Elk question regarding movement

[pg83]

Question for those more experienced than myself.

Last year I was hunting an area for about a week and had numerous encounters with different bulls, but failed to bag one. I learned a lot from the mistakes I made and about elk behaviour in general. There was one bull who was bugling for the entire duration of my trip from the same spot give or take a hundred yards. He might go a couple of hours being quiet, but then he would start up again. I was too chicken to sneek in on him for fear of blowing him out. If The same thing happened this year I would make a play for sure. My question is how long have you seen a bull stay almost stationary for? All the other bulls I saw were moving around, whether they had cows or not. He must of had something special keeping him there. There was water, feed, and bedding all close by, but would that be enough given it was rut time? I'm certain it was not another hunter as my camp location provided me with a commanding view of the area including the only road access nearby.

Thanks for any input!

[ace76]

I find when a bull bugles from one spot and wont come in any more you have to go at him. check the wind, head towards him, keep calling. What you will do is start to piss him off and he will get more aggressive and want to kick your ass. This has worked for us many times but watch that pesky wind. Sometimes you mess up on the bugle and it sounds like a dying horse or something and they will come running in like a quarter horse and the rest of the time they are pretty cautious. Always exciting though when you get that reply.
Good luck

[pg83]

I've turned over the scenarios from last season for almost a year now, I regret not being more aggressive on this fella. I made one mid day approach on his turf and got around 200 yards from where I was always hearing him. Never heard anything at that time, but was only using cow calls. A bugle or some brush thrashing might have been better. Can't wait to get back in there again this year!

[OutWest]

Sounds like you should have got into his bedroom. One call from in close and he would probably come a runnin'. Don't be scared to get in tight or about making noise. Elk are loud.

[pg83]

I had a few close encounters with other elk, five different bulls within 40 yards. Four of them were 3-point or less and one was a five on one side and I couldn't confirm a sixth on his other as it was getting dark in a hurry. He made a ton of noise coming in, wish he had been 5 minutes earlier. He looked like an older bull as he was thick in the antlers and neck. I was really hoping to make it back this year for archery season, but we are headed for alpine muleys due to hunting buddies work schedule. If I really haul ass I might make it for the last day or two, but I think it will be more realistic that I end up going around the 15th for a week or so.

[Deeboe]

Next time get in closer. This has happened to me on a number of occasions and I have almost always found that if you can cover your scent or are down wind, once you move in closer, their instinct usually takes over and he will come out to challenge you (or I have just had a crap load of good luck)

[hunter1947]

I have found out over my years hunting these beautiful animals that elk are territory animals he should be back in the same area this year if nothing has happened to him ???.

My guess is you are dealing with a herd bull and the only way to get to him is to close in on him if me I would make sure your all cleaned up put lots of scent on you make sure you have the wind in your face and move in like a slug and don't do any calling till you are within 100 yards of him then set up and try a few cow calls in heat he might leave his ladies and come to you if the gals aren't in heat at this time.

I have experimented on herd bulls with cows in the past and when I gave a full not bugle at him 6 out of 10 times he rounded up his gals and took them into no mans land not all the time if you want to give a bugle when your in his bedroom try it you got nothing to loose he might come in to you its 50,,50 chance he might come in or leave Dodge city ???..

Make sure you have a good set up before you blast him with a bugle,,,,, a satellite bull reacts differently they got no cows and these bachelor bulls will come in to your cow calls or bugles there called satellite bulls good luck this year :)..

[pg83]

Thanks for the input guys!

[Bugle M In]

I have found out over my years hunting these beautiful animals that elk are territory animals he should be back in the same area this year if nothing has happened to him ???.

My guess is you are dealing with a herd bull and the only way to get to him is to close in on him if me I would make sure your all cleaned up put lots of scent on you make sure you have the wind in your face and move in like a slug and don't do any calling till you are within 100 yards of him then set up and try a few cow calls in heat he might leave his ladies and come to you if the gals aren't in heat at this time.

