STOP Bugling (to Bulls), START Bugling (to cows)…

This is just one way of killing elk that's very effective. It's very simple. Everything that I do, you'll find out, is the simplest way to do it, okay? I learned how to call an elk by watching drunk human beings in bar fights. So what I'm here to do tonight is to show you how to humanize your elk calling. If it wouldn't call in a human, it will not call in an elk, and you'll know what I mean here in a second. So again, show of hands, how many people have called an elk in before? So Hunter, how many bulls have you called in? Four, in three seasons? So just for numbers wise, I get to elk hunt literally the greatest elk hunting places in the world. I started calling elk when I was 12 years old. My dad bought me a mouth reed. Here, shorty, go learn how to use this. He never elk hunted, right? But I wanted one of these elk calls. I used a vacuum tube that I cut off my mom's vacuum. Don't do that, right? So I was 12 years old, and I've been calling elk ever since. I'm a two-time world elk calling champion, but I won long time ago. We've got the current champion. You're the current champion, right? We've got the current champion with us, right? So I won back in 2008 and 2010, and all that means is that I was able to impress some judges, and what we have found out in our calling experience is that judges don't maybe know what elk sound like. I've been calling elk for a long time. So I was 12. I'm 48 now, so it's been a while. I've called in a lot of bulls, but now I get to hunt because of the calling that we do is so effective. I have weaseled my way into these billionaire families, and I'm now their elk caller. Well, they just happen to own literally everything, right, for private ground, so all that being said, I get a lot of experience in calling in bulls. So in 2023, I called in 54 bulls to 40 yards or less. Last year was 38 bulls to 40 yards or less. My call-in success rate is over 90%, and I'm gonna show you why tonight. I don't necessarily e-scout. I e-scout with this thing, right? So if I go into a new area, I've never been there before. I will go, and I will go at night, and I will get to the highest location I can in that new area, and I will send out a very high-frequency bugle. Why is it high-frequency? Because that's the one that carries the longest. So when you are doing a location bugle, if you will, the frequency that you're trying to get to is the ringing frequency. It's the one that makes your ears ring, because that's the one that's traveling the farthest, okay? So elk are not supposed to be in timber. They're prairie animals. You take an elk and look at the difference between the sound of an elk and the sound of a red stag. Red stags were evolved in heavy timber. That's why their roar is so much deeper and carries through terrain and through timber, whereas elk bugles do not travel over terrain, okay? Like if I'm bugling, my bugle stops at the top of that hill. If there's a bull on the other side of that ridge, he's not gonna hear me, and I'm not gonna hear him. Bugles do not travel over terrain very well, okay? So when he shows you that viewshed, pay particular attention, because that's how you're gonna figure out your bugling route and how you're gonna find bulls in these areas through the use of calling. Instead of having to go with your feet all the way to the bottom of that canyon, you can check the canyon without ever having to step foot in it, as long as you can see the portions of the canyon that you think the elk are in, okay? So don't be trying to bugle over terrain features. It does not work. You can't bugle around terrain features. It does not work. They won't hear you, and if they do hear you and they bugle back, you won't hear them. So a lot of times, you'll be working a bull, and he'll be going up a hill, and all of a sudden, he stops bugling. He didn't stop bugling. You just can't hear him anymore, okay? So location bugles. I'm gonna go out at night or early in the morning. I'm usually out there about 3 a.m. doing this, all right? So a location bugle, high-frequency ringing tone. You hear the ring in that. It's not something that you can just belt out. You have to be able to find it. So you're gonna work pressure in your tongue. He's gonna show you how to actually make these sounds, but you're working pressure on your tongue until it starts to vibrate differently. What we've seen in slow-motion photography is normally when you're blowing air underneath this reed, it's flapping straight up and down. That's one vibration range. When you go into the ringing tone, when it goes into a figure-eight undulation, you'll feel it in the call. If you're not hitting the ringing tone, you're not reaching as many elk as you could, okay? So