Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Calling cows

This might be a silly question, but can cows be called?

Yes, until the cows come home.

lol, zing!

So, any recommendations for calls specific to cows?

Come Bossy, come.

Try using a Hoochie Mama. Calls cow like crazy 😎

I will give it a try, thanks.

Some of the Sceery reed calls are good, and if you can use a diaphragm call those are best, hands-free.

If you can use a couple different kinds effectively like a Hoochie Mama and a mouth call, you can make sounds like a small herd talking back and forth.

Your set-up is important too. Besides wind, if you set up in an open area like an aspen grove, when they come in and don't see elk they will be spooky. You need enough cover to hide an elk in so they'll keep coming, and keep looking for the "elk."

There is certainly more than blowing a on call or squeezing a Hoochie Mama.Every call an elk makes,bull or cow has a specific meaning in the herd.Use the wrong one at the wrong time and you can watch them go over the hill.If you really want to learn, check in with Elknutproductions.com.

Cow and calf calls work good on cow elk. Many times calling for bulls the cows will come in first.
They can make all kinds of sounds and the warning bark is the one to learn and avoid.

I ordered a Hoochie Mama, and doing lots of reading and watching Youtube.

You've been watching way to many Primos videos. Calling during bow season can be done, but must be minimal at best. During rifle season, forget it! Not in Colorado where there are 5 other hunters within earshot. Elk are already on def-con 5 alert during gun seasons, any call at all says, "hello elk, there's a human right over here." During rifle seasons it's about predicting where the elk will be, calling them too you was 6 weeks prior.

Who said anything about rifle season?

Who said anything about just bow season? I mentioned both. And muzzleloader is concurrent with bow season. Vast majority of hunters in CO are rifle.

This is during rifle season, and is also in Alberta and in a draw only wildlife management unit.

It’s obvious from a few of your elk posts and video that you’re pissed about your lack of success the last few years...CO seems like a tough elk hunting state between luck of drawing a good unit, to the weather and hunting pressure screwing up a well thought out hunt strategy. Yeah, that schit happens to all of us all over the country...It’s called hunting. Some are just better at doing it than others.

The OP isn’t hunting in Colorado. He’s in Alberta....You care to explain how he should hunt elk in Canada? You’re doing so well in your home state...Park your attitude, especially on a new guy who asked “Can Cows Be Called” 😎

I've always liked this cattle call

Years ago, I hunted Alberta. It was right around Thanksgiving. Bulls were bugling and an I killed one as he was working his cows.Go Figure

Do Not Overcall with the Hoochie Mama. A little goes a long way.

I echo the hoochi mama as a good all to have. I also have a reed type mouth call so I can call hands free at the last moment if necessary. On more than one occasion I was pinned down by a herd of elk who weren't running away but were alerted all trying to pick me out. I squeezed the hoochi which was in my vest pocket and they all just lowered their heads and started to feed again. On another occasion I jumped a herd and they were running and I started cow calling and the heard just stopped and looked back which gave me the chance to visually pick through the brush and get the bull. As others have said learn the bark call and stay away from that one.

If you have limited hunting pressure that's ideal, because it's true that the less they've been called to the easier it is to call them in. And the younger they are the easier it is, obvioulsy. And even in "hard-hunted Colorado" I've seen it work too many times, and fly in the face of "conventional wisdom."

You just need to see what works in that particular area, on that particular day, given what those particular cows are doing. Sometimes you can be a champion caller and you won't be able to call them in. Other times, you can be a rank amateur like me and they'll come in like they're on a string.