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Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to Live Wild podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. Now for those that don't know, Mountain Tough is an online based training app that's designed for hunters to train you both mentally and physically for the mountains. So you can go on. And there's programs designed with workouts that are specifically made to get you ready for the things you're going to encounter out there in the wild. And while a lot of you probably know that their programs are designed to get you ready, they also have programs designed to keep you ready during the season. It really is a year round process to help you be the best you can be on the hunt. For me, a big part of the hunt actually comes after I get out of the field. It's that cooking process of wild game, whether back at camp or at home. And my Yeti cast iron skillet is one of my favorite ways to cook. I'm actually personally a big fan of cooking on cast iron, but it has to be high quality cast iron and there is a big difference. The Yeti cast iron skillets are actually made here in America in Wisconsin and they use that vintage casting method. So what that does is that it yields a hyper smooth finish and you get that non stick barrier. They're also a lot lighter than other cast irons, making them a lot easier to handle. Each skillet comes pre seasoned by hand so it's ready to use right out of the box. And there's four different sizes available ranging from 8 to 14 inches. I've been cooking on mine for a while and I highly recommend it to anyone. Welcome back to Live Wild Podcast everyone. Now this week I'm going to be doing our inseason kind of hunt recap of my most recent elk hunt. I was hunting an area that was incredible area, incredible elk hunting. And as someone who loves to call elk, this hunt had elk calling in spades. It was just a fun time, bugling cow calling and just talking elk. And then as I like to do after, you know, recapping the hunt, I'm going to share a few or at least do like a Breakdown and some of my takeaways when it comes to elk hunting. Well, just even like my, my mantras and the things that no matter where you're elk hunting, it seems to kind of ring true of ways to bring bulls in utilizing an elk call. So let's dive in and talk elk. If you've listened to this podcast for any amount of time, you probably have gathered that I really love to call elk. Like, it's one of my favorite things in the hunting world, really just that, that conversation between hunter and elk and tricking a bull into coming into the call or, you know, employing it as a tactic. Not every hunt, I would say, like, I, I'm also a big proponent of, if you're, if you're finding success, you know, do the tactics that, that play for the season, the, the area, the, you know, what's going on in the woods right then. But yeah, I really enjoy the aspect of calling it a boy. I mean, I've even gone as far as in the past of like, only I love to bugle as well. So like in the past if I cow called the bull and sometimes I'd be like, yeah, that I'm not shooting a bull that I didn't bugle in. Right. I, I just like. And not for any particular reason other than the enjoyment of bulls screaming and drawing in a bugling bull. Like, there's just something super cool about it. It just, it gets your adrenaline pumping. It's like maybe not the easiest way to get a bull to come in, but definitely the most exciting. I could say that for I. That much I do know. I would say that bugling bulls is the most exciting. Like, there's nothing more exciting than when you've got that bull coming in and he's just screaming on the other side of the stuff and you just there it's loud. It's like it's an allout battle. You just kind of become, you know, one with that elk heard in a way. Like, it's just, it's a, it's so much fun. And so anytime that I can call elk, whether it's for myself or get to call for other people, I, I always enjoy the experience. And last week I was talking about hunt that we were doing, you know, kind of like general area. And I, I was calling for Buddy and his family and after that I actually got an opportunity to hunt an area that I've never hunted before. It's a fairly like, you know, this is, this was a first for me because it was actually, it's actually Like a, I don't know what they call it. Like a, like think of it like a land. It's like a landowner tag area is a private land area that, that I got access to hunt. Someone had a tag and gave me a tag. And I was like, very thankful for that, for that opportunity, you know. And honestly, like, I've been on a lot of elk hunts over the years. The majority of my elk hunts, almost nearly all of the elk hunting, guiding, everything that I've ever done has been on, you know, public land, for the most part, general type units or some draw areas. But, you know, sometimes in those kind of scenarios, like, you work your butt off for a couple of days out of the week that might just be absolutely insane. And then there's places where, you know, it's, it's. The hunting's definitely limited as far as, like, the number of hunters and other things. And, and you kind of go into this world of like, it's a rut fest all the time. And, and you know, honestly, like, I was pretty excited to experience that because to even know, like, all right, the tactics that I'm calling, they work everywhere. Do they work in these other places? This particular area didn't have. It's not like giant bowls or anything. It's more like, you know, your average mature six by six, like in the. I don't know, I'd say like the 280 class kind of thing seemed to be the average. And there was some better bulls running around, like 320 type bulls, 330 type bowls, but, you know, for the most part, like just mature bulls, but a lot of, A lot of bulls and like a lot of running activity. And so, you know, my, my plan with this hunt was just to kind of really get in as much calling as I can, right? It's like, hey, if, if they're on fire this week, and this is a really good opportunity to just call till my heart's content, right? And it was awesome. I, I actually in some ways was thinking like, oh, this is gonna be easy. And it. Because there's so many elk, but really I was, I was looking