Lone Bull...What Do You Do?

[DreaminOf200]

It's the 24th of September (last afternoon of the season) and you find a big lone bull 700 yards away in a pretty stalkable location. Wind is in your face the whole way to him, but only blowing 5 mph or less. Elk have been hit or miss on calling (both cow calls and bugles). What do you do?

We went for the stalk (no calling), got within 45 yards but no shot, and then he eventually busted us. Now I'm kicking myself in the a$$ for not having my buddy stay back about 100 yards to cow call him in instead of putting a stalk on. Lesson learned I guess, but curious to know how everyone else would handle that situation. I did find a sweet set of sheds that I'll try to post up later (350" type), so at least I'll still have antlers to put on the wall!

 

[smitty]

I've had that situation before, though rarely do I have a buddy to stay back and call.

My theory is, if they're not talking, I'm not talking.

You did the right thing, you got in range, it just didn't work out. That's what bow hunting is. A lot of frustration, with moments of greatness.

I had 3 blown stalks this year on bulls, looking back I was very lucky to even see 3 bulls, let alone get stalks on them.

Who knows, you may have cow called and blown him out of the area, or you may have called and had him circle down wind anyhow and bust you.

 

[WapitiBob]

I think you did just fine. You'd be kicking yourself if you called and he walked off.

 

[DreaminOf200]

Thanks guys, that helps. I spotted a 360-370" bull opening morning, got within about 200 yards, cow called at him, and he just turned and trotted off. Wind was good, I was hidden, but he just didn't like it. I think that got in my head and made me hesitant to call at this bull on the last day. Just one of those moments you wish you could try the alternative route and see what happened!

It was a tough hunt...not much talking going on and the elk were pretty sparse. We were able to find some good bulls, just couldn't get it done. Guess I'll just count down the days until next year now...

 

[cmbbulldog]

I think you did it right. That's what I would have done.

 

[nfh]

Part of the game. A guy can take your experience and learn from it. Every year that nice bull or deer just didn't work out

 

[adubs]

I think you did right in this situation as well but I'll add what worked for us this year. We had bulls that were vocal and some that weren't. We would work in close and then either try to close the distance quietly for a shot or if that didn't work we would lightly cow call using the two man approach with one of us staying back. After a couple days and several blown stalks with bulls simply walking away after short exchanges of calling we changed things up. My other brother had an encounter with a good bull that was calling back but always walking away so he put an estrus call out there and the bull ate it up, totally changing his attitude almost leading to a shot opportunity. When he relayed that info back to us that night we tried our luck the next day by mainly using estrus calls with some bugles and we literally had bulls running to us. I had never used an estrus call accept for a couple times as a last resort but that sound was the main difference for us this past season. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[DreaminOf200]

Thanks for the responses guys...glad to hear most would do it the same way we did it. I know it's a live and learn thing, but it can be frustrating at times. That makes two years in a row now the same scenario has happened on the last afternoon. Oh well, one of these days it will come together.

I did try some estrus calls a couple times. One time it backfired, the other time, the bull was interested but wouldn't quite come that last 20 yards...then the wind swirled and he was gone.