Bad Elk Callers in the Woods

[Gerbdog]

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!

Dangit. I been found out. I'm the felon paranoid schizophrenic tweeker who archery hunts in the woods making bad bugles. My gigs up.

Heard a bugle a couple weeks ago from a bull who winded me (saw his tail end leaving) that was just kind of an elongated mew followed by chuckles, it was almost a squeel, didnt ever really change pitch. Oddest one ive heard so far.

 

[Sled]

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!

Good point. They might get the MeatMissile from someone that just got out of the pokey.

 

[MeatMissile]

Good point. They might get the MeatMissile from someone that just got out of the pokey.

Wasn’t there a movie involving a guy with a bow and some backdoor, errr, backwoods hijinx?

 

[roosiebull]

Heard a bugle a couple weeks ago from a bull who winded me (saw his tail end leaving) that was just kind of an elongated mew followed by chuckles, it was almost a squeel, didnt ever really change pitch. Oddest one ive heard so far.

i called a bull in a couple weeks ago exactly like that... almost sounded like a moo cow, then lots of fast chuckles.

when i got him sub 20, he was bugling, into the chuckles, then still looked like he was chuckling but it was just air... pretty dang neat, never had seen that before

 

[FLS]

Yall would love turkey hunting on public land…

30 yelps on a box call from a jacked up truck with loud ass exhaust idling in the background.

 

[Wrench]

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

I called a bull in, pard ticked a stick on the shot. We trailed for 800 yards. Found the arrow....non fatal hit. We scented the area for 2 hours, trampled....basically destroyed opportunity there. I had seen one other hunter in our area.

Bugle pipes off 250 yards above me. I bee line in to save the guy some time... bugle was awful. Think primos bad.

I get to the spot i expect to see him....and i see a cow, no several cows....and a 280 bull at 30 yards staring at me.

Had another pop off dead downwind. I told my pard we would pass on this as being downwind it had to be a hunter or we'd be busted.

Another 300 class bull i screwed up....

 

[betterluckythangood]

Worst bugles I've heard and watched happen in the woods are from bulls. They just sound off in their own voice, they haven't been listening to every tap/video/podcast of what an elk is always supposed to sound like. Problem is......I'm worse than they are, but I keep trying and they keep coming in to see and laugh.

 

[cnelk]

The thing is… when you can actually SEE the hunters that are calling bad is when you just move on.

 

[chadcharb]

Took this video of my 7 year old son the other night and it made me think of this thread. He went back and forth with this bull for about an hour. Gotta learn some how right?

 

[Bigcat_hunter]

The elk around here generally run away when they here bugles. I leave my tube at home most of the time. The real bulls usually give me a little half bugle and come on silent. The hunters bugle all the way in to me. Yes take those tunes from them. Th are ruining elk hunting

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

The elk around here generally run away when they here bugles. I leave my tube at home most of the time. The real bulls usually give me a little half bugle and come on silent. The hunters bugle all the way in to me. Yes take those tunes from them. Th are ruining elk hunting

And how are future elk hunters supposed to learn to call? Practice at home only goes so far. At some point they do have do it for real.

From what others are posting, even the elk suck at bugling and are doing it wrong.

Maybe the elitist hunters share some responsibility for “ruining” hunting.

 

[Grant K]

I think you can get away with some terrible sounds as long as you keep them within the realm of something a real bull can do a place it would do them, what ruins the hunting for everyone in an area isn't someone sounding like a sick spike, it's the guy who you can hear extend his pack bugle first, that plasticky BRRRRRRRIP is like nothing in the woods and a dead tip-off that something isn't right, same with zippers, plastic boxes holding reeds, velcro, beating a plastic bugle tube against trees, mega challenge bugles out of the blue for no reason, any noise an elk can't physically make, and so many other things hunters do... if you keep it to a simple couple note locator bugle you can be pretty bad and not spook elk...

the other thing is the where, if you combine a bad call with being 50' from a truck that shut off 1 minute ago it doesn't take all that smart of a bull to put it together, same with 20 bugles from the exact same spot while you glass or eat lunch, if you can't think of a reason a real bull would be standing where you are bugling and bugling as much as you are then don't bugle... again if you are in a place where a real bull would be doing what you are doing you can get away with some pretty questionable noises, it's as much about context as the actual noise I think...

