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Running At The Bull !!

This encounter took place on Sept 3rd. We had left 1/2 hour before daylight from the rig & started straight up the mountain, we had aprox a 900' climb, near daylight we heard a distant bugle well above us, this encouraged my son & I to push harder & with more eagerness! (grin) The bull was well over a 1/4 mile away & was heading to his bedding area which was unknown to us. This time in Sept. it was light at 6:30 a.m. - We continued on up the mountain without hearing that bull again, we had no idea which way he had gone so started side-hilling towards the north east as we picked up some fairly fresh elk tracks, it appeared to be 4-6 animals. It was a drizzly day so fresher tracks were easier to tell than the older rained in ones. As we side-hilled we would give off a location bugle every 1/4 mile or so in an effort to receive a response from a bull or try to relocate the one we heard earlier. Around 10:30 a.m. we hit paydirt & received a response from aprox 600 yards away, it sounded like a good bull. The mountainside we are on is very steep with an occasional bench & heavily timbered as well as very brushy with willow & alder thickets. When elk are in those thickets it's a real pain trying to get them out or or getting to them by busting through the thickets yourself.

We continued moveing forward side-hilling towards the bugle, the bull bugled a 2nd time on his own helping us with the needed direction. After 400 yards or so of covering ground as quickly as we could we hit the great wall of china! (grin) The dreaded alder/willow thickets that are unbelievably thick! They are 8' to 12' high & grow inches apart for those that are not familiar with them, nearly un-penetrable. The last thing we wanted was to go through it, there is really no getting around them either as they are unending up & down once you hit these thickets. We decided to call to the bull from there to see his attitude, we used a coarse bugle tone, if we could get him going with bugling then switch to cow calls it would be worth a shot! We did just that! After a solid minute of sporadic cow mews & whines with varying pitch & volume with our mouth reeds we finally got him to bugle regularly, this is not unusual during early season. Fortunately we caught him in the right frame of mind.

Now that we had his attention we decided to cow call our way to him, this was a 200 yard feat that we've never done before with such a great distance & the noise we'd make in our efforts to get to him. We sounded like a derailed train going through that god awful thicket. It took us nearly 20 minutes to cover the 200 yards, guys it was flat brutal, fortunately the bull was bugling & chuckling regularly as we kept up the cow calling & moving so slow his way. We needed the direction too as you cannot see anything in this stuff, it was only the bulls sound that guided us towards him. We were giving him what he was asking for, he wanted the cows to come to him!

As we neared his sound we saw the thicket was ending & getting more open, I was shooter this day so nocked an arrow before attempting to exit but still keeping a bit of cover for concealment, I gave two low mews, the bull screamed a bugle in my face at what I estimated to be 30 yards from my ears, I felt this was it & this running at the bull was going to work again! Once I heard the bugle I had his sound pegged, I stepped out ready for the arrow to fly & the first thing I see is a cow, then another & another, all 3 were standing in front of my hard earned prize! He was standing behind all 3 in all his 6 point glory! It was a standoff for about 30 full seconds, the lead cow started moving quickly away in side-hill fashion away from me, the other two cows followed on cue as did the bull never giving me a shot in the mix. I tried stopping him just for a second with a loud cow whine, he didn't buy it for a second! (grin) He walked right out of my life!

We had executed everything perfectly including monitoring the wind, I thought we had him dead to rights! Oh well that's elk hunting, you win some & lose some! (grin) It was a memory builder for sure! Running at the bull can work great but all the pieces of the puzzle have to fall into place! We were missing just one piece! (grin)

ElkNut1

Something else to add to the bag of tricks. Thanks for sharing.

You bet! That's the idea with hunting situations as that one! There are times to get close setup & call them in & times you must go all the way to them! So much is depended on their moods & rut phase. A short evaluation of present situations can help us determine what my be needed to give us best odds for success. Of course there are times no calling at all is the ticket, I find those are far & few in-between!

ElkNut1

Thanks for sharing Paul!

Haven't seen you post in a while, so welcome back if you've been away.

