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. Welcome back everyone. It is
Speaker 1: finally September. And if you're like me, you've been thinking
Speaker 1: about these days since the beginning of March when we
Speaker 1: first heard about this thing called COVID, and you're like, now,
Speaker 1: but we got elk hunting in September, that elk hunting
Speaker 1: is finally here. Over the last couple of weeks, a
Speaker 1: few weeks about a month, I've been going over some
Speaker 1: of my favorite elk tactics, especially a lot of calling
Speaker 1: as far as escalating the challenge with a bull and
Speaker 1: then creating a party with cow elk and then using decoys,
Speaker 1: and I kind of realized that we've got a pretty
Speaker 1: extensive library going of some really great elk hunting tactics
Speaker 1: that I'm not necessarily sure are shared very many other places.
Speaker 1: And these are things that I found through the years
Speaker 1: really work. So what I want to do is we're
Speaker 1: gonna go back and I'm gonna pull out some of
Speaker 1: the highlights of things that I've found in past episodes
Speaker 1: and give you one final just compilation of incredible elk tips.
Speaker 1: So between the last stuff and this stuff, you should
Speaker 1: be well on your way to harvesting a bull elk
Speaker 1: this September. If I were to break down elk hunting
Speaker 1: into basic steps, step one, find the elk. If you
Speaker 1: can't find the elk, you can't hunt the elk. Now
Speaker 1: that seems pretty obvious, But whether you're going into a
Speaker 1: new area, or maybe you're in an area you've hunted
Speaker 1: before or an area that you've scouted or planning on hunting,
Speaker 1: and the elk just don't happen to be where you
Speaker 1: thought they were going to be or where you're hunting,
Speaker 1: what do you do? What I do is I pull
Speaker 1: out my mapping software and I do some e scouting
Speaker 1: beforehand as well as while I'm in the field if
Speaker 1: I'm looking for new spots and things aren't panning out properly. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go over what I do on my
Speaker 1: ONYX map and the type of topo lines that I
Speaker 1: look for, the type of habitat that I look for,
Speaker 1: and how to key in on the things that Elk
Speaker 1: need digitally so you can get out in the field
Speaker 1: and have a better chance of figuring out where they
Speaker 1: are in real life. So we're gonna go back to
Speaker 1: episode twelve, and I'm just gonna pull out my phone
Speaker 1: on this episode and run you through what I'm looking
Speaker 1: for to find Elk. So I'm gonna open up my
Speaker 1: app right now and then I'm just gonna give you
Speaker 1: a quick rundown of the things that I'm looking at.
Speaker 1: So let's say, let's go for this. We're hunting Elk.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna grab a random unit in Montana, and then
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna kind of look and say what I'm
Speaker 1: doing and what I'm looking for, just like I were
Speaker 1: planning out a hunt in an area that I've never been. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the cool thing about this app is it has
Speaker 1: the unit, so I can start there. I've got the
Speaker 1: Onyx Hunt app open. I'm in Montana. I'm just randomly
Speaker 1: scrolling the screen so it lands on a unit. I
Speaker 1: won't tell you what unit because I'll probably end up
Speaker 1: giving someone's secret spot away, but I've got the unit,
Speaker 1: so that's a start. Now I'm looking for public ground
Speaker 1: because that's the kind of tag I have. I don't
Speaker 1: have access where I'm going, so I'm now going to
Speaker 1: be having the layers on that show me public and
Speaker 1: private ground. I always start my map at the topo level, okay,
Speaker 1: because what I'm doing is I'm trying to key in
Speaker 1: on key features that really hold animals. When you think
Speaker 1: about finding say elk or any animal, they all need
Speaker 1: three key things. Doesn't matter if you're hunting antelope, sheep, whatever.
Speaker 1: They need the right habitat that sustains them. And for
Speaker 1: that they need food, water, and cover or some kind
Speaker 1: of As far as antelope go, they don't really use cover,
Speaker 1: but they need open is their cover because they use
Speaker 1: their eyesight. So you kind of just have to understand
Speaker 1: the animal a little bit. But you have to find
Speaker 1: the three things that create good habitat. Now I'm looking
Speaker 1: for elks, so I'm going to find something that probably
Speaker 1: has food, water and cover in a smaller area. Where
Speaker 1: I like to start is I like to start looking
Speaker 1: at ridges, finger ridges, and head basins. So I'll define
Speaker 1: those for you. A ridge is just anywhere where we've
Speaker 1: got that descending elevation on the map. A finger ridge,
Speaker 1: let's say the ridge goes north south from the top
Speaker 1: of a mountain down. A finger ridge would be anything
Speaker 1: that spurs down off of that. I'll explain that here
Speaker 1: in a little bit because the reason I'm looking for
Speaker 1: those finger ridges and ridges is what they do is
Speaker 1: they provide multiple areas for micro habitats, things that include food, water,
Speaker 1: and cover. No matter which way the wind's going or
Speaker 1: the direction of the sun, they have a little bit
Speaker 1: of everything, as well as provide multiple escapes for the animals,
Speaker 1: so it's a really safe place for them to hang out.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start identifying these based on the topo lines.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick a few areas that look really good.
