Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics. They'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. Now. Picture this. You're in
Speaker 1: the elk woods and you've got a bull that's bugling
Speaker 1: back at you. He's coming in and you know he's
Speaker 1: just right there, but he's held up just on the
Speaker 1: other side of some thick timber. You need him to
Speaker 1: move a little bit closer to get a shot. You
Speaker 1: can't even see him yet. You're playing the back and
Speaker 1: fourth game. Now, how do you make that bowl fatally
Speaker 1: commit to come right into your lap. The thing is
Speaker 1: is there are calls that are not cow calls and
Speaker 1: not bowl calls. I'm gonna call these nonverbal elk calls.
Speaker 1: These are sounds that you can make that will trick
Speaker 1: that bowl into coming that extra distance the times that
Speaker 1: you need him to move and he won't. Things like
Speaker 1: raking a tree, making heavy breathing noises, even urinating sounds
Speaker 1: on the ground. These calls will bring that bowl to
Speaker 1: where you want him when he wants to hold up.
Speaker 1: It's September nineteen, a few years back. Now, I remember
Speaker 1: the day September nineteen, not because of this particular September nineteen,
Speaker 1: yet over the years, that just seems to be the
Speaker 1: day that the rut really peaks for me, calling for
Speaker 1: friends or clients, or even on my own hunts. I
Speaker 1: just feel like that's a great day that the rut
Speaker 1: really kicks off. Now, I started the morning I was
Speaker 1: actually guiding this particular morning. We're at the top of
Speaker 1: a mountain in southwestern Montana. It's pretty steep terrain and
Speaker 1: heavily timbered. I like that area when the rut kicks off,
Speaker 1: because if the bulls are going to be vocal, that's
Speaker 1: when they're the weakest in this particular environment. Other times
Speaker 1: a year, you can never even find them in this place.
Speaker 1: So before the sun even comes up, I'm throwing out
Speaker 1: a few locator bugles, some long drawn out bugles, into
Speaker 1: these canyons where I can get this echo sound because
Speaker 1: I know that I'll travel through that timber. Sure enough,
Speaker 1: I hear a bugle down below me. Okay, that's our bowl.
Speaker 1: I wait a little bit. I think we gotta get
Speaker 1: in on this bowl. Before the sun even gets up.
Speaker 1: I want to be in position early because they tend
Speaker 1: to be shutting up. It's been hot. I did not
Speaker 1: want this bull to shut up on us and then
Speaker 1: just lose him like we did the day before. I bugle.
Speaker 1: He bugles back. We dropped down the mountain. Start moving
Speaker 1: towards that sound a bugle again. He bugles back. It's escalating.
Speaker 1: I give him a mean bugle. He gives me a
Speaker 1: mean bugle back, chuckling. We move in. We dropped down
Speaker 1: and now he's above us, so we're moving up toward him.
Speaker 1: We get closer. I'm throwing cow calls, trying to draw
Speaker 1: this bull in. I can't tell if this bull is
Speaker 1: by himself or if he has a whole herd of cows.
Speaker 1: I don't know the play on this bull yet, because
Speaker 1: it's so thick, I can't see anything. I just hear
Speaker 1: that he's responding as I'm responding. We get within I
Speaker 1: would say probably what sounds like two yards. He bugles.
Speaker 1: I cut his bugle off with my bugle. He's pissed.
Speaker 1: It keeps going back and forth, and the bull just
Speaker 1: seems to be holding up. We move in closer, now
Speaker 1: to what I would consider probably fifty yards from this
Speaker 1: bugle noise. But what I don't want to do is
Speaker 1: I don't want to move in closer and potentially bump
Speaker 1: the cows that are with him. So if I knew
Speaker 1: it was just a lone bull, yeah, we'd move in
Speaker 1: as close as we could. But I felt like in
Speaker 1: this timber, the odds are something's gonna see us before
Speaker 1: we see them, and below the whole scenario. So I
Speaker 1: really want to call this bull to us. Now he
Speaker 1: starts to come, and it's we're kind of caught in
Speaker 1: this patch of really thick timber, some small conifers. Not ideal.
Speaker 1: But I also don't want to bust through this and
Speaker 1: blow out the elk. So I thought I gotta do
Speaker 1: my best to call this bull to us. I dropped back,
Speaker 1: hoping that maybe that will draw the bull closer in
Speaker 1: to the hunter that I have set up. I'm bugling,
Speaker 1: cow calling. Then I hear that bull start braking a
Speaker 1: tree this is his turf. I break off a branch
Speaker 1: and start thrashing the tree behind me, and it works.
Speaker 1: It pulls the bull in probably ten yards closer. He
Speaker 1: bugles again. I bugle, and he just seems they not
Speaker 1: want to come that extra distant to where I have
Speaker 1: the guy set up. I'm like, man, what do I
Speaker 1: do to pull this bull in? I move up just
Speaker 1: behind the hunter and I'm thinking, I'm like, I've tried
Speaker 1: everything he's hold up yet it's thick, and I don't
Speaker 1: think that we could stalk in and get a shot
Speaker 1: because now he's paying attention. I'm racking my brain what
Speaker 1: to do. I happen to have my nalgene bottle pretty
Speaker 1: handy on my pack. I grabbed the bottle out, twist
Speaker 1: the top off, hold it pretty high above my head,
Speaker 1: and start slowly pouring it on the ground and you
Speaker 1: could hear it splashing. Then I hear the bull make
Speaker 1: a few breathing noises. I breathe back as I'm pouring
Speaker 1: this water out. The bull pops through eight yards away
Speaker 1: and the hunter shoots him, perfect shot. The bull runs
Speaker 1: over maybe ten yards and it's done. So what is
Speaker 1: it about these non verbal sounds that get an elk
Speaker 1: to commit to come in that extra distance when just
Speaker 1: bugles and cow calls alone don't seem to be working.
Speaker 1: Because when you're calling elk, you have to create an
Speaker 1: illusion that you are an elk. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people make a big mistake by when they're calling,
Speaker 1: they're quiet. They're quiet back here, and the only sounds
Speaker 1: they're making are coming from the calls. But that's not
Speaker 1: what it sounds like. When you get into a herd
Speaker 1: of elk, there's a lot going on. There's stick snapping,
Speaker 1: there's elk raking. There's a lot of sounds and noises
Speaker 1: that not only bode confidence that this is actually another elk,
Speaker 1: but there's sounds and noises that they used throughout the
Speaker 1: running process that do a number of things that incite
Speaker 1: other elk to have to come check it out. And
Speaker 1: that includes marking their territory, releasing pheromones, as well as
Speaker 1: talking in a way that isn't bugling or mewing to
Speaker 1: each other. That means certain things, especially during the rut,
Speaker 1: that means things like this cow's hot or I'm ready
Speaker 1: to breed, And those are the kind of noises that
Speaker 1: other bulls cannot resist because that's when the action is
Speaker 1: going down. A big bull does not want to miss
Speaker 1: out on breeding account. He doesn't also not want another
Speaker 1: bull to be into his turf. He wants to think
Speaker 1: that this is his zone, These are his cows. Everything
Speaker 1: is owned by him, and all intruders should be beat up.
Speaker 1: That's what you want, because that's what's gonna draw that
Speaker 1: bull in that extra distance. If you're bow hunting and
Speaker 1: some thicker stuff, you might need to get that bull
Speaker 1: to come within ten yards of your shooter just to
Speaker 1: even be able to see it. And that's a lot
Speaker 1: of times the difference between being successful or just getting
Speaker 1: a bull to hold up twenty cards away. These other sounds,
Speaker 1: a lot of times incite something in a bull's brain
Speaker 1: that makes them say, I need to get over there.
Speaker 1: I need to fight. This needs to be a confrontation,
Speaker 1: not just a screaming match. So what I want to
Speaker 1: do is just talk about the different sounds when and
Speaker 1: how to use them. I think the first sound that
Speaker 1: I have to talk about, because it's one that I
Speaker 1: use nearly every time I'm interacting with the bull, is raking. Now,
Speaker 1: raking is well, white tails do it, mule, deer do it.
