Ep. 110: Silent Bulls, Part 1

you're definitely going to run into this scenario. Maybe it's more often than not you get into elk country and it's just crickets. The bulls are not firing off, and they seem to be underground. The elker there. You see sign, maybe even hear a few bugles at night. But what do you do? While this kind of activity is not what you're dreaming of, it's still definitely possible to call in an elk. Silent bulls are probably some of the hardest bulls to pinpoint, but can actually be some of

the easier elk to trick. Just because the woods are quiet, it doesn't mean the elk won't be receptive to your calls or move to your location. Targeting and setting up for these hushed mouth animals can be a great option for your hunt. So this week I'm going to cover all things about set up to calling it silent elk, from the why they might be piped down to choosing a good calling location based on the time of day

or where you are. But first, I want to share the story of a sneaky bowl that walks softly and carried a big rack. This story takes place in the mountains of northern New Mexico. I thought would be a fairly fitting story because I'm actually on my way there here tomorrow for a hunt on my own. But this particular week, I was guiding a hunter and it was

a little bit later in the season. It seemed to just be like super hot conditions and one of the last hunts of the season for us there before I headed back to him on handed to pick up some guiding days up there. So we were out and the week before was actually pretty good, but it got really hot and it seemed like the animals just kind of shut down. The running activity was pretty minimal, and it was just pretty tough to come by. Blasting was a little bit out of the option. Um, it just it

just wasn't conducive for long range glass. In some of the areas we were hunting, it was like I wouldn't say it was flat as mountainous, but it was like longer ridges surrounded by some open meadows and some other things. So I'm like, okay, well we gotta find some milk start out the week and kind of just still hunting through some good areas and nothing is I'm doing the calling, I'm letting out some location bugles, not really getting anything responsive.

I think it was actually even a full moon as well, so it was just like a really bad cluster of things for the week. It was just a slow week. You know that happens um. So you know, we're doing a little bit still hunting. Actually one day we're going through this like oak brush stuff and I stopped. There's just this bear staring me down. And I'd recognized this bear before because it was the same bear that a couple of weeks earlier. It actually tore my four wheeler up,

So I was like, oh, we need to get this bear. Uh. The hunter fortunately had a bear text. I was like okay, Like I was walking ahead, I'm like, okay, there's a bear right here. And the bear went down and he's trying to get above the brush to see what we are, and so he switched positions. He's maybe twenty yards but there's just all this oak brush in the way, and unfortunately the hunter couldn't get a shot. Wind shifted bear

ran off and and that was that. So throughout the week we'd seen a few cows, like we'd we'd bumped into a couple of elks still hunting, but just no shots. So towards the end of the hunt, last day of the hunt, and it had been this particular meadow that had been following and looking and the day before I was checking it out. I'm like, man, there's just fresh

sign in here. The elk are definitely using this. So for the next couple of days, whatever we had left, I was like, I kept seeing fresh sign, I kept smelling the elk there. I'm like, I know, the elk are here, they're using this. We need to set up and we're going to kind of focus in on this area. So what I did was pretty long meadow, I mean say maybe like over a thousand feet, you know, like it opened it would be small, like there'll be some openings and then so you just never knew where they

were going to pop out. But what I was doing was kind of traveling the edge and then seeing like, okay, signs here, signs here, the elk are definitely coming out. We just it's too big to cover the whole thing, and we need the elk to come to our location. So my decision was, we're gonna set up and we're gonna call. As I told that, I was like, look, this bull will come in at some point, but I just don't think he's gonna make noise. So we need

to get the wind good. We need to kind of be patient, we need to do a good setup and hopefully we'll find some success. So we set up in the morning a couple of different spots and uh doing some calling sequences, and what I was doing just like broadcasting out some cow calls, doing a couple of little bugles into the timber, like okay, we're a group of cows, and now bulls come in. Maybe got a little fired

up and now moving off into the timber. Did that a little bit, and then moved kept kind of throughout the day, moving down and picking different spots. Now is evening time, and I figured, all right, I'm gonna kind of go out there's a little patch of trees out in the middle. I'm gonna leave the hunter where I'm at where we were. We're like, okay, we're gonna go here. I'm gonna call in there, and then I'm gonna move to our location just in case. Like the wind was

