How Much Do You Bugle?

[ElkNut1]

Bugling is huge for us!! It is our main source of sound used for location of other elk! We are not trying to call elk to us, just locate them! How about everyone else? Do you use your bugle a lot or very little? We are selective with it but it is an extremely powerful tool for us!

ElkNut1

[planebow]

Where I have been hunting for the last couple of years it is very open with lots of hunters so we spend more time glassing and stalking. When I was hunting the thicker timber I used to call a lot but did not really know what I was doing. Thanks to yuor play book and cd's I think I would have a lot better luck.

[wapitibowman]

I never know when I am bugling too much. The last few years the elk haven't been quite as vocal as in years past in our area. Maybe it's just me.
How does one know when he is over bugling/calling?

Wapitibowman

[Lefty]

I did one day of location bugling ,.. 4-5 hoursI just wasnt sure what I was doing,.. Unfortunatly the responce I got was up wind,.. I chanced the direction I needed to get side wind, spent time glassing, eventually getting down wind but was reasonable sure thw elk winded me early on and left the neighborhood
Depending on where Ill be hunting I expect to spend my time after sunrise glassing some areas and bugling later morning and afternoons
this year Ill move quicker, glass as I enter an area then call, wait, move to the next location and do the same

[dreamhunter]

My buddy and I are going to do some late night bugling to locate,we will do some in the daytime again to locate and then depending on what we find and the situation will determine after that.@ yrs ago I was out by myself and did more than usual for me and had good luck on getting responses.Unfortunately I didn't understand what i was doing or saying. This year will be different, thanks to elknut.

[dito]

Very sparsely. I'll only use it if I'm trying to sound like a herd or if a bull locks up out of range to cow calling. But I'm going to start bugling for locating.

[sockeye]

I usually find myself using a location bugle first thing in the morning (dark) as the terrain allows for sound to travel. Then again in the evening (dark) when I am wrapping a day of hunting and headed to camp. Normally very limited.
Now after listening to your CDs in my truck the last month or so I can see my usage increasing based on the situation.

[ElkNut1]

Yes, Bugling can be situational for sure, adjusting to individual ones will show you that sometimes cow calling trumps bugling or vice versa, that's where understanding what's going on comes in! As hunters we are trying to get elk into our effective range & avoid hangups or busting elk out all together. Sounds used are a big part as is good setups/cover & manageable wind, stay within these parameters & close encounters will be the norm!

The Bugle is a powerful tool, take full advantage of it but don't abuse it! The same applies to cow calling, just as many elk hang-up or move away from our cow calling as they do from bugling! Food for thought!!

ElkNut1

[eltaco]

Just did some bugling back and forth with a big 6x6 this morning. He has a couple of cows with him and he's returning bugles and chuckling 10-12x. My shooters couldn't get inside of 50yds and things cooled down a bit so we're going back after him this morning.

Started out with a sequence of cow calls followed by a locator bugle and got a response. Closed the distance on him and then he got more excited. Don't be scared of your grunt tubes opening week, fellas.

Oh yeah, and we missed a 5x5 at 50yds this morning. My dad held at full draw as we stared right at us to about 40 seconds. I cow called to turn him, but it was a long hold. Clean miss thankfully, but awesome experience nonetheless. Cow decoys in the open do work

[foxvalley]

This is the first year" post playbook" that erik and I will have an oportunity to hunt together,and apply all that we have learned from the play book. We never knew there were different types of bugles! Our erea is all dark timber,no parks or openings,and the locating bugle is going to be huge for us.Aggressivness is also going to be a huge part of our success. The key piece to my elk hunting puzzle has been found and put in place,it all makes so much sense after all these years of being in the dark. I still can't thank you enough,Paul, and your crew, for the understanding of it all.

[shooter21]

I find my self bugling more PRE rut locating or even trying to pick a fight .AS the rut gets more intense im more selective with it more just as a locate but i dont mind picking fights anytime of the season if the scenario is right !!!

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

How much I bugle depends on what the elk are doing. If they are silent, I may sound off with a location bugle or two but generally not much more than that. But if the bulls are vocal, I will be as well. There is nothing more exciting than to challenge a bull and have him come in on the fight just looking to kick your tail. That is ultimate elk hunting!

