Novice ... Bulge Tubes, are they any different?

[atmat]

Philcox, your present Bugle will suit your needs just fine. The most important factor is you! With enough practice you can be proficient enough with about any quality bugle tube.

As far as your last question, the Elk-101 tube has the better sound quality, it's up to you to do it justice. Good luck!

ElkNut

Glad to see you here posting.

 

[ndbuck09]

In my opinion, if you have a musical background, musical ear or understand pitches and notes, then you will start to hear differences in tubes. All human based. But, I do believe 100% that Elk also are in tune with pitches, resonance and the like, and this is why people will say that elk run from calls when they call (people suck and don't create the right pitches/resonance). There's a definite correlation to how good someone calls, to calling working these days. That and people get so amped up they got 1 bugle response that they start trying to force the issue like human nature wants to do and they forget about Elk nature in that Elk rarely start piping off bugles on 20-30 second intervals. So the human does this and tells their hand to the elk. And voila, "bugling doesn't work."

This plays right into the people that buy into the, "i'll keep moving until I find an elk that wants to play" mentality. They're too impatient to bugle and sit for 15 mins waiting, then slowly ramping a bugling bull up.

 

[Indian Summer]

I use a Chuckler from Elknut. I definitely like it better than a lot of other tubes. It has a big bell on the end, which makes it sound deeper and more realistic. Whatever you are using, I would say choose a tube like that instead of just a straight pipe.

 

[fatlander]

We found a bull one year that would only answer one tube. It didn’t matter who was blowing in it, he’d only answer that tube. We had a Rocky Mountain bully bull, a short and long Phelps tube. He only answered the bully. We ended up finally getting on him, and he was without a doubt the biggest bull we’ve ever seen.

Sample size of 1 really big bull, it mattered; it still wasn’t enough to convince me to buy a bully tube.


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[highcountrymuley]

Bulge tube... I like a cucumber wrapped in tin foil, thanks

 

[Toneloc]

My opinion is it’s like turkey hunting…knowing what to say and when to say it is wayyyyy more important than saying it perfectly.

Add in other sounds, raking, breaking sticks, groans, huffs, etc. to build realism as well.

Gonna say what bugle tube you run is way down there on the importance level.

 

[C.F.]

Most guys aren’t qualified to use a bugle anyway, I’ve heard the RMEF calling contest perfect note bugles, the guys that sound like they are trying to play the Star Wars theme song, throwing challenge bugles out at spikes, etc. if you don’t know the 6 basic different bugles that an elk uses and what they mean you shouldn’t be out bugling anyways. Or that’s probably the reason you’re not getting responses.

I’ve seen guys walking in an area with elk right below, scream a bugle and then keep walking, elk bedded 100 yards below them. Their thought was if they don’t answer they’re not there. Bugles are a specialty tool, not something like a crescent wrench,


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Hey what would you say or classify those 6 bull sounds are and what they mean ? Genuinely curious

 

[cnelk]

I’ll use a bugle tube more with cow mews than bugles

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

Hey what would you say or classify those 6 bull sounds are and what they mean ? Genuinely curious

Advertising bugle, challenge bugle, chuckles, glunking, growls, panting, nervous grunts, roundup bugle, location bugle, lip bawl bugle, alarm barks and just regular mewing, are all made by bulls. Most are pretty self explanatory, cows have a slew of different mews they use for different situations as well.

These can all be tough to decipher without lots of experience with elk, which is one reason a lot of hunters out there bugling either educate elk or never get responses. One of my favorites to hear is glunking, it usually means you’re right on top of them and that bull has a cow in estrus but doesn’t want to be loud with bugling.

I learned a lot of this from Elknut, and when I began learning about all these different bugles I spent a lot more time in the woods just listening to elk vs trying to call them all the time. Elknut has a great app that can get you started with all these sounds but does take time to recognize them in the field.


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[Ucsdryder]

Wait we aren’t supposed to bugle every other step?! How does everyone on the hiking trail know it’s September if you don’t bugle 98 times an hour?!

This triggers me…

 

[Ucsdryder]

Philcox, your present Bugle will suit your needs just fine. The most important factor is you! With enough practice you can be proficient enough with about any quality bugle tube.

As far as your last question, the Elk-101 tube has the better sound quality, it's up to you to do it justice. Good luck!

ElkNut

What do you know!?!?

Great to see you Paul.

 

[Hnthrdr]

This triggers me…

Of course it would! keep hammering brother!!!

 

[Eastonsgrandpa]

No it doesn’t matter, for most people.