blowing across the meadow in our face. But um, I was hoping that maybe the elk we're down in the timber on the other side. So I called into the timber, backed up, called from the patch, you know it maybe probably fifteen minutes in between, and then went and we kind of got set up in a spot made a little high and like, all right, we're gonna sit here, so doing some calling, just letting out a few cow

calls and just being patients. Like if the bull is going to come in, he's not going to make a noise, and he's probably gonna try to circle us, try to get the wind right, so we're gonna be looking every direction and just keep calling. So we're sitting there, not moving. I'm calling you, you know, setting up my watch timers because I get a little impatient, just making sure I

don't overcall. Throughout a couple of bugles, but nothing crazy, just pretty soft, like I was trying to match what was going on in the woods, which is not a lot of action. So calling and sitting there and I'm looking around. I'm thinking, man, you know, the winds good, but a bull, like if they're behind us, it's gonna be a bummer, Like if they're coming in from this side. I didn't know which side they're they're coming in from, so I was hoping, hoping obviously, like you catch them

in the meadow, calmed your your position. So calling, and I look over and I just see like I had, we had all this brush around us, just kind of conceal us. And I see the corner of my eye just something moving and I'm thinking, God, that's really close to not hear an elk And I look and I'm like then my eyes focused and I realized that is

a tine of an antler coming through there. So like I don't call, like, okay, I do not want this bull to now hook up wind Like he's he's off to our left, maybe I don't even know, pretty damn close, but he's really thick off to the left. So the bull slowly like he walks out and hits the opening and then starts walking downhill and like just waiting, waiting, waiting, and I can barely see him in there, but I can see he's got a really good rack on him,

like he's a big six by six. I'm like, okay, sweet. And then the bull like kind of like you can see him nosing into the field, like getting the wind, and he's kind of like nosing up pretty much toward the other side. So he starts getting into the opening it and now it's like, Okay, the bull was here, he heard the calls. Now he's just looking for the elks. Somehow he didn't win us. He must have come in from below us, maybe like done a little jot just

fifteen yards away. And I mean, we couldn't even hear this elk that close away, didn't It was like, I don't know how. That was pretty thick too, Like he had a big rack and he was just the sneakiest bull I've ever seen. I didn't even break a stick that we could tell until I caught a little bit of his antler in the brush. So he walks out into the opening. I gave it a few cow calls and just I'm like, I'm gonna slow play this bull

and he kind of like. I'm like, okay, is he's super cautious and he starts walking our way like sweet, okay, and just wait now he's looking around. He goes to the trees in the middle, and I'm like okay, and and then he walks off the other direction. I'm like, no, it didn't work, Like we just missed their opportunity or we didn't really have an opportunity to that. So so I just stayed patient, kept timing, like okay, I'm just

gonna keep doing the same thing. He got a little bit later in the evening we had I'm I'm like watch me, and like, okay, do we just go after him? But I'm like, man, we don't know. He wasn't fired up, like we'd just be walking in their blind and we've got about thirty minutes left of the last last day. I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna keep with the plan. Like he liked it. He didn't wind us that I know of. We just gotta keep with it. So I call.

We're just like sitting there, Call, Call, and then all of a sudden, across the meadow, I see a rack facing us, and I'm like, here, it is head down. Bull just starts coming straight in like on a string. Call him right into range. I stopped calling, and he's looking around like definitely trying to peer into the trees for us. Turned sideways. Hunter shoots bull down. Called in a really good, big, mature bull that never made a

single peep. When you talk about calling silent bulls, you might have heard that term like, oh, he came in silent, or these bulls are just quiet. They're coming in silent. Well, it obviously means the bulls aren't making any sound, they aren't calling back, they aren't responding to your calls. There they're doing elk things without making elk noises. And I think that understanding why they might be silent it's just

as important in understanding, like understanding that behavior. So you know how to pick your setup, because when it comes to calling in silent bulls regularly, you can get lucky, but you can also set up in a way that really increases your odds or chances of finding an elk and intersecting an elk and getting that elk to come in.

