Ep. 53: A Complete Guide to Understanding Elk Wallows

what I'm dubbing Elk Wallows one oh one. Now, this podcast is going to be everything you need to know for locating and hunting elk wollos during the rut during September, one thing comes to mind and just rutting bowl elk. The cool thing about that is there's so many behaviors that you can key in on, and wallowing is one of them. They roll in the mud, they get stinky, they get fired up to gather up their cows, and

that's a tactic that you can exploit. So I'm going to talk about how to use them for scouting and how they changed throughout the season. But first I want to share a funny story of when I was guiding a hunter and set them up on a wallow. This hunt takes place in the mountains of northern New Mexico and that late September early October time frame. Now I really enjoyed hunting this particular area because the elk tended to rut there a little bit later than other places

in the country. So I'd be hunting and guiding in Montana and then I could go down to the spot in New Mexico and guide down there and still kind of extend that rut season get into some awesome elk hunting action. There was a pretty good bowled of cow ratio there, but the area was could be very difficult to hunt as well if the elk weren't being vocal or if they weren't running well, because it was just like a lot of timber, a lot of oak brush.

Many of the parks and openings were buried in the trees, so they'd be like big pine forests around these kind of flatter meadows on the ridges, and you couldn't really

glass them from anywhere. So the long range glassing and kind of figuring out where the elk were was difficult because there's so much timber, so you had to you had to hike around a lot, you had to move around a lot, you had to kind of judge sign and and find where the elk were, and then if they were vocal man, that just made it so much easier. But you know, as as the rut progressed and got a little bit later in the season, most of the bulls had their cows and they weren't making as much

noise or for not as long. So I really had to employ a lot of other tactics just trying to locate where the elk we're at. On this particular week, I had a hunter that he hunted, but he was there with his family. He probably, i would say, out of the group of guys, he was the guy that was leased into it, not like the rest of us we're just consumed with hunting, thinking about it all the time. But you know, as a guide, you're used to that. There might be a couple of people that are there

for different reasons. He was there to enjoy some time with his family and go on a hunt, and me, you know, I'm just on hunt, go hunt, go, go, go go go, which is fine. You know, you get used to that, and that's part of the fun of guiding is being able to take out different hunters and and everything like that. So I'm taking him out and we're hunting, and you know, we're chasing the elk and trying to get into position, and about midway through the hunt,

he's like, hey man, you know this is great. You know we're getting on more elk than anyone else. But he's like, I'm getting pretty tired. Is there any other options? And I'm like, yeah, I've got an idea because earlier that season, a couple of weeks prior, the bulls were bugling really well and they led us into this big timbered basin. It was like almost like I called it

the Amphitheater. Just the shape of this hill is just you could hear the bulls in there and they would just be sounding off and it was echoing, and it was just one of those perfect spots to hear and chase elk when you can't get eyes on him. And during the course of chasing a bull in there, I

found on this perfect wall. It was like the hill came down, it flattened out into this one little bench on a point, and for some reason, somehow collected water right on this flat spot and it was a perfectly tore up wallow right in the timber, and then it dropped down on both sides. On one side more pine forest, and then on the other side it was a pine forest mixed with this big aspens and a ton of trails going right to this wall. Is the perfect spot. So I just I, you know, I mentally made a

note of that. I was like, this is this is a pretty hot spot. I feel like there was good amounts of elk in there a few weeks earlier. I figured, Okay, yep, I'll just set him on that wall the next day. So the next morning, I make a plan and I'm like, okay, we actually hunted in there the day before, and I saw the sign that was going in there, and I could tell, like you know, most of the water in there was pretty clean and this one was still murky.