Speaker 1: All dear species do some form of raking, but elk
Speaker 1: in particular. When you're calling back and forth, they'll rake
Speaker 1: their territory marking. What it does is releases their scent
Speaker 1: onto a tree, but also creates a visual marking and
Speaker 1: it's a display of dominance. So a lot of times
Speaker 1: you'll be calling to a bull, and maybe you might
Speaker 1: be a long ways away. You might not even notice
Speaker 1: that that bull's raking in between calling back and forth
Speaker 1: to you. So the way a bull rakes is it's
Speaker 1: pretty loud and it's pretty vicious. He tries to kill
Speaker 1: that tree, and I do the same. Then after I rake,
Speaker 1: I let out a bugle, because I've seen elk do
Speaker 1: that in the wild more often than not, So it
Speaker 1: works like this most of the time. I start the
Speaker 1: raking sequence when I get in and the bulls already
Speaker 1: fired up. When he's fired up, that's when he wants
Speaker 1: to show his dominance. So I pretend like I'm showing
Speaker 1: my dominance here as well. I'm saying, no, this is
Speaker 1: my area and not your area. I'll generally take a
Speaker 1: big stick and I try to find a tree that's live,
Speaker 1: because the sound is a little bit different if you
Speaker 1: find use dead branches. So I get a big stick
Speaker 1: and I just scrape it up and down, thrashing this tree.
Speaker 1: Just imagine in your head a bull raking a tree,
Speaker 1: and then do the same with a stick. Sometimes I've
Speaker 1: even used my bugle tube for it. It makes not
Speaker 1: the same sound. A big stick is the best. I
Speaker 1: get it up against the base and I rake down.
Speaker 1: You really want to create the illusion by scraping down
Speaker 1: the tree. Scraping up and down if you just hit
Speaker 1: the outside of the branches is not the same. Get
Speaker 1: to the base of the tree scrape because the bull
Speaker 1: gets in there, gets close to the tree, is foreheads
Speaker 1: rubbing up against it. His sense getting on that tree,
Speaker 1: his antlers are tearing it apart. You want to try
Speaker 1: to mimic that sound as best as possible. Now, as
Speaker 1: soon as I'm done raking, I often let out an
Speaker 1: aggressive bugle followed by chuckles. That seems to be what
Speaker 1: I've noticed real elk doing right after they scrape a tree.
Speaker 1: But that sound is something that causes the bull to
Speaker 1: want to come in and investigate, like who's marking my territory?
Speaker 1: Is this a small bull? He wants to see what's
Speaker 1: going on and why this bull is marking up his turf.
Speaker 1: So one side note about raking, it depends on the scenario,
Speaker 1: because you've got to think of it like this. In
Speaker 1: the wild, when a bull is raking, other bulls will
Speaker 1: come and investigate. So you need to decide whether you
Speaker 1: want to be the bull that investigates or you want
Speaker 1: to be the bull that has the other bull come
Speaker 1: investigate you. A lot of times when you rake another
Speaker 1: bowl rake, or if I hear a bull raking after
Speaker 1: he bugles, I'll wait maybe thirty seconds and then start
Speaker 1: raking on my own. Every scenario is different, but when
Speaker 1: a bull is raking, they're often distracted. If you know
Speaker 1: that he might be pulled away from the cows and
Speaker 1: there's not other eyes, that's the moment you want to
Speaker 1: run in because you can probably get a shot or
Speaker 1: close the gap while he's raking. So you have to
Speaker 1: think of raking in two ways. When he's raking, you
Speaker 1: can be the bull that goes to him, or when
Speaker 1: you're raking, you might be in a scenario where you
Speaker 1: can't risk going to him. You need him to come
Speaker 1: to you. A few years ago, my buddy John and
Speaker 1: I were hunting in Nevada. We had a bull raking
Speaker 1: and it was one of those deals where we kind
Speaker 1: of held back and we should have ran in. It
Speaker 1: turns out as a giant bowl and he had just
Speaker 1: come to us, raked up a tree, and he never
Speaker 1: committed the rest of the way. So that's something when
Speaker 1: you get a bull to act really start raking, he
Speaker 1: might just mark that territory say I've done it and
Speaker 1: I'm out of here. So you have to really play
Speaker 1: it situationally, whether you want to be the bull that
Speaker 1: goes to him or he's the bull that comes to you.
