Plays

[Deertick]

In another thread, I talked about how I think in \"football terms\" of \"plays\" to run while hunting.

These would include the \"Corey Jacobsen\" ... which WW and Swede described ... it is briefly summarized like this:

1. Locate a bull with bugling
2. Silently get close
3. Soft cow call
4. When the bull tries to call his new cow friend to him, cut him off with a bugle

Anything can happen once the \"ball is snapped\" ... fumbles, broken plays, improvisation ... but it sounds like this is how it is \"drawn up\" on the chalkboard.

What are some of your favorite \"plays\"? (These could include both run-and-gun stuff, like Corey, or passive cold-calling strategies.

 

[Zpd307]

I will let you know what worked after we get back in sept..... now that I have some plays to choose from.

 

[elkmtngear]

From an evening treestand:

A couple of soft cow mews every 15 minutes or so.

If a bull answers, respond with a spike squeal! Get ready!

 

[Bullnuts]

Get noisy while calling. Break logs, stomp, and make elk sounds. Elk expect to hear elk sounds and I try to imitate them as best I can.

 

[OldMan]

Get noisy while calling. Break logs, stomp, and make elk sounds. Elk expect to hear elk sounds and I try to imitate them as best I can.

Exactly the point I try to make over and over. Elk are noisy. Very noisy. They\'re easy to find without giving away your position with calling. Why alert them, when they make all the nose, and you can sneak up on them?

It\'s damn hard to sneak up on an alert elk. You want them relaxed, so you can get close to them. Hunt them. Bringing them to you with calling is just a small step away from baiting. Hunting is so much more than tricking them into thinking you\'re not what you are.

 

[americanbwana]

Omaha!

 

[Bob Frapples]

Omaha!

. ,lol

 

[Bullnuts]

Get noisy while calling. Break logs, stomp, and make elk sounds. Elk expect to hear elk sounds and I try to imitate them as best I can.

Exactly the point I try to make over and over. Elk are noisy. Very noisy. They\'re easy to find without giving away your position with calling. Why alert them, when they make all the nose, and you can sneak up on them?

It\'s damn hard to sneak up on an alert elk. You want them relaxed, so you can get close to them. Hunt them. Bringing them to you with calling is just a small step away from baiting. Hunting is so much more than tricking them into thinking you\'re not what you are.

Not sure I\'d go so far as to say that calling and baiting are on the same plane. There is definitely an art to calling that a lot of guys just don\'t get, which is why a lot of guys go home empty every year. It\'s always great to have an elk sound off and tell you where he\'s at and the direction he\'s going, but they can be incredibly silent, too, even when traversing stuff that makes walking on bags of potato chips seem quiet.

 

[elkmtngear]

Get noisy while calling. Break logs, stomp, and make elk sounds. Elk expect to hear elk sounds and I try to imitate them as best I can.

Exactly the point I try to make over and over. Elk are noisy. Very noisy. They\'re easy to find without giving away your position with calling. Why alert them, when they make all the nose, and you can sneak up on them?

It\'s damn hard to sneak up on an alert elk. You want them relaxed, so you can get close to them. Hunt them. Bringing them to you with calling is just a small step away from baiting. Hunting is so much more than tricking them into thinking you\'re not what you are.

Not sure I\'d go so far as to say that calling and baiting are on the same plane. There is definitely an art to calling that a lot of guys just don\'t get, which is why a lot of guys go home empty every year. It\'s always great to have an elk sound off and tell you where he\'s at and the direction he\'s going, but they can be incredibly silent, too, even when traversing stuff that makes walking on bags of potato chips seem quiet.

I\'m with you Bill. Maybe from a rifle hunter\'s perspective, calling would be \"too easy\"...but there is no greater thrill for a bowhunter than calling a bull into point blank range. :upthumb:

And yes, they can be so quiet that they seem to defy physics! :crazy:

 

[OldMan]

Get noisy while calling. Break logs, stomp, and make elk sounds. Elk expect to hear elk sounds and I try to imitate them as best I can.

Exactly the point I try to make over and over. Elk are noisy. Very noisy. They\'re easy to find without giving away your position with calling. Why alert them, when they make all the nose, and you can sneak up on them?

