Is chuckling a certain phase of the rut?

[Olydog09]

Is there a phase of the rut where the bulls will just do some chuckling instead of full on bugling? Or mustly chuckling with a few weaker bugles thrown in on occasion. I have noticed in the past that this chuckling period seems to preceed the full on heavy bugling by a week or so. