Calling Discussion

[Old School]

Thanks guys. This thread has been most helpful to me personally. One other thing I thought of John. In your last scenario would you ever give a weak bugle trying to fool the bull that a satellite had slipped in and was trying to steal his cow. Or would that spook the bull since satellite challengers don\'t just fall from the sky unannounced???
--Mitch

 

[Swede]

Dan, don\'t worry about no stinkin rocks. Da Svede takes two bowling balls out of his pack when he gets in close to a bull like this. He gives out a few mews right away. If the bull does not come in for the shot, Svede throws one bowling ball down the slope 40 yards to 6o yards through de air. When the ball lands it rolls another 50-60- yards making the bull believe His cow is leavin. Grab the other bowling ball right away. The bull will run after the \"cow\". When the bull get 10 -20 yards away from you, throw the other bowling ball and hit him right between the antlers, knocking him out. You should finish the bull off with your bow and arrow, as it is archery season and not bowling season.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Thanks guys. This thread has been most helpful to me personally. One other thing I thought of John. In your last scenario would you ever give a weak bugle trying to fool the bull that a satellite had slipped in and was trying to steal his cow. Or would that spook the bull since satellite challengers don\'t just fall from the sky unannounced???
--Mitch

I would probably keep it simple with just cow sounds and wait to see what the bull did next. If the bull continued to chuckle and stayed back, I\'d hunt him like a hung up bull. If he went silent, I\'d still close the distance. But instead of going all the way into him, I\'d hunt him with quiet mews in an L pattern. With the short or bottom part of the L going right at his last known location and the long part of the L paralleling it.

Also one might just consider staying put and work a cow mew every 5 minutes or so.

The last thing you want is for him to hook up with his cow. Once he does, you have to hunt him like a herd bull and that doubles the complexity. I\'m not sure about other bulls, but the ones I hunt will try to escape rather than fight. A battle is the last resort. Being inside a herd Bulls comfort zone and his owned cow(s) being in estrus can increase the chances of him coming to meet the threat.

Big Dan said it best when he said, \"If you have a group of bugling bull the herd bull is usually the one trying to slip out the back door.\"

 

[iccyman001]

Let\'s throw a curve ball to this.


You find out that this herd bull and cows like to frequent the same area. We are talking bedding in the same area daily.
So you try mews.... well they run
You try bugles....well they run
You try all the magical sequences in the book, but they run....


The bull AND cows are run happy.....



How do you MOVE IN on them and successfully kill him?

 

[Old School]

Dan - I\'d get in there early in the morning. Watching the wind and I\'d be quiet. I\'d be a passive elk hunter. Try to figure out where they are feeding and traveling from. Get on a trail between feeding and bedding on the downwind side and see if I could get one that way. May take 3-4 days of doing it before I got it fine tuned enough to get close enough for a shot.

--Mitch

 

[Swede]

Dan, your elk sound like they live where I hunt. I\'m with Mitch. Maybe Mitch can watch one side of the bedding area while I cover the other.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Let\'s throw a curve ball to this.


You find out that this herd bull and cows like to frequent the same area. We are talking bedding in the same area daily.
So you try mews.... well they run
You try bugles....well they run
You try all the magical sequences in the book, but they run....


The bull AND cows are run happy.....



How do you MOVE IN on them and successfully kill him?

If you know exactly where they bed, you could get within 100 yards and just sit on them for 2-5 hours giving a few mews every 5-10 minutes. Maybe throw in some ground noise to add realism. A bull can be curious and if he feels his cow are safely bedded with no satellites around, he might just get up and come for a quick look. Sometimes simple tactics can work better than aggressive ones.

 

[Swede]

What John said works. I had that happen one time, but unfortunately I was not totally prepared, and I needed to be. I was too out in the open even though there was cover close by. The bull came in and spotted me and was gone before I could do a thing. I was disgusted with myself and got up. I just walked away, right into the herd that was bedded nearby. Mistake #2 that afternoon. :crazy:

 

[WW]

Let\'s throw a curve ball to this.


