Ep. 5: The Elk that Wrecked My Nap and How to Coax in Silent Bulls

You know the bulls are there, but you just can't get them to respond. What do you do? Are these elks so callable? The answers yes, And I want to go through this week on the effective ways to call to silent bulls, everything from picking a spot through targeting loaner elk, as well as the calls to make and the tools that will help you accomplish the illusion of a herd of cows that will get a loan bull

to come in and investigate. Now, when I started guiding elk hunters, one of the things that I found was you really had to call in elk every week, whether the helk wanted to cooperate or not, and sometimes that felt impossible. There were weeks where you would bugle and

bugle and bugle and nothing would respond. Now that could be because you're hunting too early and the rut hasn't kicked off yet, or it could just be that the area you're hunting has had a lot of pressure, or the bulls are just quiet, or maybe you're running later after the rut. So I started to really investigate this and try a lot of different tactics, and I found one that became extremely successful for hauling in elk when nothing wanted to make a sound. Started really when I

was guiding down in New Mexico. The area I was hunting was pretty thick. There wasn't a lot of glassing, and there really wasn't a lot of spots to cover. It was a lot of private land and smaller parcels. So I had to figure out ways to draw the elk to where we were because we couldn't just bash through every bit of country in hopes of finding them, especially when they weren't making noise. I kind of developed this tactic of calling to those loan bulls, those bulls

that are cruising for cows. Those are also the bulls that are least likely to bugle back. He may not have his a harem of cows, he's just cruising. What he's looking for is a group of elk that's already there. So I wanted to figure out ways to target those elk, those bulls that are just cruising for ladies. And the way to do that is through setting up an illusion of creating a herd of cows. One story that really

stands out in my mind. I was guiding in New Mexico and I had one of those weeks that just nothing seemed to be going right. I could tell that bulls were hitting this meadow in the dark, but nothing would make a peep and nothing would come out during daylight hours. I could also tell that the elk we're using this particular wallow. I decided, Okay, the elk are coming from the timbered area to the west, and this wallows right on the edge of the timber and then

it enters into a feeding area. I get to see one in daylight hours. But I thought, why don't I create an illusion that there's a herd of elk cows out here and hopefully draw a bowl out of the timber where I could tell the tracks are coming in and out of. I was assuming that if he's gonna go to the herd of elk, he'll probably hit this wallow first, he'll get mudded up, he'll get sent it up, and then come in hot trying to impress the gals.

So I put him up in a tree stand that I set up over the wallow, because I figured, well, even in while I'm calling, he can have a better vantage from the tree stand and might just catch an elk that's cruising to wallow or even drink because it was fairly hot as well. And then I would go

a little bit further out and start cow calling. So I started in the morning hitting a few cow calls, and I had a whole slew of different cow calls, everything from diaphragm calls to open read calls, as well as some of those squeeze button calls might even have like a hoochie mama call. And then one of the carlton thought what it was at a button call or they call it something like that in my pockets because what I wanted to do is sound like a bunch

of different elk at once. So the morning starts out, I give him my bugles just to make sure there's no bowls around. Nothing replying, same as it's been the last few days. So I decided to w in my cow call sequence, hitting some mus standard elk talk, me going off few of those little pocket calls. Nothing all right, but I'm intentionally calling to a bull that I'm assuming is gonna come in quiet. I'm trying to call to the loan bowl that i'd cut tracks of that i'm

hoping is looking for cows. The morning progresses, it's starting to get hot and nothing has shown up. So I'm going to divulge a little secret. And this is something I rarely do. I started dozing off in between sets of cow calls because for two reasons, One I was pretty tired, and two I just get so impatient. I am not good at sitting there just being patient and calling. Take a little nap, and in between falling asleep, I would wake up, hit a few calls, go back to sleep.

