Ep. 20: The Phelps Field Report - 9/28/2022

didn't work. UM, since we you know, got got a good education on some of these bulls and they really reacted a lot different than what I'd say we're used to um one hunting, So what what would you say? The overall action was here this week as far as we're hearing bighicles where we you know, find an elk that wanted to cooperate, we were able to locate fairly easily. That was that was good. UM yeah, so I think for the most part, these elk were running the right game.

We we could get to a high point like we normally would, we could locate and if there were bowls there, especially um on that first bugle, you know, when you show up to an area, that first bugle usually gets them going and then we would kind of struggle right and then maybe getting to answer a second or third time. So you really had to listen very very closely for that first bugle, um to make sure you picked it up, because a lot of times you could sit there bugle

again in five minutes, ten minutes, they wouldn't veigle. But sometimes it's it's one of those things and I don't know why they do it, but if you maybe wait twenty or thirty minutes, you can probably get them to bugle again. It's just it's almost like they don't want to answer you too many times in a row. Um. So yeah, we we were able to locate and had no problem locating bulls. So that part of our system, our program we were running, our program was working just fine.

But where we started to run into a little bit of different a difference here and our system kind of ran into some trouble was you know, getting close cal calling biggling um, let's kind of give give a little rundown on a typical scenario. You know, we located a herd bowl. We we didn't give them what we do from there, located herd bowl. We always try and cut the distance once we cut the distance to a safe distance from the herd where we don't think we're a

scaring We might have to locate again. Usually with cal calls, hopefully they respond, check the distance, figure out where they're at, move closer, and start putting pressure on them. I mean, that's pretty much our our thing, you know. And on this hunt, a lot of times we would cut the distance. We try not to veagle, but we would he I mean, we need to do a little squeal bveagle, just something that never get an answer back. Um, if you got too close, you know, under two yards, you typically they

would take their cows and leave. They would give us a couple of beagles, round up their cows and they'd be out of there, and they'd keep a safe distance. Well. A lot of times on this hunt we learned early on that all right, biggling isn't working. So you're first instant because let's switch it up to cal calls. So we're moving very tight, get the wind right, do everything we're supposed to. And know I'm talking tight on cow calls. I'm talking most of the time we were under a

hundred yards hundred twenty. We we we did, we did get very close to a lot of cows, didn't really bump them, but we you know, obviously would spot them in the timber, and we had switched the cow calls and and those didn't seem to work. You know, they worked at times, but not very well, not even on the satellite bowls that are around, which really kind of

has me scratch my head. And we've got some theories and we might dive into it here in a little bit on on why these bulls were just not responding to cal calls either. Yeah, that was tough. I mean, usually when your cal calling near heard, you always get a satellite come in to three little fives, little sixes, whatever, and it just kind of keeps the momentum going with

the herd bowl. Sometimes you get those satellites big in too, and then the herd bull starts being going a lot, especially in you know like this, with a lot of a very high bowl of caw ratio, you would expect for there to be a lot of you know, those semi mature satellite bowls, you know that are just looking for any sort of cow. But our theory was maybe they assumed that all the cows are already taken by herd bowls and they were a little bit reluctant to

come in to those calls. So we noticed that caw calls weren't as effective as they have been in the past and other units, and um, you know, I would say we ran it ten plus times, right, we would. Once we realized the biggling wasn't working on her bowls, we'd get in cal call, maybe get a response or two. Wasn't really interested in the need of the cows, would get frustrated with us and kind of bugger out or the bowl just you know, not even responding. They would

just keeping their their pattern and hang out. Then the next time they would respond, they'd be three yards out. That just yeah. And one thing I want to talk about a little bit, Um, I would say, there are wolves in this unit kind of scattered out. We only really found like a high concentration in one area that was completely void. About for how pristine of lk Habitat was the most perfect elk Habitat period and beautiful, no no elk to be seen completely void. And I'm not exaggerating.

We probably walked two miles a road on the top end, two miles of road on the bottom end, and no exaggeration. There was a pile of wolf crap every ten to fifteen ft on this road the entire length. Um, I've never seen so much wolf. Yeah, the first day we went through an area looked really good, just like everything else we found in this entire time. UM went in, we found a wallow so you could see what's been around, um, you know, in the mud. And sure enough we've seen

more wolf and cougar tracks than we did elk. Which that not I'm not saying that the rest of the area wasn't good. It's just it's obvious that there are some dead zones in here. And so there were some days or times where we you know, we really wanted to check an area out and just void of elk, which so the wolves had a little effective I wouldn't blame you wolves on on you know, non vocal elk necessarily.

