what did I do wrong

[powderhogg01]

alright guys, so today I decided to take pauls advice and try my hand at some breeding and advertising sequence. Most of the day I got no feedback from anything.. I would do my best to imitate what I hear paul do on the videos, breaking branches, letting out bugles chuckles and cow calls as best as I could. well most of the day I get nothing on my locator bugles or my sequences, that is until I come over a small saddle. I let out a locator as I was now facing a different direction then I had been all day and figured I would try and see if my bugle would carry to some new less dear ears. I heard a few mews from below me and then heard some branches breaking and it sounds like its coming my way.. so I let out a few soft mews that matched the mews I heard from below. The crashing keeps going for a few minutes, getting louder.. then it just stops.
what gives, the terrain was perfect that in order to see me they would have to come up onto the bench I was on. the wind was running up slope all around the mountain, in fact blowing strong enough up hill the entire time I did catch a whiff of elk for a moment, even if he circled me, the wind was blowing up the otherside as well. in order to wind me, I really feel like he would have had to be on the bench with me...
after about 20 minutes of nothing I decided to drop down into the trees I heard the crashing and investigate. I found some large elk tracks which were clearly fresh and likely the elk I heard so I decided that as long as the wind was in my face I would follow them down. The tracks led to this area of the mountain I had never visited before, it was a nice secluded bowl, here is the kicker.. it has this area about 30 yards long and rouhly the same wide where there is no pine needles or vegetation.. for lack of a better word it looks like a rodeo ring. whats this all about?

d950ebdd-123b-441a-b1d0-d090ba01b7e0_zpsjtan7nsa.JPG (437.71 KiB) Viewed 4002 times

this area was just covered in elk track fresh and old.. I have seen nothing like it in these woods at least. should I plan to set up on it, as it seems like a great spot of elk movement.

[The Doc]

i might , or might not have sent a pm {ha ha } i sure tryed

let me know if you didnt get it

[ElkNut1]

Sam, where the elk were coming up to you was it possible you had just walked through that area? Other than winded or seen, who knows? It is odd, generally when elk commit to coming they come all the way until something buggers them. Great job though getting your feet wet in the calling arena!

The dirt area appears to be where minerals are in the ground that elk are visiting, they will actually lick the dirt as well as urinate it.

ElkNut1

[Trophyhill]

I call this the dreaded hang up. They will come so far and stop, look and listen.if they don't see what they were hearing they leave. Did you go silent at some point expecting the elk to come all the way? If so this may have been the moment the elk was looking for the other elk (you) and the elk sensed something wasn't quite right and boogied.

[powderhogg01]

NO WAY had I walked through before, this is an area I have ALWAYS missed somehow. the wind was calm and going straight up hill on both the slope he was on(north facing mid day) and the one I came up(south facing) at the top it seemed to vortex up, I let some cotton go and it literally went up as far as I could see it. I know the wind was coming from him, in order to wind me he would have had to go over a boulder field type point that I simply dont see happening. in detail I had been trying breeding sequences on the other side of the hill, I know from last year and from all the rubs that they do frequent this area, as not many hunters go there.(this spot also is the haunt of a decent muley I have been after)
I went quiet for about 40 minutes and heard and saw nothing, so I moved up and found this rocky point that looked out over this west facing hidden bowl. I let out a fairly short contact bugle and instantly heard a mew from the trees below me. At that point I copied the sound I heard with my cow call(fairly close I feel like) and heard another one. That is when I heard the first branches breaking, they were below the rock pile, not super close. I got off the point and found a nice small bench that offered me a 15 yard shot from anywhere they came. I heard the branches a few more times getting louder, knocked an arrow and gave a pleading cow call and went silent.. as did the elk.. stayed put for 30 minutes then eased best I could over the edge and down until I cut the tracks. it looked like he got out of bed and started to come, then just went the other way. frustrated but still happy to be in the woods.
I kind of thought thats what it was paul, but I am fairly new to the whole elk hunting game.. this is a good destination spot.. plugging things into my gps I have found that right at treeline is a bombhole wallow, that feeds down to this lick and around into the north facing area I had tried breeding sequences in. by golly I think I am finally putting some pieces together! thanks for your help guys, I feel good about this season.. 3 weeks left, plenty of time yet!

