Bugling

[Vaino]

Started elk hunting in 1985 which was too late and I was too old, but a question to you MLer elk hunters....early on, bugling was a very successful way to bring the bulls in but in these later years it didn't work and now the cow calls work well. Anybody out there that still uses a bugle w/ any success? Stopped using the bugle 12 yrs. ago after most bulls wouldn't even answer and never came in. I hunt in the San Juan National Forest east of Dolores, CO......Fred

 

[Kentuckywindage]

could just be one of those bad days. Bugle is usually used to get them to bugle back and keep their attention while the cow call is easier to control and bring them in close. Ive never been able to call elk before, i always see them as they are running and then im chasing after them :haha:

 

[pab1]

I think cow calls are being over-used and abused now just like bugles. I have seen people cow calling as they march along in plain view, educating any elk around. I bivy hunt in wilderness area's, with low numbers of hunters,and the elk still seem to be on to cow calls. I imagine in area's with vehicle access it must be even worse. Most the elk I have witnessed being called in the last few years, come in silent and very slow. I think the best chance for calling in an elk is a satellite bull who has been chased off by the herd bull all day, or a single (or small group) of cows separated from the main herd. I hope your area has had lower calling pressure than the area's I hunt. Good luck!

 

[Fullstock58]

I haven't hunted Elk in 10 years, back then most Bulls were bugle shy, Too many people calling too much. Cow calls work, but do not over do it.
I had the best luck with a Drink Straw, yes you read it right, a drink straw, it sounds just like the old copper tube elk call we used. The Drink straw is the plastic convoluted type, go in the kitchen get one and blow through it. What it sounds like is a far away bull if you do it right, and it does not have the low tones that scare the bulls, for me most times the bulls chuckle/grunt at the call, and most times they do not run away from it, it's like there hearing a bull far down the valley.

 

[Greenmtnboy]

I think cow calls are being over-used and abused now just like bugles. I have seen people cow calling as they march along in plain view, educating any elk around. I bivy hunt in wilderness area's, with low numbers of hunters,and the elk still seem to be on to cow calls. I imagine in area's with vehicle access it must be even worse. Most the elk I have witnessed being called in the last few years, come in silent and very slow. I think the best chance for calling in an elk is a satellite bull who has been chased off by the herd bull all day, or a single (or small group) of cows separated from the main herd. I hope your area has had lower calling pressure than the area's I hunt. Good luck!

as a guide I rarely use a bugle to call, I use a woods wise and hyper hot single reed. The key is to learn to draw out you call like a estridge cow. I live in a very busy, competitive, area and am still able to call bulls into bow range. The last few years has been extra tough because the DOW now has a over the counter cow tag that still allows you to hunt other seasons so we get every yahoo rifle hunter out there the first weekend doing every thing in their power to educate the elk of human presents :cursing:
Hook up with somebody who can call elk in to the kill every year and have them help you learn to call. No one call will work, you really need to mix it up and get into the woods and do your home work.
:thumbsup:

 

[Vaino]

I'm a Wisconsin resident but your photo sure gets me "homesick"......Fred

 

[pab1]

My favorite technique now is to get ahead of the herd and try to set up for a shot. Usually as they are going from feeding areas above timberline down into the timber. The bull in this picture would drive his cows into the timber just before shooting light. He was late one morning, running his cows down the slope, when I stopped him with a cow call. This is at 11,500 ft and as you know a lot steeper than the picture makes it look. Abe and Sons (I think Lohman is marketing them now) cow calls also produce great sounds.

 

[Greenmtnboy]

Nice bull!!,
ya it is common for the heard bull to push his cows ahead. The last bull tag I pulled during muzzlestuffer season did just that. I was set up calling. He was below me where I couldn't see him. We got into it good when all of a sudden he rounded up his herd and shoved them into my lap :shocked2: . I am sitting there with 20 or so cows and spikes less than 10 yrds away and he is in the back of the pack around 50 yrds in the timber, Finally he gave me a 30 yrd chest shot.
Kersmack pow.

 

[pab1]

Great bulls! That had to be nerve racking having all those eyes, ears and noses so close, waiting for the bull to give you a shot. Any shift in the wind or move at the wrong time and it's all over! The year prior to this ml hunt, I was hunting with a longbow. I was running ahead of the herd, just inside the treeline to figure out where they were going to enter the trees. They went in near the trees in the background of the picture above. A raghorn bull entered first and I was pinned down at 15 feet. He was the first one to enter the trees from a herd of about 60 and could sense that something was not right. The herd was lining up at the edge of the trees behind him. After about a minute of both of us frozen in place, he blew out and took the herd with him. That bull towering over me on full alert is something I will always remember.

 

[Greenmtnboy]

No doubt!!!!!
I have had bow hunters blow it by getting to nervous at a closing bull and actually getting up and running away :rotf:
I have a buddy who took a pic of a rag horn sniffing my shoulder as I was bent over in a juniper bush trying to avoid detection. I just got to get that pic, he says it's awesome.
Where to you hunt in CO. I guide and hunt in unit 55.
:hatsoff:

 

[Bill Hall]

As far as bugling goes, I mostly do it just to locate any bulls in the area. If the rut is on, they always seem to answer, even if they are going in the opposite direction. The problem is, once you locate a good prospect, it's extrememly difficult to put the sneak on him. I was successful doing this once with a 5x5, we saw each other at about the same time and I took him with a .54 RB. The next day however, my nephew came with me to help pack out the meat and I called a big 6x6 right up to us. He came trotting in from about a mile away and showed no signs of slowing. My nephew set up off to the side and dropped him with an (you-know-what) less than 100 yards from my elk. With two elk down miles away from camp, we had to get on the phone and call for help. Man, that's work.

I think the biggest mistake made with calls is over-calling. I usually bugle about every 5 to 10 minutes and try not to sound too aggresive. If they get close, I start cow calling and then try to match their freaquency and tone. My heart starts pounding just thinknig about it. :shocked2: Bill

 

[Greenmtnboy]

What part of NM do you hunt in. Are you in one of those great draw areas that get less pressure?
My buddy guides in the Gila. It really makes a difference if you are not in a high pressure area. I have contemplated many times going to NM to guide.

 

[Bill Hall]

Green, I hunt unit 15, the north end of the Gila, more often than anywhere else, and have taken a few cows there. But the story about the two bulls happened in a unit that I can't talk about. Everyone in my family who hunts is sworn to secrecy, sorry :surrender: . I will say that it is in an area that has few elk, and is such rough country that most new hunters will only walk up a canyon and then go home, never to return. I do know that hunting pressure is low, and the elk seem respond to bugling better than in some of the other places I've hunted, or helped other hunters. But still, I've bugled in some of the heavily hunted areas and will usually get an answer, as long as the rut is on.

 

[pab1]

If you get that picture be sure to post it. That must have been amazing! I usually hunt in 18,28,37 and 371.

 

[longcruise]

I usually hunt in 18,28,37 and 371.

We have hunted there off and on over the years too. This year we have statewide bull and doe tags for 18...etc. We might run up there and pop our does and then head for 214 for the bulls. I'm getting too old for that upper Williams Fork area that I like so well.

Sure is plenty of firewood up there these days! :shocked2:

 

[pab1]

I have never hunted 214. Good luck!