Ep. 5: The Elk that Wrecked My Nap and How to Coax in Silent Bulls
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Hunters and anglers rely on Seafoam to keep their engines running the way it should the entire season. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance.

It's the middle of September and you find yourself in the elk woods. You've got a full week off work to chase bulls around. The area you're hunting is a little bit thicker, but unfortunately, the elk are not making a peep. No bugles to be heard. You know the bulls are there, but you just can't get them to respond. What do you do? Are these elks still callable? The answer is yes.

And I want to go through this week on the effective ways to call to silent bulls. Everything from picking a spot through targeting loner elk, as well as the calls to make and the tools that will help you accomplish the illusion of a herd of cows that will get a lone bull to come in and investigate.

Now when I started guiding elk hunters, one of the things that I found was you really had to call in elk every week whether the elk wanted to cooperate or not. And sometimes that felt impossible. There were weeks where you would bugle and bugle and bugle and nothing would respond. Now that could be because you're hunting too early and the rut hasn't kicked off yet.

Or it could just be that the area you're hunting has had a lot of pressure or the bulls are just quiet. Or maybe you're hunting later after the rut. So I started to really investigate this and try a lot of different tactics.

And I found one that became extremely successful for calling in elk when nothing wanted to make a sound. It started really when I was guiding down in New Mexico. The area I was hunting was pretty thick. There wasn't a lot of glassing and there really wasn't a lot of spots to cover. It was a lot of private land and smaller parcels. So I had to figure out ways to draw the elk to where we were because we couldn't just bash through every bit of country alone.

in hopes of finding them, especially when they weren't making noise. I kind of developed this tactic of calling to those lone bulls, those bulls that are cruising for cows.

Those are also the bulls that are least likely to bugle back. He may not have a harem of cows. He's just cruising. What he's looking for is a group of elk that's already there. So I wanted to figure out ways to target those elk, those bulls that are just cruising for ladies. And the way to do that is through setting up an illusion of creating a herd of cows. One story that really stands out in my mind

I was guiding in New Mexico and I had one of those weeks that just nothing seemed to be going right. I could tell that bulls were hitting this meadow in the dark, but nothing would make a peep and nothing would come out during daylight hours. I could also tell that the elk were using this particular wallow. I decided, okay, the elk are coming from the timbered area to the west and

And this wallows right on the edge of the timber and then it enters into a feeding area. I had yet to see one in daylight hours, but I thought, "Why don't I create an illusion that there's a herd of elk cows out here?" And hopefully draw a bull out of the timber where I could tell the tracks are coming in and out of. I was assuming that if he's gonna go to the herd of elk, he'll probably hit this wallow first. He'll get mudded up, he'll get scented up, and then come in hot trying to impress the gals.

So I put him up in a tree stand that I set up over the wallow because I figured, well, even in while I'm calling, he can have a better vantage from the tree stand and might just catch an elk that's cruising to wallow or even drink because it was fairly hot as well. And then I would go a little bit further out and start cow calling. So I started in the morning hitting a few cow calls and I had a whole slew of different cow calls.

Everything from diaphragm calls to open read calls as well as some of those squeeze button calls. Might even have like a hoochie mama call and then one of the Carlton, what was it, a button call or they call it something like that, in my pockets. Because what I want to do is sound like a bunch of different elk at once. So morning starts out, I give my bugles just to make sure there's no bulls around, nothing replying. Same as it's been the last few days. So I decided to work in my cow call sequence.

Hitting some mews, just standard elk talk. Mew, mew, mew. Going off. A few of those little pocket calls. Nothing. All right. But I'm intentionally calling to a bull that I'm assuming is going to come in quiet. I'm trying to call to the lone bull that I'd cut tracks of that I'm hoping is looking for cows. The morning progresses. It's starting to get hot and nothing has shown up. So...

I'm going to divulge a little secret. This is something I rarely do. I start dozing off in between sets of cow calls because for two reasons. One, I was pretty tired. And two, I just get so impatient. I am not good at sitting there just being patient and calling. Take a little nap. And in between falling asleep, I'd wake up, hit a few calls, go back to sleep. That just kept me from over-calling, really.

