Bad Elk Callers in the Woods

[Sled]

i have to apologize. it's been me this whole time blowing the elk out of the lower 48. not sure why it's happening because it sounds so good when i'm bugling in the shower.


actually i rarely call. the last time i tried to stop an elk with a cow call i got a nasty sounding busted tuba response from the woods behind him. i slipped off as the hunter approached only to find out it was another elk that probably sounded great to himself when he was in the wallow.

 

[Huntnnw]

I dropped my pack last week and hear a bugle below me.. it was so bad it sounded like a power bugle. If I was to bet money that it was a person I would have. I didnt even go investigate it it was so terrible. Next day same time the same bugle. It was a bull lol!

 

[eagle_eye]

Well opening morning I called in a 5 point rag horn bull with a Primos Hyperlip Double elk call. I was so excited that I missed that bull at 20 yards with my recurve. I was really missing my diaphragm that I left back at camp, as I couldn't bugle.

The next day I got my diaphragm out and saw some elk, but didn't manage to call in anything. Maybe I just chased all the elk away to someone with better hunting skills. Saw elk every day the first three days then went back home to get refreshed.

Went back to the same area and realized that my diaphragm had been washed in the washer in my pants. I still took it and used it. I went to the general area where I called in the bull the week before, but my call sounded more like letting the air out of a balloon than an elk call. I did some very bad raspy calls. I got a response. A bull in the valley below. He sounded like maybe he was big. I tried to get through the thick aspen growth silently, but I'm sure it sounded like a herd of cows plodding through there . Once I could see into the valley, I raked a tree with a branch and bugled. I got set up and through out some cow calls and bugled intermittently . He closed the distance to the forest edge in the valley to about 200 yards. He proceeded to tear up some forest. I called some more and I couldn't hear him any more. Then a set of antlers appeared just over the hill coming toward me. At about 50 yards the 6x6 bull stopped and bugled. I wasn't quite close enough for a shot with my recurve. He turned broadside and eventually walked off.

That sequence of bugles that I made were the worst sound I have ever produced trying to call in an elk. Don't know how it worked, but it did. The washing machine had ripped half of one of the sides of the latex reed of my diaphragm call giving it an over-the-top raspy sound.

Just my two cents.
Often times out in the elk woods, the elk themselves can be BAD callers as well as some of us elk imitators.
For me, a really bad elk imitation call worked.

I just thought it was funny that a hunter might have criticized my bad calling, but would have eaten crow if he was there to watch things unfold the way they did.

 

[trophyhill]

And what attitude is that? to leave people alone and want to be left alone, to have the opinion that confrontation can be a double edged sword and that folks should be careful who they tread upon? Lol thats some real bad unlikeable attitude.
FK with me and I'll FK you back! I don't call that bad attitude either, I call that not putting up with dicks running around pushing their self generated superior qualities on others so you are right, if a person is a dick I wouldn't be hunting with them.

So I wrote all that and didn't say one derogatory thing about you, excuse me for my bad attitude..........

With that attitude? No wonder no one wants to hunt with you! I bet you can’t stand hunting with yourself. And that bugle tube. Just leave that thing at home and stick to cow calling ……

 

[trophyhill]

Well opening morning I called in a 5 point rag horn bull with a Primos Hyperlip Double elk call. I was so excited that I missed that bull at 20 yards with my recurve. I was really missing my diaphragm that I left back at camp, as I couldn't bugle.

The next day I got my diaphragm out and saw some elk, but didn't manage to call in anything. Maybe I just chased all the elk away to someone with better hunting skills. Saw elk every day the first three days then went back home to get refreshed.

Went back to the same area and realized that my diaphragm had been washed in the washer in my pants. I still took it and used it. I went to the general area where I called in the bull the week before, but my call sounded more like letting the air out of a balloon than an elk call. I did some very bad raspy calls. I got a response. A bull in the valley below. He sounded like maybe he was big. I tried to get through the thick aspen growth silently, but I'm sure it sounded like a herd of cows plodding through there . Once I could see into the valley, I raked a tree with a branch and bugled. I got set up and through out some cow calls and bugled intermittently . He closed the distance to the forest edge in the valley to about 200 yards. He proceeded to tear up some forest. I called some more and I couldn't hear him any more. Then a set of antlers appeared just over the hill coming toward me. At about 50 yards the 6x6 bull stopped and bugled. I wasn't quite close enough for a shot with my recurve. He turned broadside and eventually walked off.

