How much bull?

[Lefty]

The 101 thread got me thinking!
The results of calling, then close encounters of the big antlered kind was quite limited hunting the desert. Moving to the mountains. Realistically every Friday night I was out there, then hunt hard all four Saturdays, then head home early Sunday morning.
I know in many ways I lacked self confidence and experience in calling, and didnt call when I should have, Mostly because I didnt know what to expect or how to react properly ( I was reading the playbook every Saturday night,.. But for some reason the important info disappears in the heat of the moment
Those 4 Saturdays I brought in bulls 7 different times. Another bull waited 2 hours in the same location( walked to with in 30 yards before he busted me). I believe one old bull I called in each Saturday.
Once a herd came in with 4,5 other bulls. another time a spike hung around close, No Idea what happened to the big bull that followed him in.

so how many responses do you fellows have. what kind of responses?
How many times did you draw. How many times did you shoot? Did you pass on cows?, spikes? get to small their breath?.

[Swede]

Lefty, you have brought up an interesting point. Often bulls hang up and look for the "elk" that called them. They have an uncanny way of maintaining just enough cover between them and you to survive. The lone hunter has to move quickly ahead after calling or have a decoy behind them to draw the bull in.
Last season I had bulls answer, but they would not cross the fence to get off private land. I hunt some very smart elk. They can read those "No Hunting" signs and know where the boundaries are all at.

[Ryan Conkle]

With due credit being given to ElkNut for all of his publications' and shared knowledge, as well as a mentor of mine who has also helped me in shortening the learning curve, this September will be my third year of elk hunting, all of which has been done on OTC public ground with archery equipment. I feel that with only 2 seasons' under my belt, I have done fairly well, although I will always have a lot to learn. My first elk hunt was in 2014 and I had multiple close encounters', before sticking a good bull and not recovering him, at 8 yards' none the less...which I am embarrassed to say.(Tough lesson learned on shooting a moving elk, they have such a long stride and cover much more ground than they appear to be, that it caused me to hit the bull back,which was very tough to swallow, when you practice all year long at long ranges' and then choke at 8 yards.) My second elk hunt was fall of 2015 and I returned with much more confidence, both due to being less intimidated by the mountain and having more faith in the tactics' in being aggressive and being less concerned of spooking elk and making a mistake. In 2015, I then passed up multiple cows', calves' and 2 hard horned spikes' before shooting my first elk, a 5x5, 5 days' into our 14 day trip. My theory so far, for the previous 2 years', has been that I will shoot any branched antlered bull, even though any elk is a legal elk and I was proud that I stuck to that, especially after those 2 hard horned spikes' tested my will after the disappointment that I had in 2014.

[Heartwood]

We average atleast 1 bull inside archery range (say 40 yards or less) for every 2 days in the field. Some seasons these numbers are much better and some crew members even pass shot ops on raghorn type bulls. Our crew uses Elknuts calling system and we have improved our success numbers a lot in the past 6 or so years.