Topic of the week - Locator Bugle

[TheHunt]

What happens when 10 people are all doing that day after day the elk go quiet and come in silent.  Or the elk gets bumped off of a popular bugle tube.  The elk get smart and come in silent to check it out.  Most people have already moved off to blow the next location site.  Elk is safe and gets into the pattern of coming in quiet.

Heck I have even been on the elk and heard a hunter drive up on his ATV.  Wait 5 min then bugle.  THe bull did not even lift his head.  Then the hunter fired up his ATV and drove off.    Seen the same thing with a truck stops, door opens and closes bugles nothing, gets into the truck slams the door and fires it up and off they go. 

Educating bulls is the theme here...  Be careful how much and how long you wait until you move on. 

[washelkhunter]

It can be very hard to tell between a human (good or bad caller) and the real thing.  The external reed style bugles are much easier to detect as they all have same pitch.  Like others have said grunts and chuckles the hardest.

Elk make the darndest noises and do often not sound like the "perfect" bull bugle. If there are some hunters camped nearby and i make a call and get a beautiful response from that qtr i ignore it and move away. If i get a response that ends upsounding like a cross between an out of tune violin and a civil war bugle just dug out of the ground, then i get excited and move up fast.

[huntnnw]

I barely use bugles in NE WA.. I use a very loud cow call a lot to locate elk and works very well

[D-Rock425]

It can be very hard to tell between a human (good or bad caller) and the real thing.  The external reed style bugles are much easier to detect as they all have the same pitch.  Like others have said grunts and chuckles seem to be the hardest for most to reproduce accurately.

Woodchuck, I have some friends in Wyoming that have noticed in the last 10 to 15 years the bugling has decreased.  This correlates with population boom of grizzly bear and of course wolves.  It could be they don't want to give away their location or it could be the fact that the elk population has decreased in these areas.

I agree with D-Rock in that don't over use this call.  I will play it  slightly differentl if I KNOW there are elk there, by using a couple locators (left them there the night before or spotted them from a ways away and it took a while to get there).  Although last year I called multiple times from one area and didn't get a response then I switched to a Challenge Bugle and got a response right below me, so you never know.  I would error on the side of not continuously calling from one spot.


  How about that i do know something the professional call manufacturing agrees with me.

[JPhelps]

Easy!!!

[D-Rock425]

Ok

[JPhelps]

Cow Calls work well as a locator.

A lot of times the bull will respond to you wanting you to come join the herd.  Many times if this is a bull with cows he may be reluctant to budge in fear of losing cows to other bulls in the area.

[zackmioli]

this is a great topic. thanks for this!

[buglebuster]

How well does this call work in washingtons extremely early archery seasons?

[smartazz171]

I think this is a great tip!  Thanks for the tip/ discussion topic.  I agree that guys can screw things up that call from their trucks/ suv or call to much frOm one location and move on to dO the same thing 100 yards down the road.  But as far as wolves,  I don't think so. Studying wildlife biology, I can tell you there maybe a slight chance of less frequent calling around all danger if the sence it. But wolves have been part of the ecosystem for a long time. They have always bugled and always will.  Need proof?  Go checkout the herds in Yellowstone. They still bugle plenty.

For the record, I hate wolves. Yellowstone and the anti hunting hippy's can keep them in their backyards!

[jackmaster]

i am glad you said you hate wolves and the antis, i almost thought you were humanure under a differant name  i think elk are probably pretty wise to the people that call all the time like the experts on here are saying, i know jack squat about elk, i know back in the day my grandpa called elk in on a piece of 1in corregated sink hose, i doubt that would work anymore though

[JPhelps]

In my own experience early season locating is dependant on specific locations, herds, etc...  Therefore I will use this call all season it just may not be as effective as it is later in the season.

The rut is triggered by photoperiod (length of day, but there are a lot of other factors that affect bugling such as when the cows go into estrus, how many cows are in estrus, bull density in an area, cow density, etc...

Many times when scouting the weeks before the opener I will be in an area watching elk and the bull will not bugle or act rutty but rather just tend his cows.  I will move to an area that is a 20 minute drive and that herd bull will be going nuts bugling, chasing satellite bulls, pushing cows and so on.

You can bet that if I cant locate a bull opening morning from glassing or him sounding off on his own I will be ripping off a locator shortly after day break.

[WapitiTalk1]

Great thread idea JPhelps.  Agree with most all that has been said.  IMO, the wolves in NW MT have changed the way the elk vocalize.  Here's one small example.  I was using locater bugles after dark last year in two separate draws.  In draw #1, where I knew there were bulls... I received an answer to my locate two nights in a row.  I didn't hunt this area until 3 or 4 days later (had other skillets on the fire ..).  The third night I threw out a locater bugle, in this same area, after dark.. I received one answer.. from a wolf.. Not gonna surmise exactly what this means in the grand scheme of things, but, it seems when there were wolves present... the formerly vocal bulls didn't want to squeak.  Had a similar but slightly different experience in draw #2.  I glassed an "across the draw" wet opening on a hillside right before dark and observed a decent 5X and a few cows.  He threw out an unsolicited bugle right at dark.  About 30 minutes later, I threw a locater bugle out to see if he, or any other bull's wished to talk back.  Similar to draw #1, I received only a wolf howl.  No elk response.   

Lastly, don't forget to wait, wait, wait when using a locater bugle in the early season in WA (or any other elk state for that matter).  "TheHunt" mentioned this earlier.  The bulls are moving and gathering harems and may or may not be extremely vocal (answering locater bugles) this time of the season (weather, hunting pressure, predation, etc., dependent).  Lotsa different factors affect their early season vocalization.  They do however, like to come in silent to see who this newcomer is, or, they're merely being cautious about answering back (again, due to various pressures, weather, etc.).  Happens to me every.....single......year.  I grow impatient, get ready to move, and "he" sneaks right in.    Looking forward to these weekly threads JPhelps

[briancorneal]

I've had an elk reply (or what I thought was an elk) once to my locating bugle.  I knew there were elk in my targeted area (I spooked them earlier in the day) and after that one call,.....nothing.  I'm getting closer and closer to bagging one as each year passes though.  My 6th year has got to be the charm!

[jstone]

n o6 i had the clockum archery bull tag. We where standing in camp eating then there was a bugle. Sounded terrible. We thought someone was walking up the road bugling. So i bugled back and it kept going back an forth. Crazy it ended up being a nice 6x6. It sounded bad, Ya never know