What did we do wrong

[Fridaythe13th]

Sept 22, 9. Am. cloudy, foggy, with light rain. We spotted a heard bull with 8-10 cows. They were across a big Valley it took us a couple of hours to get to them and get the wind perfect. We had no idea if they were still there when just over the ridge a bugle, he had been quiet for a while and just when we needed to hear him he bugled, perfect. We moved in I got about 100 yards away while the other 2 even closers 60 yards just over the ridge the heard was feeding the bull was making his presence known with a couple of bugle in the last 15 minutes. With everybody set up in started with a couple of whiny cow calls, no response waited 1-2 minutes did the same cow call he bugled back immediately so I hit him with a high pitched bugle trying to get some fire in his eyes. But all I got was thundering hooves the whole darn heard went running. I know I'm not the best caller in the world but I'm not that bad to cause the heard to run.
Hind sight I wish I never called and the other 2 just kept sneaking but with all those eyes that almost seemed impossible.
Any ideas what I should do next time?

[WapitiTalk1]

One or more of the herd spotted or winded one of you guys. Once you got close and started with the cow calls, the group was on full alert and ultimately, saw something or winded something which tipped them off to your evil plan. Also sounds like the situation (at least in the herd bull's mind) didn't warrant an aggressive response/action on is part when you screamed at him (perhaps a bit too far away; perhaps he just didn't want to be confronted that morning) and he decided to bug out and not be bothered with another bull. Sometimes the best plan is, when considering the terrain and wind/thermals, what the elk are doing (feeding, moving to bed, moving to feed, moving through a safety funnel, etc.) is to abandon a classic calling setup (sounds like you guys set up in a triangle offense) and have just one of the shooters (much easier/quieter to ninja in solo) head back down, cross the ridge below, and crawl up into the elk and try to get a shot. In that scenario, you could back off with the other shooter and continue to call a bit (you're not an immediate threat if you're either moving away or staying way back) to keep the bull's interest as shooter #1 worked his way in. Just some thoughts.

[Swede]

Friday, your question is one of the oldest. What went wrong? That it haunts you is just part of the experience. All of us can theorize and suggest better answers. What you did right was stay over the hill and call. Obviously the bugle triggered the elk's run for the hills. The real bull did not want to tangle with a bull. Probably he was concerned you were too much for him, especially since you had cows. He would not come to the cow (you) and he ran from a bugle. With 20/20 hindsight, I would say you could have kept quiet and let the shooters move a little closer, but your chances were slim at best. Just my thought.

Note: I wrote this while RJ was posting. Interesting comparison on the different thoughts.

[Fridaythe13th]

Hindsight yes I would have said nothing and moved in. I well say after we busted up the heard a little bit the satellite started bugling everywhere around the area, we maybe had 4-5 Bulls but super call shy my guess after the heard went running they new something was up. It was a fun few hours.
Any more idea's ? I'm just not sure how I would handle next time. Now I'm a little call shy.

[Swede]

Friday, I too have become call shy where I hunt. I have watched herds run past my stand when a good caller was working the area. Those elk did not stay in the area, but went to the ranch where they could hide behind some "No Hunting" signs. I have not noticed a problem with cow mews, but bugling was too much.

[saddlesore]

No expert here, but I think the high pitched bugle did him in. He had cows with him so he didn't want to engage another bull. I would have kept up with low pressure cow calls as longs he was bugling.

I am a firm believer that by the time full rut comes, the bulls in the area know the sound of every other bull in the area.When you bugled ,he figured it out, or another hunter could have worked him and got busted. Every time a bull is called in by a hunter's bugle and the hunter either gets busted or maybe the hunter decides he isn't big enough and shows himself,the elk tucks that away in his memory.

When in doubt, I always stick with a cow call. However,even cows get shy if there is a lot of hunter pressure

[CurlyTail]

It is possible you did nothing wrong.

Not every tactic works every time, and I have used the exact tactic described with better results. Except I missed the shot as I recall.

Maybe one of your shooters got spotted or winded and spooked the herd rather than your Bugle. Maybe this Bull was educated and had seen this tactic before. Maybe the herd was on edge for some other reason. A Bull with cows is always going to be the ultimate calling challenge.

You spotted the herd at 9am , so it must have been 11am when you pulled off this attempt. That means the herd was probably in their bedding area . I have had better luck with this particular tactic after giving them a couple of hours to rest and allow the Bull to get comfortable in their bedding area. Perhaps if you had taken a rest, had lunch, and tried this exact tactic at 1-2pm, it might have worked better. They really don't want to move that time of day.

I personally, have never had the reaction you got , and would not hesitate to try it again next year. Any tactic that is even 25% effective is still a good one.

Now that you know a favored bedding area, check this area frequently in the future. If the Elk are silent you can do a cold calling set up in this same area next year.

Maybe you could have persisted a bit longer with the cow calling before challenging the Bull in hope of pulling a satellite Bull in to one of your shooters. Just throwing out ideas.

[jmez]

60 yards over a ridge I'd bet the wind got you.

[Wyo67]

A couple things come to mind:
- The herd could have dispersed a little in the 2+ hours it took you to get on them and someone got busted (winded or movement spotted) by an undetected wayward cow.
- If you're 100% certain you weren't busted by the wind, I suspect he was a younger bull that had already been whipped a couple times by bigger bulls and wanted nothing to do with another fight.

While that tactic could have worked, I think you might have gone to the challenge too soon. Can't say for sure it would have worked, but my thoughts would have been to keep cow calling at him until he either comes over the ridge or gets frustrated and really gives you the round-up/get back here bugle to your cow call and then hit him with the challenge.