Your first bugle

[Lefty]

Whats the story behind hearing your first ever bugle. I wasnt raised in elk country but had a few rifle elk under my belt.
The sun was 1/2 finger above setting. About 1100 yards away came a series of locate bugles.I was able to glass a couple bulls sky-lined in the distance. I think those bugles hanged my life

[Heartwood]

September 1993 in Idaho. Shot over a bulls back that day because I left my finger tab in camp but took the shot with bare fingers anyway.

[cohunter]

Packing into a camp during an early rifle season my senior year of high school. As we were setting up the tent in the dark, we heard a bugle just above our camp... I don't think I slept at all that night!

[bald9eagle]

I'm planning on hiking into their dining room so I hope that I have a few restless nights listening to some bugles.

Somewhat unrelated...The first time I ever heard a snow goose was the night I spent at an outfitters lodge in Arkansas before the next mornings hunt. I was like 17 or 18. Couldn't sleep at all hearing the snows honk all night.

[wawhitey]

Lets see, first time i heard a bugle. Well i heard a couple quads running up a logging road, then the quads turned off, and i heard a few bugles from the same spot. Then a couple minutes later the quads started back up, ran about a mile up the road, turned off, then i heard another minute or two of bugling from that spot.

The elk apparently were not impressed. Neither was i.

[elkstalker]

I was in college in Montana and we were on a rock climbing trip to the Tetons, it was September and they bugled all night around our camp and in the mornings as we were hiking in, awesome experience.

[swmoelk]

I was 11 years old on my first whitetail hunt in Missouri. It was just getting light when I heard it. I thought I was going crazy. I told my dad what I heard when I made it back to the truck . He and his buddies got a good laugh and told me I was dreaming and I should spend less time snoozing and more time hunting. They poked fun for awhile then one of them put me in his truck and drove me around the backside of the ranch we were hunting. Turns out there was a man who had a pen full of tame elk not a half mile from where I'd been sitting. Everyone got a good laugh out of it.

[2MANY]

1979.
In our basement.
Heard my dad making voice chuckles into a vacuum cleaner hose before heading to Idaho on an elk hunt.
At the time I was 14 and was quite sure my dad was insane.
We had a heck of a party at the house while he was gone.
Got busted because the house was too clean when he got home.

Since then the bugle is everything elk to me.
Without it they would just be wild horses.

[saddlesore]

Would have been in the 1965 era in the Latir Lakes region, NE, NM. Back then we were using modified conduit to make elk bugles.Thought we were really high tech when we started to use flexible gas appliance hook up conduit.

[Swede]

Wow, that was a long time ago, but I believe I heard the first one as a kid out deer hunting.

[WapitiTalk1]

Ya, geez.... in 68 or 69 maybe (I was probably 9 or 10 years old)? I remember pop taking my older brother and I up to his rifle hunting areas before season opened and getting them to talk a bit.

[huntalittle]

In Yellowstone back in the day when the elk were all over! 3 bulls all in archery range screaming at each other......then I found out its not quite that easy outside the park!

[Old school]

Back around 2000 with an outfitter in Noxon, MT. Hunted in Northern Idaho and it was a great 5 days of hunting with a very knowledgeable guide and outfitter (he had one lung and checked the thermals with his cigarette smoke - and he could outclimb anyone that worked for him or hunted with him.) Would have hated to see what he could've done with 2 lungs and no smoking. A true Billy Goat. Anyway - First morning out after scaling the side of a mountain and giving a location bugle - a bull bugled directly across from us - down our mountain and up the other mountain we went. I was wiped out before 8:00 that morning. That's when I learned there is a big difference between being "in shape" and being in "elk shape".

--Mitch

[WapitiTalk1]

Back around 2000 with an outfitter in Noxon, MT. Hunted in Northern Idaho and it was a great 5 days of hunting with a very knowledgeable guide and outfitter (he had one lung and checked the thermals with his cigarette smoke - and he could outclimb anyone that worked for him or hunted with him.) Would have hated to see what he could've done with 2 lungs and no smoking. A true Billy Goat. Anyway - First morning out after scaling the side of a mountain and giving a location bugle - a bull bugled directly across from us - down our mountain and up the other mountain we went. I was wiped out before 8:00 that morning. That's when I learned there is a big difference between being "in shape" and being in "elk shape".

--Mitch

Yes sir, it's a steep and thick part of the world. Was the outfitter you went with Wayne Hill?

[Old school]

Yes it was indeed Wayne Hill. I was a complete novice, but came away very impressed with his knowledge of where to find animals and his ability to get you opportunities. Out of the 8 of us in camp, 7 killed bulls and the 8th went home empty only because he didn't want to go out on the 5th day and climb a mountain to kill a bull that was bugling like crazy. He said he had killed enough bulls that he didn't want to go climb to get another one. Wayne and his guides really knew their stuff. I've heard that the wolves have really decimated the elk herd up that way now though, sad if that's true.

--Mitch

[Fridaythe13th]

2004 Colorado 1st day of the 2nd Rifle season. I got out of the truck right at daylight not more that 50 yards from the truck a bugle screamed out not more that 400 yards away, so I went into stealth mood. 5 minutes later a shot from 200 yards away a calf came running by so I got ready to shoot that was the only elk I seen that year. I ran into the person that shot, he said the bull was not legal so he shot the cow.

My first thought was that can't be a bugle, but it was.

