Chasing the bugle

[bald9eagle]

I'm sure I'll find it somewhere already discussed. I'm going to be lazy though.

Do you "chase the bugle"?

The scenario...you've been looking a few days and have seen a few distant cows and rag horns. Haven't heard anything to write home about yet. The neck morning as you sit glassing a distant meadow you hear a bugle way off in the far distance in a rugged looking hole. You feel pretty sure that he's not with the elk you have already seen. After about 10 minutes he lets out another bugle that you can just barely make out.

What do you do now?

I ask because I'm a gobble chaser. All I need to hear is one gobble and I'm striking off after him. My brother is a road hunter. By that I mean he will ride from spot to spot and call until he finds a turkey that will answer him more than twice. Do you start heading to this bull and hope to make contact with him as you close the gap? Do you stay put on the closer elk hoping that a bull will sound off near you?

[ElkNut1]

Seeing you're sitting there doing nothing & the other cows & rags you saw were on another day why would you not go after the bugling bull? Why are you sitting the meadow? Not sure I follow you?

ElkNut1

[Swede]

If I am in my stand or going to it, I am tree stand hunting. If I have it in my mind to hunt on the ground, I am going for the bull in the hole. The question is not "if". It is just a matter of how to go about it. Where will I call from, and how. If the bull was giving out a location call, I would try a cow call first, move in a ways and see what happens.

[WapitiTalk1]

My thoughts are you should be already hunting where you had seen the cows and rags in the distance the previous day (a bird in the hand is better than.....) unless you had a better option this fine morning which is sounds like you don't in your scenario. Yep, you're gonna go hunt that bull you hear sounding off; that's how hunting elk in the rut plays out in many situations. How to hunt it? It all depends on where he's at, the time of day, where he seems to be going, and how you are going to work into him with the wind in your favor; it's oftentimes that simple. How you execute your movement to intercept the singer is arguably one of the most important factors to maximize your odds of getting a shot. This is another reason why it is so very important to know the area you're hunting. After hunting an area for a few years or more, you'll oftentimes know almost exactly where that bugle is coming and where its heading.

[cohunter]

You mention staying for the closer elk - I assume you mean the cows and small bulls you'd seen the other day. If so, I've been in the position you just described and I've not gone after the distant bull. This year I had a couple of experiences that made me re-think that: Not once, but twice I heard bugles and thought they were quite a distance away, so decided not to go after them. In my case I had seen or heard bulls that I thought would be easier to get to, but they'd gone quiet. In these two instances, both bulls suddenly appeared at about 100 yards and I'd have guessed them to be over 500 yards away - maybe even as far as half a mile! If I'd begun closing the distance, we'd have run into each other! Sometimes elk voices are very deceptive, especially in broken terrain with swirling winds, ridges and bowls. Another thing: I was hunting a highly-pressured OTC unit. One morning I heard a bull raking and although I couldn't see his body, I could see an aspen sapling shaking around at about 150 yards. Then the bull bugled and I could have sworn from the sound that he was on the next finger ridge! It seemed a little like the elk were walking around the woods using whispers, so to speak, because of the hunting pressure. Anybody else experienced this?

[Indian Summer]

My thoughts are you should be already hunting where you had seen the cows and rags in the distance the previous day.

And try to shoot one!!! Unless you have some bulls under your belt... or even if you do, any elk with a bow is a trophy. I bet you've killed a jake or two and it's no different. That was the first thing that came to my mind after your first sentence.

[bald9eagle]

For me I'm going after an elk...period. I'm after meat anyway. I'm just curious as to how you handle it when you are wanting something more substantial antler wise. I've never been a big trophy hunter. I hunt for the meat and enjoyment of the chase.

I'm just trying to use some turkey hunting ideas that relate to elk. Several times I've heard a closer bird gobble a couple times that I would leave because a more distant bird was tearing it up.

I guess it would only be common sense that you go after the first bull you hear if you haven't already located some other elk. I was just curious as too what was in a guys head when he hears that first bugle of the hunt. Something else in my mind was the thought of trying to locate a closer group of elk before chasing off after a bugle. From what I'm gathering here is you chase elk...any elk. If you've seen them then you are hunting them. If you hear them then you are hunting them. As my father in law says...you don't leave fish to find fish.

[Bow4me]

I'm an Arkansas turkey hunter myself and you know when a bird gobbles faintly on a distant Ridge and then gives me a second gobble so I can get his location I'm gone. No different on elk. I might not on the first but when I zero in on that second bugle I'm moving. I'm not waiting on elk that may or may not have hung around from yesterday. I know there is an elk where that bugle came from (or another hunter calling me in for some good exercise ).

[ElkNut1]

If I'm seeing a few cows & after a few minutes I do not see or hear a bull with them I'm out of there & after the bugler. I understand your situation though, if after a cow sure I'd stay there & work into bowrange or call them if needed, I'd prefer not to if I can ambush them. But all in all the Bulls get my attention! (grin)


cohunter, it's not unusual for elk to sound farther away than they are or closer to you than you may have thought! If they turn their head one way or another it can sound closer or farther. Too, it can depend on the terrain, if open not much to block sound, if timbered & undulated ground then that can take away from sound. Elk do not whisper or tone it down because of hunting pressure or predators. Sure they can bugle less at times because of a threat in the area or move off entirely but they do not have the Shhh capacity because they fear they may alert an unwanted. Bulls & cows alike will use their sounds to communicate or send a message, not all sounds are like TV bugling. Different ages of bulls sound different. More mature bulls will have deeper & louder sounds under urgent situations than juvenile bulls. It depends on each situation as to the volume of their sounds that they need, it's all in the message being sent & to whom!

ElkNut1

[cohunter]

Thanks the clarification on 'hushed' elk, Paul! I was wondering.