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 to the podcast. Everyone.
Speaker 1: It is Elk Month, still September prime elk rat right now.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite topics to talk about is drawing
Speaker 1: in bulls during the rud how to trick an elk,
Speaker 1: to bring an elk within bow range. As a professional
Speaker 1: and full time elk guide, pretty much my entire adult life,
Speaker 1: I've spent countless days doing exactly that, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out the way to trick elk. And one thing that
Speaker 1: I've noticed is when I'm guiding hunters or whatever, we're
Speaker 1: out there all day and we we got to take
Speaker 1: advantage of all the times of the day, not just
Speaker 1: the peak when they're really active in the morning or
Speaker 1: the evening, but maybe what are they doing in the
Speaker 1: middle of the day. So if you've ever been out
Speaker 1: and you think of yourself, well, it's the middle of
Speaker 1: the day, what should I be doing? This podcast is
Speaker 1: for you. I'm gonna be sharing a tactic I like
Speaker 1: to call striking up a bedded bull, which recently led
Speaker 1: to me taking the biggest bull of my life. So
Speaker 1: before we go into the tactic, I want to share
Speaker 1: the story of the giant seven by seven I recently
Speaker 1: took with my bow. This story is definitely a fresh ee,
Speaker 1: this one. This one just recently happened. It took place
Speaker 1: in the beginning of September. I was hunting an area.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm telling a story of the biggest bull
Speaker 1: I've ever taken, and you kind of expect, like, oh,
Speaker 1: really good draw area or something once in a lifetime
Speaker 1: tag and I was not expecting this bull in this
Speaker 1: in this particular unit um where I was hunting. It
Speaker 1: was just kind of one of those things where there
Speaker 1: are big elk in places, but this was not a
Speaker 1: place that I would expect to find a big elk um.
Speaker 1: I could probably go back there a thousand times and
Speaker 1: never find a bowl of this caliber ever again, and
Speaker 1: you know that that would be more realistic. But the
Speaker 1: fact that it did go down was was pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: So being the beginning of September, there's a few things
Speaker 1: that can be happening. One thing for the beginning of
Speaker 1: September is it depends on the weather, but generally, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like you hit this pre rut phase,
Speaker 1: so the bigger bulls will be kind of off on
Speaker 1: their own, kind of cruising checking cows, which actually leads
Speaker 1: to it being a decent time to attract them, like
Speaker 1: to get a bull to come in. But it can
Speaker 1: also be a bad time because the beginning of September,
Speaker 1: depending on the weather, can be very little action, can
Speaker 1: be hard to scrounge up an elk um, So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a hit or miss when you hunt
Speaker 1: real early, if you're trying to kind of dance around
Speaker 1: the rut dates. But this particular hunt, I was hunting
Speaker 1: early and just so happened that we had good weather
Speaker 1: for it, so opening warning, sun's rising, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: just as it's light enough to see. I would say,
Speaker 1: probably even before legal shooting, like I spotted a bowl
Speaker 1: across the canyon in a meadow, and very shortly after
Speaker 1: rips off a bugle were like sweet. Um. I had
Speaker 1: quite a few guys with me, had a friend of
Speaker 1: mine with me, um that grew up near the area,
Speaker 1: and then I had three guys that were filming for
Speaker 1: a video. So we're filming it for actually meat brand
Speaker 1: processing equipment, some of the processing stuff that I talked
Speaker 1: about a lot. Um. I do some films with them
Speaker 1: every year, and this was one that we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna capture this on film. Honestly, in my mind,
Speaker 1: I had uh. I was kind of thinking like, all right,
Speaker 1: you know a nice like any kind of bull, like
Speaker 1: if I could get a six by six, sweet, but
Speaker 1: I know this area is more like a good meat hunt.
Speaker 1: So I mean I could take a cow, I could
Speaker 1: take a bull, I could take whatever is any elk.
Speaker 1: I mean I could she spike Like some of the
Speaker 1: units you hunt might be like brow tyne bulls or
Speaker 1: other areas might be a spike or you can't shoot
Speaker 1: cows with this that another thing this heck, I could
Speaker 1: I could shoot anything. And we were definitely hoping to
Speaker 1: bring home some steak. So opening morning, um, there's like
Speaker 1: three bulls there. A couple of them kind of sparring
Speaker 1: a little bit that like sparring where it's they're kind
Speaker 1: of more I don't know, just kind of doing that
Speaker 1: hierarchy sparring where it's like it's not at all out brawl,
Speaker 1: but they're just they're doing the dance. They're doing the thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's cool. All right, there's some bugles. We
Speaker 1: bugle another bull bugles. So we're like, this worrying them.
Speaker 1: This might happen fast. So we make our way over
Speaker 1: to those elk and they'd moved off between the time
Speaker 1: that we got over there and interacting with another elk
Speaker 1: along the way, and and then it just kind of
Speaker 1: got quiet. It's like, well, all right, to go kind
Speaker 1: of figure out and see if we can find him again.
