Pennsylvania Game News - January 2020 - 40

brightening darkness that there'd be
enough light for my camera to capture
footage once the bull got to us.
Al got into position about 50 yards
behind us, and as soon as he hit the cow
call, the bull screamed back.
I could almost feel Jim's heart beating
as I stood behind him, holding the camera
over his shoulder.
Al called and the bull bugled.
He called again . . . the bull bugled.
Then, while the exchange unfolded,
another bull fired off behind us from
another food plot. Having a worldchampion elk caller sweet-talking these
two bulls only added to our excitement.
If anyone could call in one of them, it
was Al.
But after about 10 minutes of backand-forth calling, it became obvious the
big bull in front of us wasn't coming
closer. He slowly turned and walked away,
leaving the food plot and heading back
toward the timber.
Al hustled in from behind us.
"Let's go, we have to stay on him,"
he said.
Jim didn't hesitate, staying right with
Al as they shadowed the bull's direction,
using stump piles throughout the food
plot for cover. I followed, and the bugling
continued as we closed the distance to just
beyond bow range.
Then a bugle that made it feel like the
whole ground was vibrating below our
feet froze us in our tracks.
The bull slid through an opening about
75 yards in front of us, following a cow.
And with that, he was gone.
After some time, as we headed back to
the rest of the hunting party, Al said it took
the entire encounter for him to understand
why the big bull didn't commit to us at

40

our first setup.
"The cows," he said. "It all makes
sense now."

ONTO THE NEXT
If there's one thing I've learned filming
and hunting elk it's that, once they start
toward their bedding areas, they move
quickly.
It's almost impossible to catch up to
them and get within bow range.
Al, not wanting to ruin the chance
of meeting up with the same bull that
evening, made the call to back out and
regroup.
"They'll be right back in here tonight;
I'm certain of it," he said. "It's typically
your best bet to play it conservative when
time is on your side. We'll get back after
this bull this evening, but for right now,
let's go take this other bull's temperature.
He's been screaming all morning."
While Larry, Matt and Kevin were
anxious to learn how we made out, Matt
intervened before Al could get into the
details.
"This other bull has been screaming
right behind us all morning; let's get after
him," he prompted.
The full story of the first bull would be
told later, and within five minutes of Jim
and Al heading off toward the other bull,
Al spotted a few, sunlit cows in the dark
timber on the back side of the food plot.
Not knowing where the bull was, the
two glassed the elk for about 10 minutes
while I rolled the camera. The bull bugled
a couple times, but Al stayed quiet on his
call because we didn't have a lot of cover
to our backs should the bull come to us.
When the elk drifted out of sight, we
worked across the food plot and into the
hardwoods, where Al let out a bugle that
Pennsylvania Game News - January 2020

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