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