Speaker 1: And so we started working around calling whatever, no more bugles,
Speaker 1: so just shut down, which definitely happens especially early season.
Speaker 1: Just like shut down and that happens late season two.
Speaker 1: It's like they might get active and then shuts down
Speaker 1: and then maybe picks back up in the evening or
Speaker 1: maybe doesn't. So we're like, well, they're pretty fired up
Speaker 1: this morning. Hopefully it's gonna be good. So we checked
Speaker 1: some bedding areas, didn't really see much, got back to
Speaker 1: where we kind of started glass back in. There's a
Speaker 1: little bit of burn in that area too, and I
Speaker 1: spotted some milk bedded sort of like all right, sweet, um,
Speaker 1: let's go over there. I'm sure the rest of the
Speaker 1: elker there. Let's let's sneak in there and get going.
Speaker 1: Before we even get over there, like just this storm
Speaker 1: cloud rolls and came in really hot and just started
Speaker 1: dumping rain. I mean it was, it was dumping a
Speaker 1: lot of rain. I was actually to get into the area.
Speaker 1: I brought my um like side by side, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't have a roof on it. And when we got
Speaker 1: back to the vehicle that night, no joke, there's like
Speaker 1: a foot of standing water in the back of the
Speaker 1: one seat that didn't have the drain open on the
Speaker 1: floor like that was it just dumped rain. I mean,
Speaker 1: needless to say, like we could. We had no visibility.
Speaker 1: We got over there and just like the elk weren't
Speaker 1: doing elk things. They weren't there, they weren't making noise,
Speaker 1: they weren't doing anything. We did bump a few cows
Speaker 1: and stuff on the way and tried calling and there
Speaker 1: might have been a bull in with them, not really sure,
Speaker 1: but nothing happened. So next morning go out kind of
Speaker 1: the same thing. It was a little bit of a
Speaker 1: weird weather. We got one bugle across the way, and
Speaker 1: it was like a small rag horn five by five,
Speaker 1: which I probably I was like, oh, that's about the
Speaker 1: size of most elk I chase. But I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking about we saw some nice
Speaker 1: six points, and I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: hold out. Uh, there's some good bulls in the area.
Speaker 1: I think I can. You know, it's like kind of
Speaker 1: in my mind thinking all right, I'll shoot a six
Speaker 1: by six, Like it's gonna definitely be possible. We just
Speaker 1: got to give it a little bit of time, and
Speaker 1: so they that one loan bull kind of disappeared and
Speaker 1: then that was pretty much it like not a lot
Speaker 1: of activity. We hunted around. During the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: we started walking up the creek bottom and some elkuld
Speaker 1: fed down to or move down drink and started moving
Speaker 1: back up. It just like kind of one of those things.
Speaker 1: Well there's quite a few of us, so it's like, everybody,
Speaker 1: get down, do a little stock. Didn't work out, Um,
Speaker 1: they just naturally moved off before we could get a chance,
Speaker 1: and that was that. So that evening we get into
Speaker 1: position where we can just really let out a bugle
Speaker 1: and the bulls like a bull bugles across the canyon
Speaker 1: in the burn, and we get eyes on it. It's
Speaker 1: a big six point, like sweet, okay, that's a good
Speaker 1: bull tomorrow morning, you know. And then we worked in,
Speaker 1: like tried to work around because another bull is bugling,
Speaker 1: and so we got two bulls fired up. So we're like,
Speaker 1: all right, tomorrow morning, we're gonna come back here before daybreak.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get in on this six point that was
Speaker 1: in this burn and try to call him in. So
Speaker 1: next morning, get in there, get in, get in early,
Speaker 1: hike in. It's quite a hike. So we get in,
Speaker 1: we get set up, and we hear them bugling, just
Speaker 1: just kind of like right around shooting light. Sweet, we
Speaker 1: dropped down. We go up to the top and it's
Speaker 1: like that bowl was somewhere in here. The last bugle,
Speaker 1: get to the top, I rip a bugle and that
Speaker 1: bul bugle is like twenty yards on the other side.
