My Son In Law came out from Oregon to ride along elk hunting with me. We spent four days in the hills. I am old so have been an elk hunter for many years as a guide, outfitter, and meat provider for my family. I cannot recall ever having so many days in a row of so many bugling elk. It is almost impossible to draw a bull tag in our area although Mike Hawk Huston drew three tags on a group tag draw. I can have three cow tags and the idea was to harvest one cow for the trip back to Oregon. We used to spend a week in Yellowstone after Labor day fishing and watching the elk in open meadows do their fall mating rituals. There were no store bout bugles much less cow calls back then (40s) so we made bugles out of garden hoses. I learned a lot about calling elk in those days. This time, the first bull we encountered was a seven point with a 400" plus rack. With him were two six points and a raghorn 5point with two of them even in my bow range. I still get the willies when a monster bull lets out a deep roaring scream! That was just the start as we called in bulls mornings and late evenings every day! One big seven point came in on a dead run to 30 yards before he stopped and made a long and loud challenge. He finally scented us and left as fast as he came in. We hiked one morning to the top of the mountain and sat for an hour as a huge herd of elk climbed out of a valley to the crest and into the heavy timber. There was not a single minute when there wasn't a bull making his challenge. I regret not having a camera and a sound recorder when that happened. We pulled a sneak on a six point bull to withing 10 feet while he was feeding and all I could think about was where was my bow. He smelled like a bull in rut! I believe there are three types of bulls you call to: a herd bull which will answer in a deep voice and you have to go to him which is hard to do because of the cows. There are the wan ta bes, rag horns, smaller mature bulls, and spikes. You have to go to them and be careful as they usually sneak away if your bugle seems to deep! Then there is the bull you can call in and he is ready to fight for the herd bull's harem. Those bulls end up as trophies on a hunters wall. We had a nice six point bull come in 60 yards below us on a steep and wooded hill side. He was there for a very long time displaying his rack, but hung up and not coming closer. While we lay there watching him a spike came in to 15feet and even though he looked us over he stayed until I actually thought of spooking him. When he did leave in big crash, the six point disappeared. We finally got serious and harvested a fat cow for the Oregon folks. Two days later I took my wife back to the mountain and we had two close encounters and some more long periods of continuous bugling! Makes me appreciate being able to have such an experience as most people have never even heard a real live bull bugle. As Pappy says, "life is good"! Bet Pappy won't want another elk hide to tan as the last one was some kind of work! Thanks for reading! A/Ho Joe