[WhackJob]

I would say I bugle sparingly unless the bull "tells" me I need to do otherwise. That being said........I basically NEVER call to simply locate....almost always calling to bring the bull to me. There are rare exceptions to this, for example if I don't want a bull to come closer to an area where other hunters would possibly then be able to hear him/us.

[elkmtngear]

Situational. If the bulls are vocal, I'll use a locator. If the bulls are silent, I will stalk and glass. My contention is, the elk know if it is a "bugle day" or not, and I feel they get suspicious when they hear a lot of bugling on a "no bugle" day. I also feel that hunter pressure and over bugling can shut down vocal activity. Just my 2 Cents

[Swede]

I hunt near where Elkmtngear does and find it interesting that our oservations are very similar. I too am very selective with my calls and don't over-do it. I had not picked up on the "no bugle days" idea, but regardless I am careful not to run the elk off. I try to coax them in by working on their curiosity.

[ferris bugler]

Less through the first week of the season, which is when I usually hunt new spots that I haven't ever hunted. If I am hunting a familiar area I will usually try to get some action going. Once the elk become responsive I bugle all day everyday and adjust to each situation.

[flystrait]

I use the bugle as my primary source for calling. If the elk are vocal I will wait until we close the distance and set up within I hope is their bubble. If the elk are quite I will use a lot of locating bugles. That being said I usually never set up for blind calling. I call it running and gunning.. The bugle can be used for so many different sounds and can be very effective..

BTW love the forum!

[mongopino915]

I will do anything I feel like to get a response. I bugle and chuckle a lot but will not hesitate to switch gears to some soft cow mews/chirp, lost/gathering cow sounds, ninja stalk, and etc.

I have heard that to kill elk, you should leave your calls at home. I wish I was the only one carrying a grunt tube and a diaphragm in the wood.

Good Luck to All.

[Fullabull]

Where my dad and I hunt, the bulls are never vocal on their own. No one around there seems to use a bugle unless they hear someone else use a bugle. I always use my bugle to find bulls and we find a few every year in places no one thinks they are at. This year I called my bull in with a lazy bugle which he answered twice before coming in from his wallow. I called a second bull to a meadow when it was real windy, I was not seeing or hearing anything so I started using a lost cow sound through my bugle to make it louder just in case the wind was not allowing the sound to carry very well....sure enough in less than five minutes I had a bull at the bottom of my meadow grunting at me because he could not see any elk in the meadow. I tried called to my dad because he was suppose to be below the meadow but had gone too far away so we never got a chance at that bull

Guys who hunt up high where I can't go with my dad say they hear bulls bugling and running with cows every year. Where we have to hunt down lower, there is more pressure and the elk are pretty quiet so hunters are quiet. I think this is a mistake, as we always get elk to talk to us by trying different calling sounds until something happens. Other hunters are always surprised when I tell them we call elk in.

[Bullnuts]

I bugle quite a bit, but I try to keep the volume down. I've noticed that a lot of the bulls in my area do the same thing and when I hear them, they're very close even if they sound far off. Mostly I keep my bugling to locator type stuff and will use different sounds, huffing and whining mixed with cow sounds when I'm working my way in. I also use a roar when I'm close - it's that sound that a small bull makes when he just got a beat down and is frustrated that he can't be with the herd. It's an effective sound that sounds like a cross between a moo cow and a bugle, and when you mix in a couple cow mews with it, it'll drive those bigger bulls crazy.

[T/H]

i used my bugle tube alot this year. not just for locating but for challenging as well. i mixxed it up pretty well this year with both cow sounds and bugling. each year of elk hunting expereince teaches me more about the elk and what not to do. (usually after i've done it of course)

[Vanish]

Bugling didn't really work well for us this year. Never got a response to a locator, and actually scared a couple bulls I hadn't seen. I was trying to sound small, maybe I just sounded like a human.

[Bullnuts]

Bugling didn't really work well for us this year. Never got a response to a locator, and actually scared a couple bulls I hadn't seen. I was trying to sound small, maybe I just sounded like a human.

It's funny, but I've heard so many different sounds from elk, I don't know that they know what a human sounds like. Just when I think I hear a human trying to bugle it turns out to be a bull, so I quit trying to guess.

[mongopino915]

I sometimes use the bugle + chuckles to locate other hunter(s) within my hunting area to avoid them. That is not saying that I have never mistaken a real bull for a fake.