Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk bow hunters - ever get close to being stompped by a bull?

Bulls get pretty agressive during the rut, any of you guy's get chased by an elk?

Spot

Not ever by an elk; but I was charged by the biggest of three shiras bulls near Park City, Utah once when I was stupid enough to get out of my truck and walk across a dirt road to get a closer look at them sparring in a meadow. Fortunately for me, I had left the truck door open and the engine running.

Had a gang of six bulls come in to a whistle one time...I was laying on the ground trying to get a pic...Was surrounded...About six feet from the closest....When the camera snapped they all hauled ass every which way....Got a picture.....Little blurry....grin

We had a bull that we had worked on all afternoon pretty much side hill us and follow us out of a clear cut in the dark even after we turned on head lamps and yelled at him he continued to follow us for a hundred yards he was pretty worked up we only got to see him one time before dark and he was rag horn 4 point go figure. The guys in our camp got a good laugh at being run out by monster brute like him but he was so worked up he was not seeing straight

My buddy was doing the calling and I was set up to take advantage of the wind as we thought the bull would try and skirt us to get a wiff and the damn bull turned and came STRAIGHT on to me. I was shooting a 70lb recurve at the time and could not draw as he was looking right at me as he came in. I was hiding (?) between two little pines, crouched down and his nose was 3 feet from my broadhead before he figured out what this huge load was in front of him. Never drew the bow. Man did he explode.

Darn near a religious experience.

Not chased--but run under. I have been treed/chased by cow elk though.........

Had a cow elk pee on me one time too...........

Casey

I've bow-killed alot of nice bulls over some 30 years..
Only ones that 'stomped me' were after they were dead during the butchering-pack out..:)

Here's a fun <older> tale on elk wrasslin' which has a few tips if ya ever get one too close..:) Jim

http://home.att.net/~sajackson/elkwrassling.html

Met a guy up in the mountains bowhunting one time. He was a local and told me how him and his wife was out bowhunting and she decided to squat and take a whiz. He was 6 or 7 yards down from her, tooting on a cow call (just messing around, he said) and a nice 6-point bull came up to his wife and stretched his nose out within a foot or two getting a good whiff. He couldn't shoot because his wife was between him and the bull, but it made for some heart pounding excitement.

After that, he said, he could never get her to go hunting with him again.

Now that would have made a good u-tube video.

That there is a hilarious read...

Yes, If I would not have been on the back side of a very small blow down I think I would have gotten stomped.

This bull was worked up into a frenzy. He had broken BOTH main beams off above the eye guards. I had cow called him in and passed on a 5 yard shot because of the broken antlers.

After he left I bugled at him just to see. He came charging back at me. The front hoof skid marks were 5 feet from where I was kneeling. He stopped and bugled and I was looking down his throat. He chuckled and pissed, and I dang near got a shower.
I could see the whites or his eyes. His expression was shear anger.

At this point, if he would've given me another shot opportunity, I would have taken it in self defense. He spun and tore out of there when another bull bugled just over the ridge about 100 yards away.

I got up and tried to walk away, but the adrenaline was too much. I eventually calmed down and walked back down the ridge a couple hundreds yards with my partner.

A short while later, I had a third encounter with this same bull. He came running by me and my partner at about 10 yards. He was chasing a cow down the ridge.

I'll never forget that morning.

Buffhunter, That tale about the sound of the fella's wife taking a whizz made me smile.
I have called bulls in more than once doing cow calls and IF they hold up out of range or in cover, I poor my canteen out on the ground..The sound of the water hitting the ground with cow talk accompanying usually takes the hesitant bull over the edge and he'll come in..:) Jim

I grew up in PA but went to college at Arizona State. I only ever hunted deer. My first fall at ASU, I decided to put in for an elk tag and got drawn for an archery bull. My VERY first day out elk hunting I just walked until I found what seemed like an "elky" area. I smelled something too that seemed to me might be elk but I didn't know (It actually was a wallow nearby). Anyway, I knelt down behind a fallen tree and and called a couple of times. The shock of my life came when a bull answered in front of me. I bugled again and it was closer! I bugled a third time and I heard him running in. He got to about 40 yards and hung up. He trashed a tree and then bugled a couple of times. I was about to burst that I couldn't get off a good shot. About this time I heard a stick break close behind me and a yipping sound. My first thought was a coyote that was too close, so I spun around on one knee and drew my bow at the same time. I ended up looking at a bigger bull charging in! When I moved, he stopped at only 3 steps. In my mind I was ready for a little coyote, not a bull elk! My first thought was to throw the bow at the elk and run - I didn't. He turned broadside as if to run but just stood there looking at the other bull and gave a loud bugle, then trotted off with his cows. It wasn't until after the herd left I realized I had a perfect opportunity at a big bull and didn't shoot even though I was at full draw with the bull broadside at 3 paces! Oh, to repeat that situation now that I'm more experienced. I have been an elk addict ever since. I realized later that the second bull was probably coming in to chase off the first bull. He had no idea I was there until I moved.

