Some WY Action! (grin)

[ElkNut1]

Here's a short clip of a WY elk hunt from this year. This is 20 minutes into the first day hunting! It's about 5 p.m. in the evening! We'd been there for 2-1/2 days waiting out horrible weather staring at each other. (my son & I) This is 12 miles in off an old two track road. It was fun stuff!



ElkNut1

[olympushunt]

That's a sweet video! Thanks for sharing!

[WapitiTalk1]

How cool was that! Thanks for posting it up Paul.

[Backyard]

Someday, when I grow up, I'm gonna go on a hunt where I can be that choosy
Thanks Paul!

[stringunner]

Sweet video. So did any Wyoming bulls go down on that trip? If I remember correctly that was a draw unit you had? Was the hunt worth spending the points?

Maybe I missed a previous post where you told any stories from the hunt?

[Kessler10]

Hey Paul,

what were you saying to this bull when you bugled?

[Wapiti]

Paul was saying " Your to small, go away and grow up". LOL

Actually it was just a simple location bugle. A location bugle is saying "Hello" to other elk.

Trav

[Kessler10]

gotcha! Paul's bugle seemed more like one note so I thought maybe he was trying to sound like a smaller bull to see if he could get a reaction from the other bull.

With that being said I have a question. I ran into a smaller bull this past September and my goal was to try and sound like an even smaller bull with a couple cows. What are ways to sound like a smaller bull bugle? Cut the bugle of shorter, less air pressure, etc???

Thanks!

[ElkNut1]

Kessler, a bit more background to that encounter! That was my 4th setup on him as I recall, in all it took 20 minutes to where you now see the video. I located him with a location bugle to get him to give away his position. He was several hundred yards out but he responded with a warning/intimidating bugle. This generally shows it's a bull with cows, how many is tough to say but he had them! (grin) I then moved his way & shortened my bugle with a little more intensity, I showed him I was not backing down & at the same time trying to catch some of his cows eyes to consider coming my way. That right there can piss a bull off! I had bugled 6-7 times in that span as I put pressure on the bull during that 20 min. It's normal for bulls like him to put distance between the hunter & his harem. They really don't run that far they just maintain what they feel is a safe distance away from this intruder bull. It's important to close that gap quickly forcing him to eventually make a stand.

As I pressed him quickly I kept shortening the distance with wind & cover in my favor, on that 4th setup he was aprox 60 yards out. I could have shaved another 20 yards pretty easy if needed once I had his position, it was tough to tell with it being foggy & all. Towards the end all I was doing was advertising myself to his cows with my bugles, I was not giving a true challenging bugle or a location bugle. If you noticed at the end of clip the bull was chuckling trying to pull some of the cows to him that he heard me imitating. I could have easily cow called my way right in that bulls lap giving him what he was asking for. I could also have switched gears & SCREAMED a Bugle at him & charged him with cover on my last setup once he chuckled for my cows or I could try to slip in silently, all could have worked! Personally I would have cow called my way to him as he had asked, that generally will get you a very close shot opportunity in the right setting. I opted to pass on him & backed out!

ElkNut1

[ElkNut1]

Luke, adjusting air flow & coarseness of your bugle will generally dictate what age of bull you are representing. In most hunters cases they are not nearly as big as they think they are, (grin) It's more important to send the right message out than to be too concerned with age of bull you may be imitating. You aren't going to run young or older bulls off because of age, you can run them off by sending out a wrong message. When real bulls in the field are bugling they do not try to sound younger than they are in fear of running other elk off! (grin) Real bulls are communicating with each other or to a group. Fit a specific encounter as needed & you'll be fine. Sound believable in your sounds & this can go a long ways!

ElkNut1

[Kessler10]

Thanks Paul, Great info.

Just for more context.
My thought behind this question is I had an encounter with what sounded to me like a smaller bull. And wondered what i could of done differently to draw him in.

