I had a first for me last weekend. I was hunting in North idaho and had been working a bull for about 40 minutes. I had 10-15 exchanges of bugles and the action was heating up just like a tv show.
Out of nowhere, a lone wolf let out a howl about (guessing) 1/2 mile or more away. Not 5 seconds passed and a bunch of yotes piped up for a second and then about 6-10 wolves over powered them. As this happened the elk I was working were about 50-60 yards away and I heard several "gasping" pants and a few gutteral sounds followed by complete silence.
The wolves around us were close enough to be loud and I instantly put my bow down and went for my pistol. I sat on that spot for 1-2 minutes and decided to get downwind as fast as I could sneak and made about 3-400 yards and began making elk talk and moving away and getting louder.
I had to return to where I was working the elk and grab my backpack, so I sat and listened.....after an hour or so the elk were back to talking, but at MUCH lower volumes. I simply cannot make a bugle as quiet as he did. Within 3 hours I was able to get a decent response from the bull and he was thrashing away. I ran out of time to put him down, but the opportunity to witness such a chain of events was something that went very different than I had imagined. I fully expected 100% silence and the elk moving away...but they just held tight.
Out of nowhere, a lone wolf let out a howl about (guessing) 1/2 mile or more away. Not 5 seconds passed and a bunch of yotes piped up for a second and then about 6-10 wolves over powered them. As this happened the elk I was working were about 50-60 yards away and I heard several "gasping" pants and a few gutteral sounds followed by complete silence.
The wolves around us were close enough to be loud and I instantly put my bow down and went for my pistol. I sat on that spot for 1-2 minutes and decided to get downwind as fast as I could sneak and made about 3-400 yards and began making elk talk and moving away and getting louder.
I had to return to where I was working the elk and grab my backpack, so I sat and listened.....after an hour or so the elk were back to talking, but at MUCH lower volumes. I simply cannot make a bugle as quiet as he did. Within 3 hours I was able to get a decent response from the bull and he was thrashing away. I ran out of time to put him down, but the opportunity to witness such a chain of events was something that went very different than I had imagined. I fully expected 100% silence and the elk moving away...but they just held tight.