Elk Calling Basics

[cohunter14]

Although I have been hunting elk for over 20 years, I am entering a new phase of elk hunting: archery. As someone who has very little calling experience outside of pushing on a hoochie mama, what suggestions do you have? Where do I start? I\'ll preface this by saying I ordered a couple of mouth reeds from Trav (Wapiti River Outdoors), but I have no clue where to start or what to practice. Is there a youtube video you recommend, a book I should buy, or a DVD I should go get? If you had it all to do over again, how would you start when it came to calling? Is there a strategy I should go with? Like start with this call, then go to this call, then this?

Let\'s hear your suggestions!

 

[VTHOKEE]

I\'m interested as well. I asked Dan a lot of questions last year and hope to learn more on here this year.

 

[iccyman001]

Derek,


Last year was my first year I started calling.
Leading up to my hunt I was watching youtube videos and talking to the local BTO experts.
I can\'t tell you how many times I called JF, Trav, Brad and I even bothered Bill.

My goal was to pick all of their brains, take in their advice like a sponge and filter what I wanted to use.

My biggest issue was I had not heard them naturally in the field. That is where youtube became my friend.
You already have a huge leg up because you\'ve heard them!

Anyways, my game plan going into last year was to learn some basics and get good at them, verse trying to learn all of them and not being proficient.

I went with simple cow calls, a location bugle, and chuckles.

To me and with everything that i\'ve read and \"soaked in\" while talking to the local BTO guys, I figured this was the best course of action.
Being it was early season I wasn\'t too concerned with challenge bugles.

So, I practiced and practiced and practiced.
How long is your drive too and from work? 5 minutes? 10? 15?

Mine is 15 minutes.... 30 minutes round trip.
Guess who got 30 minutes of practicing a day! For a long time!!!!!

After I had some practicing under my belt, I continued calling people.
\"Hey John, how does this sound?\"
\"Trav, is this chuckle ok?\"
etc etc

Sometimes I would even make video clips and email them the sounds.


The more you do it the more confident you will become.


Now for the part that is tough, but REALLY helped me get better. USE IT IN THE FIELD.
Lots of people practice hard and then get gun shy in the field....
Well... I went right at it.
It was during my \"conversations\" with elk that I learned the most.

ALSO, I have this great support system on BTO who helped me learn even more.
I don\'t know if you remember, but during my hunt I kept doing updates.

\"Guys, this just happened, I did this, he did that, blah blah. What happened?\"
Then all of you gave me great responses.




So, I hope this is a good start or at least semi answers your questions.




I mentioned I picked cow calls, location bugles, and chuckles.
If it\'s early season, you are going to have those bulls out there on a search.
I can\'t tell you how many bulls I had respond to my cow calls. They would talk talk talk!
Guess what else was talking to me while I was cow calling...... OTHER COWS.

So IMO a cow call is very important to learn.


Next was the location bugle.....

Early morning when the sun was coming up until 10AM, I was having bulls respond to all of my location calls.
MIND YOU, they did not come running into me when I did my location calls, but GUESS WHAT.... they told me where they were.....


So then I would run to them, continue locating, they would talk back, then I\'d get in nice and close, THEN my cow calls would come out.... bingo bango.

 

[iccyman001]

I forgot to mention....


Everyone has their own preference in calls.
Some people like tight, some people prefer loose.... (I\'ll be waiting for Cliff to grab this one)
Some like domed, others prefer domeless.

So I recommend find one that works best for you.
That will really help build your confidence.

 

[WW]

You ask if there was anything on Youtube that might help. You Bet!! Just about anything from Rockie or Corey Jacobsen is golden. Most others, but not all, are not so great. But the real teachers are the elk themselves. Spend a lot of time with them and learn to mock what they are saying and doing. It may not be the best way to call one in, but it will make you a better caller. And once you figure things out, you\'ll find out a whole new way of hunting them.

Also I forgot to mention Travis. Wasn\'t he supposed to have some sort of a seminar on BTO here? Maybe I missed it. And Troy Bungay from Glacier Country Calls is very good as well. Just a great guy to talk with. Wish he would post more on here.