for a certain kind of bull. I was looking for the most mature bull I could find and also wasn't gonna just, I don't know, like, shoot the first nice bull that walked in because I figured I was gonna have fun calling elk. And so anyways, the first day, the first morning we go out, I mean, bulls are lighting off in the canyon below us. Like, all right, there's definitely in. I, you Know, a lot of the places that I hunt, maybe there's actually quite a few cows. It seems like fewer bulls, more cows. Like the. The bull to cow ratios pretty. The bull ratio, two cows is low. A lot of cows per bull, which can be good and bad. I think it's. It's good for growing populations, but it's bad for the fact of, like, trying to lure in a bull with a call when pretty much every bull could go have his own set of 20 to 30 cows. And doesn't really need to. Doesn't really need to engage in the person calling because, hey, there's real elk here, and I can. I can pull one away. But anyways, we. We hear. We get these bulls bugling below us, and so the. The wind is terrible. It's, like, not good. So we decided we're just gonna. We're gonna hold off and wait and see what happens. And. And just like elk do, you know, they. They're. They're bugling, they're kind of chasing each other, and they're moving across the mountain. So as a thermal start to change and start going up, we start to get a better wind, decide, all right, now is a good time to drop in. So we. We drop in above them. It's like the. The country is kind of like a combination of sage and, like, I don't know, aspens and then other hardwoods like maple and, like, I don't know. I guess it'd be like maple and oak or oak brush, stuff like that. And so we. We drop in, and it's. It's pretty thick in this. And then I like. I like thick because I like to call. Right. It's in the thick country. That's your best opportunity of drawing a bowl within range. Now, you might not have a shot, and that's just part of it. Like, getting a shot through the thick stuff is tough, but, you know, they do come in more because they. They can't really just see what's over there. They have to kind of come look. And you can. You can often work your way around cows and other bulls and satellite bulls this, that, and the other thing. So we hear some bulls screaming, and they're just going off. I start throwing out some calls as well, and they're responding to the calls, both cow calls and the bugle, and they're moving across the mountain. So we drop down, get below them, get the wind good, and then they start going up from the bottom, and we're just following them through the thick stuff. It's one of those where you're like, you're constantly kind of chasing, moving, chasing, moving. I'm letting out some bugles and finally it kind of like seems like there's this area where we catch up and they're, they're in there and they definitely stop because I can hear two bulls just clashing antlers together, fighting. And so I move in and start like, set up a sequence of. Okay, there's definitely bulls here. I'm sure there's satellite bulls and other bulls moving around. There's one more mature bugle and then all the other bugles kind of sound the same. And so I start calling challenging this bull that sounds the more dominant. He's down below me, I'm guessing within a hundred yards. And so I, there's actually like this, I finally get to this spot where it's actually open, a little tiny meadow kind of thing. Like just maybe not really a meadow, but just. And the draw is a little more open, like a little bit grassier and more spaced out Aspen. So get there and a satellite bull kind of pops in. It's like one of those where you're, you hear this, you're calling toward this other bull and you look up and it's like, how did such a large animal get so close without me knowing? I mean it was a, it's actually a pretty good bowl. Like it was a, a nice five by five, probably a bowl that I'd shoot almost anywhere. I always try to go for something with at least six on one side. I don't know why, it's like a thing that I like to do, but you know, a nice, like mature type bowl, but definitely not something I was like ready to take the first morning, first bull I call in. So I, I continue to call and as you know, we've kind of got this like rut fest going on of bulls challenges challenging each other. So I started throwing out some cow calls. I actually, there was a, as I was moving in, I actually moved past, like I could hear it below me a cow. And then one of the, that more dominant sounding bull ended up dropping down and coming into the bugle. And I had to reposition a little bit and move down because there's too many trees in the way. And had shots on that bull. It was just, it was a mature old bull, but just a five by five and actually really wide. Like nice, nice five point bull. And you know, I was like a kid in a candy shop. This is like, here's elk that are calling, I'm interacting with them and they're you know, for what it seemed like, fairly callable. I wouldn't say it was easy calling. Like, it was just like calling elk anywhere else. It was no different, I would say, than anything anywhere else that I've hunted and called. It's just that, like the, the action of them fighting over a few cows. Like, I, I actually thought there'd be more cows mixed in with this group. And there was only a few cows and quite a few bulls. So for that reason, I think it just kind of benefited the, the calling game. So the action actually kind of died off and ended up dropping down the hill and all the elk kind of ended up moving off, down, crossing the canyon. So we dropped down and started glassing across and you could hear bugling in the little pockets and pull out spotting scopes and just got eyes on what was in there. And there was, you know, a couple different bulls. Like we saw a lot of elk, a lot of bulls. I'd say probably like 10, 10 bulls overall. You know, a lot of satellite bulls like in this herd. And then there was a couple like the mat. The most mature bull in that group was a six by seven, but busted his main beam like after his third, so after his fourth. So it's kind of missing its whole back end, which was a bummer because I probably it would have been a bull that you'd want to go after, but it just was broken. And