[WapitiTalk1]

Yes it was indeed Wayne Hill. I was a complete novice, but came away very impressed with his knowledge of where to find animals and his ability to get you opportunities. Out of the 8 of us in camp, 7 killed bulls and the 8th went home empty only because he didn't want to go out on the 5th day and climb a mountain to kill a bull that was bugling like crazy. He said he had killed enough bulls that he didn't want to go climb to get another one. Wayne and his guides really knew their stuff. I've heard that the wolves have really decimated the elk herd up that way now though, sad if that's true.

--Mitch

Yep, Mr. Hill has been outfitting that area for many, many moons. I grew up in NW MT and he was around way back in the day when I was cutting my elk teeth in that area. And yep, the wolves have done a number on the elk up there for sure but have decimated the mule deer pops. I hunted there 4 or 5 years ago for the first time in eons and could not believe the decline of the MD pops. Glad you able to enjoy a season back in my old stomping grounds. Did you swing by Toby's Bar in Noxon for some real NW MT atmosphere?

[Old school]

We didn't venture out in town - at least I didn't. After a morning of hunting and Annette's great cooking, we were either in the mountains hunting or stuffed full and sleeping at the cabin. That was some rough country for sure. It's too bad about the elk and mulies, I would have loved to go back to that area to hunt again.

[Ponyboy_jonas]

October 12th 2014. I was walking up a mountain when I heard a bugle towards the top.

[Luckyman]

2009 hangliding trip, car camped at the base of the Grand Teton that we hiked up the next day. They bugled all night!

[NebrCatMan]

We were deer hunting in the NW Part of Nebraska when I heard a wild elk bugle for the first time back in 1999 or 2000.. can't remember for sure. But I was hooked, had to get to the rockies during the rut. Since then I have been to Colorado a few times and Wyoming once. Never gets old, best part is laying in the tent at nite and hearing those bulls scream. One time even must of had a bull herd his cows almost thru camp as I woke up to cows coming near our tent chirping and meowing A bull sounded off just a hundred or so yards away from our tent. Cool!!!. Another time while we were camped elk hunting just east of Jackson or SE of Yellowstone south of the wilderness, the elk rut was over but we heard wolves howling in the nite. Sent chills up and down . Next day there were tracks all over the valley we were in. Those wolf tracks sure are huge compared to our Nebraska coyotes.

[Lefty]

We were deer hunting in the NW Part of Nebraska when I heard a wild elk bugle for the first time,....... Nebraska coyotes.

I trapped in Sioux county in the 80s, some in the wilderness some in Nebraska National forest,.. who would have thought Nebraska had "forest" and "wilderness".
I had never seen wild turkeys,.. and we saw thousands on that trip, incredible. Golden and Bald eagles everywhere. We didnt catch much fur, a government trapper had been hitting it hard all year. We tried to pass of as sport trappers,.. He made the comment,.. and called B.S. "Ive learned more about this area watching you guys the past hour and 1/2 than trapping it since July."

Unique and strange country, Pines to badlands. Home of a few big deer, and 300 foot drops , tall trees and sharp cactus,. Talk about desolate ,.hmm Maybe a summer trip with my wife

[ABQ_Chica]

I heard my first bugle as a teenager in Montana's Gallatin Canyon, long before I ever started hunting. During the rut, my high school friends and I used to sneak out at night, pile into a giant Chevy Suburban, and drive south from Bozeman. We'd pull over wherever the nightlife got loud. Packed in like sardines for warmth, we'd each bundle up in a sleeping bag, lay our heads on the tailgate, stare at the stars, and listen.

Had they known, I'm sure our parents would have assumed we were engaging in our own illicit ruckus, but instead we were listening to the elk ruckus, nature nerds that we were!

[twinkieman]

1989, on a bowhunt for mule deer, in Nevada. Late August, somewhere between the 25th, and 30th. We were up in a basin about 10,000 feet, planning a stalk on a bedded buck, when out of the aspens, 300 yds away a magical sound drifted out, followed by several more bugles, and as the bulls got closer and closer, the clashing of antlers.

[Trophyhill]

September in the year, 2008, absolutely had no clue what I was doing. I was pushing on a hoochie mama and heard the distant bugle at about 500 yards. I kept calling, he kept bulging and he also kept coming. Before I knew it, he was screaming in my face at about 20 yards. He was buried in the thick stuff. I could see him well enough to know he was a very big bull. Never got a shot but came off the mountain trembling that day. Been hooked ever since.

[Brendan]

Two years ago, 2014, middle of September. The real first was from an overlook at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Western ND on my way to MT. The next morning I was hunting and had bulls bugling in a valley below me at dawn. During the next 10 days I had everything from distant bugles, to a 6 point screaming in my face from 10 yards away. Finally called in and arrowed a satellite 5 point who was location bugling on the last morning at dawn.

[Gansettx]

September 2015 near Bozeman...headed to glass a meadow before daybreak. Bulls everywhere screaming their heads off, deep guttural grunts! Hair raising intense experience that was the start of a Wonderful addiction.

Soon as I get the pixels right I'll post a pic on the meat pole.

[Dr. Rx]

still waiting for the moment

[WapitiTalk1]

still waiting for the moment

This is the year mister!

[Fishinsimpson]

First day in the elk woods ever. We had made the long hall up 2000' from the costal river plane. Panting slightly we heard a distinctly human bugle down the ridge.

We knew another hunter was behind us so contributed it to that. Then a response erupted from the woods

[lamrith]

still waiting for the moment

This is the year mister!

I hope to report back to this thread with my 1st in October!

[ishy]

Gave the long version in Elk hunter Evolution, but it was September 15, 1990. I'm sure I heard 50 bugles first hour of light on the famed manti unit in central Utah scouting for an upcoming spike hunt in a LE unit.