Have you called in another hunter? Lets hear about it!

[Tigger]

In another thread, Ironman mentioned that he has called in a number of hunters so I thought that would be a great topic for a new thread. Tell us your stories of calling in other hunters......I am getting my popcorn.....!

[Gselkhunter]

Lots of them but that isn't the fun part. The fun part is going to them as if you were a bull coming in. Get them them all screwed up by using every trick in the book. Then turn around and walk away silent and listen to their feeble attempts to call me back..

[WapitiTalk1]

Shame on you Gregg . Yes, I've done it a few times but only when warranted

A few years ago on an early season WA hunt, I heard a bugle below me on a steep, berry bush choked sidehill. I was 90% sure it was a hunter (primos or some kind of reed bugle) but if a hunter, this guy had busted in at least a mile and a half from a low access road up through the nastiest lava outcrops and huckleberry fields you can imagine. But.... you never know so I moved towards the call, set up (was by myself this outing, hunting out from a wilderness bivy camp).. donned my facenet, nocked an arrow, loudly beat the crap out of some brush, and threw out couple of notes with some light chuckles tacked on for good measure. Within the next 60 seconds, I knew it was a hunter(s). Why? Because I received the same five note, internal reed bugle back, followed by an attempt to do chuckles, followed by a series of unmistakeable....... wait for it..... Hoochie Mama squeaks... Crap, what was this guy doing in "my" hunting area? So I did what I had to do.. I let go the nastiest, loudest, lip bawl scream with follow on hard hitting grunts I could muster. Poor guy(s).. I saw them moving below me, half crouched over getting into a new position.. Here comes the reed notes back up at me with Hoochie squeaks... Enough is enough, I gave them four or five turkey clucks and all went silent (there are no turkeys in this WA area by the way). I turned around and I assumed they left. Hey.. at least I didn't call them all the way in. RJ

[Lark Bunting]

My son and I were hunting in a spot where I both had my deer tag and is an OTC elk unit. We had seen some deer the evening we arrived at camp but really wanted to target elk the next morning. We crossed the road from where we camped and go to a nice aspen meadow. We separated and began elk calling. We hear a bugle...or a cat being skinned...one of the two. My son mouths the words, "Hunters?" and shrugged. I nodded yes and kept calling. We were both in good cover and held still as a statue and called the guy right in between us. When I stood up he about crapped himself as I'm sure it looked as if the bush I was in front of came alive. I was surprised he came into the calling setup without an arrow knocked.

We chatted quietly for a minute and decided to go hunt behind our camp, as it was a bit more secluded. Once we were about a 1/2 mile behind camp we again set up a calling sequence...and heard the distinct sounds of a hoochie momma coming our way. Right about then, my son says, "Hey dad...there's an arrow stuck up in this tree!". Being that he is young and I try to make sure we are always entertained I decided to lift him up the tree to unscrew the arrow. All of a sudden he starts laughing hysterically. I asked him what was so funny and he replied, "I just saw another hunter come up over that ridge and he about fell over laughing to himself.". Apparently we got distracted by the arrow and forgot we had just heard another hunter a few minutes prior. I'm sure we looked like a couple idiots with him on my shoulders trying to retrieve an arrow that wasn't even ours.

Later that afternoon I killed my first deer.

[CurlyTail]

My first season Elk hunting. My brother and I were very green. New area, no idea what to expect as far as hunting pressure etc. , I had taught myself to call starting 4 weeks before the Archery opener, and I was hunting as the caller and support crew for my Brother who was the hunter. I could only cow call - my attempts at bugling definitely not ready for prime time.

My brother had heard the dangers of over-calling, and wanted me to be very soft and infrequent in my calling ( I am sure I was pretty bad). He wouldn't even let me make a peep until 9am. I finally convinced him to let me give some soft cow calls. Amazingly - I heard other cow calls in response. The answering calls were numerous, loud, and repititous. "Listen to that joker - he sounds worse than you - and he is over-calling something terrible - lets get out of here" says my Brother. I thought the calls were another hunter also, but pretty good sounding, and I just wasn't certain, so I called some more . More responses - getting louder, getting closer. I started to think maybe this was really a herd of real Elk. " Give it a rest buddy" says my brother with an all knowing smile.

