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When Are Elk Easier To Call?

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When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 19, 2018 •  [Post 1]

Some bow hunters wait until the rut to go out and hunt elk. They believe they are easier to call in for a shot at that time. That has not been my experience. Elk are more vocal in the rut, but I have not found them easier to shoot then. I am wondering what season, or part of the season you believe you have the most opportunities to shoot an elk? If you hunt with a rifle or smoke pole, why do you prefer your weapon and season?
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Lsb » 05 19, 2018 •  [Post 2]

In my opinion a bull is never less warry than first light opening morning of the first season. Nobody has messed with him since last fall
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby saddlesore » 05 19, 2018 •  [Post 3]

I prefer muzzle loader season here in Colorado as the weather is a little nice and elk are more active,less hunter pressure. Elk are in pre rut with some bugling, but mostly cows are not in heat yet
I also hunt rifle season,usually 2nd as it gives mean other 9 days hunting in the field. Sine I draw a ML tag,I can't hunt 1st season because it is draw only and left over tags are hard to come by.
If there are cows in heat that a bull is pursuing then yea,I think they are easier to call. Other than that, being in rut offers no additional advantage from what I have experienced.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby stringunner » 05 19, 2018 •  [Post 4]

In Wyoming we had the best luck calling during the rut but we had as many opportunities to kill them all through the bow season with spot and stock. This was an area with a high number of elk and little hunting pressure.

In Oregon, no matter the areas we have hunted, 3-4 different areas in the state over 20 years, we have had way more shot opportunities when we stopped calling and switched to treestands. The Oregon areas that we have hunted have had a significantly less number of elk and much more hunting pressure.

Those are our observations. I imagine, if we were going to just focus on calling for hunting them during the bow season, we would find an area where we feel we would be confident in shot opportunities and timing of the season would likely factor into that.

I watch the born and raised guys hunt the Oregon coast and have much success calling all through the season. Makes me think it’s less about a specific time and more about knowing the elk in the area you are hunting them.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby ElkNut1 » 05 20, 2018 •  [Post 5]

Depends on your definition of easy?

By understanding the emotion an elk (cow or bull) exhibits when communicating within its ranks you'll find their tone/emotion will change as their wants or needs do. The same as your pet! Neither speak english but you can function & understand your pet to a degree through it's pleads, whines, bark, growls, etc. In turn your pet can understand you by your tone or emotion you exhibit back! As these things make sense you start to get a good feel for wants, needs or warning by their specific sounds.

For elk hunting, the more we are in the woods gaining experience at the right times (rut phases) the more we will build on this tone/emotion elk show too. If you're an elk hunter & rarely use calling during rutting months as a tool you will net little. Calling must be employed according to the days activities, what are the elk doing! By doing this you can successfully hunt, Quiet Times, Pre Rut Bulls & Peak Rut bulls or Cows. Adapting to each day is important it will show you what's your best odds for calling that day, you will suffer if one dimensional! The best areas to learn on are dark timber or areas with good concealment from being seen.

Experience in the woods is a great teacher but you must call, you will error but you will also gain knowledge on how to adapt to each day, it's a process! -- It's like golf, if you walk a golf course 3 times a week for a year but only play one or two holes out of the 18 per day how good do you think you will become in that year? Easy answer, not so good! :D - You need to play all 18 each time as well as some practice at the range previous to some of the days you will golf. It takes dedication as does calling elk successfully! What times are easiest to call them, anytime they are in earshot & in reasonable cover! Right time, right sounds/tones & you can become very effective! Play all 18 holes!

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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby saddlesore » 05 20, 2018 •  [Post 6]

That is good advice Paul,but obviously not everyone, and probably darn few live close enough to elk habitat to practice it. Especially nonresidents that live 1500 miles away and only get into the elk woods a week or a week &1/2 each year. Even living in Colorado, I must usually travel 200 miles to get there.

Sure,we can talk to elk 365 days a year, but if you only have 8-12 days, you don't want to waste 6-7 of them making mistakes until you learn what to do. It is like asking someone what time it is and the other person precedes to tell you how the clock works.I think Swede is asking for some generalities. When they are thinking about that cow in heat 50 yards away and there are few hunters in the woods, is a big difference when the opposite is true
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 20, 2018 •  [Post 7]

Saddlesore understood the question perfectly. I have read and even know of hunters that only hunt the rut. At least some of them live very near elk habitat. As Paul and others here point out, there are different tactics for different parts of the season. I would rather hunt early, but will hunt late if that is what is left.
If I understand Saddlesore correctly, there is a lot more to effective calling than getting a bugle and learning to blow it. A hunter is better off learning elk and elk hunting then using a call, or calls to make noise on their hunt. Calls are no replacement for good elk hunting knowledge. I like Paul's material and believe it will help the greenest tenderfoot in the elk woods. But, it will help an experienced hunter more to close the deal.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby saddlesore » 05 21, 2018 •  [Post 8]

In today's hunting world, unless you live in a state with little hunting pressure or hunt private land, my opinion is the first order of the day about elk hunting is figuring out what they do because of so many hunters in the woods.

