Elk Tactics 101 - Scenario #1

[WapitiTalk1]

Let's roll with a few of these to keep the juices flowing during the off season.

Date/Time: Mid SEPT/9:30 AM
Location: Somewhere in the elk woods
Hunt Pressure Status: Minimal
Tag: Any bull

You've set up with your buddy to do a bit of cold calling off of a semi-flat ridge that contains quite a bit of fresh sign. Nothing specific here for your calling sequence (not an advertising or breeding sequence), just a bit of herd talk (cow mews/calf chirps), non verbal sounds (brush raking/ground stomping), and a few bull sounds. After around 10 minutes, you hear a bugle down and across a rolling canyon; it sounds like a decent bull. Guestimate is that he is perhaps 1/3 mile away as the crow flies.

What do you do here to maximize an opportunity to bring an elk home for dinner? You've only been in the cold calling setup for 10 minutes and, are set up in a good area with fresh sign, but, you hear a bull across the canyon. What's the next move?

[Swede]

At 9:30 I am betting he is in bed or very near. The wind is due to start shifting. Rather than mess with him now, I will wait until the wind is steady uphill, then move in close above. Then I will see if he come to some cow calls. I will cow call until he come or he answers the call with his own call.
I will determine what is next when I see or hear him. Anyway, I think he will stay there, but I can continue to call off and on to check. If he gets farther away, then I can follow, or hunt where I am, depending on just how good it looks around the area I am hunting.

[ElkNut1]

With a decent setup with timber & cover running down into the draw & up the other side where the bull bugled from I'd stay right there & call him over or any other bull that may be nearby him that you are not aware of! I've done this many times including last year! It was very similar to your description. I left my son where he was aprox 150 yards above bottom of timbered draw with the bull 400 yards or so above us. My son setup & I moved back 40 yards or so & used a similar calling method, after 12-15 more minutes of calling I see my son point downhill, I move back another 20-30 yards in addition to the 40 yards I already was & kept up the calling & rustling of things around & the bull came to 15 yards from my son who promptly shot over his back! (grin) Point is setting up right there worked as it has many times over the years! I believe it was Sept 3rd.

ElkNut1