Shortly after - up walks a Cow elk, followed by a second. My brother has this shocked look on his face as he nocks an arrow and creeps to full draw. I can now hear thundering hoof steps coming and it sounds like an entire herd - ridiculous amount of cow to cow communication going on. I tug on his pant leg and whisper " don't shoot". (We were too green to know that the caller and the shooter should not be sitting side by side). He releases his arrow at that moment and drills that cow elk straight in the heart. She staggers, and falls over and begins to roll down the mountain in about 3 seconds - just at this massive 6x6 herd bull crests the ridge and stares at this tumbling cow. That Bull, and a herd of about 30 cows, spikes, and raghorns then proceeded to march on by our position at 10 yards, with the Bull stopping broadside for perhaps 10 seconds (stopped by one of my deluxe cow calls ), looking at us curiously. Although thrilled to have scored our first elk kill, we have had dreams of that Bull that will haunt us forever. This is how you become addicted to Elk hunting.

The moral of this story is that sometimes the other hunter is really an Elk.

[brun]

I've called in a few, but one episode stands out. I was calling for a friend who was bowhunting. We had a herd across a small canyon that were pretty talkative. When I started to respond a couple of guys with muzzleloaders starting calling to us from directly down the hill. The herd eventually started to move, but the guys kept responding to us.
After a few minutes we did an end around past the other hunters and we didn't call for awhile. The hunters kept calling to where we had been for quite some time as we moved towards the elk. After about a half a mile we got close and starting calling again. We got a bull going pretty good and he eventually started towards us. We thought we had lost the other hunters, but unbeknownst to us they had figured out where the real elk were and followed us up.
We were on the side of a hill and the bull started coming on a string right to us. He was about 30 yards out and my friend started to draw. Just as he reached full draw a shot rang out from below us and we heard the ball whiz through the air. They missed and the bull left. We were pretty shaken up and we just left. I don't think the muzzleloader guys ever knew there were any other hunters in the area.
Be careful out there.

[jmez]

Have called some in. Nothing real exciting. Just call until I see them sneaking in and then stop.

Ctdad had an interesting experience last fall in CO. He had two bulls bugling above him opening morning. He was calling to them an had a hunter answer one if his calls. He didn't want the hunter to screw it up so he circled behind the hunter calling and the guy followed him. He then moved back to his original position and waited. The other guy continued on the way he was led calling. Pat then proceeded to call in and kill one of the elk he had earlier in the am.

I thought it was a good idea and pretty quick thinking.

[elk.addict]

Oh man, there is a local guy here that has got to hate me.....

2013 - Let out a bugle and from a distance and had a response. We bugled back and forth for a while and the other bugle was getting closer. When it got real close, I realized it was another hunter. We backed out of the area. We made it a couple hundred yards and and this poor guy wouldn't give up. He was cow calling and bugling like crazy. After about 10 minutes, we thought we'd show our face, if anything, to let him know there was other hunters in the area. He was so disappointed; maybe all that tree raking and deep bugles got him fired up

2014 - On top of a ridge, not far from last years encounter, I got a response to a bugle way down below. Another exchange and the bugles got closer. Again, I realized it was a hunter and I shut up. About 20 minutes later we saw the same guy, his partner and his wife sneaking through the timber. I waved my arms so he could see me. His response, "you again". He didn't want to talk with me and I guess I understand.

If you're reading this - I feel bad and am sorry you had to hike all the way up that hill for nothing. But you gotta admit, it was still kind of funny

[elk.addict]

Ok I can't tell the story of me calling someone in, without telling the story of me getting called in.

My partner and I were a little ways apart and I cow called to get his location. Instant bugle response, but a really weird sounding bugle (I learned long ago that sometimes those really messed up sounding bugles can be a perfectly nice bull), though not the case this time.
My partner met up with me and we tried to call in this bull. He wouldn't budge. My partner agreed to keep him bugling while I snuck in. After a good 10-15 stalk, I poked my head over a log to see another hunter sitting there. He looked surprised as me. We conversed for just a bit and I returned to my hunting partner. I had to hang my head in shame as I got called in from a southern dude. I guess I just never expected anyone to bugle in response to my call cow.

[WapitiTalk1]

