elknut1

With the name Slatecall, I would guess you're no stranger to turkey hunting, therefore are probably familiar with mouth diaphrams.

If that's the case, your best bet for both bugling and cow calling would be to start off with something like a single reed style, like the Ivory Plate by Primos, it's great for both bugling and cow calls. with this one call you can make all necessary cow sounds such as, lost--social--distressed--calf--excited--pre-estrus whines, and so on, this is something really tough to do with any other single cow call on the market, it would normally take 3 different ones to accompolish this. Another good call is the Cow Talk call, it's great for adding different sounds along with something simple as the hoochie mama. These calls together will sound like you're a small herd of elk. For great pre-estrus whines the Hyper Lip single works great.---So you're looking at the Cow Talk--Hyper Lip Single and Hoochie Mama, if you're going to scratch one, make it the hoochie mama. The single mouth reed along with the other two will be plenty and sound great!!

For bugles, get youself a simple grunt tube to use with the mouth reed. If you'd like to see these calls, click onto "My Site" at the bottom of this post. ElkNut1-Paul

Dirt2

I'm going to wind up seconding some opinions you've already got on here. I switched calls this year in midseason after losing a call-off with a cow herd for the affections of a satellite bull I had coming in to my bugling. The bull was about 150 yards from me when a cow herd below me started cow calling. I opened up with my Sceery-piece-of-crap bird call/"cow" call, and the bull went for the real cows and left me alone and blue. I'd been using that Sceery for 3 years, mainly to back up my voice call, which is a real killer IF my throat is right on any given day. The Sceery call is just way too high-pitched, and trying to lower the pitch puts you in danger of making the dreaded duck call!

I ran to the store when I came out to pick up another week's worth of backpacking food, and bought the Hoochie Mama call, figuring it'd be the easiest to master. Well, I was stunned when I started squeezing that thing. I mean, that call flat out duplicates the main calling tone of a cow elk. Combined with my throat calls, I'm now a mean mo-chine. I think, the elk might still think differently on that.

For a bugle, I use the Power Bugle but it's too damned loud. You can blast an elk into immediate hesitance with the thing if you're not careful. I EXHALE completely before I bugle, and try to curl the end around and blow it back into my clothing to muffle the sound a little. The tonal quality of the PB is really good. Like others have said, "bugling ability" is almost a misnomer, if you sound remotely like a bull elk you're going to be fine. I really believe the quickest way to put an elk on guard is to make one of those elk contest bugles with all the growls and the perfectly modulated 3 and 4 note symphonies. Make the bugle about 1-2 seconds long, with 2 notes max.

(I killed my cow this year in front of a young six-pointer who flat out sounded like a coyote. I'm telling you that a carefully selected panel of hunting experts would have voted unanimously "coyote" if you could replay the sound this bull was making.)

muley69

Last year I had no luck with the Hoochie mama, this year, however, the HM was outstanding and quickly became my number one cow call. Dirt, I have had pretty good responses from elk with any high pitched call, what gives?

gselkhunter

Slatecall, You have herd of just about every external call made and I agree they all work. But, the mouth call is the one that is most versatile. For some people they are easy to use, others have a very hard time with them. I used to work as a Pro Staff member of Hunter's Specialties. I have had a chance to use about every call on the market. The reed I recomend to begining callers is put out by John Sarkisian "The High Plains Call". They come in doubles and triples, adult and youth sizes. They are made out of dental rubber not latex. The call makes great cow calls and bugles. I use them myself for cow calls. I use the H.S. 3.5 for bugles, the bad part is H.S. doesn't make them any more. I got a boat load of them when H.S. took over Carlton. If I had to pick a bugle reed I would go with Primos or Quakerboy. Fit is the most important thing, if you can't hold it in your mouth you can't call. If the reed makes you gag, trim the tape down or go to a youth size. Put the call in your mouth so you can use the tip of your tongue on the latex edge and say SHOW. You will just love what it does to your tongue. Push the latex to the roof of your mouth and the pitch will go up. Learn to make it go up and down in pitch and you are on your way. One last thing go out and listen to elk and learn to do every thing they do. You may not need it, but you will be able to do it when it matters.
Gselkhunter

Dirt2

[I had intended this post as a reply to Muley69]

Funny how that works, huh? I really don't know everything about everything where calls are concerned. I started noticing strongly this year that with the Sceery call (the high-pitched one) that I was calling in lots of birds, those gray jays and such. I had begun to suspect that last year.

One thing we all have to watch out for in analyzing calls, or for that matter almost any hunting variable, is that sometimes we are drawing conclusions based on sample sizes that are too small. For instance, say I exchange bugles with two bulls one season and neither comes in. Then the next season I switch to a different call, and this time around both bulls I bugle at come raging in. Does this prove that the call I switched to is better? In fact, it obviously doesn't, because the sample size (2 bulls each way) is way too small to really draw a valid conclusion. Yet I think we hunters often base our opinions on just such paltry evidence, by necessity in some cases. (In this year's World Series, if Mike Matheny gets two big base hits and Albert Pujols goes 0 for the Series in the clutch, does that prove that suddenly Mike Matheny is better than Albert Pujols?)

The above is why I stuck with the Sceery call for four bow seasons. I had begun to question it as early as two seasons ago, but I wanted to give it time until I felt like I had used it enough times in enough different situations to be reasonably sure of my conclusions. I just don't think it fires up bulls that much, I think elk often identify the call as a bird, and ignore it. Birds come in to the call. At best, it sounds like a calf elk, which is OK in a way, but not as likely to fire up a rutty bull. (By the way, I deal with a lot more than two bulls a year. This year I fiddled with 17 different bulls in 16 days in the woods.) That said, if somebody else has the opposite opinion, more power to you. If it's working don't let me discourage you.

gselkhunter

I have never hunted elk with anything other than a bow, so we are looking at Aug. and Sept. time frame. The three things that effect the way elk react are, #1 temperature, #2 moon phase, #3 hunter pressure. If the days are too warm elk will go nocternal, they just can't take the heat with winter coats coming in. So the time in the morning and evening when they will react to a call is short. Unless you are in the way of where they want to go. If the moon is near full or full, they my call all night and rest during the day, so you get no real reaction from them. If there are a lot hunters calling, the elk will move off or go nocternal. Now if the weather is cool to cold and no one is bothered them too much, the cows are hot, the bulls go nuts and your calls work great. But to get herd bulls to come to a call and leave his girl friends, you have to do one of two things or both. Sound like the hottest piece of meat in the world that he just can't live without. Or you have to call his cows away from him so he is looking for a fight. This is not all that easy to do, but can be done. Just some insight from my hunting and calling elk. Keep a note book of time, weather, moon and hunters afield when you have luck calling in animals, see what you think.
Gselkhunter