Janis Putelis In Search of His First Archery Elk, Part 1 | S2E01 | MeatEater Hunts

On this episode of Meat Eater Hunts I'm with Jason Phelps, owner and operator of Phelps Game Calls. We were invited to hunt elk on a friend's ranch in southern Colorado, which is at about 8,000 feet. It's not a giant place, but me. I have hunted here before and I know there are many elves. I've finished now. Here's something about me you might not know. I love

archery

elk hunting, but since I've always been on the guide side of the deal or busy as a carnivore producer I haven't had as many opportunities as I would have liked on this trip I hope to get my

first

bow bull, did you hear okay, my

first

, now I really need to finish since Jason makes a living from moose calls, needless to say he is an excellent communicator.

I'm looking forward to watching him work and maybe learning some new tricks. I just want to hear some bugles tomorrow that would brighten my day. What is your guess for tomorrow? Cow Calls Do you think we'll see some? We will probably try to match the temperament of the moose we called. If they are quiet, we will probably stay quiet and only use cow calls if they are quiet. There's some reason to break in the morning, we'll go in there and be one of them, so I think that's our best strategy, just see what works to start tomorrow and then go from there, great, yeah, all we need.

Now it's their turn to read the scripts and play ball, yes, it's the first day and we're going to look for him early, since the moose are crepuscular, which means they are most active during twilight, that's all the The first supplier I worked for always told us that he had two hours a day to kill the elves, one in the morning and one at night. That's a small window, so we were out well before dawn listening to bugles before we could hunt elk. You have to find moose when they talk. Finding them like It's a piece of cake when they're silent, it can feel like you're ghost hunting.

One of the best ways to find them is to broadcast loud cow calls or bugles until a bull responds, then you can have the wind at your back and approach so far is proving to be quite a challenge for us, it's early September, the days are hot and the elk are not running yet. That can change quickly once a cow in the area comes into heat, but until then it's a bit like hunting blindfolded. They don't talk at all, so they don't make any noise, so we just have to see them before we know to make a move.

They are definitely 4,500 yards from us. Our tactics range from calling the moose to walking with them. the wind in our faces in hopes of seeing elk before they see us, we will make sure our routes take us through areas frequented by elk, such as watering holes and the edges of the ranch's hay meadows, the flora of the property It doesn't help anyone, it is covered in a mix of poplars, conifers and lots of Gamble oak. Gamble oak is a thick material and hides elk very well. We spent the first day touring the ranch with little success.

It's not until almost dusk that Jason sees a bull lying down. There's a uh down there, there's a better bull down there, he's pretty nice 330 yards away, yeah, still in bed, I'll send him a killer call, kind of sure, Jason's cow calls get rewarded ​​with a turn of the head and a half-hearted bugle call. but the bull doesn't seem interested enough to get up and investigate, so Jason Bugle in return is enough to stand him up, but that's it, he doesn't look like he's ready to close the distance between us after a couple more calls. Jason changes. tactic bulls will rake trees as a sign of dominance this sound works well as an additional challenge and can push a reluctant bull to commit looks like it may be working hey, it's coming, it started walking in this direction no, it disappeared into the undergrowth but never see or hear him again disappear into the sea of ​​Gamble's Oak a mediocre vehicle out of his bed swim from yes that's better oh what do they say sharp stick in the eye poke in the eye yeah, that wasn't a bad night I mean, the last 30 minutes of school, the rest was a bit of a bust, but we needed to get here, yeah, yeah, just this early season stuff, but it sure seemed like when you started raking that led him to take at least ten steps toward this.

Yes, good bull, although yes, he is a really good bull, it is the second day and, as they say in the movies, he is calm, a little too calm, we still can't get any moose to talk to us, so we are forced to feel out the ranch. Hoping to detect something, but we think they are on the small piece of wood, it is not until late in the morning that we finally get some vocalization, but not the kind we expected. I don't think they saw or smelled us. She probably barks because her baby is a little scared.

Maybe you just want to give her a bark? I don't know, it's the last sound you want to hear when you're hunting elk, but what you're hearing is an alarm bark that what the cow does, they usually seem to do when they're not sure what's going on around them and just They are trying to tell everyone to be alert because if they had smelled us or seen us, they would just run away. It's not the end of the world, but they're definitely putting everyone on a bit of a limit right now, yeah, it's like coming to show you, yeah, and the reason Jason barks at them is because he's almost confused a little bit more.

Oh well maybe that was just a l back there, she's mad at you if the conditions continue like they are Jason and I have a long week of slow elk hunting ahead of us, the rest of the day feels more like a stroll by nature than hunting elk. here we've seen them, we've seen their sign, we've even heard some moose, but the rut just isn't happening yet so the bulls have no interest in our calls with the exception of one curious spike that Jason convinces for a Look More up close towards the end of the day, he was never in danger, barb hunting isn't allowed in Colorado anyway, it's still nice to get a little up close and personal after a very quiet two days, those guys make you feel good with your vocation. yes, yes, I would almost trade here in a bubble for calling that peak, although yes, we called one, we called an elk and until now we had no vehicles, access to a private ranch does not always equal a great hunt.

