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+--- Thread: Calling all elk (/showthread.php?tid=1068084)
Calling all elk - fast_randy - 03-28-2019
I started to call this post " Bugling Elk" because calling bull elk in close is to me the funniest thing I have ever done. But I really didn't get good at it until the guy in Montana came up with the cow call. I drew out for the first muzzle loader elk tag that Utah had. And again two years after when I was eligible again. I had to be the first one to shoot two bulls with a ML. Anyway, that first Muzzle loader hunt I heard my first bull bugle. And have been in love with elk ever since. Lol
I said it then, I'll say it again. Calling elk in is better than sex.
I turned to bow hunting after that so I could keep hunting September. And hunted Colorado mostly but Utah and New Mexico also. I learned when to bugle and when not. I learned you can't, unless you're just offal at it; over cow call. I have two or three cow calls and a huchie mama (the hand operated cow call) around my neck at all times. I have had 50 bulls surround me at once one time. All within 20 yards,some I could touch if I dared move. I had a cow bend down and sniff my toe. I had a calf try scratching her nose on my nocked arrow. And another rub my back with her nose. One time at Ford Springs by Goslin Mt. And Flaming Gorge, I walked in with a huge herd of elk at night. With my cow call I mingled with the herd only inched away. I was scouting Antelope that time and the elk seemed to know I was harmless.
But what close encounters have you had with these great tasting animals?
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - TheFishSlayer - 03-28-2019
WOW, I don't have any stories to add to this as I am just getting started with hunting. But these are the stories I hope to have someday. Thank you for sharing.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - catchinon - 03-29-2019
I love bugling, too. Although I can't claim to have gotten any close enough to touch I have called many in and killed a few of those.
One of the most interesting was a bull that stayed just out of sight in an elk jungle in some huge old-growth timber. He sounded huge and had the most unusual call. Underneath the bugle he had a most plaintive moan. Never heard anything like it before or since.
Absolutely agree about the cow calling and Hoochie Mamas. I followed a herd around through the aspens for half a day, occasionally cow calling until I got within range. Unfortunately, I shot the wrong bull, but that's another story.
My bugling goes back to the days of the plastic pipe and plug. Then I used a length of coiled gas hose. Some of the most fun I've had is talking back and forth with a bull using a diaphragm call.
One day my brother and I stopped for lunch where we could watch a small opening in the woods. We knew better than to call in the middle of the day. I found a big old dead leaning fir that made a great place to hide out. I thought I might coyote out there one night so I began to break limbs off and scrape out a place to lie. After a while my brother's gun boomed. I ran around the corner of the thicket in time to see a big bull racing away. I got so excited that I jammed my rifle while my brother continued to blaze away; I didn't really want to shoot him up the caboose anyway (the bull, [
]not my brother). He must have thought that there was a big old fight going on or that another bull was angrily beating the tar out of a tree. A couple of days later my brother took a nice six point down in the hole where he had come from. That place was like a cattle pen so we couldn't be sure it was the same bull but it's nice to think maybe it was.I had to give up bow hunting because of a bad shoulder. But one September I took my wife out for a hike near where I had killed a bull before. We could hear bulls calling all around us. I had my diaphram with me so that I could try to locate some bulls so she could hear them, but they didn't need any encouragement. She said that it would be really cool if a big bull came running out into the little clearing and bugled just like in the videos I had been watching. I told her that that wasn't likely to happen but set about trying to make it happen. I called and got a nearby response. Then I broke off a limb from a gnarly old fallen tree and began to beat and rub the dead limbs. Suddenly a bull ran into the opening about thirty yards away and bugled at us. I think that after that she thought I could just go out and call a bull in any time I wanted to.
Only 180 days till opening day this year, but who's counting? I better hurry up and get ready to go!
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Re: [catchinon] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 03-29-2019
My dad had the Faulk tube whistle and the gas line call also. They sounded silly.
The diaphragm changed things. But you have to add the growls from deep down in your esophagus and throat. You start with the growl and end with growly grunts.
You do hear some strange sounds from them. Do you know that when a bull grunts, he is squirting pee and scent on his belly. It takes weeks for the smell to wear off your hands after gutting a bull in rut.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 03-29-2019
Any body that has bow hunted September for Elk has called other hunters in. I didn't have many bow hunting friends and went out of state by myself a lot. I can almost always tell an elk from a person. But I am so good, they can hardly ever tell I'm not a real elk herd. Because I am so good, I have met guys twice, one from Colorado and one from Missouri that i hunted with for several years. I like calling better than I like killing so I would always let them be out front and I would do all the calling. That made for a great friendship. We even went to Texas together pig hunting. Back then Colorado had 180,000 thousand elk. More than all the rest of the state's together. And it was only $250 to hunt the whole month of September.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 03-29-2019
Craig mentioned the brush crashing bulls do. Have you ever realized just how many trees elk kill every year. I have watched it happen within 10 yards right in front of me, a few times. Once a bull was thrashing a small pine right in front of me and looked up and we made eye contact! He did a warning bark that was so load I swear it almost blew my hat off. You don't want to look them in the eye when you are that close.
But next time you are in good bull country like: Monroe Mt. Or any of the hard to draw areas, Notice how many small tree have been tore up by elk.
One time I was watching this big bull and his herd. I was in my truck and they were 300 yards below me. I took out my video camera and filmed while I bugled to them. I was in the open. My bugle infuriated the bull. He took some lunges in my direction just screaming and shaking his head at me. I started laughing and put the camera down so I could watch with my good binocular. And then the bull reached down and plucked a big ole sage brush right out of the ground and threw it over his head. I was pissed I didn't get it on tape. So I picked up my camera and bugled again. And he did it again. I filmed it. Have you ever tried to dig or remove a big healthy sage? The big bull tossed it like it was a balloon.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 03-29-2019
It was the Turkey hunters that came out with the first diaphragm calls. Then I think the call maker: Wayne Carleton figured it out for Elk. For my main call though, I like the Abe and Son call or the one that has two grunt tubes and holds a strip of latex for the reed like the Abe and Son call. Then I make my own strips of latex by cutting up free latex gloves from the doctor or dentist. I can make pretty bugles with these, but to do any real good grunting, I still like a good double reed diaphragm and grunt tube.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 03-29-2019
I had a terrible time learning to use a diaphragm. They gagged me and tickled my
. So l started leaving it in my mouth as much as possible. All day long for about a week it was in my mouth or the side of my cheek. I was working alone in a boiler plant so I could practice and no one could hear. But the first two days I just kept it in my mouth. Not trying to call. Then after that I would switch it from my cheek to calling position and back again for two days. On the 5 day I could call good and it never gagged me again.[signature]
Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - PACKFAN - 04-09-2019
I have hunted elk in many western states and spent a lot of time amongst them when I use to Guide on DL&L. I like using the diaphragm the best, I have called hunters in and had some fun with them at times during the bow hunt. I would let them get with in 50 yards or so and then let out turkey gobble or Coyote yelp, funnier than heck to see their heads pop up wondering what the hell.
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Re: [PACKFAN] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 04-09-2019
I used to sneak in to Hells canyon on DL&L from Causey Estates just to play with the huge bulls in September.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - PACKFAN - 04-09-2019
It may cost you if you ever get caught, not sure what they have for security now that Tom land has taken the hunting rights over, or if he even has much for security. Had a lot of fun guiding back in the early 90's and spending time on the ranch.
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Re: [fast_randy] Calling all elk - fast_randy - 04-10-2019
I was just learning how to call in the 80's. Only place I knew I could find bulls to play with back then.
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