Speaker 1: Another thing I'm gonna look for is what I consider
Speaker 1: head basins. Head basins are a great area to really
Speaker 1: start focusing your search. Often there will be water running
Speaker 1: down the canyon, and then it offers the animals multiple
Speaker 1: bedding options based on the orientation of the hill. So
Speaker 1: think about a slope of a mountain. You've got the
Speaker 1: north face and then you've got the south slope. So
Speaker 1: the south slope is the gentle slope. It's the one
Speaker 1: that gets the most sun. It often has the least
Speaker 1: amount of timber and often more feed. The north face
Speaker 1: is often more timbered and more shaded, which lends to
Speaker 1: good bedding. Now, if you have a head basin that
Speaker 1: includes both north and south slopes in one micro area,
Speaker 1: what that's doing is creating good habitat in a very
Speaker 1: small area. So late in the season, when it's cold,
Speaker 1: they can get sun, and when it's warm they can
Speaker 1: get shade. They can just choose their bedding and feeding
Speaker 1: areas based on the time of year and other things.
Speaker 1: It also has food around, and it also probably most
Speaker 1: likely has water in the bottom, so they have everything
Speaker 1: they need right in this one little area. The other
Speaker 1: thing it offers it offers multiple options for bedding depending
Speaker 1: on which we the area is going. Because when animals bed,
Speaker 1: they generally like the wind coming downhill onto their back.
Speaker 1: Bedded in a way that it's more comfortable facing downhill,
Speaker 1: so then they can look for danger down below. So
Speaker 1: if you have that in your mind, you can really
Speaker 1: start to pinpoint where they might bed depending on what
Speaker 1: the wind or thermals are doing for that day. Now
Speaker 1: that I've identified some good basins to look at, some
Speaker 1: good head basins, some good ridges, and some good finger ridges.
Speaker 1: What I'm gonna do is I just now switch it
Speaker 1: to the hybrid map where it's got topo and satellite
Speaker 1: imagery together. So I'm I picked this particular area, and
Speaker 1: just as I hoped, in this head basin, there's a
Speaker 1: nice What I'm looking at right now is a ridge
Speaker 1: coming down on the north slope is a big grassy
Speaker 1: opening with this is just looking at the map without
Speaker 1: any imagery ahead of time. I hit that and I
Speaker 1: have exactly what I'm looking for, a timber north face
Speaker 1: and open south face. It has water in the bottom
Speaker 1: and looks like prime out country. Now from here, what
Speaker 1: I'll start doing is dropping pins and identifying spots where
Speaker 1: I believe elk will be or good spots where it
Speaker 1: looks like they might hang out. This will just remind
Speaker 1: me to check these spots out later. Now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: switch back to the topo and now I'm looking for
Speaker 1: areas where I can glass into this spot. So I'm
Speaker 1: looking for a knob or something where I might get
Speaker 1: a visual idea of somewhere I can get to and
Speaker 1: see this area where to hunt from a lot of times,
Speaker 1: what I'll do is I'll take that same pin go
Speaker 1: to Google Earth, and I'm opening up my Google Earth
Speaker 1: app and putting in my coordinates and I'm flying to
Speaker 1: that spot that I've identified. Now I've got a three
Speaker 1: D look around where I can say, Okay, I'm sitting
Speaker 1: right on this knob, what's it look like? Can I
Speaker 1: see from here? Am I going to have a good vantage?
Speaker 1: While it does change a little bit, it gives me
Speaker 1: a good idea of places to go and more of
Speaker 1: a real life feel of what it looks like. Once
Speaker 1: I've identified the spots that the animals like using the
Speaker 1: Tobo lines. From there, I go back to my Onyx app,
Speaker 1: I mark the spots that I want to glass from,
Speaker 1: hunt from, and there you have it. I have pretty
Speaker 1: much my recipe for the hunt before I even show
Speaker 1: up in the area. I've said it before and I
Speaker 1: will say it many more times. The key to calling
Speaker 1: an elk, the key to being successful elk hunting is
Speaker 1: really understanding elk behavior. There's so many different scenarios that
Speaker 1: you can encounter based on the time of month, the
Speaker 1: place that you are, how the ruts picking up, uh,
Speaker 1: even things like the moon cycles and the temperatures outside.
Speaker 1: It's all gonna go into how the elk are behaving
Speaker 1: where you're at, and they might not be behaving how
Speaker 1: you want. So how do you take the scenario that
Speaker 1: you're given and turn that into success. Let's say it's
Speaker 1: hot out. Let's say you were bugling, You're planning on
Speaker 1: calling in a bull, getting him all rutted up. You
Speaker 1: throw out calls and you cannot get anything to respond.
Speaker 1: The elker well quiet. How do you turn that into
Speaker 1: a successful hunt. We're gonna go back to episode five
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna share the way that you can coax
Speaker 1: in a silent bowl with some cow calls. You really
Speaker 1: have to know what that bowl wants that you're calling to.