RH

These are great stories, I hope someday I get a chance to hunt elk.

How hard is it to call in an elk like that? Can anyone buy a cow call or bull call and with a little practice fool a bull, or can only guys who have worked at it for a while fool bulls on a regular basis?

I watch people bow hunting elk on the tube, that looks like the most exciting and fun form of hunting out there.

It was just beginners luck with me. Bugling at the time was fairly new and cow calls didn't really exist - that I knew about. Elk are much more aware now. Although if you get way in, you'll experience untrained elk. There are still plenty of areas, it's just more work or $$$. It is still fun. I hunt CO a lot now and you here elk bugling but they don't readily come in to calls on public land.

BTW, I never did get a shot at a bull the rest of the season. It is my most memorable though.

RH

Amazing that you were three feet away at full draw, and didn't think to shoot.

I saw one hunt on TV where a guy actually shot up at an elk from about three feet from his knees, and as the elk jumped and ran, he dropped his bow fell over and just laid there.

Jim in OR:

Pouring water on the ground seems like a neat idea. I've heard of guides pulling grass with their hands to sound like elk grazing, but the H2O is a new one on me. Thanks for the tip!
(Course in OR you probably got more water than we do here in CO!).

Those are two really good tips.

Last year I found a matching set of six point antlers. I'd never seen anyone do it before, but I raked them against each other as if I was trying to rattle in a whitetail. Then I used them to work over a five inch thick blue spruce while mixing in a little Hoochie Momma. Worked unbelievably well--within five minutes I was shooting at elk.

Has anyone else out there had any experience rattling in bulls?

mozey,We have used all sorts of unorthodox tactics to get bulls to get out of cover and come in that final few yards so they could be shot..:)

I've 'hucked' fist-sized rocks a few yards (sounds like elk footfalls) and thrown sticks and ferns and grass into the air while shaking and beating saplings with a dead limb in a thicket..( like rattling-raking)

Elk have good eyes..and sometimes bugling, cow calling and grunting ain't enough..they need to 'see-hear' something to fire them up sometimes...Jim

We have tried all kinds of stuff from tying a rope on reprod and pulling so it looks like a elk raking to using horns to rattle. The water trick is not one that we have tried yet but I think I will put that under my camp thanks it is a good tip. Rolling rocks to try sound like elk on a hill we have done that. I was once told by a guide that if elk jump a fence take and grab hold of it and shake it and use calf call to squeel he has killed 2 bulls coming back to see what happened to the calf. Lately we have trying the decoy we have had mixed luck in the coast range but I would love to try it in Eastern Oregon. Actually a good topic it interesting to hear what others have done..

Hunting the Roosevelt elk west of the Cascades in Oregon or Washington poses some different challenges from the RM elk in eastern ORE-WA, CO, AZ, NM.
They have plenty of water, plenty of cover and food and comparatively speaking, are 'fat & lazy'..:)
They go from bed to breakfast in a far smaller home acreage than the RM elk..sometimes a metter of 1000 yards or less.
Terrain is steep, thick, tangled at times and long shot ops are the exception rather than the rule.
Many areas were logged from the tops of the drainages and so there are not even any old skidder trails down below..Many walk in areas only..

The country being more humid and covered with trees and secondary growth, absorbs what bugling-squealing the Rosies do so one can be less than 300 yards from a bull bugling his heart out and not even hear him at times.
I don't think the Roosevelt elk are nearly as 'vocal' as their RM cousins either and often don't come chargeing in no matter how good your 'elk talk' is.
Particularly in the archery season, the rut isn't really getting going much at all..depending a bit on the September weather..so hunting during the archery season means less opportunities to capitolize on the rut..Just have to locate the smaller herds starting to form up and solitary bulls getting ready and get in on them.
The rifle hunt is not a whole lot easier as it is short and one still needs to locate the Roosevelt elk.
The more time you spend scouting thru the year, learning the country and staying in shape the better you'll do.

I cut sneak trails with a pair of pruning shears in august so I can get into the prime areas before first light quietly-safely and hopefully intercept the elk as they move to bed..I've hunted this particular area for 17 years and know it well.Every year the trees and undergrowth and a few new cuts need to be reconned tho as things grow fast up here..
Hunting bedded Roosevelt elk is a tough proposition and best avoided as rousting them from their bedding areas seems to be the one thing that'll always send a herd into another drainage for the next week..Jim