What Do You Do

S

Swede

New member
Mar 4, 2014
1,722
You are bow hunting at 9:30 Am and you hear a bugle off in the timber in front of you. You estimate the distance at about 125-150 yards, so you decide to sneak in as far as you can. You know the bench the bull called from. It is a common bedding area. There is some cover to conceal you, so you hope advance to within shooting range and wait for a shot. The wind is shifting as the day is warming up, but you are fine now.
Using the cover available, you move closer. Now at 75-100 yards you peek and see a standing bull through your binoculars. He is totally unaware of your presence. There is still some cover, but it is becoming sparse, and the ground is littered with trash that sounds like lightning crashing when you step on it. At this time you start to put your grunt tube to your lips , but then put it away. If the bull advances to a call, he will see where you are from 70 or 80 yards, with some of that \"cover\" separating the two of you. You will have no shot that way. What do you do? Becoming a rifle hunter now is not an option. :D
BTW: Please let me know if you have never encountered a situation similar to what I described, so I know you have never hunted elk before.
 
Might consider a distraction, like a thrown stone, to simulate movement and get his curiosity up.

A decoy is handy in this situation, as it is distracting and attracting.

Yes, I\'ve been here before, and I\'ve tried the \"directing traffic\" mode of calling without success. I\'ve also been busted setting up a decoy.
 
This is my noob two cents, so I will give what I would do off of my \"research\".

If I know this bench well, then I know the area well too. I would wait it out and see what the bull did. (Might even back up a little into a better covered area) If the bull advanced on his own, now I have the element of surprise. If he starts going in another direction, then I can move to a new point, set him up, and then call him back.



I\'d rather have him leave without me spooking him, than me spook him by calling him in and seeing me.
 
I had a similar situation a few years ago.

The bull was responding to my cow calls as I moved within a 100 yards or so. However I ran out of cover, but knew he was expecting me to come closer (I\'d already closed about a quarter mile on him calling as I went).

So I setup, let out another cow call, which he responded to. The I responded with a Spike call. He came unglued, running probably 60 yards (I heard hoofs hitting the ground).

Unfortunately he ran through my scent pool, and off he went.

As for this scenario. Not much you can do. Maybe back off a bit where he has to come look for you, throw out a call or two, then move off to one side 20 or so yards.

AB
 
Too bad i\'m not a bow hunter. I\'d tell you what to do, and no calls will be needed.
 
Common Pete, don\'t save this one for the book! I\'m just making the assumption that my scope is fogged up on my rifle to make the situation work for me :D

I actually would really like to hear what a good still hunter would do here. If I were a bow hunter, Dana\'s idea sounds good to me. Back up and try to call him in. Either that or I would take a chance and try to set up on a route that I would expect the bull to take when leaving his bed. That is a risky deal though unless you have patterned this bull.
 
Look at my last post in this thread.

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Im getting out my wind checker and parking my butt right there.
This is a classic example how fickle winds can screw up your hunt.
Since I can see the bull Im going to watch him as long as I can, checking the wind about every minute or two.

So lets play along and say the wind becomes stable to your advantage.
My guess would be the bull will be on the move very soon, since its fairly open, its not going to be his bedding area.
But at mid-morning, he will going that way.
Do you know where that is?

Im with Pete.
Not enough cover to call.
Not enough cover to push forward.
Check the wind, flank the bull as quietly as you can.
Im betting the cover will get tighter and thats the time to make your move
 
Where I hunt the vegetation can be very patchy/clumpy. In addition places in the area may appear quite open under a fairly closed canopy.
cnelk and some others see it the way I would. I will add that the bull is going to bed right where you see him. He is going to stay on that bench for awhile. I will share what I would try after you have a little more opportunity to discuss you approach to this situation. There is no right or wrong answer, but some things may offer a better chance than some others.
 
My buddy and I had a similar encounter, but it was with cows and calves. Were were still hunting through some really thick pine with a fair amount of downfall. It was around 10am and it was silent with no wind. We were moving painstakingly slow through the dense and very dry timber, always glassing. I picked up an ear twitching and picked out two cows about 50 yards away. No way to get any closer without them seeing or hearing us walk, so we slowly lowered down and got to our knees. We waited them out for over an hour. During that time we would keep glassing and amazingly we picked out 4 more elk that were bedded with the other two. As they got up, my buddy was able to harvest a nice young cow.

So, with the bull scenario, I would wait it out, since he is moving and you really don\'t have any other great options, besides having a little patience.
 
Normally, this late in the day I\'d leave a bull to bed. I know my areas and I know where he\'ll feed this evening so I\'d have probably backed off right away after hearing the bugle.

If I\'d already gotten to 75 yards, I\'ve got very little distance to go before closing this deal. I range the spot I need to be and get there. Period. I\'ve crawled within bowrange of antelope in 4 inches of grass on the open prairie where lifting your head for a look is a deal breaker. Sneaking on a single elk can be quite easy. Crawling makes very little noise as compared to boots on the ground. Alot of guys just havn\'t seen the \"sneaky indian\" enough on tv to think to add it to the arsenal. Again, this is only if leaving him alone for later is absolutley not an option. Trying almost anyting after 9:30 in my areas has led to busted elk.
 
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