Speaker 1: The reason that he's not calling back is probably because
Speaker 1: he might be a little bit afraid that another bull
Speaker 1: will just round up his cows, run him off, or
Speaker 1: fight him off. What he wants to do is he
Speaker 1: wants to come in silent and investigate first. And that
Speaker 1: is actually the majority of the elk out there. It's
Speaker 1: not because that elk knows you're a hunter calling to him.
Speaker 1: It's because that's what that elk is doing if other
Speaker 1: elker in his area. There's a lot of ways to
Speaker 1: pinpoint these loan bulls, and there's a few places that
Speaker 1: you can start your focus on. Let's say it's just
Speaker 1: been a hard week of hunting, the elk are not
Speaker 1: making noise. Okay, where are we going to start, Well,
Speaker 1: let's pick a time. Are you hunting a little bit
Speaker 1: earlier in the season. Do you believe that maybe they're
Speaker 1: really the peak rut hasn't kicked off yet, or are
Speaker 1: you hunting what should be the peak rut. Maybe they're
Speaker 1: just really hooping it up in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: but during daylight hours they're making noise. Let's start with early. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are some places that bulls will go by themselves.
Speaker 1: One of them is wallows. Now in areas where a
Speaker 1: lot of water, yeah, you might be able to sit
Speaker 1: a wallow, but he may not hit that wallow when
Speaker 1: you want. Because you gotta understand what is a wallow. Well,
Speaker 1: a wallow is essentially a perfume factory for a bull elk.
Speaker 1: During the rut, what they do is they urinate in
Speaker 1: that water, They roll around own in the mud that
Speaker 1: holds their scent on them. It's a way that they
Speaker 1: mark their territory, mark their bodies, create a aroma that
Speaker 1: when they run into that herd, they look beefed up,
Speaker 1: they smell good, and they're gonna take those ladies. But
Speaker 1: that's also an easy to target elk with this kind
Speaker 1: of strategy, because he is ready to be entertained by
Speaker 1: your fake harem and got it. Another scenario is an
Speaker 1: area where you're seeing a lot of elk sign maybe
Speaker 1: around the edge of a feeding area. If you're hunting
Speaker 1: more timbered country, these open pockets, these open meadows are
Speaker 1: probably going to be the spots that the elk are
Speaker 1: goom be coming out at night. But if you aren't
Speaker 1: seeing there in the middle of the day, they're off
Speaker 1: in the timber. However, if you create the illusion that
Speaker 1: the elk are out there now, like I did on
Speaker 1: that New Mexico hunt, you have a higher likelihood of
Speaker 1: drawing a bull that's hanging out in the timber out
Speaker 1: to investigate. These are curious elk that you're calling to,
Speaker 1: and they want to slip in, assess the situation, possibly
Speaker 1: pick off a cow to steal on their own with
Speaker 1: little to no confrontation. Now, it's not as fun as
Speaker 1: getting riled up bulls and bugling until your heart is content.
Speaker 1: I agree with that there is a patience element that
Speaker 1: really sucks, and it's hard to be patient in an
Speaker 1: area where you aren't sure if there's elk. So you
Speaker 1: really have to pick your setups so you're not wasting
Speaker 1: your time calling to nothing. Ways that you do that
Speaker 1: are areas where you expect loan bulls to be in
Speaker 1: areas where you're seeing sign but you just are not
Speaker 1: seeing the animals during daylight hours. Another great spot to
Speaker 1: start calling to these loan bulls is areas where you
Speaker 1: smell elk. Use your nose to identify the location. That
Speaker 1: means that they're within an earshot oftentimes, but you might
Speaker 1: not be able to suss exactly where they are. It's
Speaker 1: always better to try to get them to come to
Speaker 1: you than I only go in to cover looking for them.
Speaker 1: So that's another great setup. And then the best setup
Speaker 1: is if you spot a lone bull moving on his own,
Speaker 1: that's the time to employ this tactic. Get to where
Speaker 1: he's going, create that cow sound, and then draw him
Speaker 1: in those those are the bulls that drawing on a
Speaker 1: string because you've visually seen him. Maybe you lose them
Speaker 1: in the timber, but you can create this illusion of
Speaker 1: a harem of cows to draw them in. So, now
Speaker 1: that we've covered the where to call, let's talk about
Speaker 1: the house. Let's set the scene. You are going to
Speaker 1: create a herd of elk. Now, I like to start
Speaker 1: a couple of different ways. The first scenario is, if
Speaker 1: bulls aren't making noise, I'd like to let him think that, hey,
Speaker 1: we're just a bunch of ladies looking for a lover.
Speaker 1: There's no bull here, just a bunch of cows hanging out.
Speaker 1: And I start by throwing out cow chatter. Now, cows
Speaker 1: will talk throughout the day, a lot of times as
Speaker 1: they're moving, and then also even when they're just betted up.
