Re: Your best call in
half hour after sunrise myself and my two partners slip into the timber, slowly cow calling our way into the direction of the wallow
5 minutes later, a bull bugles ahead of us a hundred yards. I hang back as my partners sneak up. I catch movement through the trees, here comes a nice bull quartering towards us left to right. He stops behind a thick wall of trees with only his head showing. Looked like a nice 6x6. Wind is still perfect, I'm back 30 yards doing my best imitation of a sleazy cow. After a minute standoff @ 50 yards (from my partners) he begins on, not offering a clear shot. He eventually is out of sight in the thick bush to our front right.
That is when bull #2 bugles, he sounded like a fire breathing dragon when he growled and chuckled. Life at this moment just doesn't get better, seemed like a dream. I cant see him, but keep cow calling. A couple minutes go by, it seemed like a lot longer, when I am snapped out of my daze by the muzzle blast of a 300 Winchester.
Found a torn up spot where a bull had obviously been not too long ago, so we tried a bugle. Instant response off in the timber to our right. Another bugle a few minutes later and he screamed back, noticeably closer.
Myself and my 13 yr old cousin, on his first elk hunt, took position on top of a small rise, while the father in law and BIL took cover behind us 50 yards, and began to cow call. A bugle off to our left echoed off the poplars, and the crashing of brush coming in fast got our attention and we got ready.
I spotted the bull first about 75 yards out, he stopped and thrashed a small tree and let out a bugle. Nice bull I thought, real nice. I had my 300 Win Mag ready and Tyler was by my side. A couple cow calls by the crew behind us and he was on a string right for us and coming quick.
I told Tyler to lift the legs on his bipod and stand beside me, as the bull closed the distance quickly with each step. He finally came into an opening between some trees at 15 yards when I told Tyler to drop the hammer. I looked over at my partner and he was shaking like jello.
We headed deeper into the timber and finally got an answer to one of our bugles. It was later in the morning by now, around 8am and we didn't wait and try to the lure the bull in, we checked the wind and headed right towards where he bugled from and the hunt was on! He would answer our cow calls and bugles, sounded like he was about 200-300 yards away still. We were skirting to his right, when he answered us and was much further to our left and heading downwind! We made the quick adjustment and within 400 yards the wind was right and we felt we were close to where he last bugled from.
We did some cow calls and I began to rub on a tree with a broken branch to try and lure in the bull to thinking a bull was with a cow and I heard a large branch snap not far out in front of us. I scanned for minutes with my binos but could not see any movement. All of a sudden he bugled and let out a series of loud hollow grunts. He was close! A few more cow calls and we could hear the bull getting close and closer. What an adrenaline rush! I spotted movement ahead and it was two cows heading our way, and then I seen him, could hear him, panting and glunking as he followed the cows towards us. His long beams first, I could see a good rear split and he was definitely a shooter! A beautiful sight as he came through the timber at about 60ish yards, the morning sun rising and his reddish black mane, tan body and then he let out a screaming lip bawl bugle. Im glad I had a tree to lean on as I could be shaking so hard I couldnt hold the binos right! The cows came through an opening and the bull was next, from where my partner was hiding behind a tree 10 yards to my left he had a clear lane on the bull and dropped the hammer at about 50 yards. The bull spun and headed to our left, stopped after about 20 yards, wobbled a bit and then tore off out of our sight, but we easily heard him crash to the ground only 50 yards from where he was hit.
we got a response to our third location bugle. We slipped into the timber downwind, and when within around 100-150 yards of where we figured he was earlier, we gave a few soft cow calls. The bull instantly answered us with a bugle, and he wasn’t far off. A half dozen excited cow mews and we could hear the crashing coming, and there he was, facing us at 60 yards. POW - The bull stumbled and turned to go, only making it a short 12 yards before piling up.
Hiked a couple KM at first light into an area which had shown some good sign of elk activity. I seen fresh tracks on the trail so decided to stop and make a bugle. Seconds later I heard some crashing up ahead and a bull bugled back a couple hundred yards away. Nice throaty gravely scream. Oh yeah baby this is happening! I moved towards him slowly and set up when I had a decent shooting lane. He bugled again on his own and I gave him a half dozen cow calls, shitty ones I could barely call I was pretty jacked up. He bugles again, screaming.
A minute goes by, silence. Then I hear some crashing and spot movement ahead. A cow is coming right towards me on a pretty good clip, and the bull is hot on her tail. He screams again, and hes charging towards me. Crosshairs settle on his chest frontal and I take the shot - WHAP I can hear the bullet impact and he staggers and lurches to my right and out of sight. Cow keeps trotting towards me and stops, looks around. It's dead quiet, no crashing, nothing. Cow turns and walks off out of sight and I slowly make my way up to where the bull was. I get about half way and he's standing there broadside looking right through me. One more shot behind the shoulder and he takes off but only makes it a short ways before piling up
"If you ever go into the bush, there are grizzly bears lurking behind just about every bush, waiting to pounce, so you need a powerful gun, with huge bullets" - Gatehouse ~ 2004