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This is bar none my favorite post recently. I was just going to say to cut a water bottle. You sir have taken that idea to a level I am in awe of. Hell yes!

 

[Eastonsgrandpa]

I have the long flexible vacuum like tube. I rarely even use it as I don't bugle. The only sounds I like to send are occasional cow and a few lost calf. Those are typically just done in my cupped hands.

If I make any "bull" sounds, it's lightly scraping a tree, or snapping some sticks walking through the woods.

The most I use it is after dark when we drive around and try to get an idea of where they are hanging out for the night and where to look in the morning.

 

[Harvey_NW]

Tubes definitely make a huge difference in the authenticity of the sound of a bugle. To quantify whether it's an advantage or not is tough, because there are thousands of YouTube videos of guys calling bulls in with terrible sounding bugles. But I personally prefer to try and mimic them as close as possible. I use an OG Phelps tube and love it, but I also hunt super dense timber sometimes and appreciate the volume projection I can get with it.

 

[C.F.]

Advertising bugle, challenge bugle, chuckles, glunking, growls, panting, nervous grunts, roundup bugle, location bugle, lip bawl bugle, alarm barks and just regular mewing, are all made by bulls. Most are pretty self explanatory, cows have a slew of different mews they use for different situations as well.

These can all be tough to decipher without lots of experience with elk, which is one reason a lot of hunters out there bugling either educate elk or never get responses. One of my favorites to hear is glunking, it usually means you’re right on top of them and that bull has a cow in estrus but doesn’t want to be loud with bugling.

I learned a lot of this from Elknut, and when I began learning about all these different bugles I spent a lot more time in the woods just listening to elk vs trying to call them all the time. Elknut has a great app that can get you started with all these sounds but does take time to recognize them in the field.


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Hey thanks for the in depth response , I will check out ElkNuts App ! It’s hard to gain that in field experience when just finding elk during season can be a challenge all in its own

 

[Stalk’nAwe]

I was looking at the new BT from Elk 101 on the Peax site. Then I thought "is it really any different than my current Rocky Mountain Wapiti Whacker Bully Bull Extreme? Was wondering of I should spend the $ on calls, because the tubes are really mostly the same, or if tubes really make a difference. Any insight is appreciated?

If there is a difference, I'd be curious as to thoughts on the ElkBros Soloist and the Elk 101 (very different formats).

I’ll give my opinion, and it’s free so take it for what it’s worth. To your thought if it’s really any different than your current one…more than likely yes it is. I have a tube from RMGC back when they were bugling bull game calls before the name change and absolutely LOVED that thing and used it for years and years guiding and hunting. A buddy got the original Phelps when they first hit the scene and I couldn’t produce what I would consider a realistic sounding bugle out of it. It was the latest and greatest but I wouldn’t have used it if they paid me, not sure what the reason was. Fast forward to a couple years ago when Phelps came out with the aluminum version, same buddy got one and I tried it….finest bugles I’ve ever produced, and I bought one for myself. I’ve never been able to control my bugles/notes like I can with this one. Now my old faithful hangs in the Huntin room retired, waiting for my 1 year old boy to get old enough to learn. Long story short 2 bugles from the same company can be vastly different.

As to if it’s worth it to upgrade? That depends on you as an elk hunter, how you want to hunt your elk, and how good a bugler you are/want to be. Is a bugle THE WAY you’re going to call in elk, with a cow call being secondary? Or are you still figuring that out?

Me personally, I’m the guy most of these guys hate, I’m gonna bugle baby! Not every 2 minutes, but my toxic trait is I ignorantly, yet firmly, believe there’s not a bull alive that I can’t bugle in or bugle in to! has that mentality cost me elk? Absolutely, but it’s worked plenty on what used to be OTC CO and other heavily hunted country where most guy say it runs em off and when it does work it’s the most fun a guy can have with his jeans up!

Sorry for tellin ya how to make a watch when ya just asked for the time, but I love these big yellow and brown things and application season always gets me fired up!!

 

[5MilesBack]

To me it doesn't matter what it sounds like. All that matters is what it sounds like to the mature bulls. I've experimented with several tubes over the years, and I only have one that routinely works very well......and I've had it about 20 years.

 

[SoDak16]

Hey thanks for the in depth response , I will check out ElkNuts App ! It’s hard to gain that in field experience when just finding elk during season can be a challenge all in its own

I can vouch for the ElkNut app. It is very educational on what to do in different situations. Of course you still have to recognize the situation you are in...tough for a novice like myself.