Speaker 1: So if I find an area that looks good, I'm
Speaker 1: going to create the illusion of elk moving into the
Speaker 1: area and then set up in almost a betting type scenario,
Speaker 1: because it's gonna take a while for that elk to
Speaker 1: come in, and you need to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: there long enough for him to slip in before he
Speaker 1: figures out what's going on and leaves, and you don't
Speaker 1: want to leave before he has time to get there,
Speaker 1: like in that story where I took the nap and
Speaker 1: then the elk just walks right to me, I gave
Speaker 1: it ample time that I probably would not have done
Speaker 1: had I just gotten patient like I normally do and
Speaker 1: walked off and tried another spot. So I like to
Speaker 1: create the illusion of elk moving into an area talking
Speaker 1: to each other. That's just basic muse It's not a
Speaker 1: lot of activity. It's just a lot of you back
Speaker 1: and forth. I got a little call here. I'll just
Speaker 1: give you a few examples, and this is gonna be.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do this while walking in, and then you're
Speaker 1: gonna set up elk talking throughout the day. Maybe give
Speaker 1: it a few hours if you really think that this
Speaker 1: is where a bowl should be and you don't really
Speaker 1: have any better options. Nothing's making noise, and you're in
Speaker 1: an area where you can't really glass it. This is
Speaker 1: a great set up in mornings and evenings, especially on
Speaker 1: the edge of say a feeding area or moving into
Speaker 1: a betting area near where wallows will be. So here's
Speaker 1: gonna be the first example. We're just walking in, we're
Speaker 1: moving along, and we're just a couple of elk talking
Speaker 1: to each other. One of the tactics is just changing
Speaker 1: the direction that you're throwing those calls out. Sometimes I'll
Speaker 1: even have a couple of different types of calls, maybe
Speaker 1: an open read call or a diaphragm call, throwing out
Speaker 1: different sounds in different directions. This sound like multiple animals
Speaker 1: moving through the woods. I'll give it a little bit
Speaker 1: and then I'll get set up in an area where
Speaker 1: I'm gonn create the illusion of a group of cows
Speaker 1: interacting with each other. This is gonna be in hopes
Speaker 1: to draw bull in to that particular location. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pick that location down wind of where I'm assuming the
Speaker 1: bull will come from. And that's really important because a
Speaker 1: lot of times when they come in, they're gonna try
Speaker 1: to circle and catch your wind or smell the elk first.
Speaker 1: So you really want a good set up and really decipher, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's the best location where a bull would be, and
Speaker 1: how do I put myself down wind of there to
Speaker 1: start my stationary calling. So we get set up, and
Speaker 1: what I like to do is I like to throw
Speaker 1: out a few more aggressive what I would consider the
Speaker 1: aggressive side of cow calls, something like cow's talking, but
Speaker 1: also maybe a lead cow barking directions, or even an
Speaker 1: estrus wine a little bit longer, more drawn out cow call,
Speaker 1: because that can get the bull a little more curious.
Speaker 1: Another thing that I will throw out, aside from cow balls,
Speaker 1: is even a short spike bugles, something that just kind
Speaker 1: of says, I wonder what the hell is going on
Speaker 1: over there, but not so much that thinks, hmm, I
Speaker 1: don't really want to deal with that right now. Oh
Speaker 1: h oh. Now, when I first get set up, I'll
Speaker 1: talk a lot. Throughout the period of time, I'll stop,
Speaker 1: I'll give a few calls here and there, and then
Speaker 1: ease up, because what you want to do is hopefully
Speaker 1: catches attention, but make him want to investigate. If the
Speaker 1: bull doesn't come in right away, very often will a
Speaker 1: bull walk in silent right away. However, you have to remember,
Speaker 1: like go back to that story, if he's within your shot,
Speaker 1: he can probably pinpoint your exact location where you're calling from.
Speaker 1: And that is the key, because when you set up
Speaker 1: in that spot, you just have to be patient and
Speaker 1: hope that that bowl hears you, and he's gonna come
Speaker 1: in when he feels like it's the opportune time. Maybe
Speaker 1: he needs some time to wallow, maybe he needs some
Speaker 1: time to think about it. Maybe he's just gonna take
Speaker 1: his time to investigate. But if you're in the right location,
Speaker 1: it's really hard for a bowl that's by himself to
Speaker 1: pass that up. There's so many times where I've been
Speaker 1: hunting on my own or guiding, and the weeks just
Speaker 1: seem un action packed. But by doing these tactics and
Speaker 1: these simple little scenarios, I'm able to find success and
Speaker 1: call in a ton of elk a lot more than
Speaker 1: you'd think. When you're talking to other people and they go, man,
Speaker 1: that was a slow week. The ruts not kicked off,
Speaker 1: I think to myself, Yeah, but I got something in
Speaker 1: my bag of tricks that's gonna work. And whether the
Speaker 1: elk wanna play or not, I know that by setting
Speaker 1: up that scenario and calling to the elk that's gonna
Speaker 1: come in silent, I can still be successful. One last
Speaker 1: little tip to add to this realistic setup, which worked
Speaker 1: really well for me when I was guiding in New Maca, Mexico,
Speaker 1: and I would really concentrate this type of approach in
Speaker 1: good feeding areas is I would essentially set up this
Speaker 1: illusion of cows by calling near feeding areas. Now, these
Speaker 1: feeding areas would be bigger meadows. The trouble with that
Speaker 1: is elk a lot of times the bulls would circle
Speaker 1: and stay and cover and look in there. So what
Speaker 1: I started doing was I started setting up like foldable
Speaker 1: Montana decoys one or two off kind of where I
Speaker 1: was slightly in the timber, so they couldn't catch the
Speaker 1: whole animal at once, but it gave them a visual
Speaker 1: queue to come my direction. That actually really brought in
Speaker 1: a lot more elk that would cruise and kind of
Speaker 1: think something was hinky, but that caused a lot more
Speaker 1: animals to commit to coming within bow range. I would
Speaker 1: say the large majority of the elk that I've tricked
Speaker 1: that way, I've had the decoy out because it gives
Speaker 1: them a focal point. Also, if you're calling, it lets
Speaker 1: them focus on what they see and not you as
Speaker 1: the shooters slash caller drawing back trying to get a shot.
