2017 was my first attempt at Western hunting, elk hunting & bow hunting. I had never done any of these things and I decided to try them all in one trip to Colorado. I had scouted the area in late July and at that time had observed several groups of cows and 5-6 bulls.
My partner and I put in about 50 miles in 6 days and did not see a single elk. We did have a relatively close bugling encounter and I was wondering how others would have handled it differently.
It was probably Sept 5th. We had hiked to the edge of a ridge/cliff that overlooked a decent sized drainage 1000+ feet below. I don't remember if we did some reed calling/bugling first but right before we were about to move on I sent out some loud whiny cow calls with a Phelps EZ estrus external reed call. Immediately, 3 separate bulls bugled. This was crazy because we had seen and heard zero in the first 5 days. Two of these bugles came from the bottom of the drainage. There was no easy path down from where we stood. The other bugle was on a hill side across from us but there was a small ridge that connected us to that side. We estimated that he was probably 600-800 yards and that it would probably take close to an hour to get there based on terrain.
I called a few more times and got the same responses. We then set out towards that single bugle. We identified an area near the bugle where we could get to and setup. An hour later we were in position. The breeze had been in our face pretty much the whole time. We set up and began calling again and got no response. I estimated that we were probably 100-150 yards from where we had heard the bugles. After probably 45 minutes of calling/waiting we decided that we had either spooked it or had been called in by another hunter.
Since we were in an area that we had not explored yet we decided to keep moving and explore a burn that was nearby. We did some hiking and found some sign but had no more encounters. After about three hours we decided to head back to where we had started the day. Before we left I think a bugled a few more times, nothing. Then I gave a few cow calls and got a bugle response from near where we had estimated the original elk to be. At this point we were probably 300 yards away in thick timber.
The playbook that I had read/heard for a bedded bull was to sneak quietly to inside 100 yards, give a cow call, hit a bugle and challenge him right there. That seemed to be the strategy advocated by Phelps, Jacobsen and most podcasts that I had heard. We did that and got no response. After waiting a while, we decided that we must have actually spooked it this time and we kept moving through the woods. When we were probably within 50 yards of where the bugle came from we heard him crashing through the trees away from us. It is unlikely that he scented us but at that point we backed out thinking that we may have another chance at him the following day.
I have since heard Elknut say that in this situation he will try to heat him up with some bugling that increases in intensity. This was our first and only real encounter and I know we made several mistakes. Impatience being probably the worst of them. How could we have approached this differently either initially or after getting the second response a few hours later?
My partner and I put in about 50 miles in 6 days and did not see a single elk. We did have a relatively close bugling encounter and I was wondering how others would have handled it differently.
It was probably Sept 5th. We had hiked to the edge of a ridge/cliff that overlooked a decent sized drainage 1000+ feet below. I don't remember if we did some reed calling/bugling first but right before we were about to move on I sent out some loud whiny cow calls with a Phelps EZ estrus external reed call. Immediately, 3 separate bulls bugled. This was crazy because we had seen and heard zero in the first 5 days. Two of these bugles came from the bottom of the drainage. There was no easy path down from where we stood. The other bugle was on a hill side across from us but there was a small ridge that connected us to that side. We estimated that he was probably 600-800 yards and that it would probably take close to an hour to get there based on terrain.
I called a few more times and got the same responses. We then set out towards that single bugle. We identified an area near the bugle where we could get to and setup. An hour later we were in position. The breeze had been in our face pretty much the whole time. We set up and began calling again and got no response. I estimated that we were probably 100-150 yards from where we had heard the bugles. After probably 45 minutes of calling/waiting we decided that we had either spooked it or had been called in by another hunter.
Since we were in an area that we had not explored yet we decided to keep moving and explore a burn that was nearby. We did some hiking and found some sign but had no more encounters. After about three hours we decided to head back to where we had started the day. Before we left I think a bugled a few more times, nothing. Then I gave a few cow calls and got a bugle response from near where we had estimated the original elk to be. At this point we were probably 300 yards away in thick timber.
The playbook that I had read/heard for a bedded bull was to sneak quietly to inside 100 yards, give a cow call, hit a bugle and challenge him right there. That seemed to be the strategy advocated by Phelps, Jacobsen and most podcasts that I had heard. We did that and got no response. After waiting a while, we decided that we must have actually spooked it this time and we kept moving through the woods. When we were probably within 50 yards of where the bugle came from we heard him crashing through the trees away from us. It is unlikely that he scented us but at that point we backed out thinking that we may have another chance at him the following day.
I have since heard Elknut say that in this situation he will try to heat him up with some bugling that increases in intensity. This was our first and only real encounter and I know we made several mistakes. Impatience being probably the worst of them. How could we have approached this differently either initially or after getting the second response a few hours later?