Range? How far?

[Elkhunttoo]

I’ve been looking at trail camera pictures of the last few years and it brings up a question. What do you guys think a herd bulls range is?

3 seasons ago I spiny the last two weeks of the season mainly in 2/3 draws. We had 2 herd bulls in the area and I found them most days. The one would hang lower in the area and the other stayed up higher. They would bugle back and forth between each other but I rarely heard then answer another bugle. They answered each other almost every time. I ended up with lots of pictures on my trail cameras of them. We also had several nice 6 point bulls that would “cruise” throughout the area.

2 seasons ago we had one big bull that kinda dominated the area. It seemed like less activity overall but still a few decent bull’s hanging around this one big bull.

Last season almost no cows in the area for the entire season. Still got Bulls cruising through but always all alone. This includes the same big bull. We only got him on trail camera once last year. Where the seasons before we have him on camera 10/12 different days all in that area.

This year we will be spreading the cameras out another few drainages and I’m curious to see if we will get some of the same bulls or not.

The way the crow flies we will have about 3-4 miles between all the cameras vs 1-2, with a main road in the bottom of the canyon. Will I get some of the same bulls on camera on these farther away springs? Or will it be mainly a whole new crop of bulls?

[saddlesore]

I’ve been looking at trail camera pictures of the last few years and it brings up a question. What do you guys think a herd bulls range is?

3 seasons ago I spiny the last two weeks of the season mainly in 2/3 draws. We had 2 herd bulls in the area and I found them most days. The one would hang lower in the area and the other stayed up higher. They would bugle back and forth between each other but I rarely heard then answer another bugle. They answered each other almost every time. I ended up with lots of pictures on my trail cameras of them. We also had several nice 6 point bulls that would “cruise” throughout the area.

2 seasons ago we had one big bull that kinda dominated the area. It seemed like less activity overall but still a few decent bull’s hanging around this one big bull.

Last season almost no cows in the area for the entire season. Still got Bulls cruising through but always all alone. This includes the same big bull. We only got him on trail camera once last year. Where the seasons before we have him on camera 10/12 different days all in that area.

This year we will be spreading the cameras out another few drainages and I’m curious to see if we will get some of the same bulls or not.

The way the crow flies we will have about 3-4 miles between all the cameras vs 1-2, with a main road in the bottom of the canyon. Will I get some of the same bulls on camera on these farther away springs? Or will it be mainly a whole new crop of bulls?

In August those bulls start to do location calls. By September they know every other bull in the area. Doesn't take long before they figure out those other bugles are hunters.

[Lefty]

Depends Depends Depends ,,,on so many things
Last August the bull my daughter chased stayed within 1500 yards all season until he was killed with a rifle on October first. He was unussuall,,, maybe, He was with cows nearly all summer. interesting he seldom left the private ground where the herd bedded during daylight hours untill the girls were hot. Often the girls left him and he stayed in the bed area.

A bull I chased I had on camera early summer all of Sept, October from the best I could see ranged 25 miles x 7 miles.
I spent the last month he was alive, still huge, old and crippled he traveled from the bedding site I would see him cover 4 miles and than disappear and was killed by wolves

A buddy outfitted a NE Utah CWMU the bulls that spent all summer in Utah traveled to Idaho somewhere around Sept7,8,9 and went to Idaho He killed a bull they had pic 50 miles away

I have pics on trails cams: not the herd bull but 5x5 + bulls hitting three water locations before getting to a field about 10-15 miles back and forth daily.

I use to try to follow big herds in the desert. Sometimes the herd bull had over 50 cows and calves( no satellites. Often spotted at dawn,, then bed 10 miles away at 10AM . And be nowhere in sight for days in that area

[Swede]

There is no absolute answer to how far an elk will travel in a day. Some stay in a small area like a ranch, while others move quite a bit. If you are around those that move in a circuit, a good estimate would be five miles per day. If you are going to ambush an elk moving on a travel pattern, then be prepared to wait up to 10-14 days if you arrive just after they left a location. Again these are just estimates but are a good place to start until you get better local evidence.

[saddlesore]

I hunt in a 5-7 mile radius of where I camp. Usually find elk

[Swede]

It is important to know that not just one herd of elk may use an area, but you can have what I refer to as "residents" that stay in a fairly small area while other just move through. Some elk feen in an area like on a ranch and leave early and go for 2-3 miles to bed and water. As some have mentioned numerous times knowing elk and the area they live in are both important.
I am heading out this afternoon to scout an area I have never hunted. I have no chance of becoming familiar with the elk in the area. I will need to be able to read the sign on the ground to have any idea where to place my stands. Whether we spot and stalk, call or just ambush elk we ultimately need to know where the elk are in September, or we are going to be fighting an uphill battle and going home empty a lot. For my part, I will need to know exactly where I can expect elk to be on some frequency.