Speaker 1: This is also a really good tactic if you're hunting
Speaker 1: by yourself. Bugling do bull is my hands down favorite
Speaker 1: way to hunt out because it's so action packed, but
Speaker 1: it's also quite difficult to do if you're alone. So
Speaker 1: there's a great tactic for mornings and evenings if you
Speaker 1: are hunting alone, because it helps draw animals to you,
Speaker 1: but also doesn't give your position away if you're using
Speaker 1: it in combination with, say in elk decoy. The next
Speaker 1: scenario is one that I'm pretty sure you will encounter
Speaker 1: this fall. If you get into a herd of elk,
Speaker 1: it goes something like this. You call bull, calls back.
Speaker 1: Everything seems good now the bulls rounded up as cows
Speaker 1: and it's heading the other way. Where many people might
Speaker 1: think they did something wrong, I'm here to tell you
Speaker 1: you did something right. We're gonna go back to episode
Speaker 1: four and I'm gonna teach you how to dog an
Speaker 1: elk and stay persistent to draw that bull in after
Speaker 1: or she's rounded up his cows and headed out. I
Speaker 1: would classify the tactic of bulldogging is this. It's where
Speaker 1: you persist on a bull to the point where he
Speaker 1: has no other option but to turn around and fight.
Speaker 1: And that's what you want. So how do you get
Speaker 1: to that point? It's in the technique and the tactics
Speaker 1: of calling. It takes two things. It takes the right
Speaker 1: set up, and I would say the most important some
Speaker 1: physical stamina. The reason that I would stay in shape
Speaker 1: for rail hunting is because of this tactic, because it
Speaker 1: is so successful that if you can pull it off,
Speaker 1: you pull it off regularly. So let's set up the scenario.
Speaker 1: The end game where most bulls turn around and fight
Speaker 1: is what you're reaching for. That happens as you gain
Speaker 1: the dominant position over that bull which sees himself as
Speaker 1: a dominant Where does that happen when you actually gain
Speaker 1: elevation over the elk? So what I like to do
Speaker 1: is I like to push the elk uphill and I
Speaker 1: would say seven out of ten times I can get
Speaker 1: that bowl. If if I've kept up, it's probably more
Speaker 1: like nine out of ten times I can get that
Speaker 1: bowl to turn around and come in. Once he's crested
Speaker 1: the top and I am above him within two hundred yards.
Speaker 1: Now you think, well, I could never catch up to elk.
Speaker 1: But it isn't that he's moving that whole herd of elk.
Speaker 1: Those cows don't really give a rat's ass. They don't
Speaker 1: want to be pushed around. Half those cows are gonna
Speaker 1: be feeding, they're gonna be stopping. I've even seen cows
Speaker 1: get over the top and lay down because he's just
Speaker 1: maintaining that herd and trying to assert his dominance in
Speaker 1: a group of elk. That is mostly matriarchal except for
Speaker 1: during the rut, like he's running the roost right now,
Speaker 1: But those cows really know that they run the ship
Speaker 1: the year. So even though he's pushing him away, a
Speaker 1: lot of those cows are dawdling. They're doing their thing.
Speaker 1: He's not really trying to make a run away from you.
Speaker 1: He's just trying to say, look, I'm in charge right now.
Speaker 1: And so it gives you the opportunity to get into
Speaker 1: that bull's head through the calling, and also gives you
Speaker 1: the opportunity, with the right amount of physical exertion to
Speaker 1: catch up and give yourself that scenario where he drops
Speaker 1: over the ridge and you're now on the top, which
Speaker 1: is where he's probably going to turn around and chase it.
Speaker 1: So in order for the setup to work, you need
Speaker 1: a downhill wind and you want to start calling below
Speaker 1: the bull. A lot of times you'll find that if
Speaker 1: you're below and elk calling and he is a dominant elk,
Speaker 1: he will actually call a lot back to you, but
Speaker 1: he won't actually come into you most of the time.