Speaker 1: Just cut me off. And generally when a bull cuts
Speaker 1: another bull off, it's like fighting words. They just don't
Speaker 1: like that. Like I'm aero knocked, just ready for this
Speaker 1: bull to come in and nothing. The bull across the
Speaker 1: canyons still bugling. I'm like, huh, that's weird. So move
Speaker 1: up a little bit. And I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was the bugle, maybe a wind thing, but probably just
Speaker 1: he just decided I don't want any of that, like
Speaker 1: got too close, too fast, like it was just a
Speaker 1: little too much confrontation for the first couple of days
Speaker 1: of September, and he just moved off. So the bull
Speaker 1: across the way, it was still bugling. So we still
Speaker 1: have this bull on the hook. So we called this
Speaker 1: bull he's calling back, and it's gonna be a long
Speaker 1: drop down all the way, drop it all the way
Speaker 1: down to the valley, climb up the other side. So
Speaker 1: we dropped down and just before we get to the bottom,
Speaker 1: the bulls up at this like trying to kind of
Speaker 1: pinpoint him in the timber, and like, all right, there's
Speaker 1: this kind of like diamond shaped rember, sorry, pyramid shaped
Speaker 1: mountain across from us, really steep, and like the bulls
Speaker 1: at the top of it. Because you can hear he's
Speaker 1: like sometimes sounds on the side, sometimes sounds on that side.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he sounds closer. So he's like he's just on
Speaker 1: the top, going back and forth. So I give him
Speaker 1: like this cow call. We're like my long cow, call
Speaker 1: the little sexy wine and he liked that. He like
Speaker 1: came on our side of the hill and bugle. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna get up there. I think we
Speaker 1: got this bull on the hook. We're gonna get up there,
Speaker 1: drop down, get up there and call that bulling. So
Speaker 1: we get down to the bottom and hear that. I
Speaker 1: hear that bull bugle again and it's like, well he's
Speaker 1: he's on the side still, and he sounds like he's
Speaker 1: really interested in what we had to offer. So we're
Speaker 1: I'm like, but I don't wanna, Like, generally, you aren't
Speaker 1: gonna call a bull off the top of a peak
Speaker 1: like that. So we start climbing up this hillside. It's
Speaker 1: super steep, really really thick, and I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: need to get to a place where we can get
Speaker 1: set up if he comes in that will actually have
Speaker 1: a shot, because you can call bulls in all day.
Speaker 1: I've done it where you just call bull in after
Speaker 1: bull after bull and have zero shots. Bulls within fifteen
Speaker 1: yards and still have no shots. Like I didn't want
Speaker 1: that to happen. So I'm like, now this bull is
Speaker 1: actually like coming down the mountain bugling like, oh boy,
Speaker 1: he he knew he remembered that cow call. You could
Speaker 1: tell when like he started acting different with that that
Speaker 1: one call. And so like the bugles, he was going
Speaker 1: back and forth bugle and bugling, but he just really
Speaker 1: liked that wine. So I'm like, all right. So we're
Speaker 1: working up and there's kind of like this old logging
Speaker 1: road thing that cuts through, which it's really overgrown, and
Speaker 1: then I see there's like this one little burn patch
Speaker 1: in the middle of the and I'm thinking, okay, it's
Speaker 1: about maybe twenty yards up. I'm gonna get to that
Speaker 1: open and that way when we call. If that bull
Speaker 1: walks within thirty yards, we'll have a shot across the
Speaker 1: little logging road. Start. I'm like ten yards from this
Speaker 1: little burn, and all of a sudden, one of the
Speaker 1: guys behind me is like right there, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: that bull rips a bugle and is coming our way,
Speaker 1: like and I'm just in a bad position too. Thick
Speaker 1: bulls like coming in, doesn't like the setup, blows out, well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really like blow out, but goes the other
Speaker 1: direction like circled us and gone within range, but definitely
Speaker 1: no shots. And we're thinking, like, dang, that sucks. It
Speaker 1: was like a three plus inch six by six. That
Speaker 1: was our chance. And sometimes hunting you get one chance
Speaker 1: per week. That was it. So like, well, let's see
Speaker 1: what's going on, you know, give it a little bit
Speaker 1: of time, make some bugles go up towards where he went,
Speaker 1: bugle into the valley. Nothing, and it's like, well, hunting
Speaker 1: days over, that sucked. We had it. Everything was good,
Speaker 1: and we called in a bull at a time of
Speaker 1: year that it can be difficult to call bulls in,
Speaker 1: and you know, that was our chance. It's like, well
Speaker 1: what do we do? So I just pulled out like
Speaker 1: my go hunt map on my phone and just looking
Speaker 1: at like betting areas and I'm thinking, all right, well,
Speaker 1: here's gonna be our new plan. We've exhausted this area.
Speaker 1: You know, we know what bulls are here kind of,
Speaker 1: I mean, we know what they're bugling or whatever. We're
Speaker 1: gonna go a little bit deeper and we're gonna go
Speaker 1: into the thick stuff. We're gonna climb up and we're
Speaker 1: just gonna We're gonna essentially do a tactically I like
Speaker 1: to do where you're just you're you're trying to call
Speaker 1: to a bedded bull. You're you're going through bedding areas
Speaker 1: and you're trying to call to a bull that's like
Speaker 1: just laying there not really expecting anything, but you're just
Speaker 1: a group of elk or cows or whatever moving through.
