Aggression levels? (Calling)

[iccyman001]

Everyone has different opinions when it comes to calling, so for this scenario, I would like to hear yours.


What are different aggression levels for you?


How can you be less aggressive verse being very aggressive?
What dictates the level of aggression that you are putting out? Season? Rut? Animals that you know are in the area?

 

[Glacier Country]

Big herd bull = 1. Location Bugle 2.Get Close Get aggressive High pith gnarly bugle.
Smaller bulls and cows = cow calls 5 point bugles and herd talk.

It all comes back to Tone, Intensity ,Pitch

 

[Guest]

Simply by bugling or not bugling......those are levels all on there own and both work at certain times.

Now for me I read every encounter as it\'s developing. Many times you can be very unaggressive and get away with one or two cow mews to bring in a bull. Others times you\'ll need to stomp, Rake trees smash branch\'s and scream at the bull to turn him around and want to come and kick your ass !! Even then sometimes that is not enough !!

When you have an aggressive elk bugling and screaming back at you acting very herd bullish.......This does not mean that bull is a huge 7x7. It could be, but more often then not it will be an average 5 or 6 point bull that has a heart of a lion !! Some bulls just like to fight and with these bulls you can not be to aggressive enough. Go hard on these bulls and give them every thing you can or you risk them losing interest.

I like to think of it this way. We are on average 200 lb guys and bull elk are 3-4 times our size. There is no way with the air in our lungs that we can match the level of bugling that an elk that much bigger than us can dish out. His air capacity is just to big. We may think we are screaming hard and bugling like a dragon with all we have but in reality we are just not equal to his level of bugling. It\'s simply a matter of physics and air volume.

Lucky for us we do not have to match him blow for blow as we are smarter and all we need to do is get under his skin and trick him !!

All we can do is watch and listen to the bull and he will dictate the level you\'ll need to be at. The key is knowing if he is in the mood for love or a good fight !!

 

[elkmtngear]

I \"play it by ear\". I tend to do a lot of \"mimicking\" when it comes to a vocal (aggressive) bull...it can really piss them off! Whatever they give me, I give it right back. Basically, I\'m getting caught up in the \"emotion\" of the encounter.

Sometimes, just a spike squeal, or some heated cow calls can be just as effective. It\'s very situational.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

There\'s two main thoughts when trying to call a bull into shooting range.

1) You try to give the bull what he wants, the need to be with other elk. They do this for social reasons or to herd up for rut. From the start of season to the end a hunter can use simple cow calling tactics or other simple audio tactics like contact bugles w/ raking. This is however is more affective on uneducated or immature elk. More aggressive tactics work better from the middle to the end of the season. The idea behind being more aggressive is to give the bull the impression he\'s about to get an opportunity stolen from him(a lone cow being hooked out from joining the new kingdom). Being too aggressive on an immature bull can cause a missed opportunity for the hunter. But mature bulls feel they have the \"right\" to every cow.

2) You present a situation to a bull that he doesn\'t want. Bulls do not want a challenger to come in and claim the right to their throne. Usually, this works from the middle of the season to the end. Simple tactics like contact bugling next to the herd can and do work. But I usually like to deploy aggressive tactics first because I get better results on the pressured elk I hunt.

So the most important thing to remember about simple vs. aggressive tactics is that the more aggressive you get the easier it is to blow the encounter. You need to be able to make most bull and cow sounds and produce them correctly every time. Also, some aggressive tactics require the hunter to move a lot. And elk are very good at picking you off.

Just my 2-cents!