Speaker 1: There's the occasional time they do. But when you get
Speaker 1: that dominant bull on the move and then get above him.
Speaker 1: It pisces him off. So I'm gonna go through the
Speaker 1: calling techniques to get that bull to that piste off point.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna work when you get it to the top.
Speaker 1: You put in all that energy hiking chasing after him.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure you do the right sequence
Speaker 1: to get him to turn around more often than not.
Speaker 1: So it starts out like this. Let's say the scenario
Speaker 1: is you call, he calls, You call, he calls. You're
Speaker 1: below him, the wind's going downhill. You've got the right
Speaker 1: set up. You're gonna want him to push those elk
Speaker 1: up hill, those cows uphill because they don't really like
Speaker 1: to go uphill. It's physically exhausting. He's gonna be running
Speaker 1: around a lot, and he knows that's what's gonna put
Speaker 1: him in a bad mental state when you get to
Speaker 1: the top. When I start out at a further distance,
Speaker 1: I like to sound small from a distance and sound
Speaker 1: big as I get closer. There's a reason for that.
Speaker 1: It's the mental game in his head. As he's pushing
Speaker 1: those elk, you want him to constantly scream back, I'm
Speaker 1: the boss. I'm the boss. But as you get closer,
Speaker 1: you want him to doubt what's happening. You want to
Speaker 1: now tell the elk the cows around him that you're
Speaker 1: the boss. You're the boss. Do you want him to
Speaker 1: get brazen from a distance and then be bold as
Speaker 1: you get closer. So let's say it like this, the
Speaker 1: elks start moving call, I'm doing more simple, drawn out bugles,
Speaker 1: not a lot of emphasis into it. To start. I'll
Speaker 1: let him build up. My first aggressive bugle is going
Speaker 1: to be as he's clearly moving in the direction I want,
Speaker 1: I'll start the chuckling sequence. Your hope is, and it
Speaker 1: will probably happen, is that bull starts chuckling back. Now,
Speaker 1: this scenario works when the elker kind of in a frenzy,
Speaker 1: you'll hear a lot of cow calling. You hear that
Speaker 1: bull bugling, And that's how you're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: stay on these elk and follow him. As I get closer,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start throwing cow calls in the bulls distance
Speaker 1: through my bugles and bugles away from the bull. The
Speaker 1: reason is is I want him to believe that there
Speaker 1: are cows. Like let's say we're getting towards the top
Speaker 1: third of the hill. I want him to think Okay,
Speaker 1: there's still cows back there and the bulls behind. I
Speaker 1: want him to believe that the bulls further away than
Speaker 1: I actually am, because what that's gonna do is that's
Speaker 1: going to slow him down. He's gonna try to keep
Speaker 1: a certain distance from me. But if he thinks the
Speaker 1: bulls further away, that allows me time to catch up. Also,
Speaker 1: if he thinks there's cows where I'm at, that might
Speaker 1: give him the idea of okay, I still have things
Speaker 1: to round up. Now, the play really comes in when
Speaker 1: you get to the top. Once you get over the top,
Speaker 1: he's lost whatever elk might have been behind. This is
Speaker 1: the point where I now throw out cow calls at
Speaker 1: the top, but switch the rolls. I throw the cow
Speaker 1: calls back behind me so he thinks the cows are
Speaker 1: further away. My first bugle over the top is going
Speaker 1: to be the meanest, hardest bugle I can do. I'm
Speaker 1: talking a type of bugle. And when you both through
Speaker 1: the bugle tube, it's like someone kicked you in the nuts.
Speaker 1: If you don't have nuts, it's like you're kicking someone
Speaker 1: else in the nuts. The reason is is because you
Speaker 1: want him to believe that now this bowl is between
Speaker 1: him and his cows. He has the upper hand by
Speaker 1: being above him, and he is piste and claiming that
Speaker 1: herd any bowl in his right mind that doesn't want
Speaker 1: to lose his cows is now going to turn around
Speaker 1: and try to push you off or fight this other
Speaker 1: intruder off. You're at the top of the hill and
Speaker 1: you're just gonna go. It doesn't even matter what really
Speaker 1: the call sounds like at the top, as long as
Speaker 1: it sounds piste like elk feel that feeling. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw the cow calls back behind me, and then
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let out just something throwing some voice
Speaker 1: inflections and just sound angry. I mean by this point
Speaker 1: that the real bolts throat might be cracking. He's gonna
Speaker 1: sound weird. It's okay, it doesn't matter. Just sound angry.