So I'm thinking, okay, the elk we're hitting this in the morning, we'd be pretty much just missed them. They weren't making an noise, but definitely a bull was coming in here hammering this thing and then moved off. Maybe it was a lone bull or whatever. Based on the tracks, I knew for a fact if we went back in there the next morning and sat it, a bull would come in. So make that play tomorrow morning. I'm gonna

set you. So I cut a bunch of branches down and it was pretty tight in there where you could you could see the wallow, and then it kind of ducked down off both ridges on either side, so about fifty yards away or maybe even closer. I started cutting branches that I could find him built like this really nice blind out of the branches where he'd have a good shot. And this was actually a rifle season, so there plenty close, good opportunity, good lane right there, just

had to stay hidden. And I figured, all right, tomorrow, I'll just bring in a chair and make it comfortable and this will be a good spot. So we go back the next morning. I bring one of those folding like collapsible camp chairs or whatever it, carry it all the way in there, get him set up, and I'm thinking, like I'm looking around and it's just it's a little too tight for two people. But I also figured, all right,

I'm pretty sure and Elk's gonna come in here. But I also want to go around on this other side, the more open side, maybe try to glass in there, see if I can see elk, Like they're coming from somewhere, and the tracks came from that way the day before. So I'm thinking, maybe I can get eyes on this bowl, and if he doesn't come to this wallow, maybe I can see where he goes and we can figure it

out that way. So I tell the hunter, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna set you here and I'm just gonna go a couple of miles around the mountain, get a goodvantage of where I'm thinking they're going to come from, and see if I can scout that out. But I'm like, I'm pretty positive. I said, if I had to bet money, I would bet that an Elk is gonna come hit this wallow this morning. And he's like, okay, really, I was like yeah, I was like, just I told him.

He's like, well, you know, is there anything I should do? Tips whatever? And I said, my my only thing, just do not fall asleep. It's like, I will be back here at eleven thirty am. It's not that long. You know, you weren't gonna sit here all day. Just don't fall asleep right off the back because he's you know, based on the time we came in yesterday, he's probably gonna come in around that nine to ten thirty in the morning,

probably earlier. And you know, just watch this wall He's like, okay, cool, and so I walk off and I'm thinking, okay, this is this is perfect. I get to my point over on the other side and start glassing in and I see a few cows going through and a good bull, and I'm like, oh man, this is this is awesome. So I'm watching him, watching him, and they go and then kind of disappear, but they're taking a trail that leads right to that wallow. I'm like, this is like

a first sure deal. So I'm waiting and I'm like just kind of glassing in there and seeing if anything comes back, and like looking and I can see I'm thinking to myself, man, that bowl has to be in there somewhere. I saw the cows kind of come out, and then the bull never came back out. So I was like, man, I wonder if that bull just went to wall and the cows came back out to go bed somewhere else. You know, You're sitting there by yourself

thinking of all the potential scenarios going on. But I'm like, well, he clearly didn't go to that wallow. So I'm waiting, and then a while longer I hear boom gun goes off. So I'm like, sweet, okay, dead bull. This is awesome. So I make my way around into the hunter and I get down to him and he's sitting there and I'm like, okay, where's the bull. He's like, well, he was right here and I shot and I don't know if I'm pretty sure I hit him and he probably

just went over the edge here. He's like I had to have hit him. I'm thinking. I'm like okay, and I'm looking at where he shot, at the elk at and where he was sitting. So he's sitting like facing downhill and there's like one good open lane and then the trail that goes to the wallow, and then there's kind of like a trail that goes away from the wallow and then it drops down into this big, thick valley and just like really thick and nasty down there.

And I'm like okay. I'm like, well, just before we go proceed, you know, like I want to know, like where'd you hit him. He's like, well, like right behind the shoulder, okay, so you should just be dead right here. Yeah. And I was like, okay, well, where was the elk standing because I'm looking around, I don't see any blood. He's like, oh, he's standing over here, and I and where he's pointing over. It's like not a real good shot. And just I'm trying to figure out. I'm like, I

see some tracks. And so I asked him, like, okay, so like what happened? Did the elk just like cruise by? Did he come in? Did he wallow? He's like no, no, she just like the elk was just like right there and I shot him, and I'm thinking, I'm like, just the story is not adding up because he should have had like an easy close shot. So I was like, so he didn't wal you guys like, no, he didn't walk. Okay, So did you have a broadside shot? Yeah? Yeah, I

had a broadside shot. But I was like, well, how did you get a broadside show over here through the trees? I just couldn't put two and two together. And I started thinking about it and I was like, I don't really care, but I'm just trying to like piece things together so we so we know how to proceed because I'm not really finding good evidence, Like if you hit him where you said, then you'd just be right down here.