 

[iccyman001]

You ask if there was anything on Youtube that might help. You Bet!! Just about anything from Rockie or Corey Jacobsen is golden. Most others, but not all, are not so great. But the real teachers are the elk themselves. Spend a lot of time with them and learn to mock what they are saying and doing. It may not be the best way to call one in, but it will make you a better caller. And once you figure things out, you\'ll find out a whole new way of hunting them.

Also I forgot to mention Travis. Wasn\'t he supposed to have some sort of a seminar on BTO here? Maybe I missed it. And Troy Bungay from Glacier Country Calls is very good as well. Just a great guy to talk with. Wish he would post more on here.

You did not miss the seminar, Bill.
We need to send a SOF team to Canada to tie him up and put him in front of a camera.

He\'s a busy man! I\'d imagine we have something here after his new bugle tube hits the ground running.

 

[cnelk]

Here is a good video of some basic elk calling


[media]https://youtu.be/cw3kRJdoa_8[/media]

 

[Guest]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CmHlvVHMis&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Here\'s a video I shot for a demo on the Reaper Reed. It will show case mews and calf talk and multiple bull sounds.

Hope this helps.

Trav

 

[cohunter14]

Great information, thank you all!

One thing I stumbled on was a video posted by Jeff (elkmtngear) that we have saved in our archives. I wanted to share it again here. It is fairly lengthy, but has some great information. What I found very interesting is that Corey is a world champion caller, and yet he only chooses to use three basic calls when hunting. What do you all think of that? Very basic, but it sounds like it works pretty well for him. Very interesting comparing that even to the video Brad posted, which shows quite a few different calls and tones. And from the sounds of it, there is even more complex stuff out there.

Where do you all fall in this spectrum? How many different calls or tones do you utilize?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pzWh3KCoIXE[/youtube]

 

[Lark Bunting]

Great information, thank you all!

One thing I stumbled on was a video posted by Jeff (elkmtngear) that we have saved in our archives. I wanted to share it again here. It is fairly lengthy, but has some great information. What I found very interesting is that Corey is a world champion caller, and yet he only chooses to use three basic calls when hunting. What do you all think of that? Very basic, but it sounds like it works pretty well for him. Very interesting comparing that even to the video Brad posted, which shows quite a few different calls and tones. And from the sounds of it, there is even more complex stuff out there.

Where do you all fall in this spectrum? How many different calls or tones do you utilize?

<Grain of salt>
My son once played football (age 8) for a coach that swore he\'d only run 5 plays on offense and that they would run them well! Those five plays were run to the left and to the right...we were now at 10 plays. Those five plays all had at least two options, if/then...if the linebacker bit on the fake handoff, then... we were now at 20 plays. The kids got damn confused, and quickly.

I am a fan of not over complicating the elk calling but I seriously doubt Corey only uses three calls while hunting. I think he uses as many calls as necessary for the situation, which is what we should all be ready to do.

 

[WW]

Travis: Thanks for posting that vid.

Derek: Thanks for your vid of Cory\'s seminar as well. But be careful, LOL! I posted it once on the Elknut site a couple of years ago an he banned me from the site. Guess he didn\'t like Cory all that well at the time.

But thanks to both of you guys anyhow. I\'m sure it will help others.

 

[bowhunter]

Travis: Thanks for posting that vid.

Derek: Thanks for your vid of Cory\'s seminar as well. But be careful, LOL! I posted it once on the Elknut site a couple of years ago an he banned me from the site. Guess he didn\'t like Cory all that well at the time.

But thanks to both of you guys anyhow. I\'m sure it will help others.

:lol: I remember. That\'s what started this wonderful site. :upthumb:

 

[WW]

Terry you hit the nail on the head. I\'m just so glad that Brad and others had the vision to start BTO. It has turned out to be my main go-to place on the internet.

 

[Bob Frapples]

Try at several different diaphragm calls fit / comfort is king.

Throw a reed call in the mix of a sequence of diaphram calls

I got a sounds of the elk cd and still use it to practice along with in the truck. You do get some strange looks, at least here in Louisiana , most likely folks wondering what the h%#? is that sound? X2 on practice in truck, do this every morning you go somewhere - it equals confidence, it\'s like your first bow shot of the day/trip, it should be the one that counts, hammering the first one home gives you confidence.