You find out that this herd bull and cows like to frequent the same area. We are talking bedding in the same area daily.
So you try mews.... well they run
You try bugles....well they run
You try all the magical sequences in the book, but they run....


The bull AND cows are run happy.....



How do you MOVE IN on them and successfully kill him?

How you move in on them is entirely up to you. For me it is just plain old being sneaky. I\'m sure you can figure that out. But however you do it, it is very important not to make any calls or sound that will give away your location. Being completely quit is the key to this method.

The trick is to keep them from running, right? So here is a deal that works if you have the ability to be sneaky and patient. I\'m presuming you have a bull with cows and it is during the time frame of the rut, pre rut, or post rut. So the first and most difficult part is to sneak into the edge of the herd with the wind in your favor of course.

Once you get to the edge of the herd, you want to close within shooting distance of the first cow you come to and get yourself set up and prepared for the shot. Now is where the patients part comes into play as the opportunity for a shot at the bull could take a looooong time. But sooner or later, the bull will get up and make the rounds of all the cows checking each one for signs of estrus. When he comes to your cow, you take him.

 

[cnelk]

I think it is good to know that it is VERY difficult to keep up with a herd, even when they are just headed to bed.

If you stop or delay for 2 minutes, that time alone will get you even further behind.

When we were following the herd the last day of archery this Sept, the elk were only a couple hundred yards in front of us. We could even see the elk across the draw. We would slow down, set up briefly and see if we could get one to commit.

We couldn?t.

I told Aaron and Cole ?Let?s GO!!? and we actually ran to catch up. We were barely keeping up and the elk weren?t running! Then I told Aaron that he and I would make cow calls as we walked fast behind the herd making it sound like a couple cows got left behind.

It wasn?t but a minute or so later, a 6x6 came running toward us to ?round us up? and he got an arrow.

My point being is that EACH AND EVERY SITUATION IS DIFFERENT!

 

[Swede]

Brad, what was the matter with your 6X6? Wasn\'t he supposed to use a round up bugle to call you in? Wasn\'t it supposed to sound like a challenge bugle? Darn those Colorado elk. They just don\'t play fair, or they are ignorant of the calls they are supposed to go with. :lol:

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

I think it is good to know that it is VERY difficult to keep up with a herd, even when they are just headed to bed.

If you stop or delay for 2 minutes, that time alone will get you even further behind.

When we were following the herd the last day of archery this Sept, the elk were only a couple hundred yards in front of us. We could even see the elk across the draw. We would slow down, set up briefly and see if we could get one to commit.

We couldn?t.

I told Aaron and Cole ?Let?s GO!!? and we actually ran to catch up. We were barely keeping up and the elk weren?t running! Then I told Aaron that he and I would make cow calls as we walked fast behind the herd making it sound like a couple cows got left behind.

It wasn?t but a minute or so later, a 6x6 came running toward us to ?round us up? and he got an arrow.

My point being is that EACH AND EVERY SITUATION IS DIFFERENT!

Running to catch up would be nice, if possible. In the area I hunt I get one step.....two steps....three steps...\"ouch, right in the errrrrr\". I was lucky to be able to still have kids! :lol:

 

[iccyman001]

Let\'s throw a curve ball to this.


You find out that this herd bull and cows like to frequent the same area. We are talking bedding in the same area daily.
So you try mews.... well they run
You try bugles....well they run
You try all the magical sequences in the book, but they run....


The bull AND cows are run happy.....



How do you MOVE IN on them and successfully kill him?

How you move in on them is entirely up to you. For me it is just plain old being sneaky. I\'m sure you can figure that out. But however you do it, it is very important not to make any calls or sound that will give away your location. Being completely quit is the key to this method.

The trick is to keep them from running, right? So here is a deal that works if you have the ability to be sneaky and patient. I\'m presuming you have a bull with cows and it is during the time frame of the rut, pre rut, or post rut. So the first and most difficult part is to sneak into the edge of the herd with the wind in your favor of course.

