I was not sure if I was going to say anything about this on open forum or not, but see no reason not to.....
There was a guy I used to hunt with,
that after a close encounter, where I called in a 3pt Bull in the Taneum decided he wanted to try that (calling)
He never really could get the hang of it.
All his bugles were weak and feeble, we would laugh about it.
I tried to help him get "the right sound", but no matter what, he still always had a very small sounding, little off key bugle.
He would walk around, practicing, but never really getting any volume.
Surprisingly, he started getting action, even managed to harvest a couple Elk.
We still kidded him about it, but as he said "it works, so its good enough for me"
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I noticed while hunting in the Manastash, that I was getting more responses from low volume sounds than full voice bugles, as in they would answer a full bugle, but were actually coming in to the low volume ones.
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I talked to a hunter last year that was laughing about hearing "some idiot, calling almost like he was playing a flute"
I do not know if it was a hunter, but I do know there was a herd of elk in the area he heard the noise, as I watched them from on top of ridge feed out into opening. (I was on ridge, they were in bottom)
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I remember watching on one of Angry Spike Productions DVDs, where they had an encounter (I think they called it "The Gate Bull" (?)) that was a bunch of messing around, just playing, and called in a bull.
This was them just playing around, making small bugles and not being serious about their calls.
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Then I noticed on one of Elknuts DVDs, they relate a similar experience, and say it is surprisingly effective.
Where they just squeal out a bunch of very weak bugles, as I remember, they discovered this method by just messing around, joking about a guy that was just like my former partner.
and Bulls running into them.
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Now if it was just me, and my own experience, I would chalk it up to luck.
But as I have observed first hand from my own experience, and see (on DVD) other hunters having the same results.
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I cannot argue with results, and although I will continue to practice sounding as good as I can, with clear high notes, grunts, growls, chuckles, etc.
I will probably take a little time out of my normal routine of sending out location Bugles, lost cow/calf, regathering calls, etc.,
to sit down in a good spot, take out my lunch, and just play around, trying to sound like a lonely spike, or cow that wants to send out a loud bugle, but just does not have the voice for it.
I intend to have my bow ready, as I have been caught by surprise before, and just have fun making strange low volume bugles, non stop for 1/2 hour or so.....
Who knows, it might bring in an Elk with a sense of humour, or not, but worse case scenario, some other hunter will laugh about "the guy out there that could not bugle worth a (?)"
And I eat my lunch.
But I am not there to impress other hunters, I am there to get an Elk within 30 yards of me, if using a "Cow Bugle" works, then I might have stumbled upon a new tool to add to my "bag of tricks", as I never really thought about sounding "bad", on purpose.
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Any similar experiences, or thought on this ?