Ha, I hear you elk.addict. What comes around, goes around. I hunted a WA Wilderness area two years ago with a newer archery elk hunter in tow. After a beast of a morning hike (6ish miles partially on access trails and old, forgotten pack trails, with several miles of some of Washington's finest brush choked hillsides sprinkled in), I stopped and threw out a nice locator bugle. Before I hit my last, highest note... I received a response from a logical place to get an answer (up towards an area we call the burnt timber). What sold me is that answer interrupted my call. This had to be an elk unless a hunter was a diaphragm “quick draw” expert. Bull, right? Not so quick. The “bull” was 3-400 yards above us and across the thick side hill. Off we went to get closer. Didn’t hear anything else until I stopped where I figured we were within 150 yards or so. I set up Duke and started with some sweet cow sounds to try and pin point big stinky. Again, before I was finished with my calls a nasty scream with some trophy chuckles interrupted me. Hmmm, this bull means business and wants to date me… so, time to move closer and introduce myself formally. As we moved slowly up, just by a N to S running timberline, Duke caught movement way above us on a semi open ridge. It was a hunter . He must have thought my calls were pretty decent also and was luring me in. I did what I had to do and gave him the nastiest, filthiest, most disrespectful lip ball bugle with grunts I have in my arsenal. Home boy up above me matched my exact calls and even sounded a bit better. All right, it’s on in China Town you twit! Next, I started with a high raspy scream, dropped down two notes, and then back up to a high note and threw in 7 or 8 rapid, perfect chuckles.. Back at me came the same calls, perhaps just a bit better This is getting serious.. Estrus buzz I thought! He can’t possibly match that! It was like dueling elk calls on the mountain. Man, this guy was good! I knew I was beaten when he matched the few turkey calls I can do on my diaphragm, and, he followed his turkey calls up with some pretty impressive coyote ki yi's and yips. I was beat and slipped back down the hillside and across the creek to camp. Never ran into him again in the remaining days we hunted. Good thing for him, I was gonna challenge him with a bigfoot howl

[Fridaythe13th]

Phantom: does gselkhunter: hunt WA. sounds like he would do that to you

[Gselkhunter]

Phantom: does gselkhunter: hunt WA. sounds like he would do that to you

Rory would be too easy! I don't hunt WA.

[WapitiTalk1]

Phantom: does gselkhunter: hunt WA. sounds like he would do that to you

Rory would be too easy! I don't hunt WA.

Ya, I'm sure I'd come in to Gregg's calling like a moth to a flame . I would however, pelt him with a handfull of fresh, well placed elk duds before heading back down the mountain

[Ridge Ghost]

Once I called in two different groups of hunters from two different directions, at the same time. I could see/hear them coming, so I slipped away but was able to watch the two groups converge on each other where I had been. They were all scratching their heads, shrugging, and confused as to which group was responsible for running the 'elk' off.

[Lefty]

So far not elk hunting

Lots of them but that isn't the fun part. The fun part is going to them as if you were a bull coming in. Get them them all screwed up by using every trick in the book. Then turn around and walk away silent and listen to their feeble attempts to call me back..

My kind of humor

Ive decoyed a few!!!!!
Had an old friend who was predator calling in the Chicago suburbs, People saw a guy with camo walk in and thought he was torturing a child

Ive had a lot of fellows stop and glass my " geese"; Decoys. Three different times Ive had guys trespass on a closed state property, cross a small river to jump shoot my decoys. Once it was almost too late for me, I saw a gun barrel, Elmer Fudd Style poke through the weeds. From the time I saw the gun barrel poke through until I yelled seemed like a long , long fraction of a moment.

Another time my dog spotted a fellow stalking up on us jumped out of the blind and started barking at the guy.

[Lefty]

And Phantom,.. that's hilarious!!

[longbowelk]

Part of the reason I joined this website was to learn how to be a better elk caller. However I have called in a few out of staters with my cow calls. The more scary one was when I realized the 2 muzzleloaders would not be denied even when I stood up to let them know it was me and not an elk. So I had to back out of there. Now that I have been elk hunting a few years now, the one I can recognize for a call the most is the primos hoochie mama so when I hear one of those if I also hear other elk nearby i try to work around the caller to get up on the elk but they are usually pretty cautious now when they hear a hoochie call themselves.

[Ironman]

Ok, since my posts rated all these great stories, I should at least tell one too....

I was hunting in north idaho 17 years ago with my girlfriends brother. We were on top of a ridge not far from a alpine meadow and we both started hearing cow calls down on the point of the ridge, so we started to sneak down the ridge hoping for a tending bull or a satellite. I let out a burgle and my buddy raise so havoc on a near by tree. The cow call started to get more excited sounding but no bull yet. We moved closer and continued to increase our trashing and bulging trying to get a bull to respond. Nothing but cow call.(I know I know what a rookie) As we were coming in the cow calls moved around the ridge to the timber line.

I the dumb rookie wasn't done yet, I thought the elk were moving off to cover and I throw down a number of big nasty calls while trashing several trees around us. Hoping it would light up that bull I knew was there But as we worked our way down the timber line call I spotted movement 100 yards down the timberline, my elk was warring a hat. Soooo I walk down to say hI
He was as convince I was a monster coming down the hill. He told me I had his wife scared to death it was her first time hunting.
I didn't see her though I asked were she was he told me she was imberested to come over because she wet her pants.....