Anyone read Bugle magazine?

mr-pirk · 02-22-2004, 09:20 AM

I went to Colorado last year and the year before to elk hunt. I had never hunted elk before so I was looking for anything I could read to help me prepare for elk hunting. The fellow I went with has been hunting out there for 8 years and had taken a subscription to "Bugle" magazine. I borrowed all of his back issues to read. It has really struck me that Bugle seems so (i don't know quite how to word it) "non-killing" friendly.
To me Bugle seems to have a ton of articals where the hunter fails to make a kill and if they do make a kill then the hunter seems to be oblidged to drop to his kness and offer a prayer for the feelings of remorse for making the kill......my goodness does the same hunter drop and pray for the poor cow everytime he walks into a McDonalds for a burger?
One artical that bothers me still to today was about how a elk hunter who had invested many dollars and years in trying to get a trophy bull elk and after much struggle and hardship he got his chance but the bull elk was standing at the top of a steep ridge up-hill of the fellow and there was a huge valley on the otherside of the ridge so he wouldn't shoot. So after he wouldn't shoot when he got back around fellow hunters he conducted a informal survey asking who would have shot and who wouldn't. The flavor of the whole artical seemed to be that the fellow was so proud for have passed up a "once in a lifetime" elk on the extremly slight chance that shot he was sure he could make might go off target and fly over the ridge and find that one other hunter that might or might not be in the next valley over......my goodness hasn't this fellow ever been squrrile<sp> hunting??? The same shooting at a target where your bullet might go off target or through the animal and find that hunter a 1/4 mile over...not to mention that bow season often runs at the same time and there maybe a deer hunter two trees over sitting up in a climbing tree stand all camoed-up and hard to see. (I want to be clear..I am NOT advocating sloppy dangerous hunting but I am trying to point out that the flavor of the artical ...the fellow seemed so proud of the fact he managed to find a excuse no matter how slim the odds of something bad happening to not kill the elk).
Most of the Bugle articals seem to focus on non-elk-killing experances and if there is any elk killing there must be atleast a bit of heart felt shame about having killed the elk even to the point of praying about it. It is like Bugle is saying "we are an all-around life of the elk magazine but not a elk hunting and killing magazine....therefore if you want to know how a elk might re-act differently to a white-tail being fataly shot and that elk often don't show any outward signs of a fatal hit therefore you shoot till the animal is down or any number of other aspects of elk killing...then you need to look else where".
And maybe it's just me but Field & Stream seems to be just about as bad. BowHunter magazine is the only magazine I know of that focus's on the killing of a animal in a balanced fashion. I don't mean to rant but it just seems to me that Bugle is trying to be so PC(politicaly correct) that they ignore that hunting involves killing as well as hunting and there should be no shame in legally killing in a game animal.
Mr-Pirk

Jorgy · 02-22-2004, 09:35 AM

The rocky mountain elk foundation is a great foundation, don't get me wrong on this point, but their magazine blows as far as I'm concerned. I'm right their with you pink. If you want actaul elk hunting info you cannot get it there. lots of pretty pictures, but zilch for quality info

BenGarrett · 02-22-2004, 10:08 AM

I am an RMEF member and I really enjoy their magazine.

j3k2c1 · 02-22-2004, 04:39 PM

I like to read my dad's bugles from the '80's. The bugle has really failed in the last 10 years in my opinion. I used to look forward to it, but not anymore.

logs · 02-22-2004, 06:09 PM

The Bugle is not a "hunting" only magazine. It is a magazine about Elk, their habitat, their preservation, the people that hunt them and help to set aside land, reintroduce Elk to original lands and then some hunting articles.

Im an Elk hunter and enjoy the magazine but I don't look to it for Hunting know how.
The are plenty of other mags out there that have good Elk hunting articles along with some great videos on How to , not on watch my hunt.
What I've done for myself over the years is cut and collect articles from all different mags and and create a note book. I browse the magazine racks and if I find good articles then I buy that issue.

Two good videos are Point Blank Elk by Mike Lapinski of RMEF and another how to on calling and hunting by Woods Wise "Real Vocal Elk.
Another that has some great tips is Monster Bulls by Bill Jordan made on hunts with US Outfitters.
Im not recommending anything of Jordan or USO but the video has some good Elk hunting info in it. Further if you like the hunting action you will see it in these.

Im proud to be a member of the RMEF.

j3k2c1 · 02-22-2004, 06:15 PM

I also am proud to be a junior member of the RMEF but the magazine has gone south in the last decade is all that I am saying.

Dave590 · 02-22-2004, 08:31 PM

This might sound a little strange coming from a hunting net member, But I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I have read, or watched hunting or fishing related topics on the television or magazines in the last twenty years or so.

It just does not interest me, so I don't watch 'em or read 'em.

The topics are usually a little on the "surreal" side, so I would rather go out and live my own experiences in the wild without some pre-conceived notion about what to expect.

That might sound a little corny, but I would like to consider my experiences "my own"...and not have someone elses experiences as a "slide rule" to compare against.

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