But if you maybe made a bad shot. I don't want to push him, like I just I'm trying to build this out so we don't leave a potentially wounded elk on the mountain or do something wrong. And so I was like, so he didn't come to the wall, he was here, was he moving? Well? No, he wasn't. Well, yeah, he was kind of moving okay. And so I'm trying to piece this together. And I was like, hey, just so I know, did you fall asleep? It's like, no,

I did not fall asleep. Because I'm looking and I see some tracks and I see like the wallow looks pretty freshly used. I was like, I don't care. But I was like, I just I'm just trying to figure out the whole story here so I can piece it together, so I can see as I what's going on to make the right move to find this bowl. And he's like, no, I did not fall asleep. I'm my gosh, just it just seemed weird way to stand on a trail for an olk to be broadside there. I'm like, you sure

you didn't fall asleep? Yeah, I swear. He's like, I swear to god, I didn't fall asleep. I was like okay, So I go and I look, and he didn't know. But I had a trail cam set up on that wallow on a tree out of you, and I guess I just forgot to tell him that it was there. So I'm like, okay. So I walk over to the trail camera and I go to review the pictures, and sure enough, the elk had come in. It actually came in, got a drink, and then bedded down right next to

the wallow. Then it got up, got another drink, got in the wallow, rolled around like milled around the thing, and then wallowed again. The elk was there for like ten or fifteen minutes, maybe even more, like doing its thing, and then it's like the elk like wallowed again a last time and then got up. In the last picture I see is like this elk moving. It looked like I was moving pretty quick after that. So my assumption

was he had fallen asleep. I would have been there sleeping for a very long time while this elk is like rolling around in the wallow maybe forty five yards away doing its thing, like bedded down right next to him, and he was in the blind must have fallen asleep. Woke up, probably scared him to see this elk there. Then the elk saw him, you know, he probably rushed, grabbed his gun, through his gun up shot. And then I started like looking around. I was like, okay, now

I understand the picture of what potentially happened. You know, it's like this rush probably surprised this elks real close, freaks out, grabs the gun, throws the gun up, shoots. I started looking around, and now with that knowledge in mind, I start looking in different places, and sure enough, like right after where I lost the picture of the elk and it looked like it was running, I look and there's like some a bunch of trees right there. I look closer to where the blind was and I see

the bullet hole like in a tree. So the guy had missed the elk, which was good. He'd just thrown the gun up and shot and hit a tree fairly close to where, you know, I think out of panic, probably wasn't even looking down the scope. But it completely didn't line up with the story I was given. Now, if we're gonna talk about wallow hunting, we should first

just kind of define what a wallow is. So a wallow, I mean by definition really is just an area of mud or shallow water where there's a depression that's been made from you know, large mammals using it over time. A lot of different species use wallows. Water buffaloes use them. You see them out in the floodplains of Australia asiatic water buffaloes or in Africa. A lot of animals use wallows to cool down to get wet, you know, like even during the summer. Bears will use wallows to cool down,

to just lay in, to relax and moose um. A lot of different animals will use these wallows. Now, the way elk use wallows changes over time, so let's kind of dive into first how elk use wallows, because it changes from right now in August through the end of September beginning of October. That wallow is going to go through some life cycles. Now, you can think of it like this. You go into the woods and let's say you find a wallow today. You'll know it because it's

it's probably in this round or oval shape. It's in an area that it's holding maybe a few inches of water, kind of got like a silty, muddy bottom, and you look at it and you go, okay, this is definitely somewhere where elk of wallow. Maybe there's even like some small conifer trees, some small pines that have been ripped up. Whatever. You go, okay, this is definitely a wallow. But at that time of year, that wall is probably more used as either for cooling down or primarily drinking water hole.