[Charina]

I’m confused. You mention mews, then use “him” repeatedly. What do you think was coming – cows or a bull?

Second, you got a positive response to a bugle, and elk moving your way. Why did you suddenly switch on them? And then switch the message again to a different mew? What were you trying to convey? When I hear a herd that is talking, there isn’t a single bugle, followed by a single mew, followed by a pleading call. Rather, there’s a lot of chatter. Or, there is a single bull, often repeatedly bugling.

Elk can determine the location and distance of sound similar to the way we can judge distance and direction with vision. They had a darn good idea of exactly where you were. If you could hear them, they heard you very well, and had your location pegged. So, from this one small location, an unknown and artificial bugle was heard, and they responded. Then from the exact same location, unknown cow(s) that probably sounded decent, but not totally authentic, and they responded. Finally, you threw in a different sound, from the exact same spot, and they shut up totally, and vanished like ghosts.

When is the last time you felt inclined to approach and incoherent and slurring human and wanted to strike up a conversation with them? How about if you were a paranoid schizophrenic, who has been around for 10, 15, or more years, and encountered predators trying to kill you each fall – are you going to approach an unknown, apparently from out of town individual talking incoherently? A dumb lonely spike might be curious enough to come in, but not a group of cows that have seen most all of it all before.

Search the forum archives about painting a mental picture with your calling. John Fitzgerald has a handful of such posts (as do others). I think you might need a more coherent, purposeful, message to your calling scenarios. For example: viewtopic.php?p=41519#p41519

[powderhogg01]

To clarify the branches I heard breaking were coming from a much closer location then the mews I heard. I figure the branches were a bull based on the size of the tracks that I located after the whole thing went bust. I certainly do understand what your saying about switching calling, and in hindsight I should have done things a bit different, much to learn yet much to learn.
I may not have done a great job of describing exactly what happens, as some details may have been mumbled in the excitement. I DID change from locator to mews which I can see now that it was likely a bad move. upon clear less excited eyes it makes a lot more sense. It turns out this spot is above the last good water source and below a solid wallow, which is another reason I feel like it was a bull coming in. The breaking branches got closer but the mews stayed at the same distance until they went quiet.

[Trophyhill]

I’m confused. You mention mews, then use “him” repeatedly. What do you think was coming – cows or a bull?

Second, you got a positive response to a bugle, and elk moving your way. Why did you suddenly switch on them? And then switch the message again to a different mew? What were you trying to convey? When I hear a herd that is talking, there isn’t a single bugle, followed by a single mew, followed by a pleading call. Rather, there’s a lot of chatter. Or, there is a single bull, often repeatedly bugling.

Elk can determine the location and distance of sound similar to the way we can judge distance and direction with vision. They had a darn good idea of exactly where you were. If you could hear them, they heard you very well, and had your location pegged. So, from this one small location, an unknown and artificial bugle was heard, and they responded. Then from the exact same location, unknown cow(s) that probably sounded decent, but not totally authentic, and they responded. Finally, you threw in a different sound, from the exact same spot, and they shut up totally, and vanished like ghosts.

When is the last time you felt inclined to approach and incoherent and slurring human and wanted to strike up a conversation with them? How about if you were a paranoid schizophrenic, who has been around for 10, 15, or more years, and encountered predators trying to kill you each fall – are you going to approach an unknown, apparently from out of town individual talking incoherently? A dumb lonely spike might be curious enough to come in, but not a group of cows that have seen most all of it all before.

Search the forum archives about painting a mental picture with your calling. John Fitzgerald has a handful of such posts (as do others). I think you might need a more coherent, purposeful, message to your calling scenarios. For example: viewtopic.php?p=41519#p41519

I've been thinking about this today. It makes a lot of sense. If we are talking to elk and they are coming and we are not seen or smelled, and the elk pull a disappearing act, it must be something we say that doesn't fit or how we say it and how we sound when we say it. True enough that elk will come in on a rope to a mediocre call at times, especially during peak rut when testosterone is running at it's highest but in early season (and this is my opinion) I think I need to sound the best I possibly can to convince that elk that I am indeed another elk while fitting in with the encounter at hand. I also believe that after the elk have a few years experience themselves, they can spot a phony making it that much more important to not only make the right sounds at the right time but also to make them well.