Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: rtspring on August 05, 2018, 07:11:00 AM
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I was 11 hunting deer with my dad in 346, a big bull walked out 20 feet from us and let one rip, steam coming out of his mouth on a frosty mountain morning! Although it scared the crap out of me. I knew at that moment hunting would forever be my passion!!! Can't wait to hear one here soon!!!
GETSUM
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I was 25 and limping my way into my obsession with hunting after not growing up around it. My buddy put up my stand for me because I didn’t know anything about hunting...he dropped me off and I climbed in there, an hour later bulls started bugling. I blew on my cow call thingie every time I heard it. 15 minutes later what I reckon was a heavy 340ish bull with dark horns and ivory tips ripped a bugle directly below my stand, which meant that his mouth was probably 7 or 8 feet from my face. No BS.
I haven’t been the same since.
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Late 60s? I was a pup in NW MT and my pop got one to answer down in a draw. Loved that beautiful music ever since.
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Much less dramatic for me.
One of my favorite camping spots as a kid was at the head of a big drainage and we could see down it for a couple miles. Used to always be a good spot to watch elk moving pretty much every day. It was mid September and we were checking out the area in preparation for modern deer season in a few weeks and doing a little fishing as well. My nightly ritual of sitting in my camp chair and watching elk started and not too long after I spotted my first cow of the evening I heard a bugle. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and ran to the truck to find my dad's bugle. I'd messed around it with a little over the summer and was sure I could get that bull into my camp, I'd seen them do it on TV after all! Well after my first God awful attempt at a bugle I didn't see or hear an elk the rest of the night :chuckle:
Must have been eight or nine years old.
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Usually by rifle season they are done bugling, when I heard one I thought there's some hunter up the hill blowing his call & a few minutes later see elk legs coming down. Nice 6 point with 4 cows within range but no spikes.
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I am so jealous that you guys can remember your first. I am trying. Hoping it is not an age related thing!
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Long time ago when bear hunting, I was following some sign into some heavy undergrowth down in a nasty hole. Then a big animal was crashing brush coming at me and it stopped a little ways off (I was thinking might be a bear). But then it let out a really loud bugle and I knew it wasn't a bear, but elk. Then it continued to thrash trees and bugle at me until I left.
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It was either 1983 or 84, my dad and I were on our first archery elk hunt, blowing an old "Challenger" bugle, when something answered us. Thought it was a coyote or something, until we saw the shadows from a bull and several cows portraying from the bluff behind and above us. Was absolutely amazing, and have not missed a year since...it's what keeps my blood flowing.
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I was 14 and hunting some grouse and had just bagged my 2nd bird when I hear the squeak of a cow call deep in the woods and then about 40 yards up the hill a bull ripped loose.... the tuning fork in my nether region went off and I've been seeking them out ever since.
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@bullfisher
Ended a hunt after a long day, bullfisher figures the bulls will talk now that it is dark so he lets a cow call out and a bull answers and he had the raspiest bugle I’ve heard to date. He was a little ways out but with in a couple minutes brush was breaking and he ripped off a bugle right in our faces! Scared the crap out of me cause he was coming in hot and we were on a trail with no significant trees :tup:
Can’t wait for my kids to experience their first bugle!
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Geesh, I wish I could! I don't even know the year that happened, man I'm getting old! :dunno:
ElkNut/Paul
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:yeah: I’m with you. I usually remember stuff like that as well. I can’t even remember the first elk I saw.
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I was biking in looking for bear,about 3 miles in i noticed what i thought was stumps in the clearcut ,it was still dark..then I noticed the stumps were moving with me. Holy crap it's a herd of elk,then at the edge of the cut I seen a bull and boy did he scream,it was eerie and cool at the same time. It's always amazed me how close I got to game on my mountain bike
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I was in Eatonville at NW Trek. I had a huge 32oz Coke and a deluxe hotdog with a bag of Lays BBQ Potato Chips. We were being hauled around in the tram when I heard my first bugle. It gave me the biggest goose bumps ever. It was a majestic 12x12 standing in the huge meadow. I knew right then that there would be no secret spots shared
:lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4: :lol4:
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It was 1990, taking a hike with my Dad in southwest Montana. We jumped a herd of about 100 elk from a wet meadow, and as they ran into the timber, a few of the bulls bugled (early in the season for bugles, as I now know). It was a pretty amazing experience.