That just kept me from overcalling. Really, so I'm in between call sets, I'm laying there. The sun's hitting me, like man, there's definitely not going to be any elk right, now, but there's really nothing else we can do, so I'll just keep calling. I opened my eyes just slightly. I look off. As I opened my eyes, there is an elks foot within half an arm's length of my head. I could just literally reach my right arm out and grab this bull. I look up and this bull is

directly over me. That elk knew exactly where those calls were coming from. He had pinpointed the exact location where I was calling from yet and walked right to me. Now, the trouble is, I've never had this happen, and I have a bull. His head is literally right above my head. I'm worried that he's gonna freak out and start stomping on me. I do not want him to see my eyeballs, so I'm just squinting and partially freaking out, thinking that he is at any second going to realize something's wrong

and stomped me. When I woke up, I must have rustled a little bit because he kind of tilted his head down. So he's got his head down and I can see his eyeball maybe three ft from my face, and he's got his head down and his eye he cocked his head sideways so he can look at me better, and I can just see his eye sort of bulging out of his head, and he's moving back and forth trying to figure out what the hell is at his feet.

At this point, I'm literally just praying this thing does not smash me and trying to move, not move at all. I do not want to open my eyes. I'm just squinting. He probably felt or heard my heart beating out of my chest. He got a little antsy and trotted off, spun around again, looked back where I was. Continued to lay there until he moved off. Once he got out of sight, I'll let a few more cow calls out,

snuck around, grabbed my hunter from the tree stand. Was like, dude, this big six point bull was just right here at that point. I didn't tell him that I was asleep, of course, but so he comes down. We work. Luckily the wind was good. I get him. We work into the wind, set up again, continue to call. This time he actually kind of button hooks around, just out of range of myself and the hunter. You say, fifty five yards,

circles around, catches our wind and blows out. Now, while we did not get that bull, it taught me two really good lessons, one in patience and one and the fact that those elk no exactly where you're calling from, and that is going to play huge into the way that I set up my calling sequences for loan bulls. If you want to be successful calling to bulls that don't want to call back, it's all in the setup.

You really have to understand the type of bull you're calling to, and then you can really pinpoint the location on where to start your calling because it is going to be a patience game and you aren't gonna get any verbal cues that that bull is going to come in because the bowl that you're calling to is going to be a solitary bull. Now you might think of him as a I would say a satellite bowl that might be in between herds. That doesn't mean that it couldn't be a big bull. It's just a bull that's

by himself. So the time of year is going to be a factor. But also you really have to know what that bowl wants that you're calling to. The reason that he's not calling back is probably because he might be a little bit afraid that another bull will just round up his cows run him off or fight him off. What he wants to do is he wants to come in silent and investigate first. And that is actually the

majority of the elk out there. It's not because that elk knows you're a hunter calling to him, it's because that's what that elk is doing if other elk are in his area. There's a lot of ways to pinpoint these loan bulls, and there's a few places that you can start your focus on. Let's say it's just been a hard week of hunting, the elk are not making noise. Okay, where are we going to start, Well, let's pick a time. Are you hunting a little bit earlier in the season.

Do you believe that maybe they're really the peak rut hasn't kicked off yet, or are you hunting what should be the peak rut. Maybe they're just really hooping it up in the middle of the night, but during daylight hours they're making a noise. Let's start with early. Okay, what are some places that bulls will go by themselves.

One of them is wallows. Now in areas where a lot of water, yeah, you might be able to sit a wallow, but he may not hit that wallow when you want, because you gotta understand what is a wallow well. A wallow is essentially a perfume factory for a bull elk during the rut. What they do is they urinate in that water, They roll around in the mud that

holds their scent on them. It's a way that they mark their territory, mark their bodies, create a aroma that when they run into that herd, they look beefed up, they smell good, and they're going to take those ladies. But that's also an easy to target elk with this kind of strategy because he is ready to be entertained by your fake harem and got it. Another scenario is an area where you're seeing a lot of elk signed

maybe around the edge of a feeding area. If you're hunting more timbered country, these open pockets, these open meadows are probably going to be the spots that the elk are goom be coming out at night. But if you aren't seeing there in the middle of the day, they're off in the timber. However, if you create the illusion that the elk are out there now, like I did on that New Mexico hunt, you have a higher likelihood of drawing a bull that's hanging out in the timber