That is knowing the area,where they go to seek refuge, knowing that they will breed without bugling and in the dark if there are many hunters..

You can read books or watch DVD's about elk hunting, bugling, calling,how/where elk live, what they eat, etc., etc., etc. However all that goes out the window when several thousand elk hunters take to the elk woods.

You may be the worlds best elk caller,sneaking thru that black timber, but when 5-10 other yahoos are tromping about tooting every elk bugle/ cow call on the market every 5 minutes you are SOL. Hunt Colorado OTC units and you will quickly become familair with this.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby >>>---WW----> » 05 21, 2018 •  [Post 9]

Saddlesore brings up a good point, especially for the rifle seasons. Many hunters flood the Colorado elk woods as early as a week ahead of the season opener. And the first thing they do is go scouting/tromping thru the forest to check out where they want to hunt. Hey! Elk aren't stupid ! Where they have spent the entire summer in safety is now invaded by hundreds of want to be hunters. Now, when opening day arrives, the elk have suddenly disappeared.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 21, 2018 •  [Post 10]

Saddlesore and WW describe where I hunt in Oregon perfectly. They are perfectly correct.
Before the last season, a Forest Service employee stopped by to see me at camp. It was several days before the season opened. He said he was observing 300-400 elk daily come out in a large meadow. I am positive he was telling me the 100% truth. They were going there daily. I never bothered to go look. They would all be gone by Saturday when the season opened. Hunters would be pouring in on Thursday and Friday and the elk would all be gone by Saturday. They would be over on the ranch because the hunters would all go see and call them and would not recognize that they were pushing them away. It is that way every year.
"Hey Roy this new Primos call really works. See when I blow on it, the elk all look our way. It is good that we are hiding behind our truck and they can't see us. They are not even scared. I wonder how close we can get?" "I don't think we better try Dan. They are already moving away."
Sure that is an imaginary dialog, but it is basically what happens every August to send the elk away.
Know elk and elk hunting, then go for a good call.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Lefty » 05 21, 2018 •  [Post 11]

ElkNut1 wrote:,,,,, Experience in the woods is a great teacher but you must call, you will error but you will also gain knowledge on how to adapt to each day, it's a process! --,,,,,,,, ElkNut/Paul

Early season bulls Ive been the most successful,, I think mostly because of fresh bulls and my lack of ability :?

In the desert I didnt call much at all. While calling I did draw a satellite bull from a big herd.
This will be my 4th year in the woods using calls. I mess up big time during the rut.
Paul gave me some great advise, with the elklnut app I expect to bump up our ability to call in rutting bulls
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 21, 2018 •  [Post 12]

Being able to make the perfect sound is not always what it is about. Making the perfect location bugle will not help even when the elk are silent and you are trying to find them, even when they are nearby.

I have told this before, but it can still be useful: On morning about 9:00 I heard a bugle from about 200 yards below my stand. I heard it again and wondered. Awhile later I heard it farther away and down the canyon. I heard it several times before the caller was gone. I could not be sure if it was a bull or a human. About 10:30 I heard the bull again. This time it was closer. Within a few minutes two herds of elk passed by my stand, but both were out of my shooting range. It did not matter. I wanted the bull that was with them. This time I knew it was real. The bull was making those guttural sounds with his bugle that only a bull makes. One herd of cows went behind me on the hillside. The other band was in front of me on the opposite hill. The bull was coming up the draw and right to me. I was standing and waiting with bow in hand and arrow knocked when Mike Slinkard and a friend came out of the trees. He was that bull making the most realistic elk sounds I ever heard. He never knew he had pushed two herds of elk out of the area until I told him what I had seen. Mike was calling in an area where the hunters bugle and the elk stay quiet, and leave when they hear elk sounds.
Know your hunting area and know the elk. I believe you can call elk in my area, but the old run and gun bugling like Mike was doing won't get you close.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Lefty » 05 22, 2018 •  [Post 13]

Swede wrote:Being able to make the perfect sound is not always what it is about.
so very true!