There's many times where I'll be out hunting, whether it's myself or with a client and I'm like, Okay, we're going to call in a silent elk here, and they're like, how do you know we're going to call in an elk that's not going to make a noise, And it's like, well, because everything's right. I understand what's going on and why they're being it and what they're doing this time of year, and I just know that these elk right now are not going to make a noise because you've got to

understand why they're being silent. So generally, a silent bowl that comes in, there's there's two kinds here. So the first one will be a lone bull or a bowl that might be around a herd but is not the dominant bowl, like uh, not necessarily saying it's a rag horn, but it's not the herd bowl. So the first part is going to be one of the probably most instances when you call in a bowl that comes in silent,

and it's probably gonna be many different factors. You've got one reason, and I would say this is probably the most common reason, is it's early in the rut or even late in the rut. What's going on is the bulls are not necessarily with the cows what they're doing is there. It's the same as like Dear Do pre rut. They're checking on groups of cows, but that bowl might kind of be a little timid of like, I don't want to expend all my energy fighting. I just want

to see what's going on here. It's more of a curiosity thing. It's a lone bull. He's cruising and trying to figure out where are the cows out? Where am I going to expend my energy? What's my competition? Look like, I'm just gonna go in. I'm gonna check things out. If it's an easy take. Hey man, I might sniff around, maybe there's a cow that's going to come into heat, but I don't have to fight for it. I don't

have to do anything. But I also don't want to give my location away because I found the cool spot where all the ladies are hanging out, and I don't want to tell everyone else I know where it is. If I think I know, like the in the bull's mind, if I think I know where the girls are and I don't have to work for it, I'm just gonna go in there see if I can get in the friend zone, check things out. And that's what the bulls are doing. It's they're coming in quiet because they're just

trying to check things out. They aren't necessarily fired up enough to want to rut, and that can happen because it's either early they aren't running, or maybe you've run into some hot weather and that hot weather kind of has that cycle of the cows broken down, like they aren't in full chase mode yet, so during daylight hour, they're just kind of feeling things out. And that's one of the main reasons that elk might come in silent.

So it's going to either be a bull by itself, and then the other one would be like an insecure bowl. So maybe it's a bowl that's um, it could be a really big bull, but maybe it's a bull that has been beat up recently, like kicked out from the Herd Bowl position last year. Uh. One of the largest bulls I've I've had the opportunity to chase in a general unit was the Herd Bowl. Another bowl came in which wasn't as big as him, beat him up, and that big bull just walked off on his own. You know,

he wasn't looking for a fight anymore. He'd just been beat tomorrow, he probably would have taken the herd back, But that's just something that that bulls do. So sometimes an insecure bowl or bull that's just been beat might be a good candidate for coming in quiet, like I just expanded all my energy. But hey, if there's some free cows over here, I'm a pretty dominant bull, I'll

go round him up. Or maybe there's a herd bull that's really aggressive running other bulls off and you can get your offen a calling scenario where the other elk around are going to come check out the action, and they might not be making a noise. They're probably gonna be younger bulls, maybe more like raghorns, but they'll move in and and kind of slip into your calling scenario without making a sound. When it comes to understanding where to set up for calling in a silent bull, the

setup is the key. So we're gonna think about the time of year that we're hunting and why elk might not be making noise first. So if you're out in the field, let's say you're out this the first week of the season, second week of the season, maybe it's a warm weather still, maybe it's it's smokey you know, these are probably things that a lot of people are going to run into. Maybe you know, they just aren't

seeming fired up like you're seeing sign. So the key is you need to know that there's elk there, so you've got to be seeing sign. Maybe you're hearing a few bugles at night, like not all out crazy rud action at night, but there's bulls and cows in the area. It's just once it cools down in the evening, that's when they decide to kind of fire off. It's like after shooting hours or before shooting hours. Um, you know that they're kind of in the area. Maybe you're hiking around,

you smell like, okay, there's been elk here there. You can smell where they've wallowed. Um, you can smell where they've been betting you see fresh sign in a meadow. Figuring out where that there's actually elk around is the first step, because you can call to silent elk that are there, or you could call to silent woods that don't have elk. You really need to be able to

first decipher are the elk where I'm at? And that's obviously the key and sounds like yeah, no brainer, But there's a lot of people that are like, the elk weren't making any noise, but they can't really decipher whether the elk weren't making noise or they just weren't elk where they are. So you need to make sure that there are elk where you are, and that's by moving around covering country, finding sign and possibly even hearing them

at night. That's uh, that's step one. So once we understand, Okay, there are elk in this location, there elk around. Now, I just got to figure out how I'm going to set up for these calling scenarios. So when I'm calling to Silent Bulls, what I do is I first kind of like I get into position and I and I play this patience game where I get into the places where I believe elk will be moving to or near. And then I set up and I start broadcasting calls.

