Disclaimer: I'll try to be a descriptive as possible with these scenarios but please understand I can’t cover all the variables potentially encountered in each of the presented situations. For these threads, let’s assume everybody knows what the different elk noises sound like (cow chatter, locater bugle, screams, chuckles, grunts, alarm barks, nervous grunts, etc.). Remember, it’s all about sharing knowledge from experience, asking questions, and perhaps, learning a thing or two.
Scenario: its late afternoon, the third week in the Idaho September archery season and you find yourself on a hillside you hunted a few days before. The last time you were here, you’d received one answer to your locater bugle but no follow on action in that area. You believe it may be a transition area for elk between feed and bed. You have decided to stop short of a tiny finger ridge and throw out a few cow/calf calls to see if there may be anybody interested in joining you for dinner. You get close to the finger ridge, almost to the top so your calls can be heard in the alder bench on the other side, throw out some soft cow calls and immediately move backwards, off to one side of where you’d just called, 25 yards or so to set up. You hear what sounds like brush being bashed on the other side of the finger ridge. A few more cow calls by you, a bit more brush bashing coming from the other side of the little ridge. No bugles or cow calls come back at you from over the ridge, just the brush raking. You give this setup a good 10 minutes and continue to receive the same results. Finally, you decide to work the thermals and get a bit closer. As you crest the little finger ridge and are making your way uphill on an elk trail to gain the thermals advantage, you physically see alder moving below you to the left, about 75 yards. The elk perhaps heard you moving and is responding to what he perceives as the cow he heard? You move 20 to 30 yards more along the sidehill, above the bull and again, set up to do some soft cow sounds. Same response but this time you can see a young bull with pretty white antler tips knocking the snot out of some alder brush, and, pawing the ground. I’ll stop here. What is this elk communicating and what action, if any, should you take to potentially get a shot?