Once you get to the edge of the herd, you want to close within shooting distance of the first cow you come to and get yourself set up and prepared for the shot. Now is where the patients part comes into play as the opportunity for a shot at the bull could take a looooong time. But sooner or later, the bull will get up and make the rounds of all the cows checking each one for signs of estrus. When he comes to your cow, you take him.

This is what I would do!!!! Word for word!!!! :upthumb:

 

[iccyman001]

Mitch, seeing how this is a calling DISCUSSION, I wanted to bring in the other side of calling...... NOT calling


I wanted to bring this side in because you mentioned going in to the bull.
Like Bill had mentioned, in certain situations when we call, we give away our locations.(Well, we always give away our location, but there are times we don\'t want that)
There were many times where bulls would answer my location bugles and I would follow at a distance. Then the bull would finally stop, so I\'d start moving in and continue my locations and kept them talking, but once I got within 150 yards (give or take) then I HUNG UP and went to them.


I did it slow and as quiet as could be. I often went so slow that they would let out another location before they went to bed or I could hear them making a noise.

This is difficult because you never know if they are with cows or not, but it\'s just another option that you have.....


No one on this site calls the same as the next and no one on this sit follows the same tactics.


Take in everything you can, filter out what you like and don\'t like, then learn more with trial and error!!!!


One of my favorite things about calling is whether it ends with failure or success, talking to bulls and having them chat back is a feeling of joy that just cannot be explained until you experience it..... :dance2:

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Mitch, seeing how this is a calling DISCUSSION, I wanted to bring in the other side of calling...... NOT calling


I wanted to bring this side in because you mentioned going in to the bull.
Like Bill had mentioned, in certain situations when we call, we give away our locations.(Well, we always give away our location, but there are times we don\'t want that)
There were many times where bulls would answer my location bugles and I would follow at a distance. Then the bull would finally stop, so I\'d start moving in and continue my locations and kept them talking, but once I got within 150 yards (give or take) then I HUNG UP and went to them.


I did it slow and as quiet as could be. I often went so slow that they would let out another location before they went to bed or I could hear them making a noise.

This is difficult because you never know if they are with cows or not, but it\'s just another option that you have.....


No one on this site calls the same as the next and no one on this sit follows the same tactics.


Take in everything you can, filter out what you like and don\'t like, then learn more with trial and error!!!!


One of my favorite things about calling is whether it ends with failure or success, talking to bulls and having them chat back is a feeling of joy that just cannot be explained until you experience it..... :dance2:

Essential, you bugled until you pin pointed his location then still hunted the rest of the way in! Good tactic! If you have a buddy you could also have him keep the bull vocal as you move in silently.

 

[iccyman001]

Essential, you bugled until you pin pointed his location then still hunted the rest of the way in! Good tactic! If you have a buddy you could also have him keep the bull vocal as you move in silently.

Very good point!
I\'d love to try that with a partner someday.

 

[bowhunter]

Essential, you bugled until you pin pointed his location then still hunted the rest of the way in! Good tactic! If you have a buddy you could also have him keep the bull vocal as you move in silently.

I have done this on a bull that responded to bugles often. He would come closer then go away and repeat. I assume he was trying to keep his cows from coming to my calls. I called from 300yds away while my partner went to the bull. The bull felt no pressure as I was still and never advanced toward him. My partner got busted by a cow and they blew up the mountain a little ways. He ran up 40 yards and let out a scream. The bull charged in drooling and screaming back to him at 15 yards. The shot was up hill quartering toward on a huge 6x6 heard bull. He didn\'t feel comfortable with the shot and chose not to take it. Best encounter of his 6 years elk hunting. I enjoyed it and wasn\'t even close to the bull.

 

[Guest]

Personally I don\'t want to, nor am I talking to the bull !! You want to call in that bull ? Talk to his girls.............BULL Calling Cows bugle.

What happens at the bar when you say \" Hey Girl \" across the room to a pretty girl that has a boyfriend standing right there ? Simple it\'s GO time with the boyfriend !!

Same thing with bulls. These bulls will now be mad as heck and come walking right in. They do not stop and look for you so be ready as they are on a mission !!

Trav