That sequence of bugles that I made were the worst sound I have ever produced trying to call in an elk. Don't know how it worked, but it did. The washing machine had ripped half of one of the sides of the latex reed of my diaphragm call giving it an over-the-top raspy sound.

Just my two cents.
Often times out in the elk woods, the elk themselves can be BAD callers as well as some of us elk imitators.
For me, a really bad elk imitation call worked.

I just thought it was funny that a hunter might have criticized my bad calling, but would have eaten crow if he was there to watch things unfold the way they did.

I’ve got one of those raspy calls. It’s the Phelps Dragonslayer.

 

[NateK]

I made some horse shit elk calls in Colorado last week.

Called in a couple of decent bulls in an OTC unit with them...

 

[JPD350]

With that attitude? No wonder no one wants to hunt with you! I bet you can’t stand hunting with yourself. And that bugle tube. Just leave that thing at home and stick to cow calling ……

So what will it take for you to let me hunt with you so I can see how a pro blows that Dragon Slayer, I've got money or garden goods!!

 

[trophyhill]

So what will it take for you to let me hunt with you so I can see how a pro blows that Dragon Slayer, I've got money or garden goods!!

Lmao ok you win. Can I come hunt with you to see if it’s true or not? And I promise I’ll leave my gps at home better idea. Ditch your partner and get me his moose tag and I’ll take the rest of September off work. Alaska here we come!

 

[JPD350]

Of course, I would be honored! I'll send the contract over right away.

See ya in the elk woods!

 

[roosiebull]

Man, I heard some real horsesh!t elk callers in the woods this past week.

I mean they were TERRIBLE. [And yes, it was hunters not elk]
They moved the elk out of the area!

I really wanted to go talk to them, but we just went and found the elk again.

Should a person approach another hunter and take their bugle tube away?? lol

haha....

one general rule i see is most people should NOT chuckle.... but they do anyways i don't chuckle very much when working a bull (NEVER when not working a bull) and i rarely need to, even calling a bull that only chuckles.... rarely need to, and most people are really bad at it.

i heard some calling this morning that was bad enough i wondered if maybe it was a spike, then after hearing it again i figured it was either a hunter, or a spike laying on it's back trying to pleasure himself and was frustrated because his hooves were too cold and dirty.... pretty sure it was a dude though, haha.

the other day i walked into an area early, slowly walking my way in and listening, and after daylight hunters start coming out of the woodwork, so being a weekday i assume it was chaos around there the past weekend so i decided to just distance myself from the obvious area, climb a bunch of elevation and drop back in through the timber and check out the sign scenario.

i was getting back lower, coming into a swampy area with a logging road across the swamp, no fresh sign anywhere so i was trying to get out of there and go check another big timbered ridge a couple miles away, i wasn't being purposely loud, but not silent in the dry timber, and someone must have heard me because they were trying to call me in with a primos bugle (for sure) and it was pretty funny... classic flute note bugle, with the whistly chuckle that doesn't resemble any elk sounds, then a few seconds later (the time it takes for them to set the bugle down and pick up the cow call, you get hit with a barrage of cow calls, haha.... textbook! like perfectly fitting the stereotype.... now i'm trying to be quiet, but they are on to me, and were running me down trying to call me across the swamp and the road with their wind blowing to me.... i finally had to hold tight for a few minutes, wait to hear their bugle down the road, back track and sneak out of there.

even the woods are turning into the twilight zone in 2021! it's not really a big deal, it's nice knowing where other people are, and most guys in the woods this year let you knowing with their primos locator beacon, and it never fails to entertain me. i personally don't mess with them, but the potential is there... my luck would be i start screwing with those guys, get a bull to answer, then get that bull fouled up from the guys i was messing with... i just leave them be.

 

[TradLife406]

I heard some really bad elk last week... one 300" bull did this little huff kind of contact bugle. If didn't think he was an elk at first. I let out a level 1 and he did it again.
As I closed in though and worked him with lost calves and assembly mews he went full dinosaur roar. Got him to 25 yards but all I had to shoot was right shoulder and he wouldn't turn.

Also hunt further don't hunt near other people.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[roosiebull]

I heard some really bad elk last week... one 300" bull did this little huff kind of contact bugle. If didn't think he was an elk at first. I let out a level 1 and he did it again.
As I closed in though and worked him with lost calves and assembly mews he went full dinosaur roar. Got him to 25 yards but all I had to shoot was right shoulder and he wouldn't turn.

