What percentage of elk do you call in?

[Elkonthebrain]

Was just wondering when you get an elk to answer or you just hear one, what's your success rate on getting them to come in? I know the scenario doesn't always allow for calling them to you, but when it does what is your success rate? I'm also talking about over the counter diy educated elk not premier draw units.

[Trophyhill]

Not sure what that % is for me but 100% of the elk I've killed with my bow have been called in

[easeup]

lets just say it is low.....and then an even lower chance of sticking him because of the wind, lots of eyes or too much timber.

on the brighter side, as you get deaf in the older years, you don't hear as many so the percentage you are after goes up.

[Elkonthebrain]

I guess more or less I was wondering if some bulls are just not callable. You do everything right and he just won't come in to your bow range.

[Still Hunter]

0% of the bulls i've killed were called in.


I love being different.

[Swede]

The answer depends on when and where you are hunting, but for the most part it is actually pretty low. Over the years, where I hunt, success has continued to drop. I came across a hunter years ago that had a large necklace of bite and blow cow calls. He was decked out in a lot of new fancy stuff. I don't know why but, asked him how well he was doing with those calls. His reply was that 1/3 of the elk that responded to his call came in for a kill. I hope I suppressed all evidence of what was going on in my mind.

[JohnFitzgerald]

I've encountered bulls that just aren't callable. But are they really not callable or have I not found the correct sequence?
Wind direction, terrain, and other hunters do play a big role on success rate. Some of the country we hunt is so thick that it's almost impossible to close the distance on a bull.

This year I was 33%(1 out of 3) on sequences I fully controlled and ChuckarNUT was 50%(1 out of 2) on sequences he fully controlled. We probably bugled up ~10 - 15 bulls the entire 7 days. But we were only able to get close enough to 5 of them.

There’s hundreds of calling sequences a hunter can do. Calling does work and when done properly, it works extremely well. Sometimes, I think it might just be a little unfair. But do your homework first. Spend time in the off season to think about what sounds you want to use. Come up with sequences you want to deploy then be your own critic. Finding flaws in it will give you the opportunity to fine tune it and also give you the ability to adapt during your elk encounters.

Just my 2 –cents.

[Swede]

John: I understand your post, but for clarity, there is a huge difference between hearing bulls, bulls answering a bugle, and control. I assume when you say "controlled", you mean either dead elk, or ones you just chose not to shoot, but definitely could have.

[JohnFitzgerald]

John: I understand your post, but for clarity, there is a huge difference between hearing bulls, bulls answering a bugle, and control. I assume when you say "controlled", you mean either dead elk, or ones you just chose not to shoot, but definitely could have.

By full control I mean we were in charge of the sequence from start till end, without others injecting how they thought the chase should go. Too many opinions can lead to some rough days of hunting.

Will we have those same odds next year? Possibly.....or maybe even higher.

There's a big difference between responding to a bugle with another bugle and answering to the bulls bugle. Do we chase every bugle we hear, you dang bet we do. Or a least we try. Rarely do we work a bull without some sort of vocalization.

[cnelk]

Since I mainly hunt the pre-rut, bugling isnt as feverish as it would be a few weeks later.
So we do a lot of cold calling. And we hunt ANY elk. We are not possessed with bulls only.

Over the years, my notes have revealed that our percentage of calling in ANY elk is 30%-40%
That means basically every 3 times we set up, we call something in.

But calling an elk in doesnt necessarily mean you kill it. Last fall we encountered 63 elk in a week before it all came together.
So, there is a big percentage difference of calling elk in and killing those elk you call in.

[ElkNut1]

Not enough! (grin) I agree with a lot of what cnelk mentions, it's so true!

Certain years are better than others for sure. Other things of consideration are the areas & terrain hunted. I find heavily downfall areas make it difficult for both hunter & elk to get into bowrange at times, elk don't like the clutter either when it's darned near impossible to get through. All in all I'd say we call in 60% of the elk sometimes better sometimes worse so I arrive at that #. It's always a challenge & one many of us look forward to every year!