We do think one day maybe they had moved through an area and kind of made some melt quiet because they were still there. And yeah, it was obviously I mean, seeing the tracks on the road and stuff, you know, not just kind of makes me feel like that the elk aren't gonna respond. Is easy. But I mean, even with some a few tracks and stuff here and there. We were able to get him to talk, but it seems like when you got closer is when they just

wouldn't say anything. Yep, um running. Let's jump in a little bit, because we always promote kind of running our system um. And I think we found ourselves wanting to always go back that because we even talked about it, like our system I would say works time. It's not failproof, right, but it works enough times and eventually it's it's going

to work. You put enough pressure on the bull, you set up enough times, eventually getting close close enough to that herd bulls cows close enough to him, you know, and challenging him work or if you know their satellites around, you get close enough to heard, you know, potentially pulled

herd bull off with cal calls. Um. So we do a very methodical system, and I think, uh, as we mentioned earlier, you found out it wasn't going to work, but we always we would go into set ups right saying we weren't going to call it all and we go right back to calling. It's just you feel like it's eventually going to work, Like, yeah, maybe our odds are lower, maybe it's ten percent in this unit. Um, but we found ourselves every time. We're not going to

call around and do anything. You just instinctively go back to it. And I think that's one of my biggest takeaways, is you we should have adapted earlier and been a little bit more like steadfast and we're too stubborn. Yeah, we like to do it the way we do it. That's the thing. We've been doing it for plus years maybe more than that, and it's worked so well so many times that it's just it's tough to go in there. And this is where like my biggest takeaway, maybe we

should have just flat out like stuck to a different system. Um. You know, we'll keep that in mind. And I'm more worried in future hunts. And I'm not gonna I'm gonna be scared to death the bigle now just because all the results we got here. My next hunt, I'm biggle. Yeah, I'm they're gonna bogle in your face. So I don't care if it doesn't work. It doesn't work, I'll fell

how I know, Bath. So towards the you know, probably about halfway through the hunt, the writing was on the wall, Um, we're gonna have to hunt these things like meal deer, which is a little bit frustrating because we come out in the woods with uh an idea of how we want to hunt these elk. Right, we want to find a bull that's biggling, We want to find a bull that wants to be called in, and we want to run the game. Are we we want to get biggles?

We want stuff biggling in our face. We did get that, but a lot of times it was a bagle in our face right before they left, you know, with the cows. So um, I want to jump into another challenge on this hunt, which archery hunting very very difficult rifle hunt. Of course it would have been easier, rightfle but this area has a burn that went through it, and it changed the dynamic of We always talked about having terrain and vegetation for cover so we can move in close.

What this brush did was put us exposed time out in the open. And number two, it was louder than hell. Number three, it gave you very very little possibility to ever set up and shoot because even when we did call bowls in, their vitals were going to be completely covered, you know, with with brush. And so jump into a little bit of how this brush kind of changed our huh.

You know, we focused on a certain bowl for two and a half days, and then ultimately we just had to like it's literally trying to get him to be in the perfect spot, which there wasn't very many perfect situations, you know, where he would actually give us a shot. I mean, it's like, you gotta move with these elk as they're going to their feed or bed and hope that they get in these little i'd say, what semi

open areas, which there's not very many of them. Yeah, and this is where as an elk hunter, once again, I struggle. It's easy for me to tell everybody like you just have to like know that there's no light at the end of this plan. You know, they're if you're if you're going into these areas and you're hunting on a one or two percent chance of success and you're really just like hoping and praying. We just had to finally, we we looked at each other and we're like,

we gotta get out of here. We're never gonna kill this bowl um with where he's feeding in a burn and he's betting in a burn with even taller brush we cannot physically kill him. We just we didn't have the time. I mean that's maybe if he had three weeks to work the same way. Yeah, you would wait for him to be in the optimum spot, which we kind of got him in on on one attempt. But um, once again, we weren't really privy to how these cows are going to react. Um, we thought we were dialed right.