Always appreciate your knowledge. If I can remember only a quarter of what you post here I'll be a decent elk hunter!

Good read, can't wait to try this tactic out next season!

Paul, this is good stuff!

I'm kicking myself for not running at a bull like that this Season.

Had a bull extremely ticked off at me at around 50 yards through the timber, because I bumped his cows.

Thought I could get him to come take a look at me, so I got in a screaming match with him, but he eventually pushed the herd out of there.

I feel that if I had just run straight at him with excited cow mews...I might have had an opportunity.

Best of Luck, Jeff

I took a bull in about the same matter 4 or 5 years ago. He was a lone snuck in through the trees to about 100 yards and was looking. When he did not see the cow making the calls he got nervous and started sneaking away. in desperation I bugled one time and ran straight at him purposefully dragging my feet and breaking branches. He spun around and squared up to face me as I sprinted the last 30 yards to get a shot. I eventually got a broad side shot on him at 40 yards after running around around him.

I am not sure if I convinced him to fight or if he was just so confused by my lightning fast moves and ninja like precision. My cousin who was cow calling watched the entire thing and said it was amzing to watch a guy my size run that fast at and then around the bull.

Sometimes it works. I have tried it one other time and that time ended with a face full of sage and a bull who seemed laugh as he went away.

Thanks guys! I agree nothing works everytime, but when cover & wind is right & the bull is inviting you over we've found giving him what he wants works very good. In nearly every case it anchors the bull right there as he awaits the cow. (you)

coelker, yes sir I too have bugled at bulls & ran right at them, it has worked on both herd bulls & satellites. I prefer the running at them cow calling as this does not represent a challenge or intimidation to him. Each situation my vary so it's up to us hunters to "read the situation" Thanks guys!

ElkNut1

Good to know. Too bad it didn't work out.

True, the bull wasn't taken but in reality the decision we made to head right at him calling as we went so he knew what we were making all the racket through the brush worked perfectly! It was a definite success from that standpoint as the bull stood his ground even after the 20 minutes it took us to get there.

I've used this method several times in the past with very good results & the bull on the ground, this guy escaped because of the cows, I almost felt like putting one of the cows down just because of the effort it took just to get to them. (grin)

ElkNut1

Running at bulls I ve been doing that for years . your mistake was the cow calls . He knew another bull was in the area u called to him with a bugle , he has no reason to come off his cows and come to another cow , just like turkeys he will scream his head off ,wanting u to come to him ,, Another mistake was why go in on a kill with that type terrain I would have waited . how can u shoot inside willows . If u went in and then bugled he would have come unglued and his cows would not be near as he made his way to kick your butt.

i kill um all alone no caller with me ! You guys make this a lot harder then it is

Thanks for your input!Yes we did locate the bull with a bugle but that was 600 yards away as we were running & gunning the area. We knew we would not call the bull away from his cows at that distance so never even attempted. -- The terrain was unreal thick with willows & alders as thick as ones can imagine for the 200 yards that separated us from this bull, this was no place for bugling this bull as it took us 20 minutes to get over his way, we would have just pushed him out of the area if we would have forced the issue with bugles & headed his way.

Getting him to invite this cow/cows was our only reasonable chance to get within bowrange as we knew it would be extremely noisy as we covered the ground towards him. It worked as we had hoped, it anchored him to the spot with enough bugles & chuckles calling these cows he could hear to his group.

We've done this many times over the years with plenty of dead bulls on the ground to enforce in our minds it would work again. There's no telling where the bull may be standing as you make your way to an elk whether your bugling or cow calling him. It's just a part of elk hunting.

Most of our elk kills are done with the use of bugling on our part & totally agree it can be a powerful instrument & we love taking full advantage of it when the situation is right, the one above was not right from our past experiences because of heavy cover & distance involved.

There are situations where ones best odds for success can be had with bugling, cow calling or both, too there are those encounters that do not require any calling & still be successful! (grin) We do our best to "read the situation" & act according to the message being sent to us by the elk we are hearing. Thanks!

ElkNut1

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