ElkNut1

[flystrait]

Very interesting question and very tough to answer. We will hear bulls from a distance that we might not be able to get to from our current location for several different reasons. I will say that when we can close the distance to within 100 yards of a bull or bulls herd bulls or other we average around 60-70%. We do pass on smaller bulls or young I like to call them and all cows. Out of those elk we call in around 50-60% of them we actually get a shot opportunity. It really doe's not matter where we have hunted MT, ID etc it seems to be the same odds or success rate. This is all public land elk never have drawn a premier tag or even tried, but would take one in a hart beat. If I was to hunt in a premier limited draw unit I would expect the same results for success of calling them in for a shot. Elk are elk pressured or not IMO I have not seen much of a difference in being callable or not. I know that others will disagree. Find the elk get within distance, have a proper set up, say the correct thing and they come.

[Swede]

You fellows really have me scratching my head on this one. It is almost like we are hunting two different species of animal. Maybe it is our understanding of "success" and "coming in", but by my definition the numbers are a lot lower. The vast majority of elk I hear don't come to me. I have to go to them, and getting close enough to see elk and being able to kill elk, is a vastly different thing. If I could kill 1/3 of the elk that answer a location bugle, I would never hunt elk for more than a week. The remainder of my time would be spent in pursuit of deer.
I would like to sit down in camp with J.F. and get a much better idea of what he means by "controlling elk". Those two words just don't go together in my vocabulary. Maybe I will meet him in camp someday and he can explain it more fully, or better yet, take me out and demonstrate. I may come off as a skeptic, but what I am reading is not meshing with what I have seen and understand.
Maybe I would be better off just meditating in my tree stand. At least the view is good there, and my kill ratio is high on those I want.

[JohnFitzgerald]

You fellows really have me scratching my head on this one. It is almost like we are hunting two different species of animal. Maybe it is our understanding of "success" and "coming in", but by my definition the numbers are a lot lower. The vast majority of elk I hear don't come to me. I have to go to them, and getting close enough to see elk and being able to kill elk, is a vastly different thing. If I could kill 1/3 of the elk that answer a location bugle, I would never hunt elk for more than a week. The remainder of my time would be spent in pursuit of deer.
I would like to sit down in camp with J.F. and get a much better idea of what he means by "controlling elk". Those two words just don't go together in my vocabulary. Maybe I will meet him in camp someday and he can explain it more fully, or better yet, take me out and demonstrate. I may come off as a skeptic, but what I am reading is not meshing with what I have seen and understand.
Maybe I would be better off just meditating in my tree stand. At least the view is good there, and my kill ratio is high on those I want.

Swede, your misunderstanding me. I don't control elk, I control the sequence. Controlling the sequence is coaching every hunter with you. We hunt with a team of 3 guys and whosoever calling is the boss. (ie moving the shooter up 30 yards, having the support guy(3rd) rake a tree). Essentially, the caller paints the picture and is controlling the other two guys. You can imaging the chaos if all three guys did their own thing. Doesn't work!

[Swede]

Thanks John for the clarification. You are right, I did not understand. I get it now. Honestly. It sure ruins a good argument when everyone understands the other person's point. Dang, I thought I had you there.

[JohnFitzgerald]

Thanks John for the clarification. You are right, I did not understand. I get it now. Honestly. It sure ruins a good argument when everyone understands the other person's point. Dang, I thought I had you there.

Lol. If you want I can say "I control elk". Anything to help a bud out!

[Swede]

Lol. If you want I can say "I control elk". Anything to help a bud out!

Remember, I just wrote above about the guy with a necklace full of cow calls. He was implying he was the pied piper of elk. I know you were not going there, but there are a lot of people who have abilities I don't have. I am still game for learning. I know it would be great to be able to reel in every third bull I can hear. Hunting would be great, but I am not sure it would still be hunting.

[flystrait]

To break in down a little simplier. We have a shot oppertunity on a bull that we call in roughly every 3 days of hunting. This is the average some are missed and some are passed. This does not include the ones that are called in just no shot presents itself.