And what I like to do is I like to kind of match the tempo of what's going on out there. So if it's not really like you aren't hearing much, you aren't hearing anything, you probably aren't gonna want to make like a big Like last year, I did a podcast cow Party where it's just like everything's going off the parties over here, calling to the silent elk is gonna be a little bit different. What you're doing is you're just saying, like we're elk over here. It's like

this mellow tone. It's like we're just here, We're doing our thing. We are super interested in anything else going on. But what it's gonna do is gonna pique the curiosity of that bowl to kind of come in and check things out. So what we're gonna be doing is like setting up and doing a few calls, a few calcolls

me and MEU, meu, and then waiting. So it's kind of like it's a little bit like stand hunting, still hunting, but you're kind of using this roving tactic of selecting your spots where you're calling based on the time of day and where you're seeing this sign. So let's get into picking up, picking the set up in locations. So during different times a day, I actually go and I do my call stands, Like think about it, like predator

calling kyotes. Where you go and you make a stand, you wait a little while, nothing happens, then you move to another location. A few of the places that I like to make silent call. Stands are places that elk are going to frequent those times. So one of the places that I like to pick is near wallow. Um. They might not be wallowing a lot if the ruts not full on, but they might be using those areas to get water. Those can probably be used any time

of day. Mornings and evenings seem to be um pretty good unless it's near a betting area than the middle of the day. Near a wallow can be good because what happens is the cows will actually if there's not a lot of water in a lot of places, if it's like narrowing down the places, you can kind of sit near the wallow and maybe catch an elk that's

going to drink. But you can also throw out those calls and maybe catch the ears of elk that are going to go to a wallow a hundred and fifty yards away that you can't see that's in the timber. So I've had a lot of luck calling in bulls silent near wallows or other areas where it's like, okay and smell them. They're in here. They're using this, but it might be a way to draw them to your location a little bit sooner rather than later. And the

second one is in a hunt. Let's say I start the hunt out, I'm gonna start in the morning, and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do my calling sequences in series near where I expect elk to be in the mornings, and then I'm going to move throughout the day. So in the morning, I'm gonna expect elk to be feeding, especially if they aren't being super active, They're gonna be probably before daylight, feeding in open areas

if there's open areas nearby. So if there's a small meadow, if there's a good grassy ridge, if there's something like that, that's probably where the elk are gonna be focused in in the morning. Or maybe they'll be down in the bottom, uh, near some water and some grass, but in a feeding area. So the first place I'm going to target in the morning is going to be these feeding areas, especially if I find sign like on the edge of a meadow

or something like that. Some mornings I'm gonna be targeting near feeding area, just off in the timber or just you know where it's like they can look across the meadow, but they kind of have to come in and explore a little bit closer. Is to catch those bulls that maybe you're out um looking for cows cruising. What they're gonna be doing is those bulls are doing the same thing we're doing. They're they're hitting the high high percentage areas for running into cow elk that we would think

of hypercentage areas running into any elk. So they're doing the same thing we are. They're looking for cows. We're going to be the cows that that bowl is gonna find, especially Loan bowl. If action is not crazy, they might be out feeding or whatever. And then in the morning we want them to hear those cow sounds and think instead of going over that way to bed I'm gonna

go over and check out what's happening over here. So now as the day progresses and I think, well, what are the elk doing, well, they're probably moving to bedding. So as the day progresses, I moved from that feeding area and doing my like call stands to moving to toward those betting areas. So I'm going to head toward a good timbered ridge um. And what I'd like to do is when I move into a betting area for the day. I like to approach it from the top down.

Generally you're gonna be getting those thermals because if they're being quiet, it's probably hot, and those thermals are probably gonna be going up the mountains. So what I like to do is I like to start at the top

of these ridges. I'll I'll hike around, I'll get to the top, and then I'll work my way down and start, you know, like make a stand call, because what I want is to be calling to elk below me and have them come up and investigate, as opposed to being below them walking up the mountain, having my wind blew up the mountain and calling to those animals might be bedded on those little benches and dips in the ridge.

