wild guide: cow calling elk
It was a long enough pause to allow me
to put my already drawn bow on his vitals
and send an arrow through both lungs. The
4x5 bull piled up 80 meters from where the
encounter first began and I spent the rest
of the day cutting and packing elk meat off
the mountain.
That same season a good friend of mine
had drawn a coveted late season cow elk tag
and asked if I would join him on the hunt.
I need very little excuse to go elk hunting
and before long we were hunting on private
land in some great elk country in southern
Alberta. However, with all the positives
of hunting on private land, a hunter is at
the mercy of the land boundaries. On the
second day of our hunt, we spotted seven
cow elk, however, they were on the wrong
side of the fence.
It was clear that the lead cow wanted to
cross and she was looking for an opening
or a downed wire in the fence but they
were moving away from our location. Two
hundred meters away we were tucked in
the trees with no way to get to the cows
without being seen. So I grabbed my
trusty cow call and let out a loud chirp.
Loud enough to overcome the blowing
west wind. All seven cows stopped in their
tracks and looked in our direction. Three
more chirps from the cow call and the
cows were soon jumping to our side of the
fence. Single file the cows made their way
towards us until the biggest cow met her
end and lay in the deep snow 60 meters in
front of us. The remaining cows scattered
and for no reason at all, I chirped again
and was surprised to see the remaining
six cows stop and look back to my calls.
I continued to chirp just to see what they
would do. I was able to hold their attention
for a short time until the excitement of a
successful elk hunt overcame us and we
emerged from the trees.
My cow call is the first thing I pack and
my go-to tool when I head afield for an elk
hunt. However, not all elk calls are created
equal. If you want to see the back-end of
elk running away from you, then purchase
bargain-bin elk calls. Do your research and
purchase quality calls from manufacturers
that have spent time in the field hunting
and researching elk behaviors. Also, not
all cow elk sound the same. Have a few
different calls that you can easily access
in the heat of the hunt. If one call isn’t
peaking their interest, or the herd bulls
interest, try another call. Several seasons
ago on a September archery hunt, I was
watching several cows feeding on an alfalfa
field. I pulled out a cow call and gave it a
squeeze. The feeding cows didn’t even lift
their head. I tried a tub call and a few cows
lifted their head. However, when I let out
a chirp from my mouth call, the cows not
only lifted their heads, the small heard
instantly moved towards me and my arrow
found its mark in a three-year-old cow that
filled my freezer with some delicious table
fare for the winter.
On many of my elk hunts a bull wouldn’t
answer my bugles, but he would respond to
my cow calls, especially, in high pressured
hunting areas. Elk are herd animals and
the cows will look for and gather a stray
cow. Satellite bulls would rather go to a
single cow than fight with the bigger herd
bull whereas, herd bulls will try to gather
a single cow and add her to his harem.
It’s amazing how elk will respond or not
respond to these little squeakers and calls,
but a hunter must pay attention to how the
elk are responding. It’s a fine line between
over calling and knowing when not to call.
We’ve all seen or heard of the elk
hunter that starts bugling and cow calling
from the time they leave the truck in the
morning and doesn’t quit until they return
after dark. In most cases, they don’t hear
or see an elk all day. The reason why? In
many cases, elk have seen them and they
have just educated the resident elk. The
elk now knows there are hunters in the
area. Older experienced elk have seen this
before and will have nothing to do with th e
area from that point on or very often elk
will go nocturnal.
In the situations listed above, there
was no doubt my cow call made my hunts
successful. But knowing when to be
aggressive, when to stay quiet, and having
multiple calls and an understanding of
their behaviors to my calls, was the key to
filling the freezer.
Archery hunters need to have a pocket
full of tricks to bring elk into bow range. So
often overlooked is the simple cow call. It’s
packed for every elk hunt but rarely pulled
out though it’s the one call that can really
pull the elk into bow range.
Wild Guide
. Fall 2017
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