I have experimented on herd bulls with cows in the past and when I gave a full not bugle at him 6 out of 10 times he rounded up his gals and took them into no mans land not all the time if you want to give a bugle when your in his bedroom try it you got nothing to loose he might come in to you its 50,,50 chance he might come in or leave Dodge city ???..

Make sure you have a good set up before you blast him with a bugle,,,,, a satellite bull reacts differently they got no cows and these bachelor bulls will come in to your cow calls or bugles there called satellite bulls good luck this year :)..


As hunter47 says, if he has cows ( which is 1 reason he is staying put ), bugling is a bad choice, unless your standing right beside one of his cows, then bugling will get instant response.
But, generally the cows will circle together, and walk off with the bull.
Try getting in position for viewing if possible an hour before first light ( not sure if where your bull was, was just in thick country, or any openings, cut blocks close by ? ), possible that they may be feeding
and heading back at this time, again don't bugle at this time...just wait till light hits the floor.
(had a bull with cows do this to me for 5 days, just bugled back, each day moving further away from my camp, so I tried the above one morning and caught them on the river still feeding )

And, as others say, sometimes you have to go to them, so when he bugles back, and you feel he is going to just do the same thing, then wait an hour, than slowly work your way into him fairly quite, til you think the bull could possibly be hearing you move, than start cow calling, BUT, keep eyes open, this same bull may stop bugling and just wonder in, Silently!

Also, I had a bull once bugle back with me for several days, oddly, he would come bugling towards me each time, than as I am setting up to get ready to shoot, the bull would seem to veer off in a different
direction, and start bugling away from me???
It had been hot, so he was sitting in a creek bed each day, too thick to walk right in to him, and I suspect that he had cows somewhere close by, or knew where they were hanging, as I never saw a cow all
week, and I think that was where he was going, as at some point a lone bull will come in to see whats up, a bull with cows generally wont, unless you re close to his cows.
That bull got pretty predictable, so I did what others said, and ran him down, cut him off, and took him at close range.
The other option would have been to find where the cows where, but I didn't have a clue where they would be.
Elk can stay put in one little spot for days...I've seen it, and these elk obviously will leave little sign around the hillside, making a lot of hunters think there aren't any elk around, but they are there.

Cow call will work better on this bull, but don't get trapped in the mind thought that because it is elk, that calling is the best way, only way, sometimes hunting them down like say mulie hunting is the best
way.
Spot and stalk depending on where you hunt is till the first choice any elk hunter should make...why bugle, cow call if you don't have to!
Other areas, spotting is virtually useless, and calling is necessary for locating elk.
Try cow calling most of the time, and just stay put in a place for a while, as bulls can come in silent...often the case!
Bugling in the evening just before dark, will often give you responses from bulls you haven't heard all day, they seem to me, to be more vocal at that time, and you may have 2 or 3 bulls start, where you
thought no elk were present!

Bugling in the a.m. works also, by I find that it will be often just a single bull responding if they do so.
But, again, bulls with cows is a different game, bugling can cause them to just leave, or, hide and you just walk past them a few hundred yards away.
I have watched many times a herd walk away, as hunters approach in that herds direction, bugling away.
The hunters end up see nothing, than saying there is nothing around.

One last thing, if you decide to go in after this bull, if wind permits, come in from the direction opposite your camp, just in case you get busted, there is a chance the herd may move in your camps direction.
I start hunting that one bull no more than 500 yards away from camp, on the 4th day, I got in front of them, started bugling till dark with the bull, then came in on the am, and sure enough, they had moved
a half a click back in the opposite direction towards camp again, still ended up taking the bull 6 kms away from camp, so careful which way you push also, get in front of them whenever you can.
All the best to you this season, and to all the other Elk junkies on here as well!!

[pg83]

Thanks for the reply! Lots of great info. We kept camp very low key and I was surprised by the amount of activity from the elk nearby. Best of luck to you as well!

[Lukeez88]

Great info! Had similar stuff happen last season. Had some bulls come stomping right in but also had lots of stand offish bulls. We would call back and forth with them and they would start coming closer to a certain point and then buggering off before we could get a glimpse. At first I thought that was because they weren't rutting hard enough but now you got me thinking I wasn't aggressive enough into getting into their territory.