But the right sound can be ( generally speaking)
I posted on this forum about a spike and a big bull I called in. It dd not matter what kind of sounds I made he was just going crazy ( Sept 4th) I even got to the point I made all sorts of sounds and he didnt care, as long as there was a cow call in there somewhere once in a while. The big bull just wondered off.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 22, 2018 •  [Post 14]

Years ago when laying out the boundaries of a timber harvest unit I called a bull using some surveyors plastic flagging. I cupped my hands and pulled the ribbon tight and blew over it. I did that several times out working. So is surveyors tape the go to call? Is cupping your hands in just the right way the secret?
Maybe the secret is to kill a cow and butcher her out in the open. I have had several bulls hang around and bugle while I was butchering.
What I was saying is that the best call in the wrong area, or at the wrong time is useless or worse. That someone whistled or grunted and got a response proves nothing to deter from that point.

Know your area and know your elk.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Joe Schmo » 05 22, 2018 •  [Post 15]

In eastern Wyoming this year it’ll be right around the 7th of September...just sayin.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby CurlyTail » 05 23, 2018 •  [Post 16]

The easiest time to call Elk is whenever they are not pressured by other hunters.

If you can make timely and realistic Elk calls you can and should call often

If your Elk calls are poor, with frequent unnatural sounds coming from your mouth, you should hardly call at all

You need to be realistic with yourself

The easiest time to locate Elk is during the rut
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby ElkNut1 » 05 23, 2018 •  [Post 17]

Curlytail, good points!

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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 23, 2018 •  [Post 18]

From what I observe RJ is a perfect example of a hunter that makes very realistic elk calls, hunts the whole season and has been having no success. Why?

CurlyTail wrote:If you can make timely and realistic Elk calls you can and should call often


I have been observing that calling a lot is often counter productive. The most realistic sounds are often no better that a squeaky gate hinge. Einstein said something close to: "Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is the definition of insanity."
If you have a good call; even a good bite and blow type, you have learned some good sounds and know how to set-up; don't beat yourself up if you are not getting elk one some regular basis. Do what RJ is doing; try something different. Calls are a tool and not a religious utensil.

P.S. A new 2018 grunt tube is not going to put you over the top as the Pied Piper of elk.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Roosiebull » 05 23, 2018 •  [Post 19]

I highly favor the first half of the season, if I'm hunting the last half, I start feeling some pressure, and am hard on myself as to why I have not shot an elk yet... what am I doing wrong, and how do I need to adapt to turn my season around?

I am very self critical fishing, hunting, and working. Those times are valuable, that is a good time to learn and get better. Tactics vary daily, when I'm not content with my success, I force myself to change things, which leads to learning.

Calling, I'm no pro, I plan on focusing on it the next few years. The little bit of calling I do has gave good results, don't know why I don't rely heavier on it. My lack of calling success is directly related to the little I do it.

I think there are people who can call elk in those call shy areas, I know those who do it, amongst all of the guy's blowing terminator bugles every 5 minutes, they know how to approach elk using calls without spooking them with calls, in areas "calls just scare elk off" I'm not one of them, hope to be some day, but I don't believe calls scare elk if the calling is done right, even in high pressure areas, I have seen too much evidence it ain't true, but it's those guys that call in several bulls, year after year, they are savvy to elk language and behavior, and know how to use it all in their advantage.

I rely on learning elk behavior and habitat, and how they use habitat, it's a very consistent technique as well, I think as consistent as calling, but a hunter can never have too many tools.
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby otcWill » 05 24, 2018 •  [Post 20]

Good thread. To the title and the question in the first post: The best time to kill any elk is likely the first day of the season (archery for me). The best (easiest) time to call and kill a big bull is just before he takes the cows from the rags, approximately Labor Day-Sept. 10 in my experience
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Re: When Are Elk Easier To Call?

Postby Swede » 05 24, 2018 •  [Post 21]

Roosiebull wrote:I think there are people who can call elk in those call shy areas, I know those who do it, amongst all of the guy's blowing terminator bugles every 5 minutes, they know how to approach elk using calls without spooking them with calls, in areas "calls just scare elk off" I'm not one of them, hope to be some day, but I don't believe calls scare elk if the calling is done right, even in high pressure areas, I have seen too much evidence it ain't true, but it's those guys that call in several bulls, year after year, they are savvy to elk language and behavior, and know how to use it all in their advantage.


That is exactly correct. It is not about the amount of calls, but selective use of them and timing. It is about knowing the elk in your area.
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