# Hunting slang



## fsbirdhouse (Mar 21, 2009)

Always changing, hunting slang is a sub-dialect of the English language all it's own.
I work on a large Gov. site in Eastern Idaho. Many employees there, and many are Elk hunters. I have been on disability for about a year, but my wife works there too, and keeps me abreast of events. So the following.

My family's contribution to the English language.
I've been out of 'the loop' as regards to the big game hunting crowd at work over this past year, and what the newest fad among Elk hunters has become. 
They are an extensive group, and some are quite fanatical about the sport. Starting about the end of July, some even bring their elk calls to work to practice on, and you will even hear an occasional duo calling to each other across the facility as tho to say "Yeah, I'm getting ready to go too."
The loudest, and most traditional call used by Elk hunters is the 'Bugle'. It's the sound one bull Elk makes to challenge other bulls in the area of his 'harem'.
This sound has been a way of allowing hunters to get close to bull Elk. Some years ago I tried it myself, and although I was answered by bull Elk, I was never successful in calling one in.
My daughter was aware of what the call was used for, as I had sounded off several times around the house (The very first time being a story all in itself), and being quite young and only just getting started driving she had on one occasion nearly hit a large bull Elk on the road near home.
She had come into the house just after, and was still rather shaken by the close call, and in trying to describe what had taken place said she had "almost hit a...a...a bugle" not remembering they are called Elk.
Well, guess what? My wife related this story just recently to the gal she works with, whose husband is one of the better known leaders of the local hunting mob, and he has, in turn, gone to calling bull Elk "Bugles"
He knows my daughter, who works at one of the facilities out there, and happens to have got quite a kick out of using that new slang word instead of 'bull Elk'
It is spreading like wildfire amongst the hunters out there, and knowing how hunters are, would not be surprised if it isn't in common use throughout the Rocky Mountain West in a very few short years, and therefore hunters everywhere across the globe eventually.
And so the language changes.

PS: Well, maybe not, but I wouldn't bet against it!


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