Speaker 1: So we go over there and we start climbing up
Speaker 1: doing that thing, calling, doing it all. At this point,
Speaker 1: it's about eleven am and um, so we stopped and
Speaker 1: we're like having a little bit of a snack break
Speaker 1: and a little bit of water break. I've got my
Speaker 1: made this pretty sweet elk shaped fruit roll up that
Speaker 1: I was just joking when I made it that it
Speaker 1: was like this lucky fruit roll up, and I forgot
Speaker 1: I hadn't been eating it, so I was like it
Speaker 1: was giant. I rolled the whole thing up. It's like
Speaker 1: a I don't even know, like a two ft by
Speaker 1: foot and a half fruit roll up. And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is what we needed. Guys like the
Speaker 1: lucky fruit roll We haven't eaten any of it, so
Speaker 1: I just ate a little bit of fruit roll. I'm
Speaker 1: like saying, like that's the secret. I'm telling you all
Speaker 1: my hunting secrets. The real hunting secret is you gotta
Speaker 1: have a lucky fruit roll and uh so, you know,
Speaker 1: calling whatever, and we go down the road, so snack
Speaker 1: times over, start working where there's like all these old
Speaker 1: logging roads and stuff as well, so we catch we're
Speaker 1: going like cross country through trails, through trees, hit old
Speaker 1: logging roads, kind of a little bit of everything, just
Speaker 1: going up the mountain, just working. Like what I identified
Speaker 1: was some like gradual hills, like you're not killed, but
Speaker 1: like gradual ridges, and then really thick timber. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like those those flat spots where elk like
Speaker 1: to bed, those real thick spots where it's like okay,
Speaker 1: it's shaded, it's on the south or sorry of the
Speaker 1: north face, and there's just like good cover but it's
Speaker 1: a little bit more um, you know, just mellow bedding
Speaker 1: country kind of stuff. So go down the trail. I
Speaker 1: don't even know. After eating the fruit roll, maybe like
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty yards two yards, let out a calcohol.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, here a bull in the distance. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, was that bull bugling? Because sometimes what bulls
Speaker 1: will do they'll just be in their bed and they'll
Speaker 1: just bugle. So it's like, was that bul bugling to
Speaker 1: my calcohol or was he just bugling just a bugle
Speaker 1: because it sounded long ways off, So give it a
Speaker 1: few minutes. I'm like, all right, if this bull bugles,
Speaker 1: I mean to give him this pretty much the same call,
Speaker 1: and then if he bugles back, I'll know game on.
Speaker 1: So I give him that same call, two calcols and
Speaker 1: that bowl bugle half the distance. I'm like, game on.
Speaker 1: Getting the bushes, everyone the two gether. There's four of
Speaker 1: us together. To the guys is like ducking to cover.
Speaker 1: I move with Zach. He's filming like right to the
Speaker 1: point of the trees, and within forty five seconds, that
Speaker 1: bulls screaming right in front of us, Like all right,
Speaker 1: game on. Well the bull comes out when just happened
Speaker 1: to be at like this intersection of like three old
Speaker 1: logging roads, and uh, the bull like, which is actually
Speaker 1: pretty good because that's you know, that's probably what why
Speaker 1: he was able to cruise so fast and so like
Speaker 1: quiet as well. So he pops out and he's like
Speaker 1: forty seven yards or so. It's super thick, and I'm like, crap,
Speaker 1: like this is perfect. He's just gonna like I'll give
Speaker 1: him here in a second. I'm gonna give him like
Speaker 1: the old mew mew. See what he does, you know,
Speaker 1: try to draw him in. He's gonna be twenty yards away.
Speaker 1: Just like perfect. The wind was good, everything was good.
Speaker 1: As soon as that bull steps out, he you know,
Speaker 1: bugles again and he's forty seven yards away and the
Speaker 1: wind starts swirling and I'm like, you gotta be kidding me,
Speaker 1: like no, and I see him nosing in the air
Speaker 1: like he's just like lifting his nose. I can see
Speaker 1: his nostrils just like breathing it in, and I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: I've got about ten seconds before this bull is a
Speaker 1: goner for like this is it? And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: if it wasn't, if it wasn't, if that wind wasn't swirling,
Speaker 1: and he would for sure would have come in right
Speaker 1: into her laps. And I had the way the sun
Speaker 1: was was like hitting the like it was everything was dark.
Speaker 1: And then it's just like the sun was kind of
Speaker 1: like hitting the bowl. And there's this one gap in
Speaker 1: the trees and she just happened to be standing broadside
Speaker 1: in it. And I'm like, all right, I got I
Speaker 1: like at full draw and I'm like, okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: be I gotta shoot through this. And I kind of
Speaker 1: checked it with my pants and I say, like I
Speaker 1: think I said it out loud. I oh, I don't
Speaker 1: hit that branch, and the bowl like starts to take
Speaker 1: a step and I cow call and stop him, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, crap, you know, like it was there. So
Speaker 1: I scooched to the right, hit full draw and then
Speaker 1: hold the pin and release and just tap it sounds good,
Speaker 1: and then bowed to that thing. I mean, I'm the
Speaker 1: type of person even when I make a perfect shot,
Speaker 1: I'm always like, until I walk up on that animal,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not saying anything like I just hated
Speaker 1: to be like, oh yeah, it was a great shot,
Speaker 1: you know, especially when you're shooting through stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm nervous just because I'm like, that
Speaker 1: was a giant bowl. I know how big that bowl was.
Speaker 1: I was a very very big bowl. It was probably
Speaker 1: one of the biggest bulls I've laid eyes on in
Speaker 1: the wild. And I'm like, Okay, where what happened and
Speaker 1: how did it go down? And then maybe two minutes later,
Speaker 1: you know, like Bugle as he ran off at Bugled,
Speaker 1: we hear crash. I'm like, okay, was that him? Just
Speaker 1: falling over. Was that him just go crashing through stuff?
Speaker 1: And then like literally probably two minutes later, we here
Speaker 1: bull took his last breath. It's like, okay, so gave
Speaker 1: it us still a little bit of time, walk over
Speaker 1: to look from my arrow. My arrow just like blew
Speaker 1: straight through him. Um, so I couldn't find my air
Speaker 1: and I'm like, can't find any blood. And I look
Speaker 1: over and maybe fifteen yards from where he was standing,
Speaker 1: I've seen antler tip bulls down, Like oh sweet, walk
Speaker 1: up to him and I was like, I knew it
Speaker 1: was a big bowl, but I didn't see that seven
Speaker 1: point when he was coming in, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I was just in disbelief. No, ay, Like, this is
Speaker 1: a three ninety type bull that just sauntered in in
Speaker 1: an area where you definitely weren't expecting that kind of
Speaker 1: bull to appear. And that is how, in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day, or pretty much the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: I killed the biggest bull in my life. When it
Speaker 1: comes to successfully striking up a bedded bull, I think
Speaker 1: it involves three major components here. So it's gonna be identifying, betting,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be calling, and then it's gonna be moving,
Speaker 1: and the moving and calling is really important because for
Speaker 1: this tactic to work, I think that you have to
Speaker 1: be within a certain proximity to the bull. First. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously they have to hear the calls, but generally embedding
Speaker 1: and timber that's got to be close. Sometimes it has
Speaker 1: to be, depending on the topography, within a hundred yards
Speaker 1: or so. And so you kind of have to really
Speaker 1: pinpoint the betting and then move through that for this
Speaker 1: whole entire tactic to work. So let's start with identifying betting.
Speaker 1: When I'm looking for elk betting areas, I've talked about
Speaker 1: this many times in many podcasts, But what we're looking
Speaker 1: for is we're looking for good cover. Now, depending on
Speaker 1: the type of country you're in, I mean, some places
Speaker 1: you'll hunt and it's all cover. That's one thing I
Speaker 1: love about archery season is you get to hunt the
Speaker 1: darker timber um and if they're making noise you they
Speaker 1: it's like, well it's the one time we year those
Speaker 1: elk are gonna let you know where they're at. But um,
Speaker 1: you might be in an area that's really wide open
Speaker 1: and it might just be like an aspen stand um
Speaker 1: or something something that provides shade throughout the day. Elk
Speaker 1: like that that thicker cover to bed. They don't like
Speaker 1: to have to elk or I mean they're always hot.
Speaker 1: I remember the first outfitter I worked for, old timer,
Speaker 1: and he was like he described it because like, elk
Speaker 1: are always hot. That's the one thing you know about elk.
Speaker 1: They are wearing the thickest for coat you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter if it's the middle of winter
Speaker 1: or the middle of summer. They are cooking. And it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty true when an elk beds like they like
Speaker 1: those places that are nice and cool, nice and shaded. Um.
Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily have to be on the north face
Speaker 1: of a mountain. That's not always the case, but many
Speaker 1: places you are that seems to be the timbered side. Uh.
Speaker 1: The trouble with a lot of the north faces, it's
Speaker 1: also the more worn downside, so as a steeper side.
Speaker 1: And elk do you also like to bed in comfort
Speaker 1: for the most part. So they're big animal. UM, think
Speaker 1: about any any animal like maybe even just like relate
Speaker 1: it to let's say a horse. You know you've got
Speaker 1: a horse, or a or a cow, a beef cow.
Speaker 1: It's like how many times, Like if you've got a horse,
Speaker 1: with that horse want to lay down on the steepest
Speaker 1: mountain possible, It's like, no, they'll be on the steepest mountain.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, for an elk to be comfortable,
Speaker 1: he needs kind of more of a little bit of
Speaker 1: a gradual slope. So elk generally bed on a ridge
Speaker 1: or a finger ridge, something where the slope is gentle
Speaker 1: enough that they can lay comfortably and lay in multiple positions.
Speaker 1: So it could be the steepest country around, but at
Speaker 1: the top of that ridge or whatever, especially if it's
Speaker 1: a real steep country, at the top of that ridge
Speaker 1: or at the bottom of the valley, it's easier for
Speaker 1: the elk to bed. So those are things to think about.
Speaker 1: It is like where's easy for the elk ti bed?
Speaker 1: And then also they're gonna want to be bedded just
Speaker 1: like everything else with the wind probably coming downhill and
Speaker 1: where they can kind of fan out. Nice thing about
Speaker 1: elk is for the elk is the fact that they
Speaker 1: are a safety and numbers kind of animal. They're hurt animal,
Speaker 1: and so they will bed in multiple positions, will have
Speaker 1: other animals bedded and and be able to spread out,
Speaker 1: and that's how they stay safe. So when I look
Speaker 1: at a like, I just pull out my you know,
Speaker 1: go hunt maps or whatever and just start looking on there.
Speaker 1: I get the topography out, and then I get and
Speaker 1: I switched between topography and satellite imagery. And then one
Speaker 1: thing like why I'm doing that is I'm seeing, Okay,
Speaker 1: where are these benches, these like more everything super steep?
Speaker 1: Where's that more gradual bedding on? Probably I generally will
Speaker 1: probably start on that north face, but I'll then look
Speaker 1: at that like satellite image over the topography and say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: now here's the timber. Here's like where a good like
Speaker 1: chance for them to bed is. And then which way
Speaker 1: is the wind going? You know, is that it's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be blowing down this site. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: start on those areas, and that's how I'll start narrowing
Speaker 1: down to those betting areas. Another another thing, it's not
Speaker 1: just ridges though, I have also found like in those
Speaker 1: steep draws, sometimes there's creek bottoms or even like it's
Speaker 1: not a creek bottom, but it's a valley of some kind.
Speaker 1: Those will flat will be super steep, and you might
Speaker 1: get these valleys where it's like, Okay, here's a little
Speaker 1: bench or a little pocket rail. Can bet in those
Speaker 1: little benches. Even on the face of a steep mountain
Speaker 1: that benches out a little bit, those can be great
Speaker 1: betting areas. So what I like to do is focusing
Speaker 1: on those betting areas. Once I've identified all right betting zone,
Speaker 1: then it's time to move and call. And what you're
Speaker 1: kind of doing is you're you're doing a combination of
Speaker 1: still hunting, which still hunting, not to be confused with
Speaker 1: sitting and hunting, Like that's stand hunting. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I know the terminology. If you're new to it can
Speaker 1: be like, well, what's still hunting? It certam still hunting.
Speaker 1: We should just change that to something else because it
Speaker 1: makes no sense to me either. Um, you aren't necessarily still,
Speaker 1: you're just moving like you're you're just moving cautiously, quietly, um,
Speaker 1: just aimlessly roaming or strategically roaming through the woods at
Speaker 1: a very slow pace where you're hoping to see things
Speaker 1: before they see you. And and if done right, it's
Speaker 1: a very good skill to have. Um. So what I'm
Speaker 1: doing is I'm going through these kind of betting areas
Speaker 1: looking and then I'm moving and then I'm calling. And
Speaker 1: what the calling is is the calling is to try
Speaker 1: to figure out where an elk is before I blow
Speaker 1: through there and blow him out by you know, bumping
Speaker 1: him or not seeing him. And what the hope is
Speaker 1: when you're striking up a beded bull is really you're
Speaker 1: looking for the bull that's bedded off on his own.
Speaker 1: So what he wants to do is he's gonna want
Speaker 1: to check cows, and so you're hoping to find that
Speaker 1: bull that's bedded by himself, and then you're gonna be
Speaker 1: the random group of cows or a heard It could
Speaker 1: even be heard with a bull moving through the timber
Speaker 1: also going to bed and he goes, oh, hey, i'm
Speaker 1: here too. That's what his bagle is gonna be, Oh
Speaker 1: I'm over here. Um. It could also be and and
Speaker 1: this is probably what you'll run into more is like
Speaker 1: a bull with cows or with a herd um And
Speaker 1: so sometimes like that bull will just bugle from his
Speaker 1: bed and then he'll just do things. Later. He might
Speaker 1: come in, he might not. Um. The as Loan bulls
Speaker 1: are generally the ones that are going to come straight in,
Speaker 1: but there is those those bulls too that do have
Speaker 1: cows in the middle of the day, they don't want
Speaker 1: to get them riled up. They don't want like another
Speaker 1: bull to come in and just like push them around
Speaker 1: and do their things, so they might actually get up
Speaker 1: and come challenge you. So what you're trying to do
Speaker 1: is you're trying to as you're moving and calling, get
Speaker 1: into that scenario where you're calling within proximity to a
Speaker 1: bull that decides, hey, I need to go and investigate,
Speaker 1: or hey, I need to go take care of business
Speaker 1: over here. When I'm doing this, this is generally in
Speaker 1: the hours between kind of like when elk are done
Speaker 1: doing their their major bugling in the morning and before
Speaker 1: the evening, so it's kind of like that time where yeah,
Speaker 1: they should be often the timber bedded somewhere. One thing
Speaker 1: that I like do is there's a couple of different
Speaker 1: calls that I use, So I generally start out with
Speaker 1: a couple of cow calls, um, maybe even just a
Speaker 1: lost cow, like a Yeah, you can do that a
Speaker 1: couple of times. As you're moving, I'll do it, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'll move and call a little bit, and then
Speaker 1: I'll stop in a in a spot and call what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do is trying to cover the terrain
Speaker 1: with my calls in an adequate way. So I'm not
Speaker 1: necessarily overcalling. But I'm also not shy of calling because
Speaker 1: I know that in the timber, your sound travels a
Speaker 1: little bit different. So if it's a if it's more
Speaker 1: of a flat area and really thick trees, I'm calling
Speaker 1: like every two fifty yards. If it's like more open
Speaker 1: and I'm on a ridge, in my sound I feel
Speaker 1: like it's broadcasting into this little basin, then it might
Speaker 1: be like every half a mile. It just depends on
Speaker 1: how that sounds traveling. So I generally start out with
Speaker 1: some kind of cow cow sound um either just like
Speaker 1: one cow or like I said, I do like a
Speaker 1: little bit longer um wine sometimes, but just like cows talking.
Speaker 1: If I get a bull to respond to that cow call,
Speaker 1: then I pretty much know like I'm I'm calling that bull,
Speaker 1: and it's just one of those things like when a
Speaker 1: bull bugles to your cow call unprovoked with other stuff,
Speaker 1: he's probably pretty interested and he's probably gonna come in,
Speaker 1: And in that case, I might just stick with the
Speaker 1: cow calls. But as I'm moving and calling I'm also bugling, UM,
Speaker 1: So I always start with the cow calls just in
Speaker 1: case it's like um, I talked about this last week,
Speaker 1: but it's like kind of like imagine like a predator
Speaker 1: standard coyot stand where you're like you start soft with
Speaker 1: the colleges in case there's one close by, and then
Speaker 1: you get louder. I kind of do that, but I
Speaker 1: do like the cow calls just in case there's one
Speaker 1: close by that wants to respond to that, because it's
Speaker 1: a lot easier to just not give him options to
Speaker 1: do other things like round up his cows or feel
Speaker 1: threatened or whatever. Um. And then in but I will,
Speaker 1: So I'll do a couple of cow calls and then
Speaker 1: I'll throw out a beagle, and the beagle. The reason
Speaker 1: I do the bugles because some bulls are like only
Speaker 1: going to respond to a bugle, and you don't even
Speaker 1: know the temperament of the herd that like you're getting into.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a bull that's been bugling like all morning
Speaker 1: and the cows haven't made a peep. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of elk that you get into that's like, hey,
Speaker 1: the cows aren't making any sounds and at a certain
Speaker 1: time of day, like maybe later in the day, they
Speaker 1: will make some sounds, but it just comes out of place,
Speaker 1: like the bull is not going to respond to that.
Speaker 1: So I throw out the bagle because I want to
Speaker 1: be like an equal opportunity offender. I want to give
Speaker 1: every elk in that herd an opportunity to hear something
Speaker 1: they like. Um, So I'll do the cow calls and
Speaker 1: I'll throw out those bugles. The nice thing about the
Speaker 1: beagles too, as they travel a little bit further, so
Speaker 1: maybe one that can't hear the cow calls, he heard
Speaker 1: a piece of that bugle and it's going to respond.
Speaker 1: The nice thing about the cow calls too is sometimes
Speaker 1: there might be a herd and you might even get
Speaker 1: a cow to respond, as the cows might not respond
Speaker 1: to a bugle, So you kind of get the best
Speaker 1: of both worlds by covering adequately with different kinds of sounds.
Speaker 1: When it goes to uh bugling in this scenario, I
Speaker 1: generally do like a shortened kind of locator call, or
Speaker 1: I'll even just throw out like kind of more aggressive
Speaker 1: bugle where it's like, oh, maybe there's a herd bull
Speaker 1: pushing some cows through an area to like try to
Speaker 1: round him up to bed. It can be a major
Speaker 1: task for herd of elk to get to bed, especially
Speaker 1: once the right hits, like when it's full on rut.
Speaker 1: Just the other day, it was like they were screaming
Speaker 1: all day, Like the cows kept trying to go down,
Speaker 1: and the bulls kept trying to grab him and push
Speaker 1: him and take him other places. And so if there's
Speaker 1: a bull that's bedded where you're at, he's gonna hear
Speaker 1: that and think, okay, I want to be part of
Speaker 1: that action. So he'll bugle or he'll just come in
Speaker 1: silent and come check it out. But in this scenario,
Speaker 1: what I really like to do, I call it striking
Speaker 1: up a bedable, because you want to get them to
Speaker 1: respond on It sounds like a lot of needle and
Speaker 1: haystack action where you're like, well, there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of luck involved, yes, but also by pinpointing betting areas
Speaker 1: and kind of understanding the habits of where these elk
Speaker 1: are going, you say, okay, these are good hypercentage betting areas.
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna still hunt through here, and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be calling. And when you get within that proximity,
Speaker 1: that kind of gets in that bull's bubble. Oftentimes it
Speaker 1: kind of catches them off guard or gives them a
Speaker 1: good opportunity to come check you out, and could be
Speaker 1: a really great way to call in a bull that
Speaker 1: might not be callable when everything else is going on.
Speaker 1: I hope that tactic maybe helps somebody this this coming
Speaker 1: weekend or this week, this coming week. Um. It's It's
Speaker 1: also a good tactic that works pretty well later in
Speaker 1: the season as those big bulls start to kind of
Speaker 1: pull away from the herd um sometimes they can be
Speaker 1: bedded up and then they kind of think, oh, well,
Speaker 1: here's an easy opportunity that's coming my way. So kind
Speaker 1: of striking up a bedded bull that way can be
Speaker 1: really effective. I think next week one things that I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about two is is and maybe
Speaker 1: by the time you hear you know, it might be
Speaker 1: pasted a little bit of a peak rut. But I
Speaker 1: think it's always good to kind of give this knowledge,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout the season as it happens, because it
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me as well of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's something that happens. And I think one thing
Speaker 1: that if you're if you run into the scenario. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: what about when it's just all out bugle city, when
Speaker 1: bulls are bugling, when they're doing their thing, like and
Speaker 1: there's a big heard elk, how do you move in?
Speaker 1: How do you make the right moves? Because there's sometimes like, uh,
Speaker 1: just yesterday, incredible day hunting elk. I mean one of
Speaker 1: it will go down. Is like one of my favorite
Speaker 1: days hunting elk. And I didn't even kill an elk,
Speaker 1: but it's just I got so many interactions actually hunting
Speaker 1: with my stickbow, and I'll I think i'll next week,
Speaker 1: I'll tell the whole story. But I think one thing
Speaker 1: that we can take away from me is kind of
Speaker 1: the the idea of like moving amongst the herd and
Speaker 1: how to how to actually stalk when there's so many eyes,
Speaker 1: so many ears, like what can you get away with?
Speaker 1: And what can't you get away within? When are those
Speaker 1: times when like you know immediately you probably aren't gonna
Speaker 1: call a bull in like they're bugling their heads off,
Speaker 1: but it's not it's not like they're gonna come into
Speaker 1: the call um. So kind of talking about that scenario
Speaker 1: where it's like, hey, they're making noise I'm doing everything right,
Speaker 1: but they just aren't going to come in. How do
Speaker 1: I proceed? What do I do? That's gonna be next week. Also,
Speaker 1: I appreciate everybody please keep sending in Like I've had
Speaker 1: so many awesome messages in the past. Some people have
Speaker 1: had some really good elk seasons, I know, some people
Speaker 1: have had some struggle seasons. To just depends on what
Speaker 1: part of the country you're in, because, um, some areas
Speaker 1: it's been like the best elk season they've had in years.
Speaker 1: In other places it's everything's got its ebbs and flows.
Speaker 1: Other other places it's like this is a tough season.
Speaker 1: You know, we're struggling to hear or bugle, and then
Speaker 1: other guys are like biggest bulls we've ever seen bugle
Speaker 1: in early. This nuts out here. UM, So you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it can be ups and downs. But I've
Speaker 1: definitely got a lot of messages guys saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: this silent calling, help me kill this bull. Um, your
Speaker 1: tactics led to this bowl, like quite a few guys
Speaker 1: from Canada. UM. I appreciate all the Canadian listeners as well.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys on that border area hunting elk
Speaker 1: and getting into some good bulls. So I really appreciate
Speaker 1: the messages from all you guys. Keep up the awesome work.
Speaker 1: A lot of people taking their first bulls and some
Speaker 1: guys taking some really big bulls. So quite a few
Speaker 1: people have taken the best bulls of their life and
Speaker 1: saying like, hey, this this tactic like actually was pretty
Speaker 1: much exactly what killed this bull for me. UM. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys giving me that kind of feedback
Speaker 1: because it's really cool to see when that kind of
Speaker 1: information gets used in the field in a way that
Speaker 1: um leads to some success. So I'm really excited. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, I've been actually out no cunning today in camp,
Speaker 1: a little bit sore a little bit. I've been chasing
Speaker 1: like some chasing bulls around all week and it's been great. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so keep those coming and until next week,
Speaker 1: strike him up, send me a picture. I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: Catch you later.