Elk Hunting Truths with Dr. Gabe Krahn
Dr. Krahn reached out over social media and sent me a long message about some of the things he has found in his journey to be a better elk hunter and in listening to far too much of this podcast. It is clear that Gabe is a smart cat that has thought through his elk hunting experiences. In fact, he wrote out the following solely as note to himself and I asked him if we could add it to the show notes for you guys. In this podcast we only scratch the surface of a few of these topics but I think the whole thing is worth reading and we will have to get Dr. Krahn on again to talk more. Good morning, I'm just one of the many random DIY'ers who checks out your content from time to time. Over my christmas break i listened to you 6 hour ultimate elk episode. It got me thinking about my own experiences runnin & gunnin after bugles so i started jotting some of my thoughts down. what started as a few point form notes ended up a 4 page single spaced essay. If u have nuthin better 2 do feel free 2 peruse my thoughts. if its not worth your time, no harm no foul With few exceptions, elk are heterogeneous. Whilst many elk trends are widespread, very few patterns or behaviors, no matter how prevalent in one region, are definitively applicable in all scenarios. Even within a small area, or a small herd, or from season to season or year to year, but few axioms hold conclusively true at all times. Consequently, to the detriment of their success, elk hunters inappropriately equate common idioms or past anecdotes with evidence and apply "rules" or "lessons" from isolated events across an inappropriately wide spectrum. The following is a synopsis of the few true universalities of elk hunting. 1) Elk do not process the binary decision of safe vs dangerous. The rationale of an elk is: Safe vs Fails to be Safe. Elk do not have to know danger is present to modify their course of action. All that is needed to induce an elk to rapidly adjust its behavior (most commonly manifested as an abrupt change in position and cessation of vocalization) is a failure to be certain a situation is safe. You hear many a hunter saying "he knew something wasn't right". This is precisely correct. The elk did not know something was wrong. It didn't need to. All it needed was the suspicion something wasn't right. If an elk isn't certain of its safety, it will quickly relocate to a new situation. So not only does a hunter have to not make an error, a hunter also has to do everything right. 2) The elk calling sins of commission and omission have the same outcome. It is possible to make the wrong call. Likewise one can make the "right" call but at the wrong time. Equally as detrimental to a successful harvest is a failure to make the right call - or failure to make it at the right time. 3) Never make an elk call without a specific message to convey at a specific point in time. Elk communication has a structure which imparts meaning and uninformed, or worse random, attempts at mimicry repels elk. As social mammals their behavior includes vocal, visual, tactile, olfactory and gustatory communication. Proficient hunters can productively emulate and/or manipulate the first two forms. Good calling used appropriately can produce majestic results. Seemingly random calling, if not actually random but disseminated for a specific purpose of imparting a specific piece of information, is also very productive. Actual random elk-like sounds disseminated simply to "sound like an elk" are detrimental. As are uninformed elk-like sounds that convey an incorrect or nonessential message (see universal elk truth #2) 4) Never call from a spot from whereby it is visibly apparent no elk made that call. No matter how far away you are from the elk, never call from a spot where you can be seen or, equally as detrimental, where it is apparent that no elk is there to be the source of that call. When an elk can see the location an elk sound is coming from, it must see the elk that made that sound. If it is does not, the first universal elk truth will take effect. 5) You cannot fool an elk's nose. No substance exists, whether harvested, purified, synthesized or purchased, that can functionally conceal or retard your scent to a degree that renders the wind anything other than the most important factor to consider when elk hunting. You have nothing without the wind. 6) There is no substitute for boots-on-the-ground scouting. Fred bear was incorrect. Next year's hunt does not start the day after this year's hunt. Next year's hunt started the moment you first ever set foot in the forest. E-scouting, trail cameras, how-to courses and consultation with local residents all add value but none supersede the importance of physically being in elk country. Every distant bugle, every lone animal sighting, every hoof print, every rub, every wallow, every dropping etc - including those you are noting on your current hunt - are included in the rolodex of knowledge to be applied on future hunts. 