Chasing Elk Part 5: Calling and Hunting Strategies
Calling elk is one of the most dynamic and exciting experiences a hunter can have. However, it is often overcomplicated and misunderstood. This is a continuation of the conversation between James and Joe from The Fair Chase Podcast, focusing on calling strategies and hunting tactics for elk during archery season.
You can catch the full discussion here!
James: What's your approach when you first arrive in an elk hunting area?
Joe: "The first thing that I do when I walk into an area whether it's one that I know or I don't know is try to remind myself like it's been, it's September 15, I've been thinking about this for nine months, I've been geeked up about it. I try to just calm my craziness down a little bit because my internal gut is just going 'There, find them, kill them.' But I've kind of learned over the years that if you back off on the gas a little bit, you get up in there and you just kind of watch the world unfold a little bit, you're a lot more deadly on that next morning which you've kind of digested the whole situation."
James: How do you start locating elk?
Joe: "I'll work a ridge system and I'll locate. So I'll just bugle, go a couple hundred yards, I'll bugle and I'm listening for ideally it's like mid-morning, early afternoon. You can locate at any time, but I'm hoping to find a bull in his bed. And if I do, then you have a bunch of different equation or parts of the equation that come into that: Where can I get to them where I'm not going to blow the wind? Where can I get to them where I'm not going to be seen? Who is he with? Is he solo? Is he a satellite bull? Is he a herd bull with a pile of cows?"
James: What's the general movement pattern of elk throughout the day?
Joe: "It depends on where you're at. In the area I'm kind of recalling a specific hunt in my head right now, and in that case, they were feeding down and spending their evening in the dark down low, even on to private a little bit, and then coming back up the mountain mid-morning, late morning to go bed and then do the same thing over and over again with and without the thermals. So it can be the complete opposite if I'm hunting Colorado and the Alpine is open and the feed is up there, they could be coming down off that tree line to bed and then going back up to feed."
James: Why do you prefer to hunt elk in timber rather than open areas?
Joe: "It's not so much that I don't love seeing elk and watching elk interact, it's because it's significantly harder to call something across an open area when they can see exactly where the sound is coming from. If I'm out in the open sage flats where they're out going to feed for the night and I'm calling and bugling, they can simply look over and be like 'There is no elk there, I'm not coming within archery range of that.' But when I'm in the timber with them and they can only see 20 yards, 30 yards, 40 yards, now I've got something I can play with."
James: How do you set up your calling position?
Joe: "Typically what I'll do is get up onto a ridge where my wind is going to be blowing up and over the other side of where I'm not primarily looking for elk. You have to set yourself in a spot where you can shoot and you have to set yourself in a spot where he has to wonder what's behind you. So if you have a little rise or a little saddle and you set up just on the inside of that and you throw all your calls behind you, all that sound is behind you, he's assuming that elk is just on the other side of this little saddle where he can't see, he has to come look."
James: What's been the most effective calling technique for you?
Joe: "The biggest thing that I found that's kind of like pretty safe in almost every regard is a light location bugle followed by raking. Raking has killed more bulls for me than any bugle or any cow call ever. Usually just locating him with a bugle and then some glunking or grunting and then taking a stick and just raking."
James: What's the hardest lesson you've learned about elk calling?
Joe: "Cow calls have to be perfect, bugles do not. You'll hear during the rut, bulls going nuts, kind of losing their voice, really pingy, weird squealy bugles. Cow calls are always pretty spot-on, but bugles can sound like anything."
James: If you had to give one piece of advice when it comes to calling, what would it be?
Joe: "Don't be afraid. I think a lot of people are afraid to call and afraid to say the wrong thing or whatever. It's important to know their language or know when to do what. How you say it and when you say it is way more important than what you say. So if you recognize that this bull is like glowing mad, you can't screw up with him. Throw it to him, glunk at him, bugle at him, get mad. If you see one that's kind of sheepish and just kind of moving his cows around, back off. Let him get to a spot where he beds down on those cows and then make your approach or take a little bit more of a finesse approach to them. Kind of read your audience a little bit with that, they're just like people."
Thanks for reading!