Bugle? Do you? and which one?

[Buckrub]

I can hear a hoochie mama coming from a long distance...so can the elk, they sound to sharp for my taste. I bought one but don't use it, infact I have bought just about every call on the market once or twice .

I hear Will Primo Jr. all over the mountains...they tend to all sound the same.

I prefer a mouth piece cow call that I can manipulate to imitate multiple elk.  I have bugled very few bulls in without cow calls mixed, specially the estrus cow call. 

PS: A good club for brush seems to help get em stirred up.

There is no better hype than a screaming bull at twenty yards

[Pathfinder101]

I uniformly suck at all types of calling (duck, turkey, predator, etc..), so I use a Power Bugle 'cause it's idiot-proof.  As long as the rubber diaphram is fairly fresh, it's pretty hard to screw it up.  My boy has been calling in elk with it for me since he was 6 (nothing I could shoot-just branched bulls).
For cow calls I use Primos Diaphram calls.  Blue. 

I actually don't do a lot of bugling.  Usually a toot a couple of times a day as a locator.  If I get an answer, I try to cut the distance between us, set up and start cow calling.

[boneaddict]

I'd just assume not answer that on the internet Yak.  Less likely to take one behind the ear.  No, he was a major poacher. Used a 22-250 and was quite talented with it.   Haven't ran into him in a long time.  He may have lost interest.  Hell, he may be dead.  It was some time ago.  He sure got some dang big bulls though.  It was over on the Colville before they had an open season for them.  He had the police chip in a scanner in his truck so he always knew where the tribal cops were.  He had a NICE truck.  The tribal guys were required to call in every so often because of their remoteness.  Nice guy and quite well known.  He was related to half the people from Inchelium.  Man that guy knew his elk.  He called me in once....quite talented with that PVC.....glad he liked me, nothing like sneaking in with the camera and end up looking down the barrel of his rifle.

[rosscrazyelk]

I know a guy who only uses a tube and his own throat and sounds more like a Bull Elk than any thing I have ever heard.

[Todd_ID]

I know a guy who only uses a tube and his own throat and sounds more like a Bull Elk than any thing I have ever heard.

I have a buddy in Idaho that does this very well.  His track record is impressive, too: 26 years straight of killing 5 point or bigger bulls with a bow.  Plus, he calls in at least 4 or 5 bulls for other people every year.

[Todd_ID]

My personal preference is the Primos Ivory Plate Single for locating bugles and cow calls and Rockie's triple reed for the rest of the bull sounds.  I use Elknut's grunt tube because I haven't found any other tube that gets sounds as close to an elk as it can, and I probably have 10 grunt tubes that I've tried: Primos, Abe and Sons, Carlton, Rockie's, etc., Elknut's tube is simply better.

[rosscrazyelk]

I have a buddy in Idaho that does this very well.  His track record is impressive, too: 26 years straight of killing 5 point or bigger bulls with a bow.  Plus, he calls in at least 4 or 5 bulls for other people every year.

By chance is his name Bret and lives in Moscow?

[Fullabull]

I would say it's not so much the type of bugle you use as much as learning to use the diaphram calls. You can make any sound a bull can if you learn to use the diaphram mouth call, different bugles will just change the tone a little. I bring a couple different bugles with me and change which one I us each day until I figure out which one has the right tone they like. More often then not they like the ones without a chamber on the end. I think this is because you can change the tone easier without the chamber.

I usually use the bugle to make location sounds along with cow talk to get a bull excited enough to respond, then use cow calling to bring them in (single reed calls are great to get them excited).

Last year I was pulling a bull to us from about a half mile away and when he got to a couple hundred yards from me another hunter snuck in and tried to call the bull to him. I could tell he was using a huchie so I hit the single reed hard and the bull had not problem making a decision on which on sounded realistic. He came directly to us but didn't give us a good shot. It was a great learning experience on what a bull wanted to hear.

Diaphrams are the most important call you can learn to use though!!!

Fulla

[Todd_ID]

I have a buddy in Idaho that does this very well.  His track record is impressive, too: 26 years straight of killing 5 point or bigger bulls with a bow.  Plus, he calls in at least 4 or 5 bulls for other people every year.

By chance is his name Bret and lives in Moscow?

Nope....Rory from Orofino...great guy and excellent elk hunter, never wears any fancy camo just whatever flannel shirt he has on for the day

[boneaddict]

Rory Cook?

[Todd_ID]

Nope again...Rory Roby...great guy to BS with around the fire.  More elk encounters than any other hunter I know.  Outfitters and guides included.

[boneaddict]

    The name Rory should strike the fear in all game animals.  RC is the best thing that happened to washington wildlife when he left.  He was/is one hell of a Killing machine.  Same type of demeanor with the flannel shirt.  He is running around in Montana now, but thought that might have been him.  Fit your description well, though I think he is more of a whitetail/muley hunter.   I know hornseeker bumps into him once in awhile with his trad shoots or conventions.  I have a ton of respect for the guy and have never really met him.  It was a personal goal of mine to win the Glenn St. Charles award as many times as he did. LOL.    I have some work cut out for me.   

[Crunchy]

I use elknuts little chuckler.  Great sound, the only thing I dont like is that it is a noisy critter when walking through brush.  it has the constant plasitc sounds everytime it hits something.  I thought about wrapping it up with some kind of tape but dont want to alter the sound it puts out.  Anybody have any experience with it?

[colockumelk]

Diaphrams are the most important call you can learn to use though!!!
Fulla

 

It's not the call that sucks, it's the guy behind the call that sucks most of the time.  When it comes down to it all the bugles are the same.  Their just a piece of plastic tubing.  Some maybe shaped a tad bit different but I'd be most of that is for marketing reasons.  No matter how "good" the call is if they guy behind it sucks it will sound like crap.

 The reason alot primos calls sucks is because they are by far the most popular calls and therefore will have alot more people that suck calling behind them.  Also when most people get into calling they will buy the easiest most popular call that they saw on tv.  AKA the Primos calls.  And yes most of those guys sucks.  Most of your beginners are not going to buy a call made by ELKNUT because they probably have never heard of ELKNUT. 

So saying that primos calls sucks just because you heard a guy calling with one and he sucked doesn't mean that it was the call that sucked.  If you saw a guy shooting a Bowtech or Hoyt and he was shooting like crap you wouldn't say the bow sucked, you'd say the guy sucked.  So why do we blame the brand of calls when it's the guy behind it that sucks?  I use nothing but primos brand of calls, simply because I can buy them at Bi-Mart and when I started they were easy to use and that's what I saw on tv.  But I doubt any of you could hear me in the woods and tell what brand of call I use.  Like Fulla I use a diaphragm call and thus can sound like four different cows and a couple of different bulls at the same time.  The only time you would peg me is when I use my hoochie-mamma to sound like a fifth cow:)

[boneaddict]

    now is it the hoochie mamma that sucks or the guy behind it squeezing it.    j/k