so, you know, that we decided to go hike up to the top, circle around and still kind of drop into that side. So we were down in the bottom of the canyon, hiked up to the top, went around and dropped into where those elk were for the evening, see if we get them fired up again. And so we dropped down to the bottom. It kind of died off, to be honest. Like there was some calling in, in whatever, but nothing too crazy. And then ended up seeing a pretty good bull, like a pretty good six point coming down the mountain. And I figured, oh, this bull's, he's. He split off. It's a nice wide six point. I was like, I, I would shoot that bull even on the first day. Like it was, it was a solid 300, 310 type elk. And figured he was just going to go to a wallow. And so there was a wallow right where I was at. So I let out some calls and this bull, like it never bugled back. It just seemed like it was on a mission and didn't come to the calls, like kind of disappeared. So we moved up, couldn't find him. He must, he actually did go up the canyon on the other side, never let out a bugle. And I was making a joke like I don't even know if that bull can bugle. Which it turns out, I think I actually end up running into this bull later in the hunt and I really couldn't bugle. So we ended up working up the canyon and getting this just like ripping growly bugle up in the canyon. So we work up through the canyon and get on, get in there, start bugling. And out comes like this. It was like 120 yards away. He had a bunch of cows. One like old big mature five point, like bladed points and real heavy, just running the show. And he had I don't know how many cows. And it was one of those where you're like, I'm not calling this bull off of these cows. He's probably like 120 yards away. And went out and got a good look at him. And then that was, that was the end of the first day. And it was just, it was epic. I mean that first morning I called in within range at least three bulls. And then, you know, it's just like pretty good action in the afternoon. So the next morning we decided to start kind of where we finished the hunt, where that big five point was, but just go further up canyon. So we get in there, start calling and you know, get some beagles down below us, drop in and, and it's kind of like the same deal, like just a, an absolute like rut fest. Those are those, those days, elk hunting where you're like, it's absolutely perfect for calling only because there's, the elk are just worked up into kind of a frenzy. A lot of bugling going on, a lot of chasing, even some fighting, like all the rut activity and behavior that, that you want to hear. So you know, elk are calling, I'm calling back. It's more of that like call and response. You can tell like the, you know, a bull might. So the way that like I often find you can get elk to call. And when elk are calling, that's one thing. They're giving out a location. They're maybe calling to the cows, but that doesn't mean that you're going to draw them in, right? They're just, they're just telling you where they're at and you're telling them where you're, you're at. And really what they're doing is kind of displaying to the cows that might be around like, hey, I'm over here, come Check me out. And there was one bull that I thought was maybe going to come in, but the wind ended up being bad and there was other elk moving naturally different directions. So the elk go over the hill. It's kind of hard to tell where there was like some like I'm, you know, in the thicker country, you kind of just have to gauge in a bowl of. By its bugle, which works most of the time. In this particular instance it was, it turned out to be like a pretty actually kind of like a younger five point bowl that had the, the meanest, growliest bugle out of all of them. But it led us into an area where it, it was kind of like mid morning now at this point. And it, the nice thing about this mid morning time frame is like in the morning they're like, as it starts to get light, they're feeding the thermals and everything are changing. And then they start this like big movement to where they're probably going to go bed. And during that it's like very active. But you got to be kind of stay on them. Once they get to that mid morning kind of parking up, they almost hold a little bit longer. Like they might bed some of the cows spread out. Some of the bulls maybe have already jockeyed for position. And then some of the other bulls maybe are out on the fringes of it. So that's what kind of happened. They got into this little basin, they're all bedded up in there and, and they're still, they're still ripping some bugles. So my plan was just kind of wait for thermals to get good and then move in on them. Like just continue to move in on them. And so we drop down, we start to edge in and I'm just going in, I'm going in. Oh, so sorry. I was actually sitting there waiting for something like great to happen. And it's like all of a sudden I think one of them hit a hot cow and it just becomes like not, not crazy action to hot cow action. And when that happens, it's just absolute chaos. Like you can hear bulls groaning and bugling and chasing and fighting and like running and you know, it's just absolute chaos in there. And when that happens, I'm like, I got to get in there because it, if I spookable or if something happens, it doesn't matter. It's already absolutely crazy. So we, we dive in there and I just go in hot, hot and heavy with the bugle. There was some elk around that is like, I got to get into the Epicenter of this. And like, okay, bump an elk or whatever. But I'm not too worried about the elk that I'm bumping because as they run off, I'm hitting bugles. They stop because they don't even know why they were spooked. The rest of the elk are running around and it's just like absolute chaos in there. I get into a position where I can see the bulls chasing each other and chasing a cow. And it's like not close enough to shoot and not clear enough to shoot, but I can see what elk are there. And I see a pretty good bull in there. And so I get into position, I kind of play it pretty aggressive and I'm in one spot and know that they're just kind of moving by shy of where I would need to be able to get a shot. So I drop down and move up. When I move