past and identify them from when they were smaller.

Elk in ID and even close to Boise are going to find lots of areas where they won't get bothered much at all, there is so much country that doesn't get touched by people there. I have seen a lot of big 300+ inch bulls there while deer hunting over the last few years, some areas hold elk year after year from what I've seen. Since you live there you can go out all summer and start scouting, the biggest issue with ID is the month-long deer season will displace elk, once you find them though they should be in the same areas year after year. A group of bulls doesn't need much of an area to call home if it has water and some feed with the good cover they will hang out there until one of those conditions change.

Here are a couple of bulls I've been watching for several years, all the pictures are within about a mile of each other from 17-19. I still have to go pull some cams to see how many made it through another season. I've spent hours watching these bulls plus dozens of others, I have watched them from July - December in the same area. They disappear from this area from about the last week in August until about the second week in October, by the end of October all of the bulls are back that are in these pictures and most stay there or near there all winter depending on how much snow we get. I believe I found a shed off of the big bull from around 2014 in there while hunting, he was a young bull then but still had the kicker on his beam by his G4, I didn't have pictures until after that of the bull and the shed is long gone. I really enjoy watching elk, you can learn a ton about their behavior that way.

2017 through binos

2018 Cam

2018 During Rifle Season, Right outside the bedding area I have the cam in above. My buddy and his boy were making a stalk on this bull while my son and I watched from across the canyon.