It\'s damn hard to sneak up on an alert elk. You want them relaxed, so you can get close to them. Hunt them. Bringing them to you with calling is just a small step away from baiting. Hunting is so much more than tricking them into thinking you\'re not what you are.

Not sure I\'d go so far as to say that calling and baiting are on the same plane. There is definitely an art to calling that a lot of guys just don\'t get, which is why a lot of guys go home empty every year. It\'s always great to have an elk sound off and tell you where he\'s at and the direction he\'s going, but they can be incredibly silent, too, even when traversing stuff that makes walking on bags of potato chips seem quiet.

Similarity to baiting meaning you\'re bringing the elk to you, instead of going to them. You\'re sitting waiting to ambush. You\'ve tricked the elk.

Not a put down to the method. It\'s very popular, and effective. I just choose to hunt with no tricks.

Posts like this got me banned on another forum, so I don\'t expect them to go over well. I\'m just being honest about my opinion. Something someone claimed everybody had a right to express. Not true at all unless your opinion agreed with his. Lets see how it goes over here.

 

[cohunter14]

Opinions are exactly that, it\'s your thoughts and reasoning versus someone else\'s. I think it\'s great, as long as everyone\'s opinion is respected. I doubt you\'ll get the boot for expressing the opinions here

Truthfully Pete, a lot of your posts and your passion for still hunting have really made me want to give it a try at some point with a muzzleloader. I think I would struggle with it, but I can imagine how awesome it would feel to take down an animal that way.

 

[Deertick]

Crucify him! Crucify him!

 

[cohunter14]

Crucify him! Crucify him!

:lol:

 

[OldMan]

Not sure I could handle that. Just a regular hanging will be ok.

 

[WW]

[

Stillhunter wrote, (quote) Posts like this got me banned on another forum, so I don\'t expect them to go over well. I\'m just being honest about my opinion. Something someone claimed everybody had a right to express. Not true at all unless your opinion agreed with his. Lets see how it goes over here.[/quote]

Not a problem here Pete! You are dealing with the best of the banned here. I/we didn\'t agree with his opinion either. :downthumb:
I have no problem at all with your still hunting methods. Just about every caller uses it at some time or another. Heck, who knows, maybe you could teach all of us a trick or two. And we could show you some of our tricks as well.

 

[cnelk]

\"Best of the Banned\'
Now that\'s funny

 

[Colorado_Lew]

[
I have no problem at all with your still hunting methods. Just about every caller uses it at some time or another. Heck, who knows, maybe you could teach all of us a trick or two. And we could show you some of our tricks as well.

Exactly! A successful elk hunter will deploy all methods to close the gap and having more than one tactic to use will help make most hunters join the 10% club.

 

[OldMan]

I might agree with you if I didn\'t know how successful I am. Elk will always bed down during the day. That will never change. You just need to know where the bedding areas are, and still hunting is the only way to go in, and get them.

Just saying.

 

[Bullnuts]

I\'m not all knowing and powerful on this site to ban you, and I wouldn\'t ask for that of anyone anyway. If I don\'t like a post or a guy, I just ignore it. In the case of your post, maybe it\'s not what you say but how you say it. There are a lot of guys, me included, who live to call in elk. It\'s not like we\'re standing in the middle of Estes Park with a bag of popcorn in one hand and a bow in the other, and we\'d never look at calling in that way. Yes, we do get the animals to come to us. We also get them to make elky noises and we use those to cut the distance and make a plan. I do not possess super human hearing, so I can\'t hear an elk walking around, unless he\'s right on top of me or hauling butt in the other direction because I spooked him, and then it\'s normally for just a few seconds before silence settles on the land again. I have no doubt that if I was unable to call for some reason, I would still kill an elk on occasion. That\'s because I put in the time and the miles and even though I\'m a caller, I am also a hunter. It is possible to be both, and success, I think, would likely go down without both working in conjunction with each other.

 

[elkmtngear]

I might agree with you if I didn\'t know how successful I am. Elk will always bed down during the day. That will never change. You just need to know where the bedding areas are, and still hunting is the only way to go in, and get them.

Just saying.

We get it Pete, you\'re a one trick pony. I understand that it is YOUR way of hunting elk, but it\'s not the only way. Therein lies the problem, as Bill stated, it\'s not what you are saying, it\'s how you say it.

Simple fix...instead of saying \"you all should do this\"...try \"I do it like this\" !