up, I continue to call. And now some of those other satellite bulls, like the, the bigger bulls have kind of pushed off a little bit into the denser trees. And the satellite bulls are now coming in, checking me out. So it's that call and freeze and wait for these bulls to move by because you don't want to blow off the whole herd. And then as they move kind of through, you know, continue to try to call to that more dominant bull. So I do that and sure enough, the, the big bull ends up coming in and he's like walking perfect. He stops behind some trees probably like 15, 18 yards and ends up turning and going away. And, and, and so I go into pursuit, try to follow those elk. I'm calling. And now it's like, now the herd's moving off. It's not, not like they didn't see me or anything. It just, this is what, you know, the cows had already moved off and you're like, oh man, I lost that cow, Better go get her. And so they're moving, so they're moving through the timber and I'm calling and end up calling in a satellite bowl. Like five yards in the real thick stuff. Like it just popped out really thick. It was awesome. Just like it was a smaller, it's actually five or six point, but I'm like a two or three year old bull. And that, that was really cool. Like just so much action. And then it just kind of died off. Like they just like it, like it does. You know, you're chasing them, everything seems right. And then you either get too far behind and can't figure out where they went, or they just end up going quiet. But I think that in this particular. I just think that that cow. I don't know if they. That hot cow. Sometimes they just run them, and you just don't know where they end up. But, man, it was just, like, incredible action for the morning. And then. And then that afternoon was. I can't remember, I think, like, nothing particularly crazy. That afternoon or that evening? Oh, actually, no. That. So that evening we go. We change. We go back to the other side or glassy, and we see that. That bull that was hitting that wallow the night before was coming out of a wallow, like, a different wallow in another spot. So we decide. I think I'm like, okay, I think we can cut him off because there's some elk down below. So we drop down the mountain, get the wind right. He's kind of standoffish from the group. There's some other five points and things that just seem to be running the show. I drop down and try to cut him off, but he ends up stopping. I do some calling. He comes in to, like, 60, 70 yards, but there's just trees and spar and doesn't commit. Moves up the mountain and there. Because he had a cow up there. And I kind of pursue, but just run out of daylight. And then that's the end of day two. Just another really good day with a lot of action. So day three, brings. Decided to kind of check out a different area. On the night before. That bull was, like, called him the whisper bull. Because I could. I was close enough, I was calling to him, and he, like, could not bugle. I don't know if his voice was just hoarse or if it just, like. It was like, just sound of air coming out. And so we go to kind of a different area, just maybe an area that has lower density of elk, but maybe, just maybe find a. A better bull. Because it was like, there was a lot of elk, but nothing. It's like, well, it's early in the hunt. Let's see what we can find. Let's see if we can dig up, like, a really good bull. And, you know, it seemed like we'd continued to see the same bulls the first two days, like, over and over. So it's kind of a good indication that you've seen what's in the area. So you're in a new spot and get one bugle off in the distance. I move in, get set up just right, and it's like, call. He bugles, you know, over the ridge. The next bugle is half the distance. This bull's Coming in like, this is a lone bull, probably looking for some other elk. I think this is going to work. So we get set up, tuck in, continue to call, and, like, he's. He's pretty receptive to cow calls, actually. So just continue to cow call. He ends up coming in, like, within sub 20. But I didn't even have a shot at him. It was just too thick. And he came straight in, wheels around, like, sees me, wheels around and gets out of there. And it wasn't a bull that I. I was like, oh, I want to shoot that bull. But it was a nice bull. And so I'm like, all right, Day three, and I've called in about seven bulls. That's pretty good. You know, that's like, that's great. That's good hunting. That's. That's more than you could ever ask for. So they just kind of, you know, slows down or really slows down, going to. Back to where we'd been. And we're just at the top kind of glass and don't really hear anything. Call and hear a bugle, like, fairly close to where we're on the ridge looking. I'm like, dude, I think there's, like, this road at the top. And I'm like, I do. I think this bull is just going to walk down this road. So get set up and start calling. And it's like, I can hear he bugled one more time on the other side. So I reposition him. Like, he's actually not going to walk down this road. He's going to walk through the thick stuff, of course. So I reposition, get on the other side. And I can hear him, like, behind the stuff. And I'm like, I bet you that's that bull, like, the whisper bowl. The bull that just had trouble bugling. Apparently he can bugle. It's just very difficult for him to do it. So he doesn't like to call too much. And he's coming in, and I'm. I'm like, I'm going to shoot this bull if I get an opportunity. And he's coming in face on. He dips down and pops out at, like, probably 23 yards. And it's just like, he's just about to take one more step, and I'm. He goes behind this tree. I've come to full draw. He, like, comes out like he's gonna take a step and then stops and is now, like, quartered to with his shoulder just blocking his vitals. I just need him to take a step, turn a little Bit, whatever. And I'll have a fairly open shot. And he looks. And it's like he almost. I'm pretty sure where we were set up, we just didn't have a good enough backstop. So I had a guy with me filming. So it was like two of us. And that's never as good as just one person. So I'm pretty sure he just, like, saw us and turned around. I continued to call. He stopped behind this