Bugles lie to you in late September. That screaming bull you heard on opening weekend? He’s not screaming anymore, and if you’re still hunting him the same way you were two weeks ago, you’re wasting days you don’t have left.
The third week of September is when most hunters start doubting themselves — running cow calls into dead air, throwing out location bugles that go nowhere, quietly wondering if they burned the spot. They didn’t burn it. The elk are still there. The rut just crested, the dominant bulls locked down with their cows, and the old playbook stopped working almost overnight. This is exactly when aggressive raking and thrashing becomes the tactic that separates punched tags from long walks out with an empty pack.
Why Bulls Go Silent — And Why That Changes Everything
Once a dominant bull has his herd gathered and he’s tending cows through the peak of the rut, a bugle from across the canyon doesn’t mean much to him. It’s background noise. A cow call sounds like one more animal in a bunch he’s already managing. Neither one triggers a response, because neither one registers as a real threat to what he’s already got.
But a bull raking a tree — antlers grinding through bark, branches snapping, the whole aggressive territorial racket — that’s a different message entirely. That says another bull is right here, on his ground, marking his timber. A dominant bull in late September often cannot ignore that, even when he’s locked tight with cows.
Raking works on a primal trigger that bugles can’t touch once bulls go quiet. It’s not really about sound so much as presence. You’re not screaming across a canyon hoping for a response. You’re telling a bull that a competitor has already moved into his living room, and you’re doing it from twenty yards away.
Where to Rake in Montana’s Late-September Terrain
Technique matters, but location matters more. Three terrain features consistently produce reactions to raking when nothing else will.
Dark Timber Edges
The lodgepole and spruce edges along the Swan Range, the Bitterroot’s east face, and the high timber country above the Blackfoot River are classic late-September holding zones. Bulls push cows into the dark stuff during the day, and those edges — where thick timber meets open parks or north-facing benches — are where bulls feel secure. Get inside the timber, within a hundred yards of where you think elk are bedded, and start raking. Hit a small tree hard. Make real noise with it. Then go quiet. Bulls in dark timber react close and fast, or not at all, so have your bow in hand before you ever touch that first branch.
Creek Bottoms and Drainages
Drainages off the main forks of the Blackfoot, the upper Clark Fork tributaries, and the smaller creeks cutting down from the Beartooth foothills concentrate elk in late September for two reasons — water and thermal cover. A bull holding in a creek bottom has natural sound barriers on both sides, which means he often can’t pinpoint exactly where a sound is coming from. Rake a willow clump or a young aspen hard, let branches crack and fall, then move laterally before you set up. Honestly, this is where I’ve seen the most unpredictable approaches — bulls in creek bottoms like to circle downwind before they commit, so pay attention to the terrain and try to anticipate that angle before you start raking.
Wallows
An active wallow in late September is about as good as it gets. A bull still using a wallow is advertising, and he does not want competition near it. Find fresh sign — churned mud, that unmistakable smell, fresh tracks — and don’t bother calling. Rake the nearest tree as hard as you can, then back off twenty yards and get your bow up. This is a short-range game. Bulls coming in to a wallow challenge don’t always make a sound on the way.
The Raking Setup: How to Execute It
You don’t need a specialized tool, though commercial raking devices exist if you want one. A solid stick or a shed antler works fine. What you’re after is bark removal, branch breaking, and noise — in that order. Hit the tree repeatedly, drag the antler or stick down through the branches, and let debris fall. Throw in a few aggressive ground scrapes with your boot if the soil is soft. The combination of visual disturbance and sound is more convincing than sound alone.
Keep your sequences short and irregular. Real bulls don’t rake in a predictable rhythm. Three or four seconds of hard contact, a pause, a few more aggressive strokes, then silence. If you’re hunting with a partner, one person rakes while the other is already set up fifteen to twenty yards away in the direction you expect the bull to come from. Don’t bugle after raking in this late-season window. Let the raking stand on its own.
The Clock Is Running
Montana’s general archery season closes at the end of September in most elk districts — confirm specific dates and unit restrictions with Montana FWP before you head out, since seasons and boundaries vary. What matters right now is that the gap between today and when rifle hunters hit the field is short, and elk behavior shifts again the moment that pressure arrives.
The bulls sitting quiet today in the Bob Marshall, the Gravelly Range, the Crazy Mountains — they’re still killable. They haven’t gone anywhere. They’ve just stopped answering the phone. Raking doesn’t ask them to answer. It tells them someone’s already inside the fence, and for a mature bull, that’s a conversation worth showing up to in person.
Get in close, get aggressive, and keep your feet quiet on the way in. This is the week it pays off.
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