Your Move, Episode #6 (with video)

[Garrett Drach]

I was practicing editing techniques on an audio file from a hunt last fall. Figured I would post the video clip and let you guys comment on the situation.

Here's the setup- Mid September archery hunt, getting late in the evening. We know there are plenty of elk in the area (with some really good herd bulls that have cows) and are waiting for the elk to move down from up above us (where we put them to bed that morning). I was calling (and running a camera), making an occasional cow call and I had just let out an aggressive bugle with a growl at the end and raked a nearby tree. This bull appears moments later, and now I am between the bull and the shooter whom is 50 yards behind me (I know, not the best situation). Now start the video (https://vimeo.com/128400992). The bull is at 90 yards from the shooter when the video ends, you have 20-25 minutes of legal shooting time. What's your next move?

[Fridaythe13th]

2 year vet. here (meaning rookie). my guess is the shooter has to become the caller, or hope he walks by the shooter.

It looked way to open to start walk towards the shooter and call on the way right when the bull appeared.

This is a great video I hope the true experts chime in. Love the video keep um coming.

[ElkNut1]

If you were 50 yards from your buddy & he was 90 yards from the bull were you 40 yards from the bull? On another note if you could have signaled your buddy to now be the caller he could have stayed with mid volume cow excitement & raking, this could have gotten the best of his curiosity, that's what brought him to that point in the 1st place!

ElkNut1

[Heartwood]

If I were the caller and already tagged out or just wanted to remain the caller, i'd have been tempted to move my calling position to better serve the shooter. Provided the cover was favorable to move, I may have wanted to move to the shooter and then position myself such that when the bull tryed to circle downwind of the calling he would be in range of the shooter. This particular bull appears to be acting like a satalite bull and probably would be rather timid and nervous coming in close to another unknown bull. I probably would stick to cow calls once in my new calling position. He appeared to be wanting to circle the caller just in the time of the video. Hard to tell what the wind was doing but looked gusty and the bull certianly wasn't downwind at the time of video. The view in the video looks somewhat open and I would take care that the bull couldn't easily see the call position on my new setup. What ended up happening in this situation? Did you see him again? Did he end up going some place quiet and freezing cold after a nice backpack ride?

[Garrett Drach]

The bull made an arc downhill of both of us, I was roughly 70 yards away. I did not have a tag. I felt really handicapped at the time (partly because of the open cover), so I was curious what other's suggested actions would be?

[ElkNut1]

Ahh, I see! I would have passed on that bull seeing it was a draw unit! In most cases when you are around a herd as you were & do a setup as you did in your calling scenario you are going to pull in satellites & other unwanted elk first. So use sounds for contact, once you locate the herd bull now go right after him, let the dinks go on a good unit. Get in close & either call his cows away from him with good Advertising bugling or test the waters with a few excited mid volume cow whines & follow with a coarse bugle, this can really get a herd bulls attention when in an aggressive mood! If he's not aggressive in response it shows there are no hot cows, you now have to switch gears & either slip in silently if terrain allows or bring him your way by drawing on his curiosity as you did the satellite. You need to be much closer to do this than where you first called from or you will continue to draw in the smaller bulls.

Were there hot cows, you'll know by competitive bugling by one or more bulls around at that time.

as a sidenote, if you were happy with the bull that showed up then you needed to stay with your level I breeding sequence you started with & stay patient as the caller & not move, it can take 30 minutes for bulls to show up. I suspect you didn't wait that long before you got restless & started to think nothing was going to come so you started moving towards their last sounds. This put you & your shooter in a tough situation.

ElkNut1