big tree. And then I thought that he'd maybe work around that big tree, but the tree had fallen and just like, guided him away from us. And then he went quiet like he likes to do. And so that afternoon, you know, it died off there. So he ended up kind of changing locations and going into a new zone in the new area. It's pretty slow to start. You just kind of worked an old log, like a old logging road, started calling and ended up calling this. This young bull right up to the, like, logging road, you know, in the evening. And then after that, kind of continued to work into the spot where there's these wallows and got this bold of just like, rip some mean bugles down, down in the bottom. And it was just one of these where it's like, you know, you're doing different bugles, different cow calls, seeing what. What works. And I got this bull that just like growls back at us and then didn't really respond. So I switched the bugle up and just start doing like a. A real deep bugle, like, growling bugle. And every time I did that, that bull got fired up like, this is our bull. This. We're gonna call this bull in. We drop down as fast as we can, get into position, like practically running, get up the other side. And I know that he's on the other side. There's like this meadow and he's in the trees on the other side. And I. I get in close and just rip the meanest bugle I could do. And he comes barreling through those trees like he wants to kill something. And it's just like this bull, big old mature, five point. And at this point I'm like, that's a cool bull. I think if I can get this bull to do what we want and come right in to this, this little opening, I'll shoot him. So you can only pass big five points for so long. And so he. He comes in and he's like right behind these trees, and it probably like 15 yards. And then he ends up, instead of like walking out in the open, he turns and goes Right past me at maybe 10 yards and then pops out again at like 40 quarter away. But in a bunch of. In a bunch of stuff, if I wanted to, I think I could have finagled a shot in there. But also I was like, man, if. I think it was one of those where it's like, all right, if he was at six point, I would have shot him. He's a five point. And I thought it'd be like just the epicness of having him scream in our face in the open right there, where I would add a really clean shot, would have been different. And now also, I heard another bugle helped him out. And so I'm like, I just love chasing bugles. Let's let this guy go. And you know, we aren't in a lack of elk right now, but I mean, that might be our. That might have been my best chance. Yeah. To be honest. So continue chasing that other. That other bugle up the mountain. Ends up like disappearing. And it was one of those where I'm like, it must be pushing cows and going around the mountain. So we continue on. Like, it's a. It's a ways and it's starting to get dark. Like the sun's starting to go down and he's still bugling up there. So it's just like, just go. Just essentially chase this bullet so you can at least see what he is. So you've got. I'm like looking at my clock being like 10 minutes left, and we're just being aggressive, trying to get to where we can even see this thing. Ends up being like five minutes left and like moving through past cows and finagling our way up and bugling. And he's bugling, but he just never breaks out into the open. Finally gets to a spot where it gets a little bit more open. There's like three minutes left of legal shooting light. And I move into a position where I can see him. I was like, he's a. He's a good bull. It's the best bull I've seen. It's like a 320 type. Six by six, maybe he was like a six by seven actually, but like a really good bull. It was like, where it's like, it's legal shooting light, but I'm like, it's. He's kind of far. There's a little bit of trees and stuff and Just doesn't seem like an ethical shot. Right. He's like, it's dark. It's getting dark. It's, you know. Yeah, okay. According to sunset and half Hour after sunset, but it's not light enough to shoot. And so we just back out. I just really wanted to get a good look at him. So back out and make a play for the next morning. Get in there the next morning, you know, right where he. We left him. There's another. Like there's a couple smaller bulls. And another bully ended up kind of getting distracted from. Never saw that bull again. And then that, that next day was actually pretty slow. Like it, you know, you go three days of epic bugling, calling in bull action, and then just kind of a screeching halt. Which, you know, that's great. You know, it's like, hey, I'd rather have that than the other way around where it's, you know, three days of nothing and then one good day. So a little bit slow. Had some encounters that evening. Like some bugles end up chasing a bowl. The exact same thing as like right at last light, they start firing up. I move in just to see what it is. And it ended up being a different bowl, but also a really good bowl that evening. And then just kind of got dark. I had him. I had him within range, but there was some stuff I needed to move up like 10 more yards. By the time I moved up and got there, he had already moved past to the cows and. And no opportunity. So once again, I find myself in familiar territory. Last day. I don't know what it is. Like, if I have five days to hunt, I will take five days to hunt. It seems like if I give myself 10 days to hunt, it's like, I swear, if I should go through and see because I probably 90 of the animals that I've taken, I swear on the last day that I've planned hunt, if I just. One of the guys that I work with and is done film some hunts and stuff for me, he's like, dude, we should just do one day hunts. Because if we got one or two days, we always. It's like you shoot it on the last day no matter what. Like that. That seems to be the sweet spot. Just make every day the last day. I don't think I hunt any different, but it's just like the way that the. I don't know what it is. On this particular hunt, though, I didn't. Yeah, I mean, I could have filled the tag earlier, but there was a lot of bugling action. I just. I was just happy calling elk, to be 100% honest with you, you know, and because I was getting so many