Whaddya do? Elk scenario.

[WapitiTalk1]

Allright campers.. You've taken off from your camp well before daylight and you stop on a few hundred yard wide, flat ridgetop overlooking a smallish basin right at daylight. You're standing on the edge of the basin looking down. It's light enough to shoot as you've checked your pins by holdiing your bow in front of you several times for the past few minutes. It's time to throw out a locater bugle.. Your two notes echo through your chuckler, cutting through the the brisk autumn air and rising mist, and.. bang off the the sides of the draw surrounding the basin below and in front of you. If anything is there, he's gotta hear it. Nothing... not a thing answers your call in the target area. After waiting a few minutes, you and your buddy decide to move on and see if anybody is home on the other side of the basin. As you take the first step, you both freeze as a bugle pierces the morning cold.... He's directly behind you, a hundred yards or so, but the cross thermals appear to be blowing directly towards him! Where you stand it is realtively flat and you assume that within seconds or minutes at the most, the beast will wind you and crash off into the elk woods. What do you do? It's the second week of SEPT and the elk are vocalizing well this particular year.

[Goneelkn]

Drop down in the basin a ways, set up the shooter, the caller set up down a little. The thermals will be down that early.

[mongopino915]

First and foremost, without the wind being in a favorable direction you have no chance of putting any elk down. With that said, I would slip down the basin to one side as quickly as possible to put myself in a crosswind position at minimum. Once positioned, I will try to lure him then and there.

Or if I have the patient, I would slip down the basis and try to loop around AFAP to put the wind in favorable direction and then try to lure the bull in.

More than likely, the bull will scent me and it's game over, but you never know.

Also looking to hear what others have to say.

[eltaco]

Agreed with everyone else... that wind is going to hose the whole thing up in short order! I'm not sure theres a right answer in that situation but I think I'd stay on that ridgeline and cut sideways as quickly as possible... even if it meant making some noise in doing so! Any self respecting bull in the same situation isn't likely to put himself in a weaker fighting position by dropping off the ridgeline and he'd be doing his best to bring the wind in his favor as well. I'd think it's reasonable to have a bull believe that I'm another bull trying to stack the cards in my favor by repositioning with respect to elevation and wind advantage.

The wind isn't going to help no matter how you look at it, but if you could find yourself working down wind of the bull in quick order, I think you stand a decent chance... especially with a responsive bull. Sitting still for any length of time is probably your worst option here, IMO, so anything you can try seems to improve your success here!

[WapitiTalk1]

You guys are on it. Thermals were still moving down when this actually played out for me a few years ago in a wilderness area in Washington. Dropping into the basin sidehill, where your scent would be moving down and away from the bull is the same thing I thought at that moment. I reacted the same as you guys recommended but did it just a bit different. As we had just crossed the flat ridge, I guessed the bull that answered me was lone one and perhaps would come in if we I could get the wind in my favor. I had my buddy veer straight off at 3 oclock and told him go 25 yards and set up. I dumped over the sidehill, making a ton of noise. When I got over the bank, I set up quickly with cover to my back and threw out some pleading cow calls.. The bull we had heard was even closer than when he gave us his initial response (was definitely interested in meeting us) and gave a nice two note bugle. End of the story is my buddy actually drew on the bull but didn't have a clear shot. At some point, he got our scent (not sure if it from my buddy or just smelled us on the huckleberry brush we'd moved through) and headed down into the basin way off to my left.. He didn't talk anymore after that. Perhaps we "both" should have dumped over the bank Fun morning though. RJ

[ElkNut1]

Absolutely a tough situation to be in, I knew you should have worn your scent lok that day! (grin) Ha Ha, with the wind already heading the bulls way it would be short of a miracle to reel it all your way by running out of there! If a shooter could go left or right to get the wind away from the oncoming bull even a little bit but stay on top & the other (caller) bail over the edge & go the opposite direction the shooter did to give shooter even a better chance at the wind not busting him & call with excited estrus type sounds as if she was leaving in an attempt to get this bull to follow or catch up with her & possibly bringing the bull by the shooter. This would take quick instincts but worth a shot!

I've been in similar situations & was one reason I was considering an elk urine in a spray bottle, I've heard of guys dousing the air with type sprays when the wind wasn't the greatest & it pulled a bull their way as the shooter still did his best to avoid being winded, it's worth a shot when you have nothing to loose! Food for thought!

ElkNut1

[elkohalic]

I would have the caller stay put and the shooter close the distance about 40 yards [what ever possibly] very quietly. Then the caller calls again with the excited caw calls. Somewhere the wind is swirling and not getting to this bull. Hard to determine where but the shooter can not go beyond this point. Watch the grass and check the wind with the powder puffer.
I also believe you can piss a bull off so much that he will forget about the wind just long enough to get a shot. Not very likely but it does happen.
If the wind is strong and blowing right at him and you know he has your wind, don't be surprised to see another hunter sneak up on you.

[The Doc]

first, im going to tell myself the wind is blowing twards him but it is also blowing it slightly to one side or another {that way my bull killing confidence stays high} then , with no elk sounds at all i would loop around him, trying to get on a lower elevation. so it adds to the bulls confidence level . sneak in as close as i can. {im hunting alone , as usual} a few quiet cow calls.maybe a bugle , maybe not.

then to make this like 80% of my so called brilliant elk plans. i would wait confident the bull was on his way in. when he doesnt show i would try a location bugle. then after i didnt get an answer i would realise that my plan wasnt a very good one ,that he probably winded me and burn up some boot leather and go find another bull. thinking on the way there that i should have reread the elknut playbook.

[foxvalley]

If it's thick cover,a guy could get really aggresive and just go right at him calling with exited cow calls and crashing in on him. You can "beat the wind" if you move at a fast walk or run, but you have to make him believe you are a cow 100% because you will have just a few seconds before he gets your wind. Maybe spraying urine on your way to him would confuse him long enough to get a shot.

[ElkNut1]

foxvalley, I like your style! That's one of my favorite methods!!! I didn't mention it because Phantom mention the wind going right at the bull. But when possible your aggressive style is awesome!!!Thanks!

ElkNut1

[elkmtngear]

If it's thick cover,a guy could get really aggresive and just go right at him calling with exited cow calls and crashing in on him. You can "beat the wind" if you move at a fast walk or run, but you have to make him believe you are a cow 100% because you will have just a few seconds before he gets your wind. Maybe spraying urine on your way to him would confuse him long enough to get a shot.

That's awesome!


You could even add to the confusion if you ran at him with an elk decoy out front, plus it would help "hold" some of your scent.

[elkohalic]

Allright campers.. You've taken off from your camp well before daylight and you stop on a few hundred yard wide, flat ridgetop overlooking a smallish basin right at daylight. You're standing on the edge of the basin looking down. It's light enough to shoot as you've checked your pins by holdiing your bow in front of you several times for the past few minutes. It's time to throw out a locater bugle.. Your two notes echo through your chuckler, cutting through the the brisk autumn air and rising mist, and.. bang off the the sides of the draw surrounding the basin below and in front of you. If anything is there, he's gotta hear it. Nothing... not a thing answers your call in the target area. After waiting a few minutes, you and your buddy decide to move on and see if anybody is home on the other side of the basin. As you take the first step, you both freeze as a bugle pierces the morning cold.... He's directly behind you, a hundred yards or so, but the cross thermals appear to be blowing directly towards him! Where you stand it is realtively flat and you assume that within seconds or minutes at the most, the beast will wind you and crash off into the elk woods. What do you do? It's the second week of SEPT and the elk are vocalizing well this particular year.

So ??? Lets hear how it played out !!