Elk Calling, these times, they are a changing

[sundance]

During a recent escapade into a local nationwide retail supercenter,they were setting up an aisle display of elk calls. You name it, grunts,squeals, estrus, lost, all the vernacular us callers know, were being set up for sale by the dozens. It got me to thinking about way back when, in the mid eighties, when I bought a Wayne Carlton diaphragm and started a 30 year journey of learning to sound like an elk. Those early sounds more resembled a drunken cat but back then it didn't matter. You get in close proximity of an elk and any squall brought them running. Hundred of miles have been logged since then with the same blue diaphragm's hanging out of the corner of my mouth.Yes, just memories now, and even if you can blow out the best growls or screams, 95 percent of the time, just birds are going to answer you. Oh, and I forgot, I live in Colorado, the land of the over the counter tags, which explains some of the quiet ten mile treks. Back then, in this great state, a braying mule would get four or five bulls fired up. Now, all you hear is its echo off of the canyon walls.
It is nice that any novice hunter can sound like an elk, but it is also bad because any novice hunter can sound like an elk. But, when bored, they are also very easy to call in. And Mr Elk, after the first couple days, he is like Barney Fife: "zip it, just zip it". So, for fun, lets take a walk down memory lane. How long have you called? What did you first start out with? What do you rely on now? How much has the barrage of elk calling in your area impacted the quality of your hunts?