Also hunt further don't hunt near other people.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

i called a bull in earlier in the season that i thought "WTH?" the first time he answered me.... almost sounded like a moo cow.... then he started chuckling after mewing.... it was a weird bull.

he started just chuckling when we met up at 15ish yds, and even that was weird, he was a speed chuckler, and then he would shut the voice off but keep doing it with just air... cool to watch that close, and hear

 

[AaronMColeman]

My first thought was, what a bunch of dicks! Turns out they're all on the 1st page and most of us are pretty cool. Public land (I assume that's where most elk hunters here hunt) is public land, gotta learn somewhere. I'd grade my own calling at a C+ or so.

But man all these dudes calling just to mess with another hunter who they don't deem worthy to be calling in their woods is what makes me not want to be called a hunter. What a bunch of jerks. If I ever see or hear something like that happening in the forests I hunt, I'll bop you on the head with my tube, let out an aggressive bugle right in your ear, and start raking trees with branches until you apologize for being a dick.

We share the woods and I think we should all be responsible with it. If you're a bad caller, work on getting better, and learn to call less but better. If you're an expert, be cool.

 

[NDGuy]

Man, I heard some real horsesh!t elk callers in the woods this past week.

I mean they were TERRIBLE. [And yes, it was hunters not elk]
They moved the elk out of the area!

I really wanted to go talk to them, but we just went and found the elk again.

Should a person approach another hunter and take their bugle tube away?? lol

Go read my ND elk thread. SOB drives a loud janky flatbed diesel up an old two track all the way through bedding areas up to the prime area and gets out of his car and starts "bugling"...if you could call it that lol

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

Same song and dance with growing up duck hunting in the Southeast (anywhere really). Whether it’s terrible calling scaring ducks away, sky blasting, or setting up 50 yards from someone else. In my opinion, common courtesy and respect has gone out the window with new age hunting. Everyone is just out to get “theirs” and don’t give a d*** about others… I personally think the ‘gram’ (social media in general) has exacerbated the issue because folks are constantly trying to get likes and outdo the next person, rather than be courteous and help each other be successful.

With all that in regard to western hunting, there should be a desire in folks to be at least decent at calling before jumping in head first blasting bugles into the canyon, but maybe that’s just me. With technology available these days, there really is no excuse to not be at least “decent”. It’s part of the responsibility to yourself and your fellow hunters to put in the efforts to get better, not just 1 week a year when you actually go west. Saying they’re bad callers because they only hunt 7-10 days a year is an excuse for them. Cnelk or others can correct me if I’m wrong, but for someone to come out, sound like crap and mess up someone else’s hunt, likely comes off as lazy to those who put in their time and effort all year for success….

The only way to get decent is to practice until you believe it sounds “right” and then try against live animals. Rinse and repeat the process.

No one is going from beginner to Uber Rockslide Hardcore Elite just sitting it his or her living room and practicing.

 

[doc holiday13]

I'm all about minding my own business and letting others mind theirs. I once bumped into a guy one time that had such a funny/awful sounding bugle it made me chuckle the first time I heard it. The bull he was bugling to loved it though. It would respond to his bugle but not mine or my brothers bugle.

You know what they say.... Its not funny if it works

 

[PantherCity]

Man, I heard some real horsesh!t elk callers in the woods this past week.

I mean they were TERRIBLE. [And yes, it was hunters not elk]
They moved the elk out of the area!

I really wanted to go talk to them, but we just went and found the elk again.

Should a person approach another hunter and take their bugle tube away?? lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HunterJoeMI]

Best way I have found to let other hunters know I am calling and am not an elk is to turkey call through my bugle tube. So, if you heard a turkey call back at you - yea that was me! Fooled you!

 

[lyingflatlander]

True story, I’m out calling last week and never encountered a soul the whole trip. I was struggling with my own bugles when suddenly I hear a mew followed by a horrible bugle. “I have a friend out here”, I said to myself. I have to gain altitude anyway and ultimately run into the hunter. Turns out he’s an outdoor T.V. host.

 

[MeatMissile]

I think about it this way:

When do elk bugle? The rut.

What season is open during the rut? Archery.

Who hunts archery because they can’t own guns? Felons!

Hope no one picks some paranoid schizophrenic tweeker to educate on calling!