The difference between a water hole and a wallow is what goes on in the water. So a water hole, you know, you wouldn't call a stream a wallow, even though it's a water source, because it's primarily used for drinking, whereas a small even like a wallow other times a year you'd probably call a water hole because it's not

necessarily used for laying in, cooling off, what have you. Now, what I like to do is, you know, over the course of scouting or whatever, I'll actually put trail cameras or if it's legal, on these wallows and see what's coming to them. And for the most part, what you see is you see elk drinking out of them. Uh, maybe a few you know, younger elk whatever laying in it, maybe some muse ling in, lots of bears laying in it, and then primarily elk using it to drink. Now, how's

that change over the course of September. Well, what happens is the way bull elk wallow is they use the wallow not as a drinking source or not as cooling off, but as a perfume station. So as the rut starts to progress, as we move from summer into fall, you know, the elk are gonna start gathering up harems. The cows are normally in groups. They could be in large groups, but probably in smaller little groups, and the bulls will start to gather those up in a mass. More cows

in these groups that will create this harem. Now the bulls find these harems, oftentimes vocally, so they'll start bugling. It will primarily be the smaller, younger bulls that will bugle first. Then they'll start rounding up cows, whereas the bigger, mature bulls are going to use that conserve that energy from when that rut kicks off, they're gonna go in there. They're gonna let the little ones round everything up, and they're just gonna go in there and probably take them.

But elk also use scents and pheromones to attract cows to tract mates, to gather harems to identify their location. They also do things like markings raking trees. I mean, if you're a white tail hunter, you'll understand this because you've got your scrapes, which are really just dear buck pheromone stations, and bucks set those out as like traps to attract females, and they have their kind of routes

and they can find females that way. Whereas a bull elk, it's pheromone station is on its body, so the elk will use the wallow to essentially hold its scent, to hold its perfume, to hold its pheromones. So when it's out walking through the woods, the cows can smell it. When it's bugling and trying to assert dominance, the other elk can smell it. It's got it's scraper, it's it's pheromone, it's male masculine perfume all over it, and the wallow

helps hold and disperse that scent. So as the rep progresses, these water holes become bull elk wallows by elk rolling in them, urinating in them, spreading their scent, and then they'll rule in that mud and that mud is gonna stick to their hair, and then that's gonna hold whatever scents and pheromones they're trying to keep on them. So when they're walking through the woods, they're the loudest, stinkiest, nastiest creature they can be, which in turn attracts the ladies.

The wallow is the elks axe body spray, if you can believe it or not. So once they've got all wallowed up, then they'll go around, they'll do their displays, they'll call, maybe they'll challengeable. Maybe they've got a harem and their hare UM's bedded down the walk over, they'll wallow. They'll get all perfumed up to let them know, hey, I'm still here, I'm still the man. I'm in charge of this group. And that's how Elk used these wallows

during the rut. Now, after the rut gets over, you know, you start getting into later fall, and those wallows start to clear out, they'll stop using them. Maybe some will use them in in arid areas as water sources again. But during that rut period, during that I would say beginning of September through maybe the first week of October,

those are being used as scent stations. For bulls. Identifying and finding wallows can be a little tricky because there's certain things you need to look for, and they can be kind of pinpointed on a map, and some of them you'll just find. The best wallows I found are just ones that you kind of randomly find while you're out there scouting looking around, that are in places mid mountain, places near bedding areas that you think, man, that's crazy

that there's just this little water source right here. But when you really start to analyze it, you can kind of figure out a basis of where these wallows are going to be. So what makes a perfect wallow is something that has a sandy or muddy bottom, not necessarily sandy, but like a more muddy bottom, silty bottom, shallow, and it's probably gonna be in a flat spot where it has less rock because rocky doesn't really hold that silt.

