Sound of Music

 

The hills are alive with the sound of music...remember that tune? Well, a different kind of music has been blasting all over the mountains this weekend--bugles, bugles and more bugles!! And they weren't coming from elk.

I got off  the river on Saturday, a little early and decided to head up into a couple wallows I know are within a mile of the trail I travel that I've been hunting the past couple years. Sure enough, another hunter was in there stirring things up with growls and chortles. Eighty-degrees, people. Elk aren't looking to mix it up with other bulls. They want water and food and they might be getting curious but they don't want a fight. Relax with the bugling. 

The next day I went to another wallow that turned out to be a 6 mile hike. I stepped out into a park on my way in and saw these two guys on the opposite side, pull out the Power Bugle and light it up--again with the chortling. Something else answered that I couldn't tell was another hunter or a real bull. I hung out for a little while to see what might transpire and let me tell you, these hunters were really mixing it up with each other. And then a third group of hunters joined the party. I literally watched two kids with a Power Bugle verbally sparing with another hunter with a different, less intimidating call. Both were trying to growl and chuckle and then cow call trying to get the other to come charging. Neither group of hunters knew what they were actually doing was trying to call in another hunter and sending every elk in the country, fleeing to the next county. 

It was Labor Day Weekend, which is always busy when archery opener falls on that weekend so I guess one kind of has to expect that. Once hunters get it out of their system, I hope things quiet down a little bit and we can get back to actually hunting elk and not each other.

And let me just say one last thing; if elk don't talk in your area anymore, don't blame it on the wolves. Elk and wolves have been co-existing for hundreds of thousands of years. The bulls were doing their thing all along. What's changed in the past couple decades is hunting pressure from humans with fake bugles and cow calls. Relax a bit with calling and we all might stand a chance. 

Keep 'em where they live...