encounters, bugling bulls, like, it was just an absolute Blast, really to get that many encounters in like that short amount of time. I will say, like, I think it was probably just because, you know, good densities of bulls in the, in the places we were. And then also just like incredible running action, to be honest. Like it was just, it was really good for calling and just getting in, I mean, getting encounters like you did. We. Now I don't want to make it seem like it was super easy because we did work for those encounters, but the frequency of them, you know, it's like, okay, you, you, you know, the bulls were continually bugling. There's like a lot of bulls chasing and fighting and doing all that kind of stuff. So it gave you a lot of opportunity to move in and find elk and, and get on the calls and call in an elk. And man, it was just a lot of fun. But once again find myself in the last day and so end up going into a completely different spot. And it, this spot was like a little more, less like the tighter canyon kind of thing and got some elk bugling up above us. And it was one of these where it's like, okay, well we can work up the bottom of this canyon. The wind was actually perfect. So, you know, work up, work up the canyon and we hear like some pretty deep grumbly bugles going on up there. So as we're moving up this tight like gut, I spot a cow probably like 60, 80 yards out. It was probably 80 yards at this time and I hear a bull bugling back behind her. So I dropped my pack, sneak up to like 60 from maybe 70 from where she was at, and just wait because she kind of disappeared. Now out pops the bull. You know, he's still a ways back there and that cow is working her way toward me. And then she ends up, the bull ends up catching up to her bugling and I'm just quiet this whole time. So this whole time I've been calling out and this is a good bull that walked out. It's the last morning. It's a mature bull, like a eight or nine year old, six point. Well, all right, this is, it's funny like calling the whole time and the bullet I'm probably going to end up shooting. Didn't need to call at all. I mean, I threw out some location vehicles and stuff just to know where the elk were and you know, get responses. But once that cow popped out, I was like, I just went quiet because they were already there doing their thing. And I was kind of within that zone in that bubble and this country was A little more open. So I necessarily didn't need to call until I felt like I, I needed to. And so the bull ended up pushing that cow out. Like the cow crossed right in front of me for the most part about, I can't remember, 50, 60 or something like that. And the bull's there pushing her. You know, I come to full draw and they're about to get out of my window. So I hit him with a cow call. He stops, but I don't really have a shot. There's a bush and he takes a couple steps and I hit him with a cow call again. He stops again. I shoot, I hit him and it was a little far back. So he, as he runs off, I hit the bugle and it stopped immediately. And then I already had another arrow on and moved up and he stopped there. He's looking around. There's other. Another bull comes down right behind him. He's looking at that other bull and I shoot again, put another arrow in him. He runs up and falls over dead right there about, I would say 30 yards from the initial shot. And you know, it's over pretty quick. Which was, which was good. You know, you're always like, sometimes like, I don't know, I really don't know. I'm not going to make any excuses. Like I shot back and whatever, but it worked out, you know, he was down pretty quick, I would say within a few minutes of the initial shot. And yeah, I mean it was like last day, last day bowling and, and some incredible elk encounters. Elk like, you know, it was just a lot of fun to be able to, to call and do those challenges and then, you know, hit them with the cow calls and kind of get in a lot of different types of calling scenarios within, I would say, you know, a fairly short amount of time and actually calling in quite a few bulls. And that's kind of the fun part about getting to hunt a limited entry kind of area or a limited tag area is, is the fact that, you know, less hunting pressure. Often, you know, it, it does, I guess the grass is greener on the other side in some instances where you're like, oh yeah, you get more encounters, which is a lot of fun. Not that I haven't had those kind of encounters and those kind of weeks and those kind of days in over the counter places. But man, it just like it was, it was an incredible week for elk calling and to be honest too, is that, I mean, there's no moon. It was the perfect setup, the perfect scenario and just so much activity. That it was definitely a hunt, that one of those hunts that you dream about, to be honest, because especially as someone that loves to call and interact with elk in that way, to be able to call in a lot of bulls and a lot of elk was pretty awesome. I think one of the things, you know, when it comes to, or like kind of the mantras that I have when it comes to elk calling, elk hunting, any kind of calling really, I guess it doesn't really matter if duck calling or whatever you're doing. I like to say give them what they like. You know, I throw out as I'm moving through the elkwoods. Doesn't matter where I'm at. If it's September time frame, the potential for rut. I'm continually throwing out different calls and I'm seeing what might strike. So I'll throw out a, like a long, drawn out location bugle. Okay. And then as I move to maybe a different spot, you know, throw out some cow call. Sometimes I'll throw that cow call first and wait, if I get a bull to respond to the cow call first, then that's probably going to be the caller. At least it sets up my intention for the way that I'm gonna call this bull. And it might even say, give me an idea of what this bull might be thinking. Because really a lot of elk calling is just understanding what that bull that you're calling to is thinking or what he might be doing. And, and you might not. Sometimes you can get a visual on him some. Most of the time you can't. So you have to understand like, well, what, what kind of elk am I calling to? What, what's this bull? Why is this bull going to