It's just not as good. So places that contain walls regularly, it would be parks and meadows, like any riparian area. You could even follow streams and around beaver dams or where areas where they flatten out. Another good spot where you find my favorite kind of walls, just like these little pockets. It's just a perfect wallow. On the hillside. It's generally off the side of a catchment or toward the top of let's say a basin. So you've got like this basin maybe where the snow melts gonna come

down and it forms a creek. So I look off the creeks in any places where the hill starts to flat. Now, so up on the hillside above a creek where it might be steep, and then you get this sharp flat spot. What that happens to do is the water traveling underground kind of settles there before moving fully down to the creek. It catches it. And those are really good spots as well. So you can look on your topo map you start looking for riparian areas. I kind of think of wallows

in two ways. They're either kind of high or they're low. So in the bottoms of the creeks where maybe it's steep all around, it starts to flatten out. Maybe you've got a meadow with a creek going into it. That'll start getting some muddy spots where elk will create these wallows. And then my favorite ones would be, you know, finding maybe a river catchment where a stream's coming down, not necessarily a river, but just a mountain stream where there's

definitely run off in the middle. And then looking at the topography lines on your map, and while you're out there and finding somewhere where maybe that flattens out up on the hill above or in that same catchment, anywhere where you go from steep to flat to then steep again, you're probably going to find water pooling in those places, and elk will utilize that as well as kind of the heads of some of these smaller streams and creeks. Once you've identified that, you know, when I'm out there,

I I look for potential wallow spots. When I'm scouting a new area, I look for potential wallow spots on my onyx. I start marking potential wallows. Then when I go out there and proof it, you know, finding the exact wallow is a little bit more difficult when you're out there, but then you know, I'll market on the onyx while I'm in the field and just keep those

wallows in mind. Now, if I'm doing that earlier, it's hard to say which one is going to be the wallow during the season, because not every water hole becomes a wallow, and not every wallow is a good water hole earlier in season, so you have to kind of start marking a bunch of them and then start checking as that September starts to progress, which one's going to be used, because you might be in one area that will have ten fifteen little water holes, springs, other things

that could be used a wallow. I guess I forgot to mention that identifying springs on the map a really good way to find wall as many of those springs may become wallows as the season progresses, so those are

also areas that I key on. So I'm just looking for potential wallows in the summertime or you know, in this August period if you have time, and then as the rut starts to kick off, I'll go back to those and I'll start checking those wallows again, really using my nose to identify and looking for ones that look like they've had use, ones that maybe a lot of them. In that air. You're clear in one's muddy, so that really tells me, Okay, something was rolling around in here.

You'll start to smell in the heat of the day, ones that are getting hit and used more will start to reek like elk. Those are the ones that I key on during the season. If you can place the trail camera there or whatever, that's a great way to just say, okay, is this one being used? How often is it being used? The ones that smell the worst are going to be the ones that are getting hit the hardest. Now, I will say understanding wallows is really

important to understanding how to hunt them later on. Once you've identified wallows in an area during the seasons during September, you're you're probably gonna see certain things happen. The bigger bulls will start to hit those wallows harder as the rep progresses. You'll probably be smaller, i would say, more immature bulls hitting them real early in the season, and then the bigger bulls really hammering them and taking them

over later in the season. So you know, it could also be a factor of maybe some of those bigger bulls are just going to use them as water hole until they really start to wallow and really get into that act of trying to attract to the females. But either way, they can be a really valuable resource on where to pinpoint, locate and maybe start your hunt from so now let's get to ways to hunt wallows. I

think of it two ways. You can either ambush on a wallow, or you can use an area with lots of wallows to start your approach, to start your hunt, to focus in on a particular area. Using the ambush method, what I do is I preseason like to scout a lot of different wallows and if it's legal, set up some cameras and understand, okay, what's using these wallows when then as the season progresses, maybe starting the first couple week in September, whatever, I'll recheck those walls and see

which ones are getting hit year after year. There's some that always get hit, and then there's some that go dry. There's some that maybe it's a perfect wallow, but they're using one three yards down the valley, down the rid, maybe on the other side of the meadow. That one seems to be getting hit more. I find the one that seems to be getting the most use, and that's where all set up either tree stand, ground blind like a pop up ground blind, or just a makeshift blind.