 

[Coveyleader]

Elk simply learn, no doubt about it. How many times have you seen someone straight up spook and elk and they call right after? Guys can't help it, they just "Have to call" Lesson learned.

I have seen elk run on one singe cow call in the OTC areas I hunt. One. I know, I was the one who was calling and had the woods empty out. When they keep hearing calls over and over, they know and just vacate first, ask questions later.

A couple years back we were getting blanked, ready to leave as we weren't seeing any elk for a couple days, interesting, in camp after dark they were lighting up. The bulls were just hunkering down, mouth shut until it got dark. Hunting those kind of conditions is hard, sometimes you just have to keep walking.

What's interesting though is you can be in the same unit with non pressured elk, i.e private land, or in a neighborhood and sound like a total rookie and the elk come running to your calls with no regard to the wind. They just come, that's why hunting "TRUE" OTC public land can be frustrating at times very frustrating.

 

[Bigcat_hunter]

And how are future elk hunters supposed to learn to call? Practice at home only goes so far. At some point they do have do it for real.

From what others are posting, even the elk suck at bugling and are doing it wrong.

Maybe the elitist hunters share some responsibility for “ruining” hunting.

Haha I am far from an elitist hunter. Sorry if I came off that way. I guess what I mean to say is here in Oregon, new hunters do not need a bugle tube. Just use cow calls. You will bring in way more elk. 90% of buglers turn out to be hunters (in my unit). Many have walked into me at full draw. You have to be careful.

And you are correct. A gigantic bull was bugling this last weekend. I was convinced it was a hunter. Sounded terrible. It was the herd bull...

 

[AaronMColeman]

Dangit. I been found out. I'm the felon paranoid schizophrenic tweeker who archery hunts in the woods making bad bugles. My gigs up.

Heard a bugle a couple weeks ago from a bull who winded me (saw his tail end leaving) that was just kind of an elongated mew followed by chuckles, it was almost a squeel, didnt ever really change pitch. Oddest one ive heard so far.

Can a felon archery hunt? I'm not a lawyer (clearly) but like the kind who can't own a gun, can that person still get a license and archery hunt?

 

[AaronMColeman]

This season has been magical (short of not shooting anything during archery season, and breaking my bow so I can't go out again until friday when rifle opens). Bugles everywhere every time I go out. Trucks everywhere everytime I go out. If I hadn't seen the bulls, and if I wasn't the only one on the mountain an hour before first light, I would have sworn some were hunters.

To me there is a respect that should go both ways. An inexperienced caller needs to be able to practice, but should always want to get better. A good caller needs to understand that 20 years ago he was an inexperienced caller. To me bad calling is ok, but the main thing is don't over call if the elk are already making noise. If they're silent anyway my experience is a bad caller isn't going to scare them off much further so what's it matter? Just everyone shut up if the elk are making noise and just follow the sound, no need to call typically.

 

[WCB]

This past week confirmed that some elk have the worst sounding calls in the world....Also if anyone here was in MT and heard a bull cough repeatedly in the middle of bugling never mind that....he may or may not have sucked in a pine needle.

 

[AaronMColeman]

This past week confirmed that some elk have the worst sounding calls in the world....Also if anyone here was in MT and heard a bull cough repeatedly in the middle of bugling never mind that....he may or may not have sucked in a pine needle.

I was calling back and forth with one the other day....he was at least 200y away though....and I started having a coughing fit. It was the first time I wish I had a drinking tube. I had to take off my pack to get my water. Never saw that bull but he did not like my coughing at all.

 

[Cidds]

One year there was a guy riding around in the back of a blue S10 pickup. They would stop and he would bugle, drive a little more and bugle. They repeated this ALL DAY LONG. They never even stopped the truck to hunt.

Thanks to Weyerhaeuser for selling driving permits to anyone.

 

[EastHumboldt]

That’s public land. America…..land of the free. But maybe not talented too.


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It’s still a free country. So free that any idiot (including me) can get a rifle and a grunt tube and a license and go out in the woods. OTOH bitching about stuff on the www is a big part of the fun of being alive.