out to investigate. These are curious elk that you're calling to, and they want to slip in assess the situation, possibly pick off a cow to steal on their own with little to no confrontation. Now, it's not as fun as getting riled up bulls and bugling until your heart is content. I agree with that there is a patience element that really sucks, and it's hard to be patient in an area where you aren't sure if there's elk, So you really have to pick your setups so you're not wasting

your time calling to nothing. Ways that you do that are areas where you expect a loan bulls to be in areas where you're seeing sign but you just are not seeing the animals during daylight hours. Another great spot to start calling to these loan bulls is areas where you smell elk use your nose to identify the location. That means that they're within an earshot oftentimes, but you might not be able to suss exactly where they are.

It's always better to try to get them to come to you than blindly going to cover looking for them. So that's another great setup. And then the best setup is if you spot a loan bull moving on his own, that's the time to employ this tactic. Get to where he's going, create that cow sound, and then draw him in. Those those are the bulls that drawing on a string because you've visually seen him. Maybe you lose them in the timber, but you can create this illusion of a

harem of cows to draw them in. So, now that we've covered the where to call, let's talk about the how. Let's set the scene. You are going to create a herd of elk. Now, I like to start a couple different ways. The first scenario is, if bulls aren't making noise, I'd like to let them think that, hey, we're just a bunch of ladies looking for a lover. There's no bull here, just a bunch of cows hanging out. And

I start by throwing out cow chatter. Now, cows will talk throughout the day, a lot of times as they're moving,

and then also even when they're just betted up. So if I find an area that looks good, I'm going to create the illusion of elk moving into the area and then set up in almost a betting type scenario, because it's gonna take a while for that elk to come in, and you need to make sure that you're there long enough for him to slip in before he figures out what's going on and leaves, and you don't want to leave before he has time to get there, Like in that story where I took the nap and

then the elk just walks right to me. I gave it ample time that I probably would not have done had I just gotten patient like I normally do and walked off and tried another spot. So I like to create the illusion of elk moving into an area talking to each other. That's just basic, muse It's not a lot of activity. It's just a lot of you back and forth. I got a little call here. I'll just give you a few examples, and this is gonna be. You're gonna do this while walking in and then you're

gonna set up elk talking throughout the day. Maybe give it a few hours if you really think that this is where a bowl should be and you don't really have any better options. Nothing's making noise, and you're in an area where you can't really glass it. This is a great set up in mornings and evenings, especially on the edge of say a feeding area or moving into a betting area near where wallows will be. So here's

gonna be the first example. We're just walking in, we're moving along, and we're just a couple of elk talking to each other. One of the tactics is just changing the direction that you're throwing those calls out. Sometimes I'll even have a couple of different types of calls, maybe an open read call or a diaphragm call, throwing out different sounds in different directions. This sound like multiple animals

moving through the woods. I'll give it a little bit and then I'll get set up in an area where I'm going to create the illusion of a group of cows interacting with each other. This is gonna be in hopes to draw bull in to that particular location. I'm gonna pick that location down wind of where I'm assuming the bull will come from. And that's really important because a lot of times when they come in, they're gonna try to circle and catch your wind or smell the

elk first. So you really want a good set up and really decipher, Okay, what's the best location where a bull would be and how do I put myself down

wind of there to start my stationary calling. So we get set up, and what I like to do is I like to throw out a few more aggressive what I would consider the aggressive side of cow calls, something like cow's talking, but also maybe a lead cow barking directions or even an estrus wine a little bit longer, more drawn out cow call, because that can get the

bull a little more curious. Another thing that I will throw out, aside from cow calls is even a short spike bugles, something they just kind of says, I wonder what the hell is going on over there, but not so much that thinks M I don't really want to deal with that right now. Oh h oh. Now, when I first get set up, I'll talk a lot. Throughout the period of time, I'll stop, I'll give a few calls here and there, and then ease up, because what you want to do is hopefully catches attention, but make

