Very Strange - What would you do?

[JohnFitzgerald]

My son and I had an exciting morning. We locate bugled up a bull and moved in on him. The main herd must have winded us and took off from our left. So thinking the herd bull was in there, I screamed with hard pounding grunts. Then we counted 9 cows and a small rag horn cross an opening. A second after that is when all hell broke loose from our right. The herd bull, who had a satellite companion, started screaming back at me. The wind was perfect and we had plenty of cover. I immediately start giving cow calls, making all kinds of commotion, and chuckling. He just screamed....and screamed....and screamed. My son got a visual on both bulls and they were toads. Eventually, the two just walked the opposite direction the cows left....bugling and chuckling all the way.

1) So 3 bulls in a herd, I don\'t think they are full rut yet. But why was he screaming......and pissed?
2) The herd bull could care less that I was between him and his cows and was willing to concede to a weaker sounding challenger. WTH?
3) Because I screamed in attempts to stop the spooked herd I could not play off that I was just a lost cow. I had to play the \'Bull\' role.
4) Very little to no hunting pressure in this location.

How would you have played it?

p.s. Even the little rag horn started bugling. LOL!

 

[ORelksniper]

JF, that sounds exactly like the bulls I play with. I think you might remember some of the stories I\'ve told you.

Apparently, the herd bull didn\'t care much about the cows at this time. No estrus scent in the herd yet. He probably figures he can knock out the little guy later and take back the herd. Frustrating to hunt my kind of elk, huh?

If you figure out how to bring Ol\' Stinky in for a shot let me know. I\'ll bet your son was excited.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

My son was pumped. He\'s wondering if I\'ll ever call in a bull close enough. :wtf:

A little more background on this area. The elk are very much left alone throughout season. I found this spot last year deer hunting. The elk acted as if they didn\'t have a care in the world. It my gut feeling is that it\'s a local herd and the dominant bull has very little competition. It\'s ~1 miles to private fee hunt land and they are notorious for taking small satellite and rag horns.

So, does this herd bull ever have competition? Do unpressured and unchallenged elk have the \"I don\'t give a sh*t\" attitude cuz they\'re confident on get the cows later?

We all talk about pressured bulls. But I\'m begging to wonder about unchallenged bulls? Like sniper said, no estrus in the air. Then why did he scream at me repeadily. He was big...very big!

For a bull that\'s not use to a challenge, how would you hunt him?

 

[atfrith]

Exactly what we\'ve ran into the past couple days. Little to no pressure on these bulls. Had one bugling this morning. Couldn\'t care less that I was there bugling and cow calling as well. We\'re stumped

 

[ORelksniper]

Couple of thoughts:

#1: the big guy was screaming at you as a warning, not because he was pissed. If it really is a small local herd the bull is not use to any other serious challengers coming into the area to confront him. If there are other bulls wandering through, my guess is they are immediately run off and head to the pay to hunt ranch where the majority of cows are. (Small satellites and rag horns are taken there)

#2: if your going to challenge a bull for dominance there must be something he will fight for. No cows in estrus, nothing to fight for. Just my opinion.

If you want to hunt this guy now before he is cowed up I would either learn his habits and ambush him or try the soft sexy cow approach. Sometimes brains over brawn wins, JF. Good luck, buddy.