ORIGINAL: muley96
If your serious about elk hunting and calling you simply must learn to use mouth reeds, there is no substitute. You have more flexability with your calling and can transition b/w bugling and cow calling seamlessly. for the record, I do subscribe to the theory that you must cow call to get a bull in. I get several in with the bugle every season and there is a time and place were the bugling is more effective. The theory that a bugle should be used for 'locating" only is absurd. The most effective way to call is to gage every encounter separately and call according to what you hear. I have simply harrassed herd bulls with a bugle until they couldn't stand it anymore while the cow call did zero. Every situation is different.
Agreed that every situation is different and diaphrams are the best way to call. But most bow hunters (that know what they are doing) use theirbugle very sparingly. Rifle hunting is always different because you just need to get them to show themselves within a few hundred yards.Locate them with a bugle, bring 'em in close with a cow call. If the cow call will not get them in then you start trying to use whatever it takes to finish them. When they are going away youcan try any callto turn them around!A bugle in the hands of someone that does not know how and when to use it,will send the herd bull out of there.
I've been a very successful rifle elk hunter over the last ten years, and I killed my last 3 bulls within 30 yards. This will be my first years to elk hunt with a bow, but if the information that I am givng is bad, I just might have to whoop Will Primos's ass.(Just kidding, I love Will and his crew and use their methods and products!)