Speaker 1: Just because he doesn't come to you doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: he doesn't think you're an elk. It just means that
Speaker 1: maybe he was expecting the exact opposite from you, So
Speaker 1: maybe his raking scared you away if you're a real elk.
Speaker 1: So you have to think of it like that and
Speaker 1: play it per scenario. But there are certain instances where
Speaker 1: the bull will not come in because he believes he's
Speaker 1: more dominant and you might have a better opportunity at
Speaker 1: him if you are the one that moves to that bull.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about some of the other sounds. There's
Speaker 1: a term that elk callers used. They call it glunking,
Speaker 1: and that's a really weird sound. It's often done through
Speaker 1: the bugle tube. But what this sound is, I've seen
Speaker 1: it many times in the wild and these ideas are
Speaker 1: just from the way that I've seen elk using this sound.
Speaker 1: It seems to me like this sound is a sound
Speaker 1: that bulls make to communicate to a hot cow. Every
Speaker 1: time I've seen it, generally it's a bull running with
Speaker 1: his nose right up the butt of a cow, or
Speaker 1: pushing a cow around, or just trying to talk to
Speaker 1: one cow. This sound isn't a bugle it's more of
Speaker 1: like a popping noise through a bugle tube, or so
Speaker 1: I'll make it a sound through my bugle tube. Some people.
Speaker 1: The first time I learned to make this sound was
Speaker 1: just hitting the end of the bugle tube. So I'll
Speaker 1: give you an example so you can just kind of
Speaker 1: get it in your head what this sound might sound like.
Speaker 1: So just hitting the bugle tube, I think it sounds
Speaker 1: better if you just do it with your voice, where
Speaker 1: you get a When I've seen that sound, that's generally
Speaker 1: means that a bull has a hot cow. Now, if
Speaker 1: you do that sound in a herd where a bull
Speaker 1: won't commit, he's going to run in because when a
Speaker 1: cow gets hot, he wants to be in on that action,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna push whatever is on that cow away.
Speaker 1: That sound really works well when they're fired up and
Speaker 1: he believes that there's a hot cow in the area. Now,
Speaker 1: another sound that I hear a lot is just a
Speaker 1: heavy breathing. It's more of I'm here, I'm dominant, and
Speaker 1: I don't even need to bugle at you. You're a bit.
Speaker 1: This is the I don't even know if there's a
Speaker 1: name for this sound, but I've heard it a lot
Speaker 1: of times. It's a breathing sound that raises the hair
Speaker 1: on the back of your neck and often happens when
Speaker 1: a bull is within thirty yards. Doing this sound back
Speaker 1: really establishes your dominance and it's a good way to
Speaker 1: get that bull to try to commit. So this is
Speaker 1: more of a heavy breathing noise where he's just piste
Speaker 1: off and breathing hard. It's like glunking, but to a bull,
Speaker 1: not to a cow. It's just heavy breathing. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a a snort wease for a white tail
Speaker 1: if you heard that, like, and it's just a bull
Speaker 1: piste at another bull and he's so close he knows
Speaker 1: I don't need to bule, And a lot of times
Speaker 1: that sound will incite the bull to fight. And if
Speaker 1: a bull makes that sound, you know, I would say
Speaker 1: he's within thirty yards of where you're calling from. So
Speaker 1: that's something to keep in mind. If you hear that sound,
Speaker 1: be ready. That bull is really close now if he
Speaker 1: doesn't come into that sound. I picked up this trick
Speaker 1: from one of the first outfitters I worked for up
Speaker 1: in the Swan Valley in Montana, real thick country in there,
Speaker 1: and one day he was just some of the best
Speaker 1: elk calling advice I ever got. It's when you call
Speaker 1: a bull, you visualize yourself as that bull. You have
Speaker 1: to get piste off, you have to get fired up.
