Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Decoy for bull elk

When bull elk are rutting, sometimes it's not too hard to call them in just using a cow call. But when he gets close, a lot of times a bull will stop out of range, looking for that sexy cow elk that's been flirting with him. Where is she? When he doesn't see her he gets suspicious and either bugs out or starts sneaking around trying to get downwind. But if he sees a cow elk, he may just come straight in, ready for love.
We've tried lugging around a Montana-type cow elk decoy a number of times. The kind with the fabric stretched over the metal frame work. We've lugged it up and down mountains for miles. But it has never worked for us. It's always edge-on to where the bull is coming from. Bad luck or bad planning, I don't know. But it's always failed us. And what a PITA to set it up and take it down and carry it around.
So I invented a decoy that folds in half, and fits inside my jacket, and can be quickly deployed when we get a bull coming in to the call. It's nothing but a cow elk face, with ears. It's made of cardboard and a bit of brown duct tape. I painted some eyes on on it and made the ears look sort of realistic. It's about the actual size of a cow elk face. I call her Sexy Suzy.
We used it last year. We heard a bull bugle not too far away, so we got ready. The shooter got out ahead of me about 40 yds, between me and the bull. I started doing some cow calls, real whiney and sexy and horny, and the bull immediately started snorting and bugling, and coming closer. Pretty soon we saw him about 100 yds away coming across a clearing on the next little ridge. He kept coming but stopped about 70 yds away and was looking right at us. He knew right where that cow should be and he was looking for her. I was hiding behind a big pine tree and stuck Suzy out to the side as if she was looking at him but showing only her head. I wiggled her just a little, looking a bit one way and then the other, and then brought her back behind the tree with me. I didn't want him to get too good a look at her. The bull came charging right at me, and I was hoping my partner would shoot him and keep him from ravishing me. The bull dropped down into a little gully about 40 yds away and stopped, and was looking right at my tree. My partner took his shot with his bow AND MISSED!!! The bull turned and trotted back up the side of the gully. I gave him another cow call and showed him Suzy again, and he stopped about 50 yds away broadside looking at Suzy. The shooter shot again and missed again. Oh, well, no meat to pack out, but Suzy did her job very well. I've attached a couple of pictures.

Well it's to bad the shooter didn't work as well as Sexy Suzy did. I like it. I'm certainly no Elk expert. I have only killed one with a bow. But it looks like Suzy gave the shooter more than one opportunity. Its light, easy to carry, and appears to work at the right time with the right calls. Good for you. Nice pic of the Bull coming in.

Well, another way to git her done there. This is exactly the way I would kill turkeys many years ago…..decoy them to death. After so many kills I began to realize this is easy. And it became not fun anymore. So what did I do…..put my decoys down and started all over. Became fun again…..harder to kill but a little better hunter I became. Good post and enjoyed your write up. That guy doing the missing needs to practice little more.

Nice looking decoy!

Several times I been rushed or followed when using my mules.

My latest decoy is like an umbrella.

Man you really should have kept it quiet until you started marketing that, because I for one am going to steal that idea! I’ve always liked the smaller decoys like the head on or the hind end but like you said if they can just see something it’ll help break them loose. Good job!

Bow mounted decoys are already out there and work well.

The guide used a pop-out bovine decoy on my Pronghorn hunt. I was shocked at how good it worked.

I think a decoy that looks like a bovine cow would work well for antelope and oryx. Maybe elk and deer too. There are lots of cattle wandering around the USFS and BLM land. And they make a lot of noise too. Bring along some cow poop to hide your human stink and it's certain to work.

Yeah, we walked right up on ‘em. At about 200 yards I missed twice with a head-on shot & a 25 mph crosswind. At 20p yards an Antelope is about 4” wide.

Not an elk but the bovine worked on this deer in far NW Texas a couple of years ago.

My son and I tried a pronghorn decoy on late season pronghorns on the Eastern plains of Colorado. The antelope couldn’t run away fast enough…..

Wonder what we were doing wrong…….?

Same thing happened to me on my last elephant hunt. Stinks!

Great idea - I may have to borrow that this fall. A Cow decoy is much smarter in a rifle hunt.

About 20 years ago a friend and I were hunting Goats in eastern MT. They were a little wild due to it being mid season.

He asked about using a decoy that looked like an Antelope. I replied that a black cow would work better as this is Angus country.

The next year he had one to try. It worked like a charm even though it didn't look much like a cow. But it was black.

Miss September is the one we run. Just make sure that if you’re in CO you don’t use it during the muzzleloader overlap.....