Elk Thread

[Greenthumbed]

Match what you are getting back. If he is going short and aggressive, then match that.
And they are almost always closer than you think.
If a bull is charging towards you, then throw your last bugle and move ahead as quiet as you can, to the other side of any openings. They’ll hang up and look and won’t often walk out into the open.
If it sounds like he is coming, either he’s coming to fight, f*ck, or watch, so read the situation. A bull slinking in is coming to watch and then try and steal a cow. A bull screaming and crashing and raking is coming to fight. Match his energy.
Mimic the sounds of a cow leaving a bull and going to him, and you’ll potentially salvage the situation. That means a lot of work, cow call and then bust a move away and bugle. Sound like you are trying to round up your sister in law fresh after a divorce and she’s trying to slip away over to the skanky goof across the bar that bought her a drink.

Elk hunting is a mobile game, you have to be prepared to move fast and (relatively) quiet (a 700lb animal moving through the timber makes noise, they expect to HEAR noise), and to hunt them where they are not where you want them to be.
You won’t pull many bulls way out of where they are out into the open, or to where you want them to show themselves. It does happen, but rarely. That is what separates the guys who have killed an elk once or twice, from the guys who are great and successful elk hunters.
Learn to read the situation and adapt to what the elk are telling you, and you’ll be successful.

Good advice!