So you want to kill a Bull Elk? Don't worry, it's not impossible, however for my method, you will need a mate first.

The bull elk deals more damage, and has more health than cow elk, but gives you almost 500XP (five times more than a cow elk) when killed and the carcass lasts a lot longer. As well as this, it is a huge achievement and gets you a steam achievement too!

Once you have a mate, continue to the next step!

You are going to lose a lot of health when killing a bull elk. This is not preventable, and you shouldn't worry when you lose health. Before you go after the bull elk, you need to kill lots of cow elk and make sure the carcasses are by the elk herd.

When chasing the cow elk, make sure you chase her and herd her back to the hunting ground if she strays too far away. I usually have 5+ carcasses, but because ravens slowly eat the carcasses, I would reccomend having about 7 scattered about.

Once you have a sufficient amount of cow elk to eat, prepare for fighting the bull elk...

Now, this is where my method is slightly different from other methods, and why having a mate is important.

First, you have to bite the bull elk once, and then your mate will start attacking. You only have to bite it once and your mate will do the rest. Once your mate gets injured it will go and eat a carcass. It will return and you will have to bite the elk again to get your mate to restart attacking. When your health is low, don't forget to eat a cow elk carcass. Keep going until the bull elk starts running away.

It won't attack you now, so you can chase and bite it like you usually would. When it gets even weaker (which takes longer than a cow elk would), you can repeat the above process and get your mate to attack it. You can help a bit if you like.

Finally, it should die. It gives around 470-500XP depending on the health of the bull elk and some other factors... The carcass lasts a lot longer than a cow elk carcass, and the scent marker is more purple at the top than a cow elk scent marker. Congratulations on killing the bull elk!

(note: The picture on the left shows a bull elk carcass scent marker on the left and a far away cow elk carcass scent marker on the right.)