Calling Elk

If you elk hunt, you understand the importance of a good cow call. I've used the mouth reeds, the "Hoochie Mama's", and just about everything in between. But who needs all those expensive gadgets when you've got a natural cow call built in to your own lips. That's right, Austin Rath out of Southwestern Montana has spent years perfecting his cow call without any assistance and it's been paying off.

Austin "We knew there was elk in the area, we could smell them but we couldn't see them yet but we could hear them as well cow calling and talking to each other. It was kind of a light snow and me and my buddy were walking through the timber and I started making a cow call, trying to cover my sound and make them think I was another elk wandering through the woods and we ended sneaking up to within about 30 yards from them before we could even see them. We just kept walking through them and making that sound, making a cow call and basically I walked right into the middle of them. We set up and let them walk by until a shooter bull came by. Not that they ever responded coming to the call, but they accepted my sound as another elk instead of a person or a threat."

Do you think you could do it right now?

"Oh ya, cow call impression."

Wow, that's pretty cool that sounds just like a cow elk. How big was he?

"6x7."

I'll keep practicing, but I'm not going to guarantee there won't be few more educated elk by the time I'm done.