[Swede]

In August those bulls start to do location calls. By September they know every other bull in the area. Doesn't take long before they figure out those other bugles are hunters.

Though sometimes offered as fact by hunters, I have read no research material or academic studies that verify this hypothesis. At the least, it is a dubious claim. Elk movement covers a large range. One elk or herd can move around and bump into the range of other elk. We see different elk on different days at the same point, but they are not necessarily traveling together or going on the same routes. If they just coincidently overlap the same area, on a very sporadic basis, how or why would they "know" each other?
I am sure there is some voice recognition as a cow knows her calf and old bull voices sound deeper than younger ones. That does not mean elk know every other elk in any given area. That does not mean that a caller coming into any elk habitat will be recognized as a counterfeit.
I think there are more logical answers to why elk avoid each other or just call back and forth. Besides the reason that herd bulls do not want to come or bring their harem into another bull, there is what I call the "Queer" factor. The queer factor is how a poor caller sounds to as real elk. Just like most of us know when we listen to a male homosexual, that there is something unnatural about him, elk can listen to a pseudo elk and recognize something is just not right. The more the homosexual talks the more you are assured that he is homo. The more the pseudo elk calls the more the real elk knows to stay away or move out.
My observations are too few to be counted as scientific proof, but I have observed elk herds leave the area when a caller over called and had a clear pattern/cadence in their calling. The sounds were excellent, but the calling every five minutes along a ridge at about 100 yards apart was unnatural.
I have called from near my stand once just before climbing into my tree. I have killed five or six elk after calling this way. They usually come in after about two hours of waiting. I have never had a bull bring in his herd. I have had singles and even bulls from a bull bunch come around one after another.
Just like the homosexual can disguise himself; so can an elk caller can disguise what he is by not calling too much and by just giving out a simple call.

[js80138]

This is by far the most idiotic post I have read on WT. Thank you for perpetuating the ignorance stereotype of hunters. Imagine if a champion caller turns out to be a homosexual? Will the elk avoid those calls because they know something is "just unnatural about him?" What about lesbians, how do they sound? How and why you brought sexual preference into a hunting forum in an effort to justify your illogical conclusion and prejudices is beyond pathetic.

[saddlesore]

Unless pushed by hunting pressure. Bulls, in rut, tend to stay in one drainage. Cows have specific breeding areas the same as calving areas they return to year after year. The bulls do not decide where that is.They follow the cows . This is why some hunters can hunt the same bull several years in a row once they identify them.

Like every other animal, each one has a different voice, whether it is a bull elk, deer, bear, horse or mule or dog. After over 60 years of chasing and observing elk,they can certainly determine when a stranger lurks amongst them. Maybe it is because the human caller does not know the elk language and uses the wrong call at the right time, but the elk certainly knows.It is not a dubious claim. Lacking research or academic study or not.

We all have witnessed elk doing things not in the rule book.Some folks just don't pay attention to it.

[Swede]

Everyone who has been here for more than a week knows I hate to argue or debate elk hunting tactics. But if I was a big calling fan, the last thing I would worry about is not being voice recognized by the local elk.

[>>>---WW---->]

This thread is getting a little bit ridicules. Now we have queer bulls????????

But to get back on track, it really doesn't matter how far bulls range. There is a very simple solution. "Hunt where the cows are"! I'll guarantee you, when that first cow comes into heat in September, every bull in the country will be there!!!!!

(Even the gay ones) LOL!!!!

[Swede]

I certainly regret using what I have observed about homosexuals in my analogy about elk callers. I apologize.
It was not meant to reflect on anyone or to be particularly negative. This idea came to mind likely because two persons, one male and one female, in the community recently "came out". I was surprised in both cases as I had no idea, they were queer. I have noticed over the years that homosexuals can change their dress, mannerisms and even their voice inflections to suit the people they are around. I think those tactics are similar to what we as hunters do. For what it is worth, I have compared my tactics in hunting to those of Satan. He disguises himself and tries to trick his quarry into believing he has something good to offer when all he really has is death (separation from God).
I do not think Saddlesore's comment, that elk recognize every other bull in the area is "ridiculous". I just have my doubts that it is true. I have heard/read that comment by well acclaimed hunters. I am just skeptical about the matter. If it was really true, would it not make calling more or less totally useless?

Apparently, I have offended at least one person with my analogy. I did not comment or apologize earlier because I knew my point was misunderstood. Still, I am sorry I did not choose a better way of making my case.

Swede