Speaker 1: You become that elk. And he's like, you know how
Speaker 1: many times you think about when an elk comes in,
Speaker 1: what's the first thing he does? He gets there, he
Speaker 1: rips up a tree's pissing all over himself. You have
Speaker 1: to be that bull. So he says, you know, I'll
Speaker 1: even be calling and all I'll just start peeing on
Speaker 1: the ground. I got really And then the first time
Speaker 1: I tried it, I pulled the bowl right through the
Speaker 1: small patch of conifers. I actually had a water bladder
Speaker 1: at the time, pop the tube off the hose and
Speaker 1: started pouring it on the ground and that bowl just
Speaker 1: came in fired up. It's those little sounds of here's
Speaker 1: another bull marking his territory in my zone. Now that
Speaker 1: that sound is a sound that you would make when
Speaker 1: you know that bowls within I would say thirty yards
Speaker 1: that that range. That he's gonna hear it, and he's
Speaker 1: gonna believe that you're marking your territory. There's a hot
Speaker 1: cow in there. Combined with some of the other sounds,
Speaker 1: the glunking and the raking, and so that oftentimes, when
Speaker 1: they're close and they won't come, that extra little bit
Speaker 1: of distance is a noise you can make. They will
Speaker 1: just send them over the edge and cause them to
Speaker 1: come in and looking for a fight. And a lot
Speaker 1: of times that's the difference between you telling your buddies. Man,
Speaker 1: I had that bowl right there. He was just twenty
Speaker 1: yards on the other side of some trees. But I
Speaker 1: couldn't I couldn't move. I was peg down. I couldn't
Speaker 1: get that bowl to come in any closer. Well, try
Speaker 1: some of these other sounds, because a lot of these
Speaker 1: sounds are the sounds that are gonna get that bowl
Speaker 1: to come right into your lap and give you that
Speaker 1: shot you might not otherwise get these tips. That's concluding
Speaker 1: what I'm calling my September elk calling series right now.
Speaker 1: If I had to just pick three topics that you
Speaker 1: can use right now this September, it will probably make
Speaker 1: you more successful. And I think not a lot of
Speaker 1: people talk about those. Are it now? If you missed
Speaker 1: the other two, do yourself a favor. Go back, download them,
Speaker 1: listen to them. And if you miss the other two,
Speaker 1: it's probably because you're a subscriber, So make sure you subscribe.
Speaker 1: Then they're in your inbox. Then you're on a road trip,
Speaker 1: you're headed out to your elk hunt. You can pop
Speaker 1: this in, listen for twenty minutes, grab your bugle for
Speaker 1: the next two hours and practice and really visualize and
Speaker 1: start thinking about how you're gonna lay out the scenarios
Speaker 1: that you encounter this September in the woods. One thing
Speaker 1: that I definitely want to do is hear from you
Speaker 1: on your successes, things that have worked. You know, if
Speaker 1: you use one of these tips, just keep these in
Speaker 1: the back of your mind when you when you get
Speaker 1: into these scenarios, give them a try. Maybe some of
Speaker 1: these are things you've never used. Maybe these are things
Speaker 1: that you've known your entire life. That's awesome because I
Speaker 1: like that affirmation of knowing things that work for me
Speaker 1: have worked for other people. I think that the stuff
Speaker 1: that works the best, it's not just one time it works,
Speaker 1: it works consistently over time. So I wanted to give
Speaker 1: you what I've considered my ELK calling consistencies, the things
Speaker 1: that really make me the most successful during the rut.
Speaker 1: And I want to hear from you, so you can
Speaker 1: do that via social media or remy at the meat
Speaker 1: eater dot com until next week. Good luck and just
Speaker 1: good luck and good skill. Nobody says good skill? Do
Speaker 1: they good skill?