So I'm in between call sets. I'm laying there. The sun's hitting me. I'm like, man, there's definitely not going to be any elk right now, but there's really nothing else we can do. So I'll just keep calling. I open my eyes just slightly. I look off. As I open my eyes, there is an elk's foot within half an arm's length of my head. I can just literally reach my right arm out and grab this bull.

I look up and this bull is directly over me. That elk knew exactly where those calls were coming from. He had pinpointed the exact location where I was calling from, yet had walked right to me. Now, the trouble is, I've never had this happen. And I have a bull, his head is literally right above my head. I'm worried that he's going to freak out and start stomping on me.

I do not want him to see my eyeballs. So I'm just squinting and partially freaking out, thinking that he is at any second going to realize something's wrong and stomp me. When I woke up, I must have rustled a little bit because he kind of tilted his head down

So he's got his head down and I can see his eyeball maybe three feet from my face. And he's got his head down and his eye, he cocked his head sideways so he could look at me better. And I can just see his eye sort of bulging out of his head and he's moving back and forth trying to figure out what the hell is at his feet. At this point, I'm literally just praying this thing does not smash me.

And trying to move, not move at all I do not want to open my eyes, I'm just squinting He probably felt or heard my heart beating out of my chest He got a little antsy and trotted off

spun around again, looked back where I was. I just continued to lay there until he moved off. Once he got out of sight, I let a few more cow calls out, snuck around, grabbed my hunter from the tree stand. I was like, dude, this big six point bull was just right here. At that point, I didn't tell him that I was asleep, of course. But so he comes down, we work. Luckily, the wind was good. I get him. We work into the wind, set up again, continue to call and

This time, he actually kind of button hooks around just out of range of myself and the hunter. You say 55 yards, circles around, catches our wind, and blows out.

Now, while we did not get that bull, it taught me two really good lessons. One in patience and one in the fact that those elk know exactly where you're calling from. And that is going to play huge into the way that I set up my calling sequences for lone bulls. If you want to be successful calling to bulls that don't want to call back, it's all in the setup.

you really have to understand the type of bull you're calling to, and then you can really pinpoint the location on where to start your calling because it is going to be a patience game. And you aren't going to get any verbal cues that that bull is going to come in because the bull that you're calling to is going to be a solitary bull. Now, you might think of him as a, I would say, a satellite bull that might be in between herds. That doesn't mean that it couldn't be a big bull.

It's just a bull that's by himself. So the time of year is going to be a factor, but also you really have to know what that bull wants that you're calling to. The reason that he's not calling back is

is probably because he might be a little bit afraid that another bull will just round up his cows, run them off, or fight him off. What he wants to do is he wants to come in silent and investigate first. And that is actually the majority of the elk out there. It's not because that elk knows you're a hunter calling to him. It's because that's what that elk is doing if other elk are in his area.

There's a lot of ways to pinpoint these lone bulls. And there's a few places that you can start your focus on. Let's say it's just been a hard week of hunting. The elk are not making noise, okay?

Where are we going to start? Well, let's pick a time. Are you hunting a little bit earlier in the season? Do you believe that maybe they're really the peak rut hasn't kicked off yet? Or are you hunting what should be the peak rut? Maybe they're just really hooping it up in the middle of the night, but during daylight hours, they're making a noise. Let's start with early. Okay. What are some places that bulls will go by themselves? One of them is wallows.

Now, in areas where a lot of water, yeah, you might be able to sit a wallow, but you may not hit that wallow when you want because you got to understand what is a wallow. Well, a wallow is essentially a perfume factory for a bull elk during the rut.

What they do is they urinate in that water. They roll around in the mud that holds their scent on them. It's a way that they mark their territory, mark their bodies, create a aroma that when they run into that herd, they look beefed up, they smell good, and they're going to take those ladies. But that's also an easy to target elk with this kind of strategy because he is ready to be entertained by your fake harem. You got it?

Another scenario is an area where you're seeing a lot of elk sign, maybe around the edge of a feeding area. If you're hunting more timbered country, these open pockets, these open meadows are probably going to be the spots that the elk are going to be coming out at night. But if you aren't seeing them there in the middle of the day, they're off in the timber.

