How to avoid chasing the wrong bugle

[Vandy321]

what do you folks use to help avoid chasing other hunters advertising/location bugles 1/2 mile into the timber in an adjacent basin?

Its bound to have happened to someone before. Have heard some terrible elk bugles and some great sounding hunters...

Is there a way to know? Assuming you can't glass the herd?

 

[HighUintas]

Great question

 

[peddar01]

chase them all. Some people are really good and some elk are terrible.

 

[mwebs]

There are some that you will know are human, more flute like in sound and then there are some you know are bulls with depth, base and things we can’t really imitate. Then there are all the questions in between that you better just investigate. With more time you get more confidence with knowing what was real vs hunter.

 

[CJF]

If you have any doubt or question, GO

 

[Werty]

Deep, gravelly one are usually real.

 

[SlimWhitman]

We hiked our ass up a mountain and then got a response to our locater bugle that made us drop 800’ straight down. When we got down the responses we were getting were so timed and repeatable that I was positive it was another hunter. I might’ve been a little angry knowing that we now have to hike back up so I decided I was gonna put my bow down and make this hunter gain some elevation before we did the same thing. Well it was a bull, and it came in perfect and now I was even more mad bc my bow was 20 yards from me. Lesson learned. Every bugle is a bull until I know it isn’t.


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[Ucsdryder]

I can pick out the primos 3 note whistle. A tube and reed and it gets really tough.

 

[hobbes]

Most guys give themselves away with the chuckle. Plenty of times that I've been thinking, yeah that may be the real deal......oh hell no.

 

[stonewall]

Most guys give themselves away with the chuckle. Plenty of times that I've been thinking, yeah that may be the real deal......oh hell no.

while i agree...i met a bull last year with a human chuckle. i was on the fence about bull or not and it was coming from a logging road. then i heard the chuckle...oh yeah, human. a while later...bull! that one didn't work out. lol

 

[P Carter]

Three note bugle, 8 chuckles, and repeat is LIKELY a hunter. But, as noted above, I'd be more inclined to chase than not. At the very least, if it ends up being a hunter, you can coordinate plans so it doesn't happen again.

 

[hobbes]

while i agree...i met a bull last year with a human chuckle. i was on the fence about bull or not and it was coming from a logging road. then i heard the chuckle...oh yeah, human. a while later...bull! that one didn't work out. lol

There is definitely always the exception to any rules.

 

[Fishermen0105]

I plan on chasing sone false bugles this year, maybe one day I’ll figure it out.

 

[Ross]

When in doubt get them to grunt or answer to a call cow, most guys suck at grunting and dead give away and few will bugle to a cow call they will mimic if simply cannot tell then go better to be humbled and laugh than run from a 330 weenie bull

 

[Pgohil]

Funny story, first year in Idaho, archery. We killed a bull, and came back into the same drainage two days later. Midday was stopped for lunch and heard this off sounding bugle... Our first thought was, Doug flutie. So we bugled back... This guy was relentless..... We would go quiet for 30 minutes and he would hammer two or three times. Then the more we bugled the more he bugled..... We tried to make some of the most awful sounding bugles we could hoping the guy would understand that we were two hunters up here. Nothing would give.
A year later I realized that in fact that started out as a lazy bed bugle and was an absolutely fired up bull. We were just lazy and didn't want to drop down into where he was even though the wind was absolutely to our advantage the entire afternoon.


After that, I vow ed to chase every bugle until I seen the bull, knew it ran off, or seen the person.
Last year, I called and met 3 other hunters. You hate that at times because you wasted your time and theirs as well, but in the end I didn't let any bugle get away from me, and in fact did call in three other bulls!

CHASE EVERY BUGLE!!!

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[TheCougar]

I encourage all hunters to use the Primos bugle tube. I can pick that thing from a mile out. Bugles fall into three categories: 1. That’s definitely a bull - there’s a certain depth and volume that you just can’t duplicate. 2. That’s definitely a person. Reference the Primos comment from above. 3. The in between. Could be an elk. Could be a Hunter. I always investigate these and assume it’s an elk until proven otherwise.

 

[5MilesBack]

If I have any doubts to start with, I'll test them and see how they react.

 

[Wapititalk1]

Only hunt where there are no other hunters . That, and location and tone. On the very rare occasion I get an answer or hear an unsolicited bugle that I'm not sure of (elk or human) by the initial sound, determine where the sound is coming from... more often than not, from that consideration alone... you can decipher if it's a wapiti or a hunter. The tone thing comes into play also.... each kind of elk noise has a certain tone, or emitted mood as it were, appropriate to the situation and type of noise he's making. And yes, like 5MB mentioned, most hunters won't respond like an elk will (think tone/emotion for the situation) when answering a call; they'll give themselves away.

 

[rclouse79]

The only time we knew it was a hunter was when the call was coming from directly down wind. We walked over and talked to them and went a different way. Last year I dropped way down and clear up the other side. Ended up getting into three different bulls. Saw one but no shot. I would have been pissed if I hiked all that way and found another dude instead of an elk.

 

[11boo]

I must bugle fair, last year I called in some guy and his posse complete with camera man.