call back? And what might draw him into my location? So giving them what they like, he's like, I'll try different calls. Because you will notice that a bull might respond to a certain call, but he won't respond to another one. You know, this, this past week, there was bulls that would only respond to that just growly bugle. And there was others that would only respond to that lighter, weaker bugle. And there was some that just fired off to certain cow calls. Eat through. I was like, the first morning, the bulls that I called in, they really, it was like they. Everything was bugling, everything was whatever. But as soon as I started mixing in like a more whiny cow call, like a longer, drawn out cow call that actually brought the bulls to me, that's the call that they liked that brought them to me. And you could tell the, the way that they were responding to that particular call, it's like it was the only cow call that they would just like immediately bugle back to multiple bulls. You know, okay, well, this is the call that they are liking at this point. You know, take their temperature. You can't treat every scenario like you can listen to an elk calling podcast and they say, like, use this call and use that call. And yes, those calls do work in the right scenarios. But like, if you have an absolute frenzy where bulls are screaming, chasing cows though, everything, you can make any sound in the world and it's like all part of it. Like you're gonna hear a million sounds and it might not call in an elk, but it's not gonna run them away. Now if you do that same kind of calling thing when the temperature is completely different of the elk, it's like, hey, maybe you got a lone young bull. It's kind of like got this weak little bugle and he doesn't really want to challenge. He's just kind of checking things out. But he likes the little calf cow call sounds and like spiky bugles. He's like really interested in that. You know, you start to just throw out like an absolute dominant, growly bugle, cows going on and you might come check it out. Out of curiosity, I've had that happen before, but odds are like, you know, if it's been quiet and it's kind of quiet and you got this one elk responding, maybe that's too much for that particular. Maybe that elk can be called in a different way, but not the same way that you're going to call in an elk when it's an absolute rut. Rut frenzy. So, you know, give them what they like and, and read the, the elk in the situation and what's going on and how that animal is responding to your calls. And then the other, the other thing is, like, I say this a lot when elk are in a, like an, like when they are in that rut frenzy, I'm like, I always tell myself like, you can't. This is probably. I don't know, I say this a lot when I'm elk hunting with people because they're like, why are we. We're being very aggressive. Being very aggressive this elk. And I do this on everywhere that I hunt. When you've got elk that are you. You know that it's like bulls chasing cows within a herd, it's like there's. There's bulls jockeying for a position and this is like a scenario that I run into a lot. Oftentimes, the. The elk are moving, I get very aggressive, I go in hot, I throw out dominant bugles, and I. And I push the limits. And one of the things that I tell the people that I'm with is, like, can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, right? There's a lot of elk around, and we're gonna. And I let them know, like, we are going to bump some elk right now. That's just how it's gonna be. We're gonna push some elk. Not the ones we're looking for, but we're. Some of these cows on the fringes and other things, we're just gonna have to move past them. We're gonna scream through, do it. And oftentimes, as soon as they get out of sight, if you're in a thicker country, they're going to stop because they don't know why they're running. Because we know up ahead of us there's elk doing this exact same thing, running around, pushing other elk. And we need to get to where those elk are so we can draw them into our calls. And so when you're. When elk are in a frenzy, sometimes you have to be aggressive. And there's going to be some elk you're going to spook. You don't want to spook the main herd. You don't want them to catch your window. But some of this elk on the fringes, as you're trying to move in, you can get around. Like, there are times where you gotta freeze and, like, let them kind of move by and then continue to call to keep them calm and get past them. Because once you're in. In striking distance of the bulls that you're chasing or whatever, you're not only more likely to draw in maybe that herd bull, but you're also very likely to draw in all the satellites around. And that's something we were able to do a lot this last week was get in there and, you know, draw in those. Those satellite bulls and those other bulls. And the, the final. The final thought of, you know, successful elk calling and, you know, hunting elk during the ride as we kind of wrap up this. This season of elk hunting is some call. Sometimes the best call is no call. And as somebody that likes to call, it's hard to say, right? I'm like, dude, I just love ripping bugles and being loud in those. You know, what's really fun is going in there. Super aggressive. You know, it's not as fun sneaking in on. On bulls that are Making noise and. And not alerting them of your presence. But sometimes that's the best move. You know, it. I called in a lot of elk over the week, but the one that I shot, I didn't call in. You know, back in the day, I probably wouldn't have shot him. But I don't know. I'm getting soft to the calling. I just like. I like hunting all different ways, and that's a very effective tactic as well, is like, these elk are already calling. I'm shadowing the herd. If it became a point where if that bullet crossed and moved up right, and went out of that shooting lane, it was just situational, I would have absolutely ripped a bugle, thrown out some cow calls, tried to draw that bull back in, and I actually think that it would have been very successful as well. Like, he would have come back, take a look. But it was situational. The elk were calling. I knew where they were at. I. I actually called a little bit before I heard the