However, if you create the illusion that the elk are out there now, like I did on that New Mexico hunt, you have a higher likelihood of drawing a bull that's hanging out in the timber out to investigate. These are curious elk that you're calling to, and they want to slip in, assess the situation, possibly pick off a cow to steal on their own with little to no confrontation.

Now, it's not as fun as getting riled up bulls and bugling until your heart's content. I agree with that. There is a patience element that really sucks. And it's hard to be patient in an area where you aren't sure if there's elk. So you really have to pick your setups so you're not wasting your time calling to nothing.

Ways that you do that are areas where you expect alone bulls to be and areas where you're seeing sign, but you just are not seeing the animals during daylight hours. O'Reilly Auto Parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day, I went into an O'Reilly Auto Parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there, you know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. Another great spot to start calling to these lone bulls is areas where you smell elk.

Use your nose to identify the location. That means that they're within an earshot oftentimes, but you might not be able to suss exactly where they are. It's always better to try to get them to come to you than blindly go into cover looking for them. So that's another great setup. And then the best setup is if you spot a lone bull moving on his own, that's the time to employ this tactic, get to where he's going, create that cow sound,

and then draw him in. Those are the bulls that draw in on a string because you've visually seen them. Maybe you lose them in the timber, but you can create this illusion of a harem of cows to draw them in. So now that we've covered the where to call, let's talk about the how. Let's set the scene. You are going to create a herd of elk.

Now, I like to start a couple different ways. The first scenario is if bulls aren't making noise, I like to let them think that, hey, we're just a bunch of ladies looking for a lover. There's no bull here, just a bunch of cows hanging out. And I start by throwing out cow chatter. Now, cows will talk throughout the day. A lot of times as they're moving and then also even when they're just bedded up.

So if I find an area that looks good, I'm going to create the illusion of elk moving into the area and then set up in almost a bedding type scenario. Because it's going to take a while for that elk to come in. And you need to make sure that you're there long enough for him to slip in before he figures out what's going on and leaves. And you don't want to leave before he has time to get there. Like in that story where I took the nap and then the elk just walked right to me.

I gave it ample time that I probably would not have done had I just gotten patient like I normally do and walked off and tried another spot. So I like to create the illusion of elk moving into an area, talking to each other. That's just basic muse. It's not a lot of activity. It's just a lot of back and forth. I got a little call here. I'll just give you a few examples. And this is going to be, you're going to do this while walking in.

And then you're going to set up elk talking throughout the day. Maybe give it a few hours if you really think that this is where a bull should be and you don't really have any better options. Nothing's making noise and you're in an area where you can't really glass it. This is a great setup in mornings and evenings, especially on the edge of, say, a feeding area or moving into a bedding area near where wallows will be. So here's going to be the first example. We're just walking in.

We're moving along and we're just a couple of elk talking to each other. One of the tactics is just changing the direction that you're throwing those calls out. Sometimes I'll even have a couple different types of calls, maybe an open read call or a diaphragm call, throwing out different sounds in different directions. They sound like multiple animals moving through the woods. I'll give it a little bit and then I'll get set up in an area where I'm going to create the illusion of a group of cows interacting with each other.

This is going to be in hopes to draw a bull in to that particular location. I'm going to pick that location downwind of where I'm assuming the bull will come from. And that's really important because a lot of times when they come in, they're going to try to circle and catch your wind or smell the elk first. So you really want a good setup and really decipher, okay, what's the best location where a bull would be? And how do I put myself downwind of there to start my stationary calling?

So we get set up and what I like to do is I like to throw out a few more aggressive, what I would consider the aggressive side of cow calls. Something like cows talking, but also maybe a lead cow barking directions or even an estrous whine, a little bit longer, more drawn out cow call because that can get the bull a little more curious.

Another thing that I will throw out aside from cow calls is even just short spike bugles Something they just kind of says wonder what the hell's going on over there, but not so much that thinks Mmm, I don't really want to deal with that right now Now when I first get set up I'll talk a lot throughout the period of time I'll stop and

I'll give a few calls here and there and then ease up because what you want to do is hopefully catch his attention, but make him want to investigate. If the bull doesn't come in right away, very often will a bull walk in silent right away. However, you have to remember, like go back to that story. If he's within earshot, he can probably pinpoint your exact location where you're calling from.