Speaker 1: At that point that bowl below you should not like that,
Speaker 1: and you'll know he'll turn around and he'll either comes
Speaker 1: straight in or he'll let out a similar bugle, start
Speaker 1: raking and then come in. That is your setup where
Speaker 1: you're gonna get that bowl. If you've made it to
Speaker 1: that point, congratulations, my friend. You just dog that elk
Speaker 1: now over the past month or so, I've been really
Speaker 1: diving into some really good ways to call in elk,
Speaker 1: from bugling and building that escalation to creating a party
Speaker 1: with a bunch of cows sounds. And when I was
Speaker 1: talking about that cow party, I also talked about making
Speaker 1: noises noises that sound like elk. So outside of those
Speaker 1: vocal bugles, muse cow calls, bull calls, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of non vocal sounds that are extremely important to drawing
Speaker 1: in a bull and maybe the difference between having a
Speaker 1: bull hang up and bringing him right into bow range.
Speaker 1: Things like breaking a tree, stomping the dirt, glunking, and
Speaker 1: other non verbal sounds, even going as far as taking
Speaker 1: a leak on the ground. We're gonna bring it back
Speaker 1: to episode six and I'm gonna teach you how to
Speaker 1: entice a bull with those other sounds that elk love
Speaker 1: to make. I think a lot of people make a
Speaker 1: big mistake by when they're calling, they're quiet. They're quiet
Speaker 1: back here, and the only sounds they're making are coming
Speaker 1: from the calls. But that's not what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: When you get into a herd of elk, there's a
Speaker 1: lot going on. There's stick snapping, there's elk raking. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of sounds and noises that not only bode
Speaker 1: confidence that this is actually another elk, but there's sounds
Speaker 1: and noises that they used throughout the running process that
Speaker 1: do a number of things that incite other elk to
Speaker 1: have to come check it out. And that includes marking
Speaker 1: their territory, releasing pheromones, as well as talking in a
Speaker 1: way that isn't bugling or mewing to each other. That
Speaker 1: means certain things, especially during the rut, that means things
Speaker 1: like this cow's hot or I'm ready to breed, and
Speaker 1: those are the kind of noises that other bulls cannot
Speaker 1: resist because that's when the action is going down. A
Speaker 1: big bull does not want to miss out on breeding account.
Speaker 1: He doesn't also not want another bull to be into
Speaker 1: his turf. He wants to think that this is his zone,
Speaker 1: these are his cows, everything is owned by him, and
Speaker 1: all intruders should be beat up. That's what you want,
Speaker 1: because that's what's gonna draw that bull in that extra distance.
Speaker 1: If you're bow hunting and some thicker stuff, you might
Speaker 1: need to get that bull to come within ten yards
Speaker 1: of your shooter just to even be able to see it,
Speaker 1: and that's a lot of times the difference between being
Speaker 1: successful or just getting a bull to hold up twenty
Speaker 1: yards away. These other sounds, a lot of times incite
Speaker 1: something in a bull's brain that makes them say, I
Speaker 1: need to get over there, I need to fight. This
Speaker 1: needs to be a confrontation, not just a screaming match.
Speaker 1: So what I want to do is just talk about
Speaker 1: the different sounds when and how to use them. I
Speaker 1: think the first sound that I have to talk about,
Speaker 1: because it's one that I use nearly every time I'm
Speaker 1: interacting with the bull is raking. Now, raking is well,
Speaker 1: white tails do it, mule deer do it. All dear
Speaker 1: species do some form of raking, but elk in particular,
Speaker 1: when you're calling back and forth, they'll rake their territory marking.
Speaker 1: What it does is releases their scent onto a tree,
Speaker 1: but also creates a visual marking, and it's a display
Speaker 1: of dominance. So a lot of times you'll be calling
Speaker 1: to a bull and maybe you might be a long
Speaker 1: ways away, you might not even notice that that bull
Speaker 1: is raking in between calling back and forth to you.
Speaker 1: So the way a bull rakes is it's pretty loud,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty vicious. He tries to kill that tree,
Speaker 1: and I do the same. Then after I rake, I
Speaker 1: let out a bugle because I've seen elk do that
Speaker 1: in the wild more often than not, So it works
Speaker 1: like this most of the time. I start the raking
Speaker 1: sequence when I get in and the bulls already fired up.
Speaker 1: When he's fired up, that's when he wants to show
Speaker 1: his dominance. So I pretend like I'm showing my dominance
Speaker 1: here as well. I'm saying, no, this is my area
Speaker 1: and not your area. I'll generally take a big stick
Speaker 1: and I try to find a tree that's live, because
Speaker 1: the sound is a little bit different if you find
Speaker 1: use dead branches. So I get a big stick and
Speaker 1: I just scrape it up and down, thrashing this tree.
Speaker 1: Just imagine in your head a bull raking at 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. Okay,
Speaker 1: so one side note about raking. It depends on the
Speaker 1: scenario because you've got to think of it like this.