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I was 15 and I was bowhunting deer in the Willapa Bay area. I was working along the edge of a clearcut and I heard a bull bugle off in the distance. I thought it was really cool. I had a cow call that was meant to stop deer, or maybe calm one down if I spooked it, so I tooted on it. That bull blasted back and within about 5 minutes he was cruising right up the edge of the cut towards me. He got to within about 50 yards and figured something was up and disappeared into the timber. I'll never forget it, one of the coolest moments ever for a 15 year old hunting on his own.
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I moved out here from NH in '89 and tried elk hunting around the Saddle Mountain area and Camp 19 a couple of seasons but didn't at all know what I was doing. I met a guy who turned out to be great with archery and fair with elk hunting, but so much more experience than I. That was around 1998 after we'd moved up to the Couve from PDX. On one of our first seasons hunting together, we set up tent camp above a large bowl with huckles all around the rim. About 2AM, there were at least three different bulls within an estimated 30-40 yards of our tents. Addicted immediately. I didn't get an elk for another couple of years but it's great chasing them around. Plenty of bugles since.
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1975 ish had a Larry Jones bugle drove up to a gate engine idling rolled the window down let out a really funky bugle and 40 YRDS away a rag horn was beded and fired back , this was next to I-90 and Kens truck stop was 200 yards away . Ever since then I have been hunting close to the freeways easy packs out. A real wilderness experience ha ha
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12 years old, up in the hills in Gifford Pinchot with my father. Came around the side of a hill and about 100 yards below us was a big bench with about 25-30 cow elk and a bull. Could barely hear the cows softly chirping but then the bull picked his head up a bit and let it rip. Hooked ever since. Still get chills to the core and goose bumps every time I hear a bull bugle. My mother often tells me I have been after elk since I was born. Apparently as a 3 year old they took me up to the Olympic Peninsula for a camping trip and a herd of elk crossed the road in front of us. My mom says I just kept yelling for my dad to get his gun lol!
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Cant remember the first but can remember the disappointing one, early 80's. Little brother and I were going up this old road and ran into a highway of tracks crossing. We had a slight berm to our left and thought lets follow them. As we started up the berm my brother hears a chirp, signals to be quiet and we peek over. Below us was an old drainage with about a 10' bank on the other side, no more than 30' wide. Full of elk going up the other side. We watched them jump the bank and into a clearing on the other side, funny as he!!. They milled around the clearing and we watched for what seemed like hours. If I were to guess there must have been 30 or more, there were young ones goofing off in the drainage right below us and trying to get up the other side. No Bulls. We waited and waited and waited some more, laying in the wet grass. No Bulls. This clearing couldn't have been more than 70 yd's across and we were pumped, the big boy has to come out soon. Then this Bull Ripped off so loud it rattled your bones. Within maybe 5 seconds the entire herd was gone. Never saw another elk on that trip.
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I grew up in the Midwest, heard my first bugle in the ALW during high buck at about 7200' elevation my 2nd year in WA just 2 years ago.
I was tucked up underneath a ridgeline watching a couple bucks feed their way up a draw. I could hear what sounded like a horse breathing on the other side of the ridge. I crawled up over to sneak a peak and saw a giant 6x6 standing in the middle of this perfect little meadow, with 7 of his cows. He ripped a bugle and it sent chills through my bones. I was smiling like a little kid lol, that's livin' right there!
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk
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Back in "71" 10 years old, back packing with my Dad. Camped at Boulder lake in the Olympics. Early evening laying in my sleeping bag. Bull cuts loose on the other side of the lake.. Still remember the goose bumps......
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I was in a canvas wall tent with two buddies . 5 am
I bailed out of my cot and ran outside in my underware to call back to it.
The guys still rib me about it.
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I was deer hunting in the the old Marble unit around 97 or 98 and while walking through this reprod I heard this crazy screaming sound. What ever it was would scream 2 or 3 times every couple of minutes. I wasn’t sure what it was so I hauled butt back up the hill to where my cousin was and I asked if he heard this crazy screaming sound and he laughed and said that’s a bull Elk bugling.
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Last year in 346 opening morning O'dark 30 on my way in to a spot my BIL, nephew and I scouted. Pretty sure it was this guy. He was all over my cams each morning.
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In Canada at the Penticton game farm.
I was a little blonde toe head and my older brother woulda been around 8-9. Our family was standing on a hillside right along the cyclone fence Elk enclosure mid september. Well my older bro had heard them before and could mimic them pretty good. We heard a big bull let loose a bugle and my older bro pretty much interrupted that bull with his own bugle, that bull turned his head our way, bro let's loose another bugle and here that bull comes SLAM horns right into the fence, momma goes sliding down the hill on her butt dragging me with her.
First time I heard a bugle.