We moved into within seventy yards of this bowl. Um it that was a high percentage of having good success on that. These cows were there. We wind was perfect, We were real, real close. So on this instance, Um, I think we raked before we bogled right or did we Maybe you bagled first and he hit us right back. And then we went to some raking and I can see the bull face. I said about seventy yards, Um, oh my, oh, this is this is gold, you know, and he screamed at you again. I think you bi

go back one more time on your second vehicle. The cows his cows didn't like it and they went out, and then sure as crap. You know, sometimes in that instance, don't leave when cows spook, right, because a lot of times that bold either push him off or they just know to leave and he's gonna stand his ground and do his thing. But in this instance, I've seen the cows going and he was right behind him. He just kept which you know, so I always give it time.

And if you don't know that bowl left, um, you know to stay. But yeah, that everything you did right, Like, we couldn't have got any tighter to this bull. Um, But yeah, it's just one of those things. Finally we hunted him two more days. Um, did you just you have to just weigh your options and the chances of actually killing them nothing um on this hunt in particular, these bulls have a higher age class there. You know their experience, They've had all these calls thrown at them.

There are a lot of spike hunters in the woods. On these type of units, there's twenty guys hunting for one person's tag. There are people everywhere educated bulls. Every landing, every every date, every road, every spot of person can be so very pressure, very pressure, very educated elk. One thing I want to talk about, which we got bit by multiple times, is you get it on a bowl, big goal and then you assume that he left or you assume that he's no longer there because maybe you've

seen him walk off. We would give it some time knowing that there's the possibility he would still be there. These big bulls will literally take three steps and wait for you to show yourself again. And so I'm not very patient. We're not very patient. But just one thing to keep in mind that we could have maybe saved a few more of these stocks or situations is always assume that bowl still there. Moved very carefully with brush, trees, vegetation in your way of where you're lasting him. Go

and try not to expose yourself. You know where he's gonna be able to pick you off, or don't provide him a different angle, because a lot of times it seems like they move off just enough that they're trying to pick you off at a different angle, versus if you can, you know, stalk straight in on where you've seen them keep some brush. But multiple times we would come around the tree and there'd be a cow or a bowl. Um, they're they're a lot more patient than we are. I mean, it's their home. I just I

don't know. It was tough. Yeah, Um, one other thing I'd like to know I was able to just come from New Mexico where you hear a bugle and it sounds like they're you can see him, and they're like, oh, it's a mile away, and I can hear a bugle plane his day here, you know, North Pacific Northwest, you know, denser, thicker timber. Everything we heard was way closer than we thought. And and that's one thing to keep in mind, like we should have recalibrated our brains a little bit, because

we got caught multiple times moving in too close. Um where it was just because we were calibrated to like, oh that bulls you know, way out there, when really they were pretty dang close. Um, so we needed to just slow down a little bit. And yeah, because then by the time we figured it out, we were too close and they were already leaving one. One thing to note, but um, no rud action seems to be going good here.

It has some high days, you know that where the ruts seems to be you know, rolling and in the next day will be shut off. But um, definitely doing good enough here and and Oregon, um you know, the ruts going and uh. Yeah, these are just some little takeaways, um, from from the way we normally hunt to the way we should have hunted this unit. But I'm you know, I I was happy with the action. Um, we're out here to play the game, and Oregon didn't necessarily disappoint.

It was fun. I mean, we had a lot of good action. It was good hunting. Yeah, some nice bulls, some real nice bulls. Thank you for I want to be my caller and uh trying to help out. We haven't hunted together since two thousand seventeen. I was able to call you in a little six by five on that hunt, and uh, we haven't really hunted since then. No, that's that was a fun hunt too. Yeah. Now I'm a little Now, I'm a little nervous that after hunting

with you there's a little uh curse. Yeah, I don't believe in any of that stuff, but I'm a little nervous because, yeah, you've had a stretch of bad luck and I'm afraid it maybe you might rub off a little bit. So uh yeah, I kind of like it did to another friend of ours. No, I'm not worried about it. We'll be uh well, we'll get back at it. We're heading to Idaho next um, so hopefully the well I'm heading Idaho, You're heading home, I'm heading out. I'm

gonna go hunt rosies with the muzzle letter. There you go. Well, good luck on that. I appreciate being out her Organs. Been fun um. Look forward to the next time we get to hunt together. But that is the field report from here in Oregon. I hope everybody's having a good season. See yeah by m hm hm