It must be really something to hear an elk bull bugle in the pre dawn hrs...here in Va there is no such thing, hell I rarely hear deer grunting with all the highways and stuff, what is it like to hear...well, nothing...silence..I mean we can go out to the country here and it's quiet, but you can still hear the faint highways or trucks going down the country roads..out west Im sure you can get away from everything can't you?? hear nothing but the wildlife..
When I lived in Montana, I never got enough of hearing elk bugle. We lived 23 miles from a town, we had no noise what so ever so we could hear them from a pretty good distance. It is one of those sounds that will just send goose bumps all over you, or atleast it did for me.
Can't speak about Elk, but having a Bull Moose grunt to return your call and then a Cow joining in brings out those same Goosebumps...
Get over as close to KY as you can get, there are some ELK filtering out of KY and they have some decent sized animals down there. Or sneak up to ELK Country in PA in about a month......:D
Thats the only thing I don't like about whitetail, they're not vocal enough for me. Don't get me wrong, they're still the number one thing I hunt with my bow. It's one reason I love turkey hunting and can only dream about how awesome elk hunting is. To hear a long beard gobble right as dawn breaks........nothing cooler.
Never heard an elk but a turkey breaking the pre-dawn silence with a thundering gobble gives me goosebumps every time!!
There is no way for me to discribe it. It's really intense when it's pitch black and 1's bugling close to you.I can't wait just got my tags today.
To describe it is almost to difficult unless you are one who can put your emotions into words...the only words that come to mind in the pre-dawn in the west....a blessing. You hear no wind, you hear nothing, its just you and the wilderness....which then is shattered with the distant sound of a bugle. No cars, no dogs, no lights, its absolutely amazing...which is why I return every year. Hopefully someday you to will be able to try and describe it....cause I know I still can't after 9 years
I think it's even better post dawn when you have a mean son of a ***** stand 20 yards in front of you. Your dying for him to take half a step. The bull is bulging, chuckling and peeing up his neck.Trees are being ripped from the ground or snapped at their mid section. The smells, the sounds, and the show...yep, it sends goose bumps across your body. There is nothing quite as errie as elk!
A big bull elk is an amazing animal, massive and powerful yet as athletic and graceful of a critter as any on the planet. The bugle is his distinct trademark and no other animal imo sounds as electrifying as elk do. What gets me is the vastly different vocalizations that bulls use to communicate. There is so much more to a bugle than just a bugle. Each bugle has a reason and a message and every bull sounds different. I can't imagine a Fall without elk screaming. One thing I love is hunting whitetails right during the elk rut, listening to big bulls scream while I am trying to ambush a big buck. I often hunt whitetails in the evenings during Sept which allows me to put many a bull and his herds to bed for elk hunts the following morning.
You have no idea how true that is :D As for me, my first experience seeing/hearing a pissed off herd bull go nuts because his cows weren't coming over to him ignited a passion in me that forever changed my outlook on hunting.
I'll never forget hearing my first bull bugle on my first and only elk hunt. It was the first morning of the hunt, the first bull that bugled. When I came to full draw and he bugled down my neck, I could feel the hair stand up . My heart rate increased and it took everything I had to hold that bow at full draw while he stood there staring, bugling, pissing and did I mention staring. Those that were at the NE GTG heard me tell the story at full draw. Amazing hunt. I actually got a chance to call a herd bull in as well. When that SOB bugled, growled and chuckled, I about wet myself. When he came rushing in to 15 yards, thrashing brush, well, there's a reason I pick bull elk as my all time favorite animal in the world thus far to hunt. I wish I could hunt them every year. Those that can, I'm very envious of and in the words of the Terminator himself, " I"LL BE BACK" ! :D
we get that kind of quiet when we are sledding the back woods of the UP, literally not a sound to be heard except your own heartbeat and breathing....... if you could toss in a BIG bull elk bugle at the top of one o fthe ridges it would echoes through the valley and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up... I look forward to the day I get to hear that across some big canyon out west...
