Predator vs Prey

[trophyhill]

Anyone who knows me, knows I love calling elk. There are quite a few reasons why. But I won’t get into the why because I feel it’s pretty much self explanatory. Keep in mind that “timing is everything”.

What most don’t know about me is I spend a lot of time as a silent stalker as well, spending a lot of time displaying patience and just listening. Biding my time if you will. Believe it or not, I’ve listened to the great elk killers that have given me advice. Both the callers and the non callers. I believe there is a time and place for everything. Including calling v stalking and any other tactic you will only become good or great at through experience.

I need to work on my whole game and continue to improve. Although I feel dangerous everytime I’m in the elkwoods whether it be with my bow, or a recent purchase of my 7 Rem Mag.

what advice do you have whether it be calling, or staying silent, or both, or all of the above, or none of the above?

it’s almost killin time everyone!

 

[BBob]

Mostly if not completely silent anymore. Limited calling if needed for direction. I've had so many stalks blown by other hunters showing up over calling it's ridiculous. Many times I've been in kill range waiting for the moment and some late to the party dumb-ass gets on the horn and blows everything out from under me. I can and will work them with limited calling but I've become far less reliant on that and seem to prefer without anymore. Like hunting anything, you learn the behavior and just react as you go. Eventually the setup will present itself and the deed will get done calling or no calling.

 

[Zbow]

Good question. I've probably got on more elk being silent, but that was when there were less hunters in the woods. Lately, last couple years, I've seen less elk in general in the area I hunt. Calling seems less effective, not sure if that is because there seems to be fewer elk or just too many others calling in those areas.

 

[WRM]

I imagine it's much the same thing I see now with turkeys where I hunt (25+ days a season). They typically are very call shy, even first day of season, and you typically are much better off following and learning what that particular bird WANTS to do versus trying to MAKE it do something. May not be exciting to some, but you sure learn a lot if you pay attention. I've now found A tree that, for whatever reason, is right where they WANT to travel. That spot has now yielded several birds to me, and it's right by the main road in the area I'm hunting.