Elk Tactics 2017 - Episode #6
Date/Time: 20 September, 2017/7:30ish AM
Location: Somewhere in the elk woods
Hunt Pressure Status: Minimal
Hunt: Partner Hunt
Tag: Archery tag; any bull
Sorry, no pic for this installment, just put on your elk thinking cap for this one
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As you're making your way up an old pack trail that runs along the side hill of a huge timbered basin (with gratuitous patches of 10' high alder mixed in), you decide to throw out a few soft cow mews to see if anybody is interested in chatting with you on this fine September morning. You're approaching a benched area on the side hill trail that has a few small meadows and at present time, you're about 1/4 of the way up the side hill (small creek in the bottom) from the bottom on this ascending trail. You set your partner up just below the trail and climb the side hill about 25 yards, knock an arrow, and throw out some soft, sultry cow mews and a few calf chirps.
The formerly quiet hillside now seems to come alive. Below the trail, 100 yards or so farther up the draw, you hear a bull bugle and chuckle 4-5 times on the tail end. Immediately after bull #1 makes his presence known, you hear some hard-hitting grunts followed by a nasty challenge bugle above the trail from bull #2, farther up the draw perhaps 150 yards. Terrain is some open timber pockets with a goodly amount of alder choked patches in between the timber outcroppings. As you make eye contact with your partner below the trail, he gives you hand signs that he sees three or more cows (having some hand signal language with your partner is important) above the trail close to where bull #2 bellowed.
What could these fellas be talking about? After taking a stab at deciphering what these sounds may mean in the situation given, what are your options/plan to get a shot at one of the bulls?