7) A single environmental phenomenon fully controls the rut. The declining length of daylight striking a cow elk's retina triggers her estrous cycle. Save for catastrophic drout or famine, in which a cow does not have the sustenance necessary to reproduce, no other environmental phenomenon has any impact on when the rut occurs. Temperature, weather fronts & lunar cycles DO NOT affect the TIMING of the rut. These other conditions can all substantially impact how active elk are and/or where elk may be located but the ONLY ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR THAT CONTROLS THE TIMING OF THE RUT IS THE LENGTH OF DAYLIGHT STRIKING A COW ELK'S RETINA. Bull elk are willing to breed once they rub their velvet. If a bull elk were to come across a cow elk in estrous in the 3rd week of August during a 120°F heat wave, that bull would attempt to mount and inseminate that cow. If a bull elk came across a cow elk in estrous during a -30°F November blizzard, that bull would attempt to mount and inseminate that cow. The only impact the weather and lunar cycle will have on these two anomalous ovulations is how vigorously these two elk will behave and where one may find them. To further substantiate this widely misinformed fact, recall humans and elk are both mammals. A human female does not cease or change when she ovulates whether she lives north of the arctic circle or on the equator. Neither does a thunderstorm, blizzard, heat wave, alteration on barometric pressure or luminosity of the moon change when a human female ovulates. Same with elk. Bull elk are ready to breed once they shed their velvet and will "get all rutted up" when a cow elk comes to her estrous cycle. This cycle is solely dictated by the length of daylight striking her retina. When a hunter assigns a causal relationship between weather/climate or lunar cycle and the timing of the elk rut, that individual has misinterpreted the correlation and reached an erroneous conclusion. Weather/climate, lunar cycle and nighttime cloud cover impact how active elk are, where they can be found, and which portion of a 24 hour period they may be active, but none of these impact the timing of a cow elk's ovulation and therefore the rut. 8) The overwhelming majority of elk vocalizations induce no immediate action from other elk. Taking time to watch and listen to an elk herd is very informative. A useful exercise is to note the number of vocalizations one hears before one observes an elk to rapidly change its behavior in response. There are, of course, isolated scenarios where a few, or even one, appropriately utilized call(s) can induce a herd bull to fervently charge 500 yards with reckless abandon. But it is valuable to be cognsant of how relatively infrequent it is for an elk to drastically adjust whatever activity it is doing in response to the call of another elk. 9) Your bugle CANNOT sound "too big". Excluding a comparatively uncommon situation in which one may be targeting a small spike bull, an elk is bigger than you and therefore sounds bigger than you. Whilst the odd human may have a vital capacity (lung volume) over 7 liters, the large majority of adult humans have a vital capacity between 5 & 6 liters. Even an average sized cow elk has a vital capacity double or triple this - let alone a herd bull. In addition, the trachea of an adult human measures 9 perhaps 10 inches from the carina to the posterior oropharynx and a human glottis is approximately 1 - 1.5 inches across. In elk these anatomic structures measure in at roughly 24 and 3-4 inches respectively. In short, the phonic generating apparatus of an elk is substantially larger than a human. You're bugle CANNOT sound "too big". One who refutes this may assert the use of a bugle tube negates this size difference. The final nail in the coffin of this fallacy is the fact that when a bull elk bugles it produces two separate tones, one high and one low (thus harmonizing with itself), and the bass note of this ballad informs other elk how big the bull is. A hunter's bugle tube produces only the single, high range note of a bugle. A hunter therefore always sounds like a small elk. Until it was deciphered that a bull elk's bugle produces two harmonizing tones, the elk bugle was a bit of a puzzle to those who study such topics. As ungulates increase in size, their vocalizations deepen in tone. From a reproductive perspective this serves to notify females which bull/buck is the fittest to father their offspring. Elk were not well understood in this regard as bugles are very high pitched - how would a female know which bugling suitor to approach? The bugle was once a scientific conundrum from the perspective of reproductive fitness. Astute investigation has since broadened our understanding of this majestic call. The bugle therefore is not an evolutionary weak spot - it is arguably the most successful of all ungulate breeding calls. The piercing high pitch broadcasts a bull's mating intentions much farther than any other ungulate can and the harmonizing bass informs the other elk who the fittest, most dominant bull is. Since a hunter's bugle emulates only the high pitched tone of a bull elk's vocalization, it only ever indicates you are a small bull. Again, your bugle cannot sound "too big". There are a number of common calling errors frequently misappropriated as sounding "too big". Many of these are merely manifestations of universal elk truths 1, 2 and/or 9. 10) Hardship is the only guarantee with elk hunting. No essay needed. Elk hunting is inevitably a grind. Be prepared for that. ***NOTE: many important features of elk behavior and strategies of elk hunting are not included in this because they are not universally true. Do not disregard them. Do not erroneously presume them applicable at all times in all scenarios. - Dr Gabe Krahn
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