Roosevelt soft bugles

[salmosalar]

I saw and heard a few soft bugles from Roosies during archery season. One was a return call to a cow call. That bull was a little worked up. One was from a 5x5 that seemed to be aiming at his cows. The other was sort of random. Does anyone know what the soft bugles are saying? Does anyone use them? I'm not talking chuckles. I'm talking a soft, lower volume high pitched bugle.

[vandeman17]

sometimes those are bulls bugling from their beds

[bullfever]

I've only been archery elk hunting the wetside for 3 years now so take this for what it's worth. I've heard 4, maybe 5, bulls bugle and they were always soft and lazy sounding. The first real bugle I ever heard was a 6x6 that came in to 20-25 yards with vitals covered by brush. His bugle sounded so off that I seriously thought somebody was messing around. Until we saw his antler tips popping out above the brush..

With my limited experience in getting them to vocalize, I generally don't call much but when I do it's soft and non-aggressive. When I do get a response, I'll try to read into it and follow suit.

I'd love to hear what others do.

[Dark2Dark]

I would guess either a lazy bed bugle or just a quiet herding/courting bugle that’s only really meant for his specific cow(s).

I’ll use quiet bugles as a less-threatening locator, if I think I’m in close or if I’m unsure of the size of the bull I’m dealing with.

[salmosalar]

I would guess either a lazy bed bugle or just a quiet herding/courting bugle that’s only really meant for his specific cow(s).

I’ll use quiet bugles as a less-threatening locator, if I think I’m in close or if I’m unsure of the size of the bull I’m dealing with.

Can you expound on how you use it? I had bulls who bugled loud at me run away when I got close too. Would you use it in the last 1-200 yds?

[Dark2Dark]

I would guess either a lazy bed bugle or just a quiet herding/courting bugle that’s only really meant for his specific cow(s).

I’ll use quiet bugles as a less-threatening locator, if I think I’m in close or if I’m unsure of the size of the bull I’m dealing with.

Can you expound on how you use it? I had bulls who bugled loud at me run away when I got close too. Would you use it in the last 1-200 yds?

The small bull that I killed last week was in plain sight and could easily see where my cow noises “should” have been coming from. He was about 45 yards away. I turned behind a tree and made cow noises as quiet as I could, facing directly away from him and using my hands to try to direct the sound as far down the hill as I could. I was trying to make them sound like they were coming from farther away where he wouldn’t be able to see them. It seemed to work. He walked directly down towards me for a bit and then started meandering looking for them (leaving him broadside, eventually). He was small and I wasn’t trying to use bull noises to bring him in for a fight. However, if it was a fired up bull, I would have tried something similar to see if he would have bought the bull being farther away than I was.

The other scenario would be a bull that I couldn’t see yet, inside of a couple hundred yards. I would be making sounds that were not necessarily direct interactions with him, more so posturing towards an imaginary hot cow, trying to get him fired up. That could include the quiet bugles, panting, tree racking, etc. If he got fired up and sounded like he was ready to fight for the hot cow, then I would counter with fighting sounds in return to try to bring him.

The challenge is every scenario is a little different. What works on one bull might scare the next one off. I think the main thing is trying to push their buttons until they are frothing and then match that energy to put them over the edge.

If a bull has cows, I think you often need to be close enough to see them in the timber before bugling aggressively might challenge them to come fight versus prompting him to round up his cows and take off. You have to have a bull that either wants to fight or needs to fight.

[salmosalar]

I would guess either a lazy bed bugle or just a quiet herding/courting bugle that’s only really meant for his specific cow(s).

I’ll use quiet bugles as a less-threatening locator, if I think I’m in close or if I’m unsure of the size of the bull I’m dealing with.

Can you expound on how you use it? I had bulls who bugled loud at me run away when I got close too. Would you use it in the last 1-200 yds?

The small bull that I killed last week was in plain sight and could easily see where my cow noises “should” have been coming from. He was about 45 yards away. I turned behind a tree and made cow noises as quiet as I could, facing directly away from him and using my hands to try to direct the sound as far down the hill as I could. I was trying to make them sound like they were coming from farther away where he wouldn’t be able to see them. It seemed to work. He walked directly down towards me for a bit and then started meandering looking for them (leaving him broadside, eventually). He was small and I wasn’t trying to use bull noises to bring him in for a fight. However, if it was a fired up bull, I would have tried something similar to see if he would have bought the bull being farther away than I was.

The other scenario would be a bull that I couldn’t see yet, inside of a couple hundred yards. I would be making sounds that were not necessarily direct interactions with him, more so posturing towards an imaginary hot cow, trying to get him fired up. That could include the quiet bugles, panting, tree racking, etc. If he got fired up and sounded like he was ready to fight for the hot cow, then I would counter with fighting sounds in return to try to bring him.

The challenge is every scenario is a little different. What works on one bull might scare the next one off. I think the main thing is trying to push their buttons until they are frothing and then match that energy to put them over the edge.

If a bull has cows, I think you often need to be close enough to see them in the timber before bugling aggressively might challenge them to come fight versus prompting him to round up his cows and take off. You have to have a bull that either wants to fight or needs to fight.

That makes a ton of sense. We called one bull in on one day. The next day he would not respond to the same bugle. I bugled (rather than my friend) witha different bugle and he responded. We got close within 100 or so yards. He seemed really fired up, so I continued to go hard. He gathered his cows and ran. I also saw him use the soft bugle to his cows earlier, prior to our 3 hour bugle fest that ended in disappointment and a n odd bugle as he moved away with his 5 cows.

I have replayed it in my head a bunch. I think that he was still shook up from the day before when he was 1 tree away from being shot in the chest by one of us, only to turn and run when he sensed something wrong. Maybe the second time, I should have tried love and not way to draw him in.

I became curious about that soft bugle that I saw him use to communicate, seemingly to his cows. We heard it another day when we had 2 bulls bugling at each other. The One bull used it as he took his cows away. The bulls seemed to be parting ways.

The other time I heard it was as a reaction to 2 cow calls. That bull was close (~100 yds). He had cows and sounded like he raked a little and wanted to come back. We were just on the edge of dark and light on a ridge and could not get the wind right before his cows winded us. It was the only sound he made.

We had a lot of encounters for being on public land. It took a bit of work but I learned a lot this year. No bulls down but damn, was that a fun couple of weeks.

[Jonathan_S]

Any bulll is liable to softly bugle, whether from being bedded or just not wanting to be heard from a mile away. There is no catch-all for how to bugle or how to make one react a certain way. A lot of bulls just don't want to confront another and it's easier to leave with their cows. Most elk can recognize their local bulls by voice and the idea of confronting a stranger - you - doesn't appeal to all of them.

[Reidus]

If I was an elk, I sure wouldn't be bugling very loud with all the stick flinging yahoos running around the woods.

I think It's mostly a result of the elk being pressured by people or wolves or they're near a road and they've become cautious.

[Matth]

I believe that it’s completely elks pacific. We get a bunch of action every year, some of the time interactions are fairly mellow, and sometimes the bull looses it’s bloody mind. One thing that I believe to be true is that the elks memory is not that great. On many occasions we call the same bull in on multiple occasions over the span of several days.