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For real, or other hunters

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For real, or other hunters

Postby Lefty » 09 10, 2017 •  [Post 1]

What helps you decide was that call an elk, or some one else.

In the past I'm good at hunting where others dont.
Saturday on the way back to the truck we heard a terrible sounding bugle. We set up above some nasty cover and called. Minutes later two perfect cow calls, exact same pitch, tone, and volume, less than 100 yards. I saw my daughter grab her gear. I suspected she saw the caller. She hadn't seen the hunter but heard him snap a plastic buckle.
Saturday night our last stand near the truck. We called in another pair of hunters trying to sneak though the willows, bugling and cow calling.
With those experiences .
Saturday; a wrong choice, my daugher thought one bugle was a bit tubey. the other a real bull. It didnt matter we were going down to the elk not up and over for the other call.
We got busted. We had 3 bulls at 65 yards and a bunch of elk came in behind us while fully exposed from behind.. Last Monday a guy squeezing the hoochie momma to fast was obvious.
So what makes you decide, is that bugle real, or not.
And whos going to admit they fell someone elses calls?
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Wyo67 » 09 11, 2017 •  [Post 2]

I'll admit I've been fooled before. Compliment them on their calling an move on. There are a couple of obvious ones; the Hoochie Mama is easy to identify out in the field and I think any of the bugles made with the snap on reeds sound kind of flutie or plastic-like for lack of a better definition.

Otherwise, I think the situation kind of helps determine if its an elk or hunter. I'm leery of any cow calls responding to my locator bugle, especially if it happens immediately and over and over again. I think when you get closer it's easier to tell. Difficult for humans to duplicate the guttural thumping of an elk call up close. Bottom line though... I'm treating all elk sounds as an elk unless otherwise convinced by sound or sight.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Lark Bunting » 09 11, 2017 •  [Post 3]

My son and I have called in several hunters with our setups. Turns out that our public land OTC areas we hunted in the past were full of people...and not many elk.

This year though, the afternoon I shot my elk I heard so many elk bugling that I swore one was a hunter! Fortunately a bull came in to my calling at 24 yards and I was able to shoot but of the five or so elk bugling around me there was one that seemed to just sound awful and I'd have lost a bet if I had to guess whether or not it was a bull or another hunter. My buddy actually saw the bull otherwise I'd never believe it.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Roosiebull » 09 11, 2017 •  [Post 4]

I have never been called in, but in all honesty, in all of my hunting career I have heard less than 10 hunter bugles from strangers. most being from a primos terminator which is the easiest to point out (they are also loud, and as bad as they sound, bulls answer them) there are some guys around who are darn good with a bugle tube. I hunted with one a few seasons ago, he was at the time, my sister in law's boyfriend. if we didn't live so far away from eachother, we would still hunt together, really fun to hunt with and good elk hunter.

I mentioned to him, if I ever heard him bugle in the woods, I would be making a move on that "bull" very authentic. one day we were on a group of elk, the bull we were after was a nice 5 on one side, and an equally long spike on the other, super cool bull, we got a bunch of footage of him that morning, but they were in a cut, and we were pinned down in the timber. we did get a 5x4 up to spittin' distance, but that 5x1 was too cool. that evening we set up at their level, no plans on calling, just a good ambush.

at about 5 or 5:30PM we here the multiple note bugle of a terminator, followed by erratic hootchi mama chirps, it didn't take long and we spotted 2 guys skylined at the very top of the cut in the wide open calling back and forth to each other,all they had was a terminator and a hootchi mama each...classic :lol:

I have heard more cow calling by hunters here, for some reason, many think bugling scares off bulls around here. 9 out of 10 times I call, a bugle is involved. I cannot say I have ever cow called a bull all the way in. I have kept tabs on bulls with cow calls, but bugling is the best way to get a bull to cover ground between him and I, in my experience.

cow calls are generally easy to tell, too loud is very common, sounds like a duck call is another, hootchi mama is another...one tone over and over. it is usually easy to tell, and I have never heard a hunter cow call and break branches, elk are always loud (around here at least) it is generally easy to tell.

I did get tricked once, though I didn't move in, as I wasn't hunting elk. the same fellow I mentioned early in the thread, we were deer hunting, he saw a coyote and decided to try to call it in with cow calls, I did think I had cows below me, later to find out what the real story was.

there are some guys who are excellent callers now days, very authentic.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Tigger » 09 11, 2017 •  [Post 5]

I threw out a locator bugle last year and got the worst bugle ever in response. We acutally laughed! We knew it was another hunter. We found out later it was a guide and his client. He kept bellowing at us (sounded like an injured cow) and then abruptly switched to cow calls. His cow calls would have finished 99th out of 100 and they were remarkably better than his bugles. We skirted around them and would give out a soft chirp now and then. Then I gave a bugle with chuckles and an alarm bark and we bailed out of there.

Another time we were walking in the timber and heard a hoochie mama. Now just 1 hoochie mama toot is not something I am willing to assume is a hunter, you have to play that one like it is an elk. So we split up and I kept it talking. After about 3 more, I knew it was a hunter. Finally I saw him and walked up to him. He was actually just finishing quartering a raghorn he had shot and thought we were elk! He was just playing with the "elk" to see how close they would come. Nice guy and we congratulated him on his bull.

I did get fooled on a bugle last year too. Sounded pretty lame. We were out of light so it didn't matter, but we decided it was probably another hunter. At the trailhead we met a guy coming in from that direction and he said it was a real bull. Got me!
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Lefty » 09 11, 2017 •  [Post 6]

Wyo67 wrote:Otherwise, I think the situation kind of helps determine if its an elk or hunter. I'm leery of any cow calls responding to my locator bugle, especially if it happens immediately and over and over again. I think when you get closer it's easier to tell. Difficult for humans to duplicate the guttural thumping of an elk call up close. Bottom line though... I'm treating all elk sounds as an elk unless otherwise convinced by sound or sight.

I mentioned it last week on another thead, if it sounds terrible I tend to go with a real elk
Last year after a locate bugle a yearling elk was the most obnoxious, loud continuous she just carried on and on.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Washington Wapiti » 10 11, 2017 •  [Post 7]

I don't trust myself anymore lol. Some I can tell, some not.
Wyo67 has a good strategy, and I tend to follow this line of thinking these days as well. I'm left wondering (and tortured) if some near-by bugles I've heard in the past and just blew-off as being hunters, were real or not.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Swede » 10 11, 2017 •  [Post 8]

If I don't know better I accept it as an elk. I get fooled sometimes, but elk make lousy bugles too.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Dorobuta » 10 16, 2017 •  [Post 9]

one of the most lame, pathetic excuse for a bugle I ever heard turned out to be a very large 6 x 6. We were laughing it sounded so bad. None of us were ready when it stepped out, caught wind of us and ran away.

I learned a very important lesson, "nothing says an elk has to sound like an elk...".
Yes, I am addicted to elk. No, I don't need help, I just need a tag.
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby Kentrek » 10 17, 2017 •  [Post 10]

Seems lack of vocabulary gets me suspicious, alot can't chuckle either....i still play it out tho...just never know..pluss you might get somthing else worked up
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Re: For real, or other hunters

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 10 17, 2017 •  [Post 11]

It's like real estate in a way. Location, location, location. That, coupled with time of day, my knowledge of the area, and the "sound(s)" Im hearing more oftentimes than not tell me all I need to know.
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