So I mean starting at the top, working my way down, doing my call stands, and hoping to call in a bowl below me, and it's either bedded or moving to bedding. They might come check out the cows. And this is where you know, all slow play it. I'll use the day to kind of move and pick new spots and and just try to be patient, and then it'll go back to the evening again. When um I'll move back to that feeding area and do the same thing setting up in that feeding area, and then during the middle

of the day mornings are eating. Sometimes if you've got a good wallow, it's a good strategy in time to like you can kind of simultaneously hunt the wallow, sit and hunt the wallow, stand hunt the wallow, and throw out some of these calls because most of the time those elk will be coming in silent. Now. Another setup or location that I like to pick is one where I consider it like a doubling up, where I can

double up on glassing and calling. So in the morning, if I can find a knob that's near maybe some food source, but I also have a good view, it's a lot better for me to kind of use utilize my time. Where if I'm just sitting there calling to silent elk, I feel like I'm not really doing anything, Like it's like, man, maybe they aren't right here right now. But if I've got a place where I can be calling to a bowl and also glass in a large area,

those are ideal. Um there's a few places that I hunt where it's like, Okay, I'm walking around, I'm looking for animals. I might see sign but I also want to glass this area in the mornings and the evenings, like feeding areas out in the open where they might be maybe it's a burn, maybe it's a clear cut,

maybe it's a whatever it is. But also from where I'm glassing from, I can kind of utilize that time to maybe see if there's any bowls near me that might get drawn in quiet, because it's a good way to utilize that time and not get bored and frustrated, frustrated and move on too soon where I can be glassing something far away but set up and calling where I am at that time. There's been so many times where I've been doing this where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna glass and and try to pick out a bowl,

and I'm I'm spotting or whatever. But I'm also while I'm doing that, throwing out calls and then you know, every periodically looking around. I've had many elk come into my setup and location where it's like, okay, the hunts on now right here where I am while I'm glassing, so doubling up on something like that's great. I've even done that near like a water source where it's like, okay, I found this spring off the side of the mountain. I'll be sitting there a glass from that spring, I'll

throw out those calls. So I'm kind of capitalizing on kind of intersecting elk in as many places at once as possible. So I've got the spring for maybe an elk that's coming into water. I'm throwing out some calls to try to draw in a silent bowl that's not planning on going in water. And then I'm glassing some stuff off in the distance while I'm doing all this.

So now when you do set up, you do want to definitely pay attention because, like I said that that story of that bowl coming in quiet, there's so many times where I'm calling to a silent bowling when you see them, when they're like they're it's ready, it's go time. While I'm set up, when i'm calling like this, I'm ready. I've got my arrow already, I've got my bow in a position that i can grab it and don't have to make a lot of movements, and I'm just kind

of sitting still looking around. I'll even use my binoculars to scan through the trees to try to pick things up sooner and really just paying attention. Um it becomes a kind of a form of ambush hunting like you would like white tail hunters do, but it's it's more active,

it's more roaming. I don't really set up in my call locations for too long unless I really feel like, Okay, there's an elk, or maybe it's like I'm calling to elk that I believe her bedded below me and I'm just waiting for that bowl to kind of get up for the day and come and investigate. But for the most part, being successful calling in silent elk is really all about the setup and picking the right locations to do these calls from, then paying attention and being ready

when they do come in. The first step to calling a silent bowl is going to be understanding why they're quiet and picking a good calling location, and it's also gonna be a thing of moving to the right locations at the right time of day. But the next step is going to be what calls you make, how often

you call, and then when you should move. So next week we're going to cover all the actual calling aspects of calling in a silent bowl, So make sure you bring your calls, get your calls ready, warm up those reads, warm up those diaphragm calls whatever, bust out the hoochie, mama, I don't care, because we're gonna be ready to call in and and make noise to those silent ks. I'm gonna give you all the things that I do, and

that's gonna be next week. Remember you can always reach out to me at Remy Warren on social media, on Instagram, um, pretty much all social channels, YouTube, whatever, feel free to reach out. I love hearing you guys success stories. Hopefully I've I mean, I've already got a few, so hopefully we'll get some more in eyes that have found some

ELK use some of these tactics. I love hearing when you've used the tactic and it's been successful, send me a picture, or even maybe it wasn't successful, but you had a great encounter. Um. I love hearing from you guys about that kind of stuff. So check all that stuff out next week, and yeah, I'm looking forward to it. In between when you hear this and the next podcast, I'm hoping that I will have arrowed bull elk myself so well. I will keep you guys posted. But until then,

let's uh, let's talk softly. Let's whisper an Elkin, all right, good luck guys,