Speaker 1: In the wild, when a bull is raking, other bulls
Speaker 1: will come and investigate. So you need to decide whether
Speaker 1: you want to be the bull that investigates or you
Speaker 1: want to be the bull that has the other bull
Speaker 1: come investigate you. A lot of times when you rake
Speaker 1: another bowl rake, or if I hear a bull raking
Speaker 1: after he bugles I'll wait maybe thirty seconds and then
Speaker 1: start raking on my own. Every scenario is different, but
Speaker 1: when a bull is raking, they're often distracted. If you
Speaker 1: know that he might be pulled away from the cows
Speaker 1: and there's not other eyes, that's the moment you want
Speaker 1: to run in because you could probably get a shot
Speaker 1: or close the gap while he's raking. So you have
Speaker 1: to think of raking in two ways. When he's raking,
Speaker 1: you can be the bull that goes to him, or
Speaker 1: when you're raking, you might be in a scenario where
Speaker 1: you can't risk going to him. You need him to
Speaker 1: come to you. A few years ago, my buddy John
Speaker 1: and I were hunting in Nevada. We had a bull
Speaker 1: raking and it was one of those deals where we
Speaker 1: kind of held back and we should have ran in.
Speaker 1: It turns out as a giant bowl, and he had
Speaker 1: just come to us, raked up a tree, and he
Speaker 1: never committed the rest of the way. So that's something.
Speaker 1: When you get a bull to actually 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 bowl.
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 bowl 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 speaking and just kind of get
Speaker 1: 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 your voice,
Speaker 1: where you get a h When I've seen that sound,
Speaker 1: that's generally means that a bull has a hot cow. Now,
Speaker 1: if you do that sound in a herd where a
Speaker 1: bull won't commit, he's going to run in because when
Speaker 1: a cow gets hot, he wants to be in on
Speaker 1: that action. 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 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 lunking, 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 in 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 of 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 I'll just start peeing on the ground.
Speaker 1: I got, really And then the first time I tried it,
Speaker 1: I pulled the bull right through the small patch of conifers.
Speaker 1: I actually had a water bladder at the time, pop
Speaker 1: the tube off the hose and started pouring it on
Speaker 1: the ground, and that bowl just came in fired up.
Speaker 1: It's those little sounds of here's another bull marking his
Speaker 1: territory in my zone. Now that that sound is a
Speaker 1: sound that you would make when you know that bulls within.
Speaker 1: I would say thirty yards that that range, that he's
Speaker 1: gonna hear it, and he's gonna believe that you're marking
Speaker 1: your territory. There's a hot cow in there, combined with
Speaker 1: some of the other sounds, the glunking and the raking,
Speaker 1: and so that oftentimes when they're close and they won't
Speaker 1: I'm that extra little bit of distance is a noise
Speaker 1: you can make. They will just send them over the
Speaker 1: edge and cause them to come in and looking for
Speaker 1: a fight. And a lot of times that's the difference
Speaker 1: between you telling your buddies, Man, I had that bowl
Speaker 1: right there. He was just twenty yards on the other
Speaker 1: side of some trees, but I couldn't I couldn't move.
Speaker 1: I was pegged down. I couldn't get that bowl to
Speaker 1: come in any closer. Well, try some of these other sounds,
Speaker 1: because a lot of these sounds are the sounds that
Speaker 1: are gonna get that bowl to come right into your
Speaker 1: lap and give you that shot you might not otherwise get.
Speaker 1: I really hope that through the course of this elk
Speaker 1: series you've learned something about the behaviors of elk and
Speaker 1: really wrapped your mind around different possibilities, different opportunities to
Speaker 1: hunt from wallows, through bugling, cow calling, raking trees, and
Speaker 1: even just setting up and understanding what moves to make
Speaker 1: when elk do a certain thing. Now, a lot of
Speaker 1: this is going to make a lot more sense as
Speaker 1: you get out into the field and you start running
Speaker 1: into the saw areas and give these tactics a really
Speaker 1: good try. I'm really looking forward to hearing how everybody
Speaker 1: does this fall. I know last year a lot of
Speaker 1: the tips we throw out there, people came back and
Speaker 1: said this worked, and I got a lot of success pictures.
Speaker 1: Please send me those success pictures. Tell me those stories.
Speaker 1: I love to hear how these kind of things have
Speaker 1: helped you. I'm really excited with this thing that we've
Speaker 1: built out for elk hunting. You know, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: have an elk hunt planned this year, that's perfect. This
Speaker 1: is a great time now to start thinking about it,
Speaker 1: start thinking on these tactics and start planning, maybe start
Speaker 1: scouting and finding areas. So it's it's something to think
Speaker 1: about for the future. But for those of you out
Speaker 1: in the field this September, I really hope that you
Speaker 1: can take some of these tactics and find success. Like
Speaker 1: I say, I'd love to hear about it. Also, if
Speaker 1: you think about it, give us a great rating on
Speaker 1: whatever podcast app you listen to. Feel free to share
Speaker 1: this with your friends as well as subscribe if you
Speaker 1: aren't already subscriber. I really appreciate that. I think that
Speaker 1: throughout the course of this hunting season there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot more stuff that you find useful. Also, on
Speaker 1: the terms of useful, next week, I'm just gonna answer
Speaker 1: the things that you think are going to be useful.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be diving into a, Q and A,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna jump into some other topics that
Speaker 1: I think are going to be very useful for the fall.
Speaker 1: That's all. That is a rap for our Elk series
Speaker 1: until next week. Bugle on Garth Bugle on