I always cow call after I shoot at an elk. The elk don\'t know what just happened, so the call is my attempt to reassure them everything is good. My son shot an excellent bull and soon after gave out a cow call with his voice. The bull had been very skittish before the shot, and took off instantly when he heard the bow. When he heard the cow call, he back tracked and had nearly returned to where he had been when he just tipped over.
My first year hunting I did not know anything about elk hunting and did not call after I shot my first bull. Since then I have called to every one I have shot and it does seem to calm them down. A couple were running when I cow called to them and they stopped and looked back and tipped over.
I shot a bull from a treestand once...he was steeply quartered away and I buried the arrow in him to the fletchings...but hit him too far back. No exit wound. I aggressively cow called to him when he was running off. The bull went way up on a timbered ridge, and I heard him make a coughing noise once.
Knowing the hit was not optimum, I backed out of the area quietly, and returned with my two hunting partners about 3 1/2 hours later. I attempted to foot trail him up into the timber, and we looked in circles up there for a couple hours. No blood...nothing.
Finally, I hear my buddy Brian yell the three most beautiful words you would ever want to hear...\"I found him\"!
The bull had made a huge circle off that timbered ridge, and came right back down within 75 yards of the stand and died.
\"Autopsy\" confirmed liver and tip of far lung hit. Not absolutely sure if my cow calling had caused him to return to where he was shot, but it sure didn\'t seem to run him over the mountain :think:
