Coming Back

[Swede]

You see an elk or a herd of elk heading away from you. You can't catch them or get ahead of them. What has been your experience in getting one or more to return.

It has been my observation/experience that it is fairly rare. Once in awhile one will come back to investigate, but most don't. It has been my observation that I can engage the bull in conversation, but he just continues on with his herd most of the time.

[Elkhunttoo]

When the have their tail towards me and moving. It’s basically game over for me. Maybe a small bull. The country I’m hunting right now is so steep that they gain ground so fast it is impossible to even put pressure on them or get around them.

I’m interested to see the thoughts/experiences here because I would like to add this tool to the belt.

[Indian Summer]

That reminds me of the opening day of archery about 20 years ago. I was super busy all season with outfitting. Decided I was shooting the first elk that got within 20 yards. Heard a bugle right off the bat. Hike over to the ridge and sat down to call. Before I could pull my call out I saw elk feeding toward me at only 60 yards. There was a nice bull bugling his head off but the lead cow made her way to me first. I shot her and she dropped straight to the ground right where she stood. The whole her of about 20 ran back the way they came from. About 1 minute later as I was standing next to the cow I heard hoofbeats. Here they came thundering past on both sides of me. Without the woman in charge they didn’t know if they were coming or going!

[Billy Goat]

That reminds me of the opening day of archery about 20 years ago. I was super busy all season with outfitting. Decided I was shooting the first elk that got within 20 yards. Heard a bugle right off the bat. Hike over to the ridge and sat down to call. Before I could pull my call out I saw elk feeding toward me at only 60 yards. There was a nice bull bugling his head off but the lead cow made her way to me first. I shot her and she dropped straight to the ground right where she stood. The whole her of about 20 ran back the way they came from. About 1 minute later as I was standing next to the cow I heard hoofbeats. Here they came thundering past on both sides of me. Without the woman in charge they didn’t know if they were coming or going!

not to redirect Swedes otherwise productive post...... but was that cow tough eating, IS? I've heard that lead cows (being many years old) are not near as tasty as younger versions.

I have been in the scenario Swede describes, and have yet to turn them around.

I think your best luck would just be to quietly "dog" the herd and hope something in front of them turns them around back towards you. Occasional, but not frequent cow calls might help.

[juglow]

agreed that if their walking away, its basically came over. But, I will quietly try to stay on them most likely if their isn't other ones to chase and make a plan in the morning. They should be in the general area the next day where you leave them.

[Wyo67]

I think your best luck would just be to quietly "dog" the herd and hope something in front of them turns them around back towards you. Occasional, but not frequent cow calls might help.

if it's a morning hunt, this is the way to go. If you know they are heading to or are close to their bedding area, going silent and just keeping contact with the herd until they bed down is your most likely path to success. If the sun is going down, be back at first light.

[>>>---WW---->]

Usually if they are moving out ahead of you, the jig is up. But I recall once when I was able to call the herd bull back for a shot. He was moving his cows away at a fairly steady pace. There was no way I could keep up with them. So I did my best to imitate a lost or separated cow sound followed by a smaller bull bugle and I started to beat the living daylights out of a near by bush.

Apparently this made the herd bull think I had picked off one of his cows and he came charging back to reclaim her.

[7mmfan]

I have little to no experience with this situation so my thoughts are mainly that. Thoughts. A few years ago I drew a rifle rut tag here in WA. I spoke with none other than our very own RJ on the phone at length about calling techniques and situations to be aware of. One of the things he mentioned was lost cow or separated cow calls followed by a bugle. As the sequence increases in length, the more agitated the cow calls.

In my very first encounter, on the very first morning I had a 6pt chuckling at my cow calls and I watched him walk into the tree line. I started the separated cow calls and he kept chuckling so I finally gave some super agitated cow calls and through in a bugle. The reaction was instantaneous. He charged down the hill breaking branches brush and popped out at 25 yards looking for a fight. Unfortunately he came to a gunfight.

In that moment, that calling tactic worked great. The difference may be that he wasn’t truly leaving and he definitely didn’t know I was there, just that a cow was at the bottom of that clearing.

[Tigger]

I called a 5 point back one year but he was only with 1 cow. We dogged them for quite a while and I did the agitated cow call/small bull bugle and he surprised the heck out of me by leaving his cow and coming over. Didnt get a shot, but did get to have a stare down with him. He blinked first, but still won the game.

[WapitiTalk1]

Point of light campers. Remember, much more often than not, if a bull on the move (with or without cows), is answering your calls (or calling to get a hit back from you) and seems to be getting farther and farther away, he's just keeping you located and has no intention of doing a 180 and coming back to join you for dinner. Take what you have and work it smart (what you have in this situation is located elk that are moving away). More than likely, they are moving to bed considering when most of us are in the elk woods during shooting hours, when the elk are on the move. Most of the time, you can ball park where they're gonna bed; that's your target area. Make a plan based on where you're at, what the thermals are doing/gonna do in the next X hours, and work your way to the herd keeping your calls in your pocket. There will be a time today, perhaps not for a few hours (sometimes you're forced by the situation to have an early lunch and perhaps kick back to wait, listen, and plan) where you can get close to the bedded herd and perhaps get a play on a bull.

[Swede]

On the few times I have had a bull return, they came alone. One time I remember it was the herd bull that came back about 1/4 mile to teach me a lesson. Unfortunately I was not set up well and as 7mm wrote on another thread, he had me pinpointed. I never got a shot.
Another time a satellite came down the hill from the herd. I had a decoy out which was off to the side. The bull walked back and forth behind some cover in front of me, then returned to the herd. In that case my decoy should have been farther back, or I should have been farther forward.

[Indian Summer]

Wyo67 is spot on!

Actually Billy Goat that cow was excellent! Very tender. I kinda think it has to do whether they die fast or run off and take awhile to pass.

[Swede]

I thought like Indian Summer, that proper care of an elk that did not travel far after being shot would always be good eating. The fattest elk I ever shot was a barren lead cow. She was coming in to a water hole to get a drink when I shot her from my stand. She dropped almost on the spot. I hit her with a second arrow barely two feet from where she had stood when first hit. She collapsed right there. I took her to the butcher shop and the meat I got back was the toughest elk I have sank a tooth into. So now I wonder. Was I wrong about killing a relaxed elk that went nowhere and was skinned and butchered almost immediately, or did the butcher shop unload a tough old bull on me?
BTW: I have not gone to a butcher shop for any significant time that does not make major mistakes, and I think some butcher shops are crooked. My son and I took two elk at the same time into a butcher shop. One bull was 400# hanging and the other 320#. Both were very clean and had no bloodshot or other contamination. We got less than 150# butchered meat back combined total. We asked for steaks and got all hamburger. And in case you are wondering, I did not end up paying a dime for his services.

[7mmfan]

That's a whole nother thread Swede. I do little with butchers other than some specific cured meats. I've heard lots of horror stories though.

[Swede]

7MM. it is all Indian Summer's fault that I got off track. He got me thinking about the fat cow I killed several years ago and how disappointed I was with her when I first had her for dinner fare. Of coarse that thought in turn reminded me of butcher shop troubles I have had over the years, including the last elk I killed. That Indian Joe is a real trouble maker.

[Indian Summer]

Last year I glassed 35 elk or so on a slope. There were about 8 bulls over there. Lucky me ended up shooting the biggest one. It is no exaggeration to say he was dead before he hit the ground. At the time he had his head down and was feeding. When he dropped he never even kick a hoof. It was like an army talk dropped out of the on him. Boom done. Every single cut of meat we have eaten from that bull was as tender as the best filet. I’ve shot young bulls and once a year and a half old cow but this bull is the best eating elk I’ve ever had in the freezer. I wish I knew why. He was completely quartered out within an hour. Quarters layed across a big log with the hide on for the night. There’s no question he died faster than any bull I’ve ever taken so I’m convinced that is a factor. To stay on topic no.... he never did come back to where he was last standing.