Pre-season practice, a solid understanding of elk language and the ability to carry on a conversation are keys to successful calling. (Shutterstock photo)
October 17, 2025
By Mark Kayser
There’s no denying it: Calling in a bull elk has become more difficult over the past decade or more. Increasing public-land hunting pressure, savvy elk and better elk hunters all combine to make the endeavor challenging. To counteract these negatives, follow this roadmap to more effective calling.
BUY THE BEST CALLS As with toilet paper, it does not pay to invest in a cheap product. Purchase the highest quality elk calls you can afford. Shop for models you feel capable of operating. Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls are my favorites, but many companies invest significantly to create calls that reverberate with true tones and work easily. Look for calls ruggedly built that mimic both cow and bull sounds.
UNDERSTAND THE CONVERSATION Readied with reliable bull and cow calls, study the conversation of your quarry. Elk communicate with two simple sounds: mews and bugles. Those two noises expand into a broad range of choruses that vary depending on behavior and mood of the animal.
Mews can be short and curt to demand attention. They also can be intense and drawn out to signal readiness to breed. Bugles vary from drawn out with long chuckles to a whine or a snappy lone chuckle. You can even use the bell of a bugle to palm-tap lightly to create the glunking sound of a bull following an estrus cow. Get online and watch elk videos for the best language lesson.
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PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE Although real elk sometimes sound worse than the amateur division at the sporting goods store’s calling contest, practice to sound realistic. Two calls will challenge you—the mouth diaphragm and the open-reed cow call. Both require attention to mouth pressure and avoidance of gag reflexes.
Practice should take place in the months before the season, but year-round is better. An ideal practice location is in an automobile on a long (solo) road trip.
ANALYZE WHAT’S UP After weeks of music class, it’s time to hit the stage. When you finally find yourself within earshot of an elk conversation, analyze the dialogue to plan your response. You understand the message your dog sends you with whines, growls and demanding barks. Take these same cues to heart when listening to elk, whether they’re communicating with you or with each other.
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Intense, screaming bugles may be due to a cow in estrus or two bulls intimidating each other for dominance. Subdued mews and chirps could signal a big herd of cows communicating with calves. Tepid bugle or abbreviated bugles could mean a bull is a satellite or suspicious of predation (you or a wolf). Lasty, if you hear elk barking, it implies they’ve sensed danger, and calling in a suspect elk becomes nearly impossible.
MIMIC THE CONVERSATION After analyzing the conversation, the best way to begin is to mimic what you hear. Reserved chat requires a start at the same volume. When meeting up with a herd in a frenzy, you can begin at a moderate level but accelerate to join the intensity. Calling in the opposite pitch could cause an alarm. You want to fit in with the atmosphere and even trigger a bull or boss cow into confronting you on the fringe of the herd. A modest volume could spark an interaction, but if a party has already started, join in with passion.
A decoy adds a visual reference to your calling efforts. Position yourself downwind of it and prepare to make a shot on an incoming bull. (Mark Kayser photo) MOVE WHILE CALLING You may not be able to move far, but any elk repositioning toward your calls likely has “downwind” programmed into its navigation system. Habitat and even elk enthusiasm dictates how far downwind elk will maneuver to keep olfactory security in play. At a minimum, adjust 50 yards or more downwind after every calling session. In more open terrain, elk will circle even wider as they utilize the sense of smell and sight to locate the noisemaker (you).
While dogging a herd, not only should you move downwind, but circumnavigate them as well. They may pause, and your circling movement could position you to have the entire herd pass within shooting range. Put a quality hunting app to work as you look ahead to your next moves.
BE WHERE THEY WANT TO GO Whether calling turkeys, coyotes or elk, a good rule of thumb is to envision where they want to go and be there with calls waiting. Trying to call elk backward from a location they just left could present a barrier. For instance, elk feeding in low meadows or even hayfields after dark quite often retreat to adjacent mountains at dawn. Through scouting, speculate their daytime bedding destination and be waiting to call to them between feeding and bedding habitats.
MAKE A RUCKUS Although elk can be as quiet as a mittened mountain lion, a herd typically makes noise while on the move. Bull elk also snag their antlers in branches when they forgo safety measures to meet up with another bull. By adding in the sounds elk would make during the breeding bustle or even normal travel, you project realism into your calling.
Snap the occasional branch, roll a rock and thump the ground to create the sounds a herd makes while on the move. A stalled bull could also undo the parking brake by hearing the noise of another bull rubbing its antlers on a tree trunk. A large branch raked against a tree trunk with snapping branches creates this scenario. Rub, then reposition downwind.
SHUT UP Occasionally, you can restart a bull’s movement and even get it talking by simply shutting up. This tactic works on hung-up bulls and even satellite bulls not wishing to rush to a beatdown. Make your last call, adjust downwind according to habitat and quietly wait. Before you leave the area or along your retreating path, spray a few doses of elk urine (Wildlife Research Center sells a compact bottle). When a bull arrives, it’ll smell the presence of elk. The scent could cause him to move closer or merely pause long enough for a shot opportunity.
ADD A DECOY A last tactic to make our calls more believable is to add visual confirmation. A decoy easily does that. All animals seek to see who has a loudmouth attitude. When elk circle to your calls, they peer through the woods doing the same. The Montana Decoy Company manufactures the most efficient elk decoy models with their lightweight, foldable, photo-realistic designs. Having a partner operate the decoy frees you to shoot, but you can stake the decoy, slip downwind and get set up.
Yes, elk calling has become more challenging, but meeting the challenge with focus and tactical alterations can up your game. You only need one elk to fall for your ruse to enjoy the bounty of elk country.
This article was featured in the September 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
Mark Kayser
Mark Kayser has been writing, photographing and filming about the outdoors with a career spanning three decades. He contributes hunting content to most major hunting publications in America. Today his career also includes co-hosting popular hunting shows such as Deer & Deer Hunting TV on the Pursuit Network and Online. He also blogs and is busy posting his hunting life on social media.
Mark grew up in South Dakota in a family that did not have a hunting background. Despite the lack of hunting guidance, Mark self-taught himself how to pursue whitetails in the Midwest cornfields and across the Great Plains. His passion for elk hunting was curtailed by the ability to draw tags while living in South Dakota, but a love of the West spurred him to move with his family to Wyoming where he launches DIY, public-land elk hunts annually, most with a solo attack in the backcountry.
Mark enjoys hunting all big game, coyotes and wild turkeys, plus he has a shed hunting addiction. When he is not in pursuit of hunting adventures, Mark retreats to his small ranch nestled at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming to spend time with his wife and faithful border collie Sully.
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