bugle. Up above, a cow popped out. Now I can stop calling. So you can go from a lot of calling to stopping calling based on the situation that you're in. I knew that I was close enough. I could. There was some ways that I could move in and get closer and position myself and wait and be patient. And then, if need be, time came for it, bust out the calls and initiate a call sequence or a challenge or a cow call to draw that bull back to my location. So sometimes, you know, among within calling, sometimes the best call is to not call. Sometimes you gotta not give away your position right away and just shadow the herd and move in when they're calling. And then it can flip like that. It can flip like a light switch, where one minute it's follow the herd, and then the next thing, something changes, whatever changes. We're reacting to the. The situation in the environment. And then it might be, okay, initiate that calling again and draw that bull back in. I think the major takeaway with, you know, elk calling, and if you're listening to this podcast and you're like, okay, man, the seat. You know, maybe you're. You know, sometimes it's. As we go through and do a bunch of different. We did like a whole elk month on, you know, trying to cover all the aspects of the September season, the times where it's tough, where it's like, dude, I struggled for a week and didn't. Didn't encounter an elk, and what do I do? And then all the way through, man, it's an absolute rut. Frenzy. How do you, how do you. Sometimes when there's just absolute chaos in the woods, elk chasing elk, and it's like that can also be, you know, where they're at. It's not, it's the exact opposite problem you have before and you can still walk out without an elk, right? Because it can actually be very difficult to get an elk in without the right tactics of, hey, maybe you're too timid and you're just always behind the elk when they're doing that or you know, in other situations where he, the elk are real Tim, and you become too aggressive and bump them out and blow that opportunity. I like to cover all aspects of, of elk hunting and all the things you might encounter from the beginning of September through, you know, the end of the archery season. Because the more kind of scenarios that you understand and the more tactics that you have, whether it's for this season, next season, just kind of things to think about when you're out there. Maybe there's some of you that still have a couple, you know, a couple days left of the elk season, wherever you're at, or you know, before it goes into rifle season or maybe some muzzleloader seasons, you know, there's still going to be some activity, some, some action out there, but just understanding the plays to make can make a big difference when it comes to elk hunting because there's so many little things that can, like one little thing can make the difference. Not calling at the right time or calling at the right time can be the game changer between drawing that bull in or continuing to have to chase those elk up the mountain. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. You know, for me it was a, had an awesome, awesome elk season I think from the beginning of September. You know, getting into quite a few bulls and having a good hunt to taking some people out and getting to call in an elk and have some really good encounters that way and then kind of finishing it up with just an awesome like action packed week of, of elk rutting behavior. And for me, I'm actually, I mean, I've got some other elk hunts, you know, coming up as far as like taking my wife out and some family and stuff like that, especially during the rifle season. Actually, I'm, I'm transitioning from elk to mountain goats here. By the time this airs, I will have come back from a mountain goat hunt. My wife drew a mountain goat tag and so we're, we're trading in the calls for the, I guess the trading in the calls for the heavy packs and and gonna go in. We got some. Some weather forecasts that I, you know, the season has been open and I, we probably should have gone in early, but also we had. We had. I had a. Some really good elk hunts planned. And we're like, let's go in October when they're all haired up and we're gonna get some real crap weather, it looks like. But, hey, well, that'll be a. That'll be a story for another time. I don't know what we're going to encounter, but all I know is we're going to. We're going to hunt hard and we're going to love every bit of the suck, I guess, so kind of transitioning into. Into that. But, you know, one of the things when you talk about elk hunting, I think I like to. I like to call out, you know, conservation organization that's dedicated to elk, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. If you guys aren't members, you know, this is the kind of the time like we've gone through Elk Month. You know, there's a lot of people that have had successful elk seasons and are heading out elk hunting. You owe it to the elk to. To join and become a member. I think it's. It's an awesome way to kind of get into that conservation. They do a lot for elk country, access, all those things, you know, so it's an incredible organization, especially not. Not just for elk hunters, but for everybody that, you know, recreates hunts on the landscape. Like, they do a ton for opening up new areas and in other things. So it's a really cool organization. And then another company that, you know, I work with a lot, Silencer Central, they've actually got an rmef. They call it the. The Bugle Banish. It's just the RMEF edition banish suppressor. And $50 of that will go back to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. So if you're like, hey, I'm gonna get a suppressor, that's a way to do it. You can, you can get that Bugle Banish. And some of that money is going to go back to the Rocky Mountain Oak Foundation. And then I think the first 200 of them that they sell, you're gonna get a. If you aren't a member, get a free digital membership to rmef. So that's pretty cool as well. So you can kind of kill two bulls with one stone, per se. So something to think about. If you're. If you're in the need for a new suppressor, you can check that out. And I'm just gonna say until next week. Bugle on. We'll catch you guys later.