I was on another hunting site & there was a lot of talk about good elk tactics & bad elk tactics. What I feel it really boils down to is the right tactic at the right time. A great tactic on the wrong situation or elk can go array or create major hang-ups which we've all experienced, generally leading to elk going the other way! Anyway just passing some time & figured on sharing this!
Guys will bugle for many reasons, when an answer is received it's common for them to want to continue calling in an effort to pull the bull over to them, rare is the case this bull comes trotting over their way from 100's of yards out this is especially so with a bull who's got cows! This is exactly what took place with my son & I on Sept 6th on an OTC public land hunt like most of us hunt!
We had come across a bull bugling 1/2 mile away, as we got closer we could hear a hunter bugling this bull from up on a small ridge a good 400yds away, it was right near daylight & this bull had a good group of cows which we would later see in a small mdw below the hunter. We were coming up this mtn well below the elk & the hunter with wind in our favor. As we approached this mdw the elk were on the move & out of the mdw by the time we made it up there, the bull & harem were moving to our right & away from this bugler. (primos special bugle) This guy bugling never moved an inch toward that bull, as we stopped there & listened it was very apparent that he was just going to stay there a give his best & very predictable 3 note classic bugle all morning!
I didn't want to intrude but could tell 2 things, this guy was never going to kill this bull & 2nd he wasn't going after him either. The distance between this bull & the original caller was now 1/2 mile but from our new position I could hear both clearly! I told my son let's go & be ready for when things start happening, because you're going to kill this bull. He grinned & we took off after this still moving but vocal bull. We stayed under the bull 150yds & out of sight as it was very thick & eventually cut the distance to where we were under him. This took just under an hour to do & we knew this bull was heading to his bedding area, we never called to this bull once up to this point.
Here's where reading a situation comes into play as well as only using sounds that fit this encounter & will get this bull to break away from all these cows & come our way!
We are now aprox 50yds from this group in major thick alders & the elk are above us, we can't see a thing, we can hear this bull using tending glugs (not glunks) as he checks & smells each cow as they near estrus, he's also huffing in very low tones. We can tell he's excited & very protective as he tends to them, we can hear light stomping & rustling as he moves around & through all these cows but there's this wall of alders a solid 40 yds thick. I set my son up only 10yds away from me on the uphill side & he knocks an arrow on his recurve, it's very thick & I cannot see him at all.
What am I going to do to call this bull over yet not run him off? (grin)
I am going to "Pose A Threat" to him & his cows! I know this is my best odds to get this bull to "react" at such a close distance as I need him to bust through these alders. There's no waiting them out in hopes of a shot with no calling I could see that. Too, this is no place for a cow call & or a spike squeal, the odds are much to low for success. If I use only a cow sound there's a good chance the bull would try to call me to the group & never come my way, 2nd a spike squeal is no threat & in many cases a real bull will only issue a verbal abuse to run off this small guy & I needed him to come over to us!
I am going to represent a real bull here & use a sound a real bull would in this situation. With my son setup & ready I gave a single cow mew a bit longer than average & screamed a short guttural blast that was as big as I could muster up! I instantly started stomping the ground & breaking dry branches from a dead downfall I was behind, this bull came through those alders like shot out of a cannon in a blink of an eye & stopped at 14yds from my son & 8yds from me & screamed a huge unmatchable bugle! My son drew & released & the bull exploded out of there! We found him 65yds later with the arrow through his heart!
It is very common for a real bull to issue forth with one or two mews & scream over the top of these in an effort to call this real bulls cows over to himself! No real bull worth his salt will stand for it when inside a 100yds!
As we stood over that bull my son looked at me & said "I guess you were right" I said what do you mean, he says you told me I was going to kill this bull, I had forgotten that! (grin) We were just lucky!
Bottom line, a bugle ran him off originally & a bugle eventually killed him, timing & selective sounds are key here as well as reading the situation!
ElkNut1
Topic: Elk Hunting Story (Read 1834 times)
