Chuckles and Grunts

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

I'll tell you what I think about these two sounds. Lets hear what you guys think. Do you use them? If so, how?

There is a well known hunter that I highly respect that claims he never uses a chuckle. He clams when a bull chuckles, he is talking to another bull. I have to disagree with that although it is true most of the time. I've seen bulls use light chuckles when in the presence of cows with no other bulls in the vicinity. Chuckles are usually a little higher pitched and you need to get them out just about as fast or rapid as you can. So I'm not afraid to use no more than 2 or 3 light, higher pitched chuckles when I talk to the cows. I just don't do it all that often and usually not at all.

Now grunts are an entirely different thing. They are usually a deeper sound but not always. But low, hard thumping grunts are definitely a challenge. Depending on the situation, there can be several ways to play a bull that has challenged you. You can sound as big and honoree as he is or you can try to sound a little less aggressive and make him think you are easy pickings and he can whip your tail. Or, my personal favorite is to make him think you either have cows or you are trying to steal one of his.

So what do you guys think? How would you work a bull that is either chuckling or grunting after the bugle?

[Tigger]

I have always understood that chuckles are for calling cows to him. I believe it was Elknut who taught that. I have used it to perfection by letting him believe we were a cow and he called us right in. I rarely use grunts, but have used chuckles quite a bit.

It is interesting that someone thinks that it is used to communicate with other bulls. I have never heard or can remember experiencing that.

[Swede]

Within easy view of my camp is a pond with a good population of large trout. A few seasons back I observed a woman fishing it every day when I came back from my morning hunt.
After a few days I had my bull, so I was in camp resting up from a late-night pack out. After breakfast I wandered over to the pond to visit with the woman who was again fishing there. In our conversation I discovered that she was an elk hunter who had filled her tag the first morning. She was still around with her husband and eight other men cooking and waiting for them in camp to fill their tags.
The men in camp went out daily trying to call elk. They had offered to teach her "how to get elk". She declined the offer choosing to hunt her own way. She hunted out of a pop-up blind.
This was normal for her. She would prepare breakfast then go fishing until it was time to start preparing dinner. Over the ten seasons they hunted in the area she had killed seven elk, so she had a lot of time to cook and go fishing.
I asked her how successful the other hunters were. She said not one of the guys had ever killed an elk.

My concern is that we have come to believe that elk calling is some kind of magic trick instead of a tool. We are beginning again to speculate how and where to use this magic. Just as a screwdriver is a tool so is an elk call. If you are speculating on this sound or some other, you will be just like the men in the camp this lady was with. At the end on you season you will be again telling us how successful you were even though you still have your unfilled tag.
Years ago, I believe it was WW who told us about getting a bull to answer a fart. I have no doubt it could happen. If a bull will answer a fart, and I have called using a piece of surveyor's tape for a reed pulled tight between my thumbs, under the right conditions any elk call could bring in a bull. Just my Opinion.

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

Thanks for the compliment Swede. I've been called an old fart but you are the first to say I use a fart call. But technically you may be right. I'm an old fart and I own several elk calls. So, I suppose you could my calls are old fart's calls.

[Swede]

I am not sure who said they farted and had a bull answer. It was an older hunter. Someone also said that they had a bull(s) bugle back at the screech of a rusty gate or pickup door opening. It doesn't matter. I was using my keyboard to express my distain for over complicating eld calling. Grunts, bugles, mews, estrus cow calls, lost calf calls, raking a tree, glunks, barks, chuckles, chuckles at farts, door hinges, bla-bla. I don't even want to sort out all of that. I can't wait to get back in my tree. Simple, but I am afraid I won't be able to go this year. Maybe I am just envious of you jerks.