I'm gonna be at 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm gonna send that out. If a bull bugles back to me, cool. Now I know there's one in the canyon. My next job is to figure out if that bull has cows or not. So if I'm hearing cows, cool, that means he's got cows. If I'm hearing tending bugles, just little whispering sweet nothings type stuff with no chuckles on the end of it, that's gonna be key. That means he's talking to cows. If you're listening for all these little sounds, if he's glunking, if you're hearing no sound, he's got cows. So it's 3 o'clock in the morning and you're not gonna be going in on him yet, right? You just know he's down there. So elk are usually in the bottom in the mornings and where's the wind going? Going down to them, right? So if you're above them, it's gonna be a problem. So I loop way around them and I try to stay, I keep some terrain on them on the hillside. I don't go all the way down to the level of the elk cause they're not gonna be there come daylight. So I try to stay up on the hill a little bit but way off to the side. So if I have straight down thermals, I'm way off to the side and I don't have to worry about it. You're gonna hear some bugles out of this bull when he starts to move. These are all brand new calls, I just broke out here. So you're gonna hear something like this. It's gonna be short, flutey, no chuckles. That's a roundup bugle, okay? So he's rounding up his cows. He thinks he's rounding up his cows. There's no such thing as a lead bull but there is a lead cow, right? The cows are just going to bed where they want and he thinks he's pushing them. Not usually the case. Her or the lead cow knows where she's going and she just starts up the hill and he'll start behind them doing roundup bugles. High, flutey, fairly short, no chuckles, okay? So that is when I will keep the terrain height on them and then I fall in behind them. Once they've come up the hill a bit, that's when I'll fall in behind them and you'll hear them doing roundup bugles until they get to the bedroom. So you'll hear that high, flutey, no chuckles until they get to the bedroom. So again, if he goes over the hill, he didn't stop bugling, you just can't hear him anymore, all right? So you won't even know till you get your butt up to the top of the hill. You're like, oh, there he is. You got to figure out where their bedroom is and you're going to kill them in a very specific way. No chuckle when he's moving. You'll hear it because it'll start to change. You're like, oh, he's moving. You got to stay way off to the side of them because they're traveling with the wind in their face, right? Thermals are going down in the morning. So you stay way off to the side of them. They're going to get to your level. That's when you just swoop in behind them. Just swoop in behind them. You can't go too fast because if you go sideways on the hill and you get above them, they're going to wind you. So you got to wait and it's kind of tough. You got to just stay patient, stay way off to the side. I'm talking like 400 yards off to the side of them. And he's making those flutey, short, no chuckles, roundup bugles, okay? When that changes, when he reaches his bedroom, you'll hear this. It'll change. It'll be more raspy. It'll be more emotional. That's a bull calling cows bugle. That's a bull talking to his cows. When you hear that, they have usually reached the bedroom and he's trying to get the cows to bed. This is when you go up. This is usually like a third of the way over a ridge. Like a third of the way over is usually, there's usually a bench there or something that that's where they're going to park on for the day. That is when I, behind them, I hear the bugle change. I'm like, okay, they're toward the bedroom. That's when I will swoop up to the side and come in on the same terrain feature or come in at the same contour, okay? Cause then I'm not worried about when the thermal shift is because thermals don't usually go sideways on a hill in the morning, especially. So I'll get up to the same contour and I'll come in from the side. Now, how am I going to kill this bull? Those of you that have called in bulls, I am now what I believe is a hundred yards from this bull. I've moved in. I haven't made any sounds yet, right? I've done my location bugle at three o'clock in the morning and now I'm just ghosting them, okay? Now I've moved up to the same contour. I'm working in from the side. I'm a hundred yards from him. Now what do I do? If you, now this is the most common answer to this question. I know he has cows. When was the last time that you and all your girlfriends got together and talked nicely about another female that wants to procreate with your man that you've chosen? Never. It doesn't happen. Therefore it's biologically incorrect. It doesn't happen in the human world. It doesn't happen in the mammal world, okay? The cows choose the bull. They're very protective of their bull. Bulls don't choose cows because we choose them all, right? The cows choose the bulls. That's why bulls bugle. That's why they have big antlers. That's why they fight, right? They're trying to get chosen by the cows. So for you to go in a hundred yards from a herd and cow call, they will not allow their bull to go play with the hussy in the bushes. It's not the bull taking the cows away. It's the cows taking the bull away because what we do is we go up close to the cows and we become a sexual threat to them. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever make a mature cow sound in the Elk Woods. I don't do it. He's gonna show you how to make that sound. It's one of the most common sounds there is and bulls die every year from that sound. But when you're talking about instinct and what is biologically correct and upping your odds, be very careful to not make a mature cow sound near cows. They will not let their bull go play with the hussy in the bushes. It does not work that way, okay? So cow sounds are out. Thank you very much. What's our next option? If you calf call, you're probably gonna call in the cows. Bull may or may not come to you. He may or may not follow the cows in. So you might surround yourself with a bunch of cows and then they're gonna wind you, okay? So calf sounds are out. Do the bull call in the girls. The bull call in cows, Bugle? Lit ball, you gonna chuckle with it? Not yet, so when would you chuckle? Okay, so you were in law enforcement. You've been in bar fights. You've settled bar fights. You've handled bar fights. If you and I were standing at the doorway of the bar and I said, bro, you got 30 seconds to go in the bar. You have to get in a fight with another male. Cannot use your hands. You can only use your words. What is your 100% strategy? You have 30 seconds, ready, go. You are, you are, of course you would, right? But what do most elk hunters do? They go in and talk to the guy because you're gonna challenge him, right? Well, think about that in the bar scene, right? You're like, okay, I'm doing it. You go in there like, hey, sucker, right? Now he's, what's he gonna do? He's gonna size me up. He's gonna, it all depends on his attitude on whether he fights me or not. Don't depend on an elk's attitude. Depend on their instinct. So if you go into the bar and you bugle with a chuckle, which is a bull to bull communication, chuckling, a bugle with a chuckle is a challenge. It's bull to bull. Bulls don't seem to chuckle to cows at all that I've seen. So I'm not going in there and gonna challenge the bull. I'm gonna go in there. I'm gonna get ready. I'm gonna have my bow. I'm gonna get my feet set. I'm gonna have my arrow knocked. I'm gonna have my release on. Everything is set. And then I'm gonna do the bull calling cows bugle. Remember when that bugle changed from roundup bugle to a bull calling cows bugle? It's short, it's raspy, but the key is there's no chuckles. So if you went in there and just did a roundup bugle, that works just as good. Just don't chuckle. Then you're talking to the cows and he has no option but to remove you from the bar. The bull is not the subject of your calling. You're only talking to his cows. Does that make sense? So in the bar, what would that be? If I go and speak inappropriately to the female that is definitely with this dude, I'm talking to her like, hey baby, you wanna go make a calf, right? And what's he gonna do? He's gonna yell at me first like, hey bro, right? So he's gonna bugle to me. Nine times out of 10, he's gonna bugle with a chuckle because he's talking to me, right? So if I've got a dude and his lady in the one side of the parking lot and another dude on the other side of the parking lot, this guy yells at this lady, this dude's gonna yell at him and he keeps yelling at the lady, what do you think this guy's gonna do? He's coming, he's coming on over, right? And if there's a big shiny trash can in the middle of the parking lot, what do you think he's gonna do? He's gonna kick the crap out of it because he wants to display to show that he's a tough guy, right? So that's what bulls do. Halfway in, quarter of the way in, three quarters of the way in, they start raking a tree, they will display. So when they display, you talk to his ladies over the top of his display. Just do another bull calling cows bugle, you will see their eyes roll back in their head and they have lost their mind. The rage will begin, okay? So when you get in tight on these cows, they definitely have a bull, you only talk to them, short, raspy, no chuckles is the key.