Elk Calls

[doghouse95]

I have a friend woho asked me who is making the best elk calls for the buck right now, and where he can find the best instructional CD.
I couldn't answer him. Everything I know about bugeling I learned from different hunters. I don't have an excess of skills or knowledge on thih subject to begin with.
How about some help for both of us. I think I'll get a CD and see what I don't know.

 

[forkehornreggie]

You can't go wrong with Primos. Jim Horn of Primos also has an individual cd.

 

[deadducks]

Hoochie momma very easy to use for cow calls

 

[AZ Jim]

Ditto on the Hoochie Mama call for cows, works great to stop them in their tracks. I have also called in bulls during the rut and used it to locate bulls. It has adjustable pitch settings as well and is easy to use. Cow in estrus, lost cow, and the mew sounds. Just press the bulb.


AZ Jim

 

[Monsterbull]

I'm kind of partial to the Primos stuff too. Hoochie Mama is a must. I also like their pack bugle - sounds like a spike/small bull, easy to blow. I also have one of Abe & Son's Stimulator cow call. Really good tones, but it's a little difficult to change the latex, you have to get it just right. The Jim Horn cd is pretty good, he has good advice on early season calling.

 

[wmidbrook]

I like the primos & carlton reed cow calls these days over the hoochie mama. The bulls and cows have responded a lot better to reed calls than the hoochie where I've been the last couple of seasons....I've pretty much switched over to diaphram calls for squealing, chuckling, and location bugling and some cow calls too. The primos bugles with the blue reeds are easy to pick up. Lohman bought up Abe & Sons so those bugles probably aren't as easy to get ahold of--plus, there are tuning issues there.

Primos has some good instructional videos....some old wayne carlton tapes are good too. There are quite a variety of instructional videos out there and most seem decent from what I've sampled....most suggest you almost exclusively cow call these days.

One thing about those videos is that none are the absolute gospel of calling an elk nor about elk behavior. I was quite suprised by bulls bugling down in southeastern Utah in Mid-November (yes, NOVEMBER) the evening I was butchering my cow...I was surrounding by bugling bulls for 20 minutes or so. I was quite shocked by the unexpected concert so late in the year! I had always thought and been instructed it all shut down in early October.

 

[Monsterbull]

Agreed about the calling videos not being the gospel - I'm no expert by any stretch, but you have to be willing to adjust. In the area I hunt, most of the time bugling only causes the bull to round up his cows and leave. It's happened so often over the years, we generally keep the bugle in the pack and stick to cow calling. But sometimes, the bulls respond readily to bugling (or herd talk). Nothing is sure-fire, find out what works at the time, keep working it, and adjust if necessary.

 

[wmidbrook]

I do think the hoochie mama is not working well in pressured areas these days....I was cow/spike hunting and could tell it was three hunters in the neighborhood because their hoochie mama is obvious....they all sound exactly alike.

 

[smhuntley]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (wmidbrook @ Jan 4 2007, 01:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I do think the hoochie mama is not working well in pressured areas these days....I was cow/spike hunting and could tell it was three hunters in the neighborhood because their hoochie mama is obvious....they all sound exactly alike.[/b]

I think you're right about that. Just about every hunter I saw this last elk season in CO had a hoocie mama. I think I'm going to switch to a different cow call for next season.