Elk Articles

Watch elk hunter Beau Brooks demonstrate the chuckling cadence that can make your calling sound far more realistic.

Proper meat care in the backcountry is serious business. Here’s how to do it right so you enjoy the highest quality venison for the table.

Step back in time with rare footage of Fred Bear on a 1950s horseback elk hunt in Wyoming, complete with vintage gear, backcountry adventure, and a thrilling close stalk on a big bull.

NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. tells the story about killing a Colorado bull on his first elk bowhunt — on the first morning!

Do you have a favorite Bowhunting World article or video from the past year? Here’s our list of editors’ picks for the top 10 of 2025.

Calling to rutting bull elk can lead to some intense encounters, but this one is crazy!

The author and his two brothers head deep into the mountains of New Mexico for a lengthy DIY elk bowhunt, enduring tough terrain, sporadic action and finally an opportunity with the bull of a lifetime.

Tips for planning DIY bowhunts for spring black bears, early fall mule deer, late-season elk and winter Coues deer.

Someone shows you their public land hunting hotspot — should you ever visit it solo?

Public land, DIY elk hunts will almost always challenge your mind, body and spirit.

Here’s what influencers and podcasters aren’t telling you.

The author recently picked up a European mount from the taxidermist and was surprised to discover that his whitetail skull features a fang!

John Dudley waits at a wallow in the pre-rut heat and is rewarded with a giant 5x5 bull — at only 13 yards!

Unless you hunt out West, you’re probably not familiar with the corner-crossing debate. But you should be.

The author and his elk guide put a hunting and hauling workhorse, the Can-Am Defender, to the test in the Arizona backcountry.

The author has spent a lifetime pursuing elk, on DIY adventures and fully guided trips. Here, he breaks down the pros and cons of both options.

In 23 bowhunting seasons, some of the author’s fondest memories are from the last 11 years of having his wife tag along on his hunting trips.

Western big game, especially elk, spend much of their time on private ranches, but that DOES NOT mean the landowners own the elk.

If you come up empty in the western big game draws but still want to bowhunt out West, here are some alternative ways to put a tag in your pocket.

A primary benefit to tagging a big game animal is a freezer full of delicious meat. In the author’s experience — nearly a half century of eating big game steaks — these six species are the best of the best.

Putting a tag for a second species in your pocket on an out-of-state combo bowhunt is exciting, but consider the following points before supersizing your hunt.

When elk hunting, knowing when to draw your bow is just as important as knowing when to shoot.

Here are several tools you’ll want to consider before hiking miles from the nearest road for elk.

A trail cam in the mountains of Utah captures the sights — and hair-raising sounds — of a mountain lion attacking an elk calf.

Across elk country, black bears and elk are intertwined, but how are some of America’s “newest” herds coping with that region’s apex predator?

The setting is a water source in the Colorado wilderness, and two youth hunters are hiding in a pop-up blind. What happens in the hour before dark has to be seen to be believed.

Lynette Jones, who is paralyzed from the chest down, pursues big bull elk in the famed Gila National Forest in New Mexico.

Visiting Big Sky Country is an exhilarating experience. For a hunter, going there with a pair of big game tags in your wallet is pure nirvana.

Here’s what the author has learned after a lifetime of hunting elk on government ground.

Lydia Smith is an artist with a passion for hunting elk and other big game, and this is her first attempt at filming one of her solo adventures.