And that is the key because when you set up in that spot, you just have to be patient and hope that that bull hears you and he's going to come in when he feels like it's the opportune time. Maybe he needs some time to wallow. Maybe he needs some time to think about it. Maybe he's just going to take his time to investigate. But if you're in the right location, it's really hard for a bull that's by himself to pass that up.

There's so many times where I've been hunting on my own or guiding and the weeks just seem unaction packed. But by doing these tactics and these simple little scenarios, I'm able to find success and call in a ton of elk.

A lot more than you'd think when you're talking to other people and they go, man, that was a slow week. The rut's not kicked off. I think to myself, yeah, but I got something in my bag of tricks that's going to work. And whether the elk want to play or not, I know that by setting up that scenario and calling to the elk that's going to come in silent, I can still be successful.

One last little tip to add to this realistic setup, which worked really well for me when I was guiding in New Mexico, and I would really concentrate this type of approach in good feeding areas, is I would essentially set up this illusion of cows by calling near feeding areas.

Now these feeding areas would be bigger meadows. The trouble with that is elk, a lot of times the bulls would circle and stay in cover and look in there. So what I started doing was I started setting up like foldable Montana decoys, one or two off kind of where I was slightly in the timber. So they couldn't catch the whole animal at once, but it gave them a visual cue to come my direction.

That actually really brought in a lot more elk that would cruise and kind of think something was hinky, but that caused a lot more animals to commit to coming within bow range. I would say the large majority of the elk that I've tricked that way, I've had the decoy out because it gives them a focal point. Also, if you're calling, it lets them focus on what they see and not you as the shooter slash caller drawing back, trying to get a shot.

This is also a really good tactic if you're hunting by yourself. Bugling to a bull is my hands down favorite way to hunt elk because it's so action packed, but it's also quite difficult to do if you're alone. So this is a great tactic for mornings and evenings if you are hunting alone because it helps draw animals to you, but also doesn't give your position away if you're using it in combination with say an elk decoy.

Honestly, I've just cut my teeth on elk hunting and elk calling because that's been my main job since high school essentially is an elk guide. Now, of course, I guide for everything else, deer, sheep, what have you, but the main thing is elk.

Because of so much time spent calling elk and just really obsessing with the interactions of elk, I could probably do a daily podcast on tips and tactics for just elk calling for the rest of the year. However, we don't have time for that. Now, seeing that it's the beginning of September...

And I'm hoping that you can take some of this into the field with you. Now, you might run into some scenarios while you're out there that pertain to an instance that you have like a real life encounter in the next week or two weeks or three weeks. You know, what should I have done? Or you might use this tip and have a success.

I want to hear about that. I want the questions and I want the success stories. Okay. Because I tell you the things that I really enjoy about it, but I'm sure that whatever you run into, I've run into it and other people probably have too. So if you have a scenario that didn't work out for you, I would love to hear from you about it. Also, if you have a scenario that worked out for you, we'd definitely love to hear about that. Please send me some photos.

There's a lot of ways to contact me. You can get me at remyatthemeateater.com. This is my email for the podcast. Questions there. And you know what we'll do in the future is maybe grab, compile some of those questions and just machine gun fire answering the scenarios that you've encountered. And then as always, feel free to share with me on social media. I love that. I love seeing people's successes. I love hearing about things that you tried, things that worked, things that didn't work.

Because I want to know that this stuff's helping someone. So I appreciate it. As always, thank you very much for listening. Let's just keep this elk thing rolling. I want to talk a little bit more about it. I don't want to burn it out, but I just have so much to say. And I'm so passionate about calling elk. Now's the time to talk about it. And then we'll jump into some, you know, advanced glassing stuff and some other cool stuff here in the future. But right now, if you're out there elk hunting...

Let me know how it goes. All right. Catch you later. Hey, we're going to take a little break here and talk about interstate batteries. Now, if you're like me, enjoying the great outdoors, you need gear that is as reliable as it gets. That's why I power my adventures with interstate batteries. I use interstate batteries in my boats. I use interstate batteries in my camper. Great for your truck, too. From Alaska to Montana, they're outrageously dependable.

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