How much do you call

[GoatT]

I like to call a fair bit, and when things are absolutely dead but I know for a fact that the elk are in the area, I like to get full blown crazy. I'll make the most painful, frantic sounding distressed cow calls, I'll lip bawl and challenge bugle  in opposite directions as hard as I can, and I'll find a baseball bat size stick and go to town on the trees around me. I just do my best to sound like a satellite is hooking an unwilling cow and the herd bull busted him in the act. I can't count how many times doing this has got me an answer, even into the second week of October. It doesn't necessarily always bring them running in, but it seems to spark them up to the point they will talk, and so long as they are talking, then I can get in on them.

You hit it right on.  I think you have to be willing to do whatever it takes in calling to get into them.  Call a little, call a lot. Throw out some bugles or just cow call.  Hard cow call vs. soft mews.  Raking trees to glunking or chuckling.  You have to find what works in your area and at what times it works.  It has taken me 10 years in my area to know what and when is the best calling.  I also have been able to learn where they feed, water, bed, trails, wallows, cross ridges, etc.  The problem is always getting close enough for a shot while working the wind, scent control, etc.

 

[Kglacken]

In a pressured area like I hunt, calling is almost a joke. You hit the bugle and 3 other hunters immediately bugle back with the worst sounding bugles ever. im scouting a new area so hopefully that helps!