him want to investigate. If the bull doesn't come in right away, very often will a bull walk in silent right away? However, you have to remember, like go back to that story. If he's within your shot, he can probably pinpoint your exact location where you're calling from, and that is the key, because when you set up in that spot, you just have to be patient and hope that that bowl hears you and he's gonna come in

when he feels like it's the opportune time. Maybe he needs some time to wallow, maybe he needs some time to think about it, maybe he's just gonna take his time to investigate. But if you're in the right location, it's really hard for a bull that's by himself to pass that up. There's so many times where I've been hunting on my own or guiding and the weeks just

seem un action packed. But by doing these tactics and these simple little scenarios, I'm able to find success and call in a ton of elk a lot more than you'd think. When you're talking to other people and they go, man, that was a slow week, the ruts not picked off, I think to myself, Yeah, but I got something in my bag of tricks that's gonna work, And whether the elk wanna play or not, I know that by setting up that scenario and calling to the elk that's gonna

come in silent, I can still be successful. One last little tip to add to this realistic setup which worked really well for me when I was guiding in New Mexico, and I would really concentrate this type of approach in good feeding areas is I would essentially set up this illusion of cows by calling near feeding areas. Now, these feeding areas would be bigger meadows. The trouble with that is elk. A lot of times the bulls would circle

and stay and cover and look in there. So what I started doing was I started setting up like foldable Montana decoys one or two off kind of where I was slightly in the timber, so they couldn't catch the whole animal at once, but it gave them a visual queue to come my direction. That actually really brought in a lot more elk that would cruise and kind of think something was hinky, But that caused a lot more

animals to commit to coming within bow range. I would say the large majority of the elk that I've tricked that way, I've had the decoy out because it gives them a focal point. Also, if you're calling, it lets them focus on what they see and not you as the shooter slash caller drawing back trying to get a shot. This is also a really good tactic if you're hunting by yourself. Bubling dooble is my hands down favorite way to hunt out because it's so action packed, but it's

also quite difficult to do if you're alone. So this is a great tactic for mornings and evenings if you are hunting alone, because it helps draw animals to you, but also doesn't give your position away if you're using it in combination with, say in elk decoy. Honestly, I've just cut my teeth on elk hunting and elk calling because that's been my main job since high school. Essentially is an elk guide. Now, of course I guide for everything else, dear sheep, what have you, but the main

thing is elk. Because of so much time spent calling elk and just really obsessing with the interactions of elk. I could probably do a daily podcast on tips and tactics for just out calling for the rest of the year. However, we don't have time for that now. Seeing that it's the beginning of September, and I'm hoping that you can

take some of this into the field with you. Now, you might run into some scenarios while you're out there that pertained to an instance that you have, like a real life encounter in the next week or two weeks or three weeks, you know, like what should I have done? Or you might use this tip and have a success I want to hear about that. I want the questions and I want the success stories. Okay, because I tell

you the things that I really enjoy about it. But I'm sure that whatever you run into I've run into it, and other people probably have too. So if you have a scenario that didn't work out for you, I would love to hear from you about it. Also, if you have a scenario that worked out for you, would definitely love to hear about that. Please send me some photos.

There's a lot of ways to contact me. You can get me a Remy at the meat eater dot com is my email for the podcast questions there, and you know what we'll do in the future is maybe grab compile some of those questions and just machine gun fire answering the scenarios that you've encountered, and then, as always, feel free to share with me on social media. I

love that. I love seeing people's successes. I love hearing about things that you try, things that worked things that didn't work because I want to know that this stuff's helping someone, so I appreciate it as always. Thank you very much for listening. Let's just keep this elk thing rolling. I want to talk a little bit more about it. I don't want to burn it out, but i just have so much to say and I'm so passionate about

calling elk. Now is the time to talk about it, and then we'll jump into some you know, advanced glassing stuff and some other cool stuff here in the future. But right now, if you're out there elk hunting, let me know how it goes, all right, Catch you later.