She
turned on a dime and ran up this very steep mountain. Next minute-she
was out of site. I was amazed how fast she ran up that mountain. That
was my first elk. I tried following her but never saw her again.
The
next year I decided to try my hand at bowhunting elk. I was in the
Saddle Mountain unit, which is close to Seaside Oregon. I'll never
forget the day, it was September 9th. I had been hunting for about a
week. I remembered all the campfire talk about how the Elk made this
weird sound. No one I was hunting with knew how to call, or really
what they sounded like. I was hunting in this huge meadow where the Elk
would come down in the evening and feed all night. On first morning
light they would begin head back up the mountain to their bedding
grounds.
It
was around 8:30 in the morning, I had already been in the meadow trying
to find them to no avail. So I decided to wonder up the hill. I came
out onto an unimproved logging road, that's when I heard the first call.
At first I thought it was some weird bird. It was a high pitch shrill
sound. I turned to my buddy and asked him, do think that is an Elk. We
both just looked at each other, wondering.
We
started to walk to the sound. I was approaching the curve in the road
when I saw elk running toward me. That's when I heard the sound of the
"Sexy Cow Call". I got off the road really quick, knocked an arrow and
got down on one knee. The cow stepped out onto the logging road and walk
right in front of me at about 5 yards! She just stood there and looked
at me. I remember my first thought "That's not a cow that's a horse!". Then the most devastating thing that could ever happen to a bowhunter was about to happen.
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Roosevelt Bull Elk |
Well,
three years later I was ready to seal the deal. I had done my homework,
studied just about everything I could get me hands on about elk calling
and hunting elk. I bought a few calls, practiced, practiced and
practiced. I was now calling (bugling) bulls up. But, I was still
having problems getting them to come all the way in to me. One morning I
had a nice bull bugled up and decided to make a move on him. I could
hear the cows with him, so I figured it was a heard bull. I knew calling
a heard bull in would be difficult. I threw every call in the book at
him. Big bull calls, little bull calls, cow calls,calf calls every call
you could think of, he just wouldn't budge.
You know when that light comes on, you have that epiphany "ah haw" moment.
Well
it hit me. What about that sound I heard on that very first elk
encounter? I thought what do I have to loose. I remember it well,
because of the uniqueness of the sound. So I let out my very first "Sexy
Cow Call". That bull instantly let
out a monster bugle and chuckle and came running down the mountain
towards me. I will never forget that day, that was the start of of the
"World's Greatest Elk Call". I was soon to discover that it would be the "World's Greatest Elk Hunting Secret". Well the rest is history!Jerry Shockley, Inventor of the Sexy Cow Call
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