I thought this would be a perfect location for Jason to host an elk calling clinic, but it doesn't matter how good you call if no one is listening, so we decided to change locations because we've been hunting on the ranch, it's around 8,000 feet. and it was hot like 80 85 at noon and the elk just aren't active so we decided to gain elevation. We're probably going to go up like 10,000ish tonight, so we'll be 2,000 feet higher. We have never been here. I really love this place, we can start to see it up there, it looks like trophy country as this is where there will be elk, so sure enough, we made the decision to leave the ranch and hunt further up the mountain.

Let's say it feels good to walk our public lands as free Americans, but it's not easy. By leaving the safety net of the ranch, we risk increased pressure from other hunters, but by staying on the ranch we risk getting burned another day by lackluster elk activity. It won't be long. We see a promising sign that we are on our way to this new area and we pass through a fairly new place, so we decide to come and try to get all the information we can know because if it is a day or two compared to two weeks it can change you know how active we want to be in this area but this park is pretty crunchy you know it could go down real quick in this weather but I would say just because of how fragile it is probably over a week but at least It's a serious sign, you can take that information, you know, they've been here, yeah, in the lowlands, we hunted for two and a half days and we didn't see any of those, so that's a good sign, do you have a way to measure the size of the animal by height?

It depends on what it is like. A bull can take a tree and knock it down so you know it could be 10 feet up standing in a tree like this where it really is. I'm not going to say it's really subjective, like he's just wearing his eye protectors versus he's you on top, so it's hard, I always assume it's a really big bull and keep walking towards our predetermined destination and a bull. sounds. above us erases any doubt we had about our decision to leave the ranch oh that's what we needed man that's a good time two bulls making us not far away the wind is perfect it's 415. you see all the hunters but especially the bow elk hunters or any The type of

archery

owners who have to get up close to their game to shoot, constantly worrying about the wind, the reason is that we suck and not just because we walked for two hours to get here, but simply because we stink like the humans that the moose has.

It has a nose that's about 18 inches long, you're not going to fool it no matter what you do, and in the mountains there's something called thermals with the wind and we generally try to use thermals to our advantage and how they work is. that when the air warms up it rises and when the air cools it falls, generally the higher up you are, because it will be cooler at night, you will get a more constant descent. thermal a thousand feet to climb if we wait here too long we won't get there before dark yes we have two hours left we gain the ridge and immediately we are in the mix we can hear a bull and it is close at this point.

We will split up as the designated shooter, I will advance and Jason, as the caller, will stay back. We will stay between 15 and 50 yards away depending on the situation. Once I find a position with good firing lines, I'll stay pretty still. jason will call raking trees stomping the ground everyone trying to sound like a group of elk the goal is for the caller to draw the bull for the shooter jason starts with cow calls and bugles testing the bull's temperament oh that sound you hear is the stomping of jason in the branches and raking the ground Jason Bugle is right on top of the bull Bugle challenging him to a fight, it works, come on, but my skin wasn't perfect, the bull sees something out of place, turns and leaves the paddock, that's exciting, I did not do it. range, but I guess 60 to 70.

So it was a question, it would have been questionable, damn that was awesome, we are definitely in active moose country now, what a difference 2000 feet makes, it was a pain carrying our gear camp. here, but now that we are here, I am very happy to spend the night on the mountain with the elf. They shouldn't be far away in the morning, lying here on one of the quietest nights I've had in the country. The stars. They're intense like they've finally lined up oh, the next morning it doesn't take long for Jason to get a bull to respond and we start to close the distance.

We saw the bowl as we zoomed in here, maybe 100 yards away. He looked at us, but I don't think he saw us, but he just turned and walked away. He now he is responding quite well, quite well. We decide to get closer, but just as I start to move forward, I see some movement in the trees. looking at you, calf, look at me, you know, right there, okay, let's get closer, um, wow, yeah, and he was just showing the front of the breast and there was like, you can see that little poplar right there that covered everything.

It didn't feel very good to see antlers coming this way and I didn't know where he was. It's a good start to the morning. Then we will call the alert and next time we will enter into carnivore

hunts

, etc. We're going to basically work on this ridge and come down here. The public ground has been promising so far, but we still have two tags to fill. I don't even think I've been through a tube since 2019, are you trying? To build my confidence, I'm trying to set expectations. Okay, yeah, I expect plenty of calls and more close encounters as Jason and I try to seal the deal on a couple of bowls plus I reveal my cooking secrets for an often overlooked piece of meat. this is what they call the flat steak or the claw steak, this is kruger buckskins caveman style and your fingers have adam you