Starting to gear up for this year's muzzleloader bull elk hunt. Decided I need to upgrade my elk bugle- I'm pretty well set on cow calls.

I have looked at the Hunters Specialties Mac Daddy, and the Primos offerings. I'm kinda leaning toward the Mac Daddy, as it uses a diaphragm, but operates like a mouth-blown call.

What do you all use, like, and why?

thanks

I like a diaphragm + tube. Other than sounding good, it's just a preference.

I have several containers of reeds but I just can't get the sound out I once did and a couple missing front teeth, don't help much..By far the best for me is the Power Bugle from E.L.K. Inc..I can duplicate any sound another(real bull) Bull does including the hard to do,grunt.Chirps work good also.

Rubber band choice is crucial for sound.You don't want a deep herd bull type sound but more of a satellite bull sound.Prior to the Wolf,bugling was my favorite pass time.My wife and I teamed up to bring 'em in with different feuding sounds back and forth..Worked pretty good prior to the season locating them.

Good luck on your choice and practice/practice.

Jayco

My #1 pick is the E.L.K power bugle. it sounds pretty realistic and is really easy to get the hang up.

My #2 pick is the primos Terminator. It also is a realistic and easy to use bugle. I wouldnt bother is the primos baffle bugle. I tried it out and i dont think it sounds all that great. All my elk huntin buddies all said the same thing. Some of my huntin buddies thought it was junk.

When i was younger and didnt know anything about elk hunting i bought the mac daddy. When i first tried it out i thought it sounded pretty good. That was until i actually got out into the woods and heard what real elk sound like. The mac daddy is junk.

The reeds the mac daddy uses are also junk. you use them a couple times and they get stretched out you start sounding like wounded crappy sounding elk.

I would deffinatly get the power bugle. Or if you want to go with primos, try the terminator out.

It also couldnt hurt to start practice bugling with mouth reeds. I would deffinatly try the Berry X-Series mouth reeds out. I have tried EVERY brand and just about every mouth reed made and the Berry X-series are by far my favorite!!!!!! They are the easiest to use, and very realistic sounding. but everybody is a little different. I would deffinatly give them a try though. Their AWSOME!!!!!!

For you roosevelt elk hunters, Berry game calls also has a reed designed for hunting roosevelt elk in the X-Series that is a very good call.

I bought the mac daddy because I didnt think I could run one of the primos bugles. The mac daddy was extremely hard to use it takes a lot of lung power. Real hard to get any grunts or gurgles. I used a hunting partners terminator call and it is much easier to use than I thought It would be. I also use a diaphram and tube also. I didnt get along well with the mac daddy but YMMV. Good luck

I have not been long into elk hunting but I found the Mac Daddy to be a good call for what it is intended. It is for making young bull squeals without getting too "fancy". For that it works perfectly. If you want the full bugles with grunts and all that then a mouth call and tube is the answer. Regardless of what used it takes endless practice if you want to be just "good"..same goes for cow calls also.

I have a call that looks a bit like flexible gas pipe.I just wrap in a loose coils and blow into it.No idea who made it or if they are still available.I have call several bulls in with it.rusty

Terminator for me. Easy and sounds great if you do your part. I've been able to mimic just about every sound I've heard an elk make. I really like the ability to get the low "growl" with the Terminator. I also have the smaller Primos bugle, don't remember the name, but it sounds like a junior bull compared to the terminator. Don't own any others to compare it to. Have had several brands in camp and the terminator was the most realistic by far.

Yup,

Corrugated copper gas pipe is pretty good, the thicker corrugated plastic soft-drink straws will sound out a good rag-horn '3-pitch'.

Good chance that one of the biggest mistakes most new hunters can make is calling to much, or using too much bugle, or trump them with herd-bull aggressiveness. an occasional Little pre-dawn locater, late-late after-noon early evening, if the elk are moving and vocal.
Inclanate weather makes them a little more chatty sometime, but most of the time elk are not real talkative, to much chatter will gives a lot of people away

But much more then a little cow-chirp now and then mid-day if your moving into an area that an answer will give you the heads up, A lot of public land hunts here, elk are on to what people sound like, and it's not the pitch as much as how often.

A hot bull is a hot bull, he is looking for action, but that is more the exception then the rule.

Back before HS changed things around, their 2.5 and a Dirt-Devil vacuum tube attachment, the pointy one with a 45Deg. angle worked good for me. Cutting the ends out of a plastic kids bat will work just as well, wrap it with something like polar-flees to cut down on the plastic-on-brush sound, run a string through it to carry it.


(took a lot of flack for the vacuum tube, but it had tone!)

First cooler day of the summer sends a chill up my spine, I will wonder into the hardware store and pick up one of Wayne Carlton's reids.

My last call was the Mac Daddy. I found it easy to use, and actually called a six point in.

Got the ELK Power Bugle a few days ago... This thing is awesome!

Once I got used to the positioning of the call and band, it came very easily.

I'll still use the diaphragm calls for cows and calves.

Thanks all.

We use reeds for every thing I prefer the Larry Jones but then I am old we started with them. We don't even use tubes very often in the coast range because the elk are close enough that we don't want to over power them works well for us. Very seldom do you hear bulls from a long ways away the sound doesn't carry that far unless they are on a open ridge.