Strategy for pulling a Bull across a property line?

[Vanish]

Last year we ran into a situation that would have been perfect for a call and stalk. We were set up with a bull a couple 100-200 yards away. This bull would frequently respond when we called, and boy did we call for about an hour. The problem was, he was hanging out just over the line of public/private. I'm assuming he had a few cows at the farther range, as he would often run in our direction, bugle, then retreat.

Any ideas for changing his mind about coming closer?

[dreamhunter]

Move the line,lol really though I wonder if a decoy would be helpful in a situation like that. Just a thought

[Harmy]

I have a location exactly like what you are talking about. The elk move to the public land to feed during the night and then back to private early morning. What we did was to locate the two spots where they tended to jump the fence. Then my partner and I crawled into these spots while it was still dark (lots of open sage with a few patches of aspen where they crossed with them feeding on a hillside about 400 yards from the fence line). The elk started to move off public land just as it was getting light enough to see. We were lucky and took a nice cow and dropped her withing 15 feet of the fence (could have had two if we had not split up but then we might not have had any if we had done that). We had to glass a few days in advance to know that they were migrating this way though.

[Harmy]

This year one of my locations I am trying to hunt has a string of waterholes just outside a CWMU (Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit shown in purple using Google Earth-pin points are visable water with some of these already dried up). I expect to run into this exact problem again this year. I am hoping to catch them crossing somewhere along this line. I will be looking closely to find a location where they are crossing and use that trail to setup. Other than sitting the fence line I too would be interested in approaches to this problem.

[Harmy]

An idea I have would be as follows (critical feedback welcome):

If I had two partners and if they were proficient at calling, set up with the shooter near the fence and callers away from the fence with a cow call furthest and a bull calling between us. Have the cow caller mimic several cows and slowly move away with the bugler following (doing level 1 and or 2). Try to draw the target over the fence following the two.

[Lefty]

I use to pull animals from other properties while fur trapping all the time. And Im far from an elk expert but do know a bit about animal behavior
Animals need a reason to leave, in tthese cases a bull elk,.. You have the basics; food, shelter, water and the ladies.
food and shelter (bedding) may be out on your situation
Kind of general elk behavior, early season and hot , water. later season the ladies
Sometimes you may be wasting your efforts, but then again it only take one time

[cantgetdrawn]

I've done things similar to what Harmy does with deer. I my case the deer hang out about an hour after legal hunting light before crossing into private land.

When I was able to elk hunt I the majority of bugling encounters I had were with elk on the other side of the Mescalero Apache Reservation. I could never get them to cross over.

I am not an expert but I think I have learned something here, therefore I would be interested in what people think of the following strategy.

Get to the area a few hours before sunrise and use a couple of locator bugles along with some cow calls. Whatever gets them to respond. If you are lucky they may hang out until after legal shooting light and you can get in on them while they are still on public land. If not you may be able to pattern their movement and figure out where they are crossing.

You have to be careful, the last thing you want is to arrow an animal and have it cross into private land and die there. Most land managers are not very understanding and will not believe you shot it on public land.

[stringunner]

I have been in this scenario before. If I was to do it now, I would ensure I had a plan in place on what to do if it jumped the fence onto private before going down. It never happened to me, but that was a scenario I never thought about until after. I owe it to the animal to be able to retrieve it no matter where it falls. I'm not saying its not a good idea, just have a workable plan.