Wolves...I know. This is not a wolf. It's a grouse. I don't have any photos of wolves but I do have some pretty cool audio from last night of a pack of wolves howling in the area I was hunting. It was a little eerie, walking back to the truck in the dark while their howls were echoing throughout the drainage and also really cool. I'm not all that afraid of wolves. The chances of a wolf attacking a human is next to zero. Yes, it has happened. I did the research. It was like one time in the past century in North America. (Coyotes have actually killed more people than wolves in this country.) Although, I was bugling and I did have some cow elk urine on me...
As for what that does for the hunting? I don't know. I will say this; I heard a couple bulls last evening but the wind was blowing so hard and they only let out a few bugles so I couldn't really locate them. While I was walking back to the trail, I saw a small bull heading into an over-grown burn and tried to call to him and got zero interest back.
The elk are there. I see sign every day and about half the time, I actually see elk. What is evident is that they aren't real talkative. I tend to believe it's because of the hunting pressure and all of us out there calling to them. Other's believe it's because of the wolves that they aren't vocal. I've said this before; elk and wolves have co-existed for thousands of years. What is relatively new, is the number of people chasing elk during archery season while they are in rut.
Traditionally, or at least ever since the power bugle came out; hunters would bugle or cow call and they weren't worried so much about making noise. The idea was, that an elk would hear the hunter calling and if they moved making noise, it would just sound like other elk in the area. As long as you were down-wind, you were good. But now, it seems that elk are hyper-sensitive to all noises and scents and sights that just don't seem right.
I'm certainly not saying it can't happen. There is a chance that I'm just not a very convincing caller. However, what you see on TV, where bulls come screaming into a caller is not the norm either--at least not on public land that is accessible. Just about every bull I locate with a call, grabs his cows and heads over the next ridge. They don't want a fight. They don't want anymore cows. They're content with the cows they have and will avoid confrontation at all cost.
Adapt, improvise and overcome, right? What that could mean to some is to find another place to hunt. That's always an option but by doing so, you risk the chance that you run into even more hunters or wolves or waste a lot of time chasing elk that just aren't there.
You could also change tactics. When I was a kid, I read an article in a hunting magazine about still-hunting for deer. The idea was to take a few steps and stop and scan the area and listen. It was a slow process and you didn't cover a lot of ground but it was incredibly effective. You would usually only walk a few steps before stopping. Each step was carefully placed and if you made any noise at all, you would stop and scan and wait a few seconds before moving on.
So my approach has always been to not do anything to alarm them or make my presence know. Every step I take is made with the same intension as if I knew there was an elk in the area that I was sneaking up on. I take a few steps and I stop and I scan. If I make a noise, I hit my lost cow call and I wait for things to settle down. A lot of times I get busted. Sneaking up on a dozen or more elk isn't easy--especially in the timber. And your mind wants to tell you it's a waste of time because you feel like you're looking for a needle in a haystack. I tell you what though, I've walked up on a lot of elk over the years; shooting some and blowing some chances. I have called a few in but they always come in with their hackles up, ready to bust out of there and most often, they grab their cows and run. They don't want anything to do with you.
There's a joke I've heard that goes like this: A young bull and an old bull are sitting on a hill looking out over a heard of cows. The young bull says, "Hey, how 'bout we run down there and screw one of those cows?"
The old bull says, "How about we walk down and screw them all."
Yeah, I know. It's not very tasteful but there is a point. How about we stop running into these areas with guns blazing, or bugles blaring, thinking we're going to get a shot at one of these bulls that wants a fight. Let's use a little tact and maybe we all start getting more chances.
Keep 'em where they live...
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