Setting Up

So you’ve waited eleven months since the last time you were on the mountain chasing elk. Now the time is here. You’ve practiced on your bugles and cow calls until your wife threatened divorce (and meant it) and your dog stopped paying attention to you. Just as every athlete trains for a certain event. This is your time.

September in Colorado is like no other place. It can be hot, snowy, or rainy and cold. You never know what to expect. One thing you can expect is bull elk bugling in the high country. The frenzy starts for me the last two weeks of September and continues on into early to mid October. I get out every weekend and every chance I get to try and get a nice bull to respond to my calling.

The day was September 22nd and I was taking a break after a short hike from camp. Overlooking a wonderful valley, glassing a 5x5 on the other side with 4 cows in his harem. He bugled that morning around 0630. I had already passed him in the dark along the trail. I decided not to go back but to continue onward and upward where I heard some fantastic bugling earlier in the month. It was 0830 when I put out a bugle to see if the sound would carry across the valley towards that 5x5. It was a short, high-pitched probing type of sound. The 5x5 didn’t stop grazing. However, a bull up the mountain behind me answered. I was surprised to say the least.

I climbed up, one shelf at a time. Walking randomly, calling with my Primos Hyperlip single cow call. Bouncing the sound off of nearby rock outcroppings. Bugling with my Primos Terminator call when I didn’t get a response. Things were heating up. The hill was steep and covered in a mixture of aspen and Douglas fir. The bull was close but he wasn’t the only bull. There were three bulls and half dozen or more cows. This was the situation I was hoping for. Two satellite bulls kept the herd bull honest while I pretended to be the fourth bull. The elk were near an opening and mingling around in a thick stand of pine above me. They wouldn’t come down for anything. I had to go up to them. The wind was steady in my face, blowing downhill as it does first thing in the morning.

Finally, I made it up to their elevation on the mountain. Then I saw a cow as I peeked above a small shelf. Then a stampede of hooves heading away from me. I thought that was it. But it wasn’t over yet. The herd bull gathered his cows in the thick pine. The satellites tried to separate the cows out of the herd. I got lucky. I stopped on the only flat part of the mountain. A small spring had been used as a nice wallow. The smell of elk was strong. I decided to set up there. I had a cross wind and a smelly wallow to cover my scent. I stood behind an eight-foot pine and directed some desperate cow calls up and to my left. I wanted the bull to cross in the opening in from of me. They were getting use to my calling pattern and sounds. I had to break out my diaphragm call. A bull bugled just inside the trees. He was raking a tree. A mixture of estrus cow calls and short mews was enough to get him curious. I heard sticks breaking as he came closer. My heart started to race. I wondered what would happen next. Then he just appeared, a perfect 6x6. Not 20 yards away and staring right at me. I didn’t move. He studied my outline as I took pictures. He looked up the hill. Where I threw those cow sounds. He turned broadside and walked up the mountain. Still searching for that cow. I watched him walk off as my knees where shaking and my digital camera still taking pictures as fast as it could.

I credit a lot to my encounter that day. The wind and that wallow were a big help. But what broke the ice and got the bull to come in was changing my cow sounds when I got close enough. Jason Cox makes an awesome diaphragm call that I practiced with a lot on my commute to work. I liked the triple call he makes. It was that mature cow sound that convinced the bull to come in close. The combination of different cow sounds made me sound like different elk. By accident I “discovered” this combination of loud and soft calling. It really works. It made all the difference for me.