First Week Tactics

[Deertick]

Well, it\'s going to be the first week of September for me this year.

What tactics do you find are BEST-suited to the first week?

Aside from the passive tactics, like treestand hunting, what calling do you use?

In short, how do you take advantage of the first week, and the special circumstances present during that time?

 

[iccyman001]

John,
where I hunt, elk are still vocal enough where location bugles and basic cow calling will be effective.
In the morning I will be in general areas I know the bulls will be and listen, sending out a locator every now and then.

When they respond I go into stealth mode and try to get within 100 yards or less. That is when I pull out the cow calls.
Most of the bulls I got into this year with this tactic had other cows with them (very odd year) so I had to come off very low threat.
They ran off when I challenged them and there were times with cow calling, I felt like his cows ran them off because they didn\'t want me around.


Evening hunts were mostly over water, wallows, food areas, or right outside of their bedding zones.
I was more quiet during this time. I had the element of surprise in my favor and didn\'t wanna draw any attention to myself.


Especially over water or wallows. I noticed elk would come into them very cautiously.
More often than not I would watch them stop 70 yards out and just look over the entire hole.
So If I would have been cow calling from it, but then they don\'t see anything, I would imagine they would boogie.

 

[cnelk]

If its hot, Ill be checking wallow action.
Not so much hunting them, but around and near them.

I wont bugle unless I hear bugles

First week here in CO in the last week of August, that is still summertime!

 

[Pop-r]

Haha...cuz they didn\'t want you around...remember that those bitches have lived a long time & can tell a call from an elk about as good as God. They\'ve seen & heard it all.

 

[otcWill]

I cover a lot of ground, glass, and do some cold calling with rag bugles and raking. In my area, killing a big bull during the first week seems nearly impossible as they just don\'t show up at all until around Labor Day. Pray for an early rut

 

[Eyeeyecaptain]

Phase 1 is to simply find them for us. In our experience this can be difficult since they are in smaller herds this time of year and seem to be \"everywhere\". We hit known haunts, transition zones, etc... As far as calling goes we stay pretty quiet until the elk start talking. Basically we mimic what the herds are doing there. Do a little locate calling but not much beyond that.

Haha...cuz they didn\'t want you around...remember that those bitches have lived a long time & can tell a call from an elk about as good as God. They\'ve seen & heard it all.

Going to have to disagree with you there. Some calls yes, others not so much. They don\'t know what Susie the cow or Walter the bull from the other hill sounds like, but they do know she is not part of their group. It has been shown that a lead cow will certainly move her herd away from other dominant cows if that is what you are portraying. Also, outsiders are not always welcome - as seen with real live elk.

 

[WW]

John: Go to the Archive Tips section on this site and look for my post about (Silent Calling).

Also, if you can locate the CD (Early Season Elk) by Jim Horn, it is well worth the price but very hard to find. You might try contacting Rockie Jacobsen @ Bugling Bull Game Calls. I know Rockie and Jim are very close friends. He might know how to get the CD.

 

[AndyJ]

Look for the bulls and see what they are doing then pick your tactics. If the bulls are still in bachelor groups, they aren\'t even thinking of the ladies. IMO, this is the hardest time to hunt them. You need to find bedding and feeding areas and intercept them. If you are finding lone bulls, the rut is starting and the bulls are more or less on schedule for this time of year. This is when you can call to individual bulls and you have a better chance at calling in big bulls. If the bulls have cows, the rut is going. I like to use ambush tactics at this point.

Personally I HATE cold calling. I am much to fidgety for it to work. Elk come in whisper quiet to cold calling setups. I stack the odds in their favor about 95-5.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Look for the bulls and see what they are doing then pick your tactics. If the bulls are still in bachelor groups, they aren\'t even thinking of the ladies. IMO, this is the hardest time to hunt them. You need to find bedding and feeding areas and intercept them. If you are finding lone bulls, the rut is starting and the bulls are more or less on schedule for this time of year. This is when you can call to individual bulls and you have a better chance at calling in big bulls. If the bulls have cows, the rut is going. I like to use ambush tactics at this point.

Personally I HATE cold calling. I am much to fidgety for it to work. Elk come in whisper quiet to cold calling setups. I stack the odds in their favor about 95-5.

+1 The \"Lessons Learned While Calling Heavy Pressured OTC Bulls\" diploma! :upthumb:

Although I do like cold calling from time-to-time. Immature bulls can be fooled real easy.

 

[AndyJ]

Personally I HATE cold calling.

I feel like I should add I don\'t HATE cold calling because it doesn\'t work. It actually can work really well. I\'ve called in a lot of elk on cold calling setups. The problem is I almost always get busted. They rarely come in the direction I expect. Many times they circle downwind and I get busted. Other times they show up right as I lose patience and stand up. One word of advice: If you cold call, stay alert for at least an hour after your last call. If you haven\'t seen one by then, you probably aren\'t going to see one, but most of the elk I have called in using a cold calling setup have showed up 30-45 minutes after I stopped calling.

John is right, immature bulls sometimes come in on a string. If one is around, he will probably come check you out.