If you've got an area where you can use a tree stand, I think that that's probably one of the better options. I've I've done everything, ground blinds, homemade blinds, tree stands. You know, sometimes you're just so far back there and it's just not practical to carry a tree stand. So I generally, in that in that instance go with cutting and making my own ground blind I mean a lot of it with elk is just being very still

in having the wind right and those wallows. Even if the wind starts to swirl a little bit, the scent from the wall sometimes overpowers your own scent. This is where you know, I talked about elk hunting and scent control, and you in the Mountain West, you know you'ren't really so concerned about scent control. But if you're gonna be sitting, you know, bringing some kind of scent control spray or

whatever isn't a bad option. I don't like to use cover some because I think it disrupts my nose from smelling things that I need to smell when I'm out there hunting. If I can smell an elk before I see them, that's good. So if you're gonna sit, think of it like white tail hunting. A lot of the tactics once you're in that tree sitting are very similar to white tail hunting, and then at that point it's just a patience game, and the key is to try to stay away and not fall asleep while in elk's

rolling around in the meadow in front of you. But that's not always easy to do, so for me, I I do a combination that I've sat wallows and had a lot of success. I've used wallows a lot, especially

for guiding where it's just a more controlled environment. I wouldn't say that they're guaranteed, but it's very likely that if you put in the time and you find the right wallow, you're gonna find success because the elk are coming to you and you may get actually a better opportunity at those bigger mature bulls, especially like peak rut the third week in September to maybe the last week in September, maybe they aren't going to be moving away

from those harems as much. So if you can hindpoint that wallow, that's a really good way to target a herd bowl, And if that's what you're looking for, that might be your best opportunity to targeting a specific bowl in a specific area. There's places that I hunt a lot that trail cameras you aren't allowed to use during

the season. So what I do to identify wallows then is I try to take a stick or something and I'll place it in the wall, and then I'll take a picture on my phone and I'll go back and recheck that and see if that area was disturbed. If it was disturbed or there's new mud around, then I know that that wall is being used. The thing about sitting a wallow is can really use them any time of day. They might use them in the middle of

the day. Sometimes they're most likely to use them first thing in the morning or or before the evening really kicks off. But I also find them using wallows a lot during that midday where they push the cows to bed. Once that bull gets up from his bed, he'll walk straight to that wallow, wallow around, then go back in the cows and stir him up for a little bit of ace around, a little bit of grab bass, like right before the evening when they start pushing him out again.

So if you decide, hey, I want to sit a wallow, you know, think of it as an all day investment unless you have proof of when they're using it a lot via trail camera or other intel. Another way to tell if a wall has been used a lot. It is just like going in and seeing, Okay, what's the water coloration. Is this normally a clear wallow and it's

muddy right now? Well, now I know that an elk has been in here, and understanding that is what I do when I'm just in an area and I decide not to do an ambush tactic, but I use the wallows as a jump off point. So I'll just break down one particular area that I hunt a lot. There's a good amount of wallows that you know, over the years, I've done many things with I've Sadam, I've you know, done this tactic where I go in and I just kind of use those wallows as a start off point.