Would a smaller bull maybe not come to what they think is a larger sounding bull? I ask this because when I hunt I do not care how big the bull is. So if I hear what sounds to be a smaller or younger bull should i try to maybe be conscious of not sounding like an older/bigger bull? AS I could make the younger bull decide they do not wan to tango or mess with what they think is a more mature bigger bull? But If I could sounds like a smaller bull that younger bull might think

"hey I might stand a chance with this one at fighting or stealing his cows, Im going to go investigate? Or am i way off here pissing in the wind?

[ElkNut1]

Luke, hunting & calling elk is situational. I do not bugle or call to every bull I hear, sometimes a quiet stealthy stock is best suited! Yes, there are times to call but what I'm going to represent will be according to the message the bull is sending, not all bulls want the same thing! What I do next is evaluated, did he bugle on his own, was he responding to other elk or another bull, was he responding to my calling? There are situations that arise that we hunters are going to come across as these that we need to understand & unravel. This is how we know what to do or say next! The attitude of the bull is very important, we want to play off of that!

As far as young bulls being scared off by a mature bull bugles, this is not so. Mature bulls generally have a certain amount of cows, young bulls know this & this can draw them to these groups to scent check the area for hot cows. Too, breeding type bugling occurs with the herd bull as cows show signs of coming into heat/estrus, this too can draw bulls of all ages his way, it's part of the rut! Herd bulls can run off or warn lesser bulls to stay back as cows come into heat but those younger bulls don't run into another zipcode, they run far enough away so as to stay out of harms way from the herd bull, they can pester these groups for days! Mature bulls bugling or screaming at these times is an attractant to other elk! These satellite/young bulls want part of the action as they too can smell cows coming into heat, they have the same urges as the herd bulls with all the cows! (grin) Bugling big or Advertising yourself repetitiously in areas can draw bulls your way! When the opposite happens it's us hunters that did something wrong not the elk!

Certain mistakes we make are being winded, seen or we call from bad spots such as seeing elk in openings & we call to them even though we feel we are hidden. Bad setups are another issue hunters face, this means hunters call from spots elk can see source of calling is coming from yet the elk are still well out of range & are reluctant to come any further because they do not see any elk where they know they should be, they generally move off when this happens, it wasn't our calling it was our setup! Food for thought!

ElkNut1

[Wapiti]

Luke, We all have our own idea's when it comes to elk calling and hunting them. I differ from a lot of folks and if I'm hearing bulls bugling I will work each one of them at one time or another. I learned a long time ago that big bulls can sound small and small bulls can sound big !! Bulls can also cow mew and cows can bugle.

One of the biggest bulls I've ever called in sounded like a young bull as he had a really fluty type bugle that actually sounded very fake. Once he stepped out however my jaw hit the ground in disbelief as he was a 380-400 bull !! I'm still hunting him to this day to no avail !!

I guess what I'm trying to say is try to call in every bull you can as you will learn so much !! Try not to get fooled when you hear a weak bugle as it could be your bull of a life time !!

Personally I don't try to bugle big or small. What I am telling you is once we bugle enough we all get our own signature bugle. Which is a bugle you do time and time again and it always sounds the same. This is good out hunting if you hunt the same area's over and over during a season. Elk will learn your bugle and accept you into there pecking order.

Hopefully this will give you more insight into your question above.

hope it helps you out a little.

Trav

[Glen Berry]

Nice job!

[Indian Summer]

Gotta love that stuff!

Fog is an elk hunters nemesis! You can get turned around and even lost in places you know really well. It also makes it really hard to judge distances. On the up side... always thinking positive.... in really open country it can be your cover to allow you to make it from one patch of timber or a draw over to another when you really need to reposition because you're pinned down.

Paul you should continue to hunt Wyoming but on either a General tag or one of the units that only requires 2 or 3 points. I saw some incredible stuff this year in a 2.5 point area. Big heavy long tined bulls. I'm an elkcholic so I have to hunt every year. So I don't know if I'll never have points again. For that reason I'm always looking for guys with some points so I can piggyback on a party app. Got points? (GRIN!)