I start off calling into the area and maybe I get a bowl going whatever, then I'm going to go with that option of calling. Now, if I don't get that bowl, the call, maybe they're they're quiet, but I know I've seen elk in there, maybe I've spotted them before or whatever. It's thicker timber. I'm gonna now still hunt to each of those wallows, and I'm gonna I'm gonna slowly move into the wallows. I'm gonna use some

cow calls and other things. I'm gonna be glassing and moving slow and anticipating, looking around like there's an elk on the wallow, and then looking around four elk as well. I'll have the kind of a route where I've pinpointed multiple wallows on this what I call my walk or my hunt. I go to that first wallow, I look no elk at that wall I'm gonna analyze the wallot wasn't used today? Isn't muddy? Maybe I placed a stick on it or something to decipher whether it's been used.

Maybe it could have been used at night. Does it look fresh? Does it smell strong? What are the cues here? Is there an elk around here? If there is, then I can kind of continue to still hunt calls set up. Maybe. If not, then I slowly still hunt to the next one. Doing this, I've found elk. Like I've called elk in the wallows, I've also caught elk in between in these routes and areas around. It's also a good place to

start my calling from. It can be a really good tactic as well, when you know there's elk there, but it's just maybe the conditions got hot and they aren't really making a lot of noise during the day. That doesn't mean that these elk have stopped running. You might be figuring out, okay, well, they're hitting a lot of these wallows at night, they're running a lot at night, they're being quiet in the daytime, But that still tells

me that they're around here somewhere. They're using this as a jump off point, and they probably aren't going real far. It gives me an area at a pinpoint where I can still hunt, and then I can also set up and do some calling tactics where I'm calling to a quiet bowl. Where I might be calling to a bull that's cruising between cows. He's using these walls to perfume up.

I can set up and throw out little cow calls, maybe a few bugles, and draw him to my location, even if he doesn't want to bugle back, or even if he's not being super responsive. It's also a good way to maybe move through the woods using col calls.

Sometimes you can get those cows to respond to you and identify locations of where the bulls are going to be, even if the bulls aren't being vocal just by locating these areas where there's lots of wallows, understanding that these wallows are being used, and then hunting those areas and using that to kind of refine the places that you're searching for elk. If I were to give you some elk homework for the week, I think what you should start doing a good use of time. Let's say you

don't have any time to scout. If you if you've got an elk hunt plant, start looking in those areas for potential riparian areas, springs, basins where there's creeks coming down, and it could even be side creeks where they flow into main creek. That's where up a little bit higher, look for those topographical lines where it's it's steep and flattens out, maybe the top of a little base and there's maybe some more flat areas, and start pinpointing potential wallows.

You know, you could use your whatever you're mapping software on X or whatever and start marking those for when you get into the field if you have time to scout, check out and start locating verifying some walls, because it's really going to be a good position to be in, especially during in September. Maybe the elk aren't doing what you want, or maybe you find a big bull in an area and you're like, okay, I can't call him in.

How do I pinpoint and focus on this animal? Hunting wallows is a huge tactic that you can keep in your back pocket and helps you be successful. So next week we're gonna continue with this elk stuff. Bust out your calls. If you've got an elk call, break it out next week. If you don't, well, order one this week. So I'm gonna go over. I'm actually gonna be I'm gonna try it. Hopefully I don't blow my microphone apart

while bugling. I'm gonna have to kind of set up a room somehow where it sounds all right and don't get like two blown out or two echo e. My homework is to get a new microphone where I can do this with. But I'm gonna go over bugl ing and the escalation. How timing to fire up a bull really works because there's there as much to the sound as there is to the cadence and the timing. And I think you hear a lot of turkey hunters talk about that. Now, one thing I'm going to dispel is

elk hunting is not like turkey hunting. When we start to call elk, we're not going to relate it to turkey hunting. Do you guys understand? Is everyone okay with that? Okay, it's just my rule. So when we talk elk, we're talking elk, weren't talking turkeys. No talking turkey. Um wow, that was just that was a massive side track to what I really wanted to say. I'm fired up and I'm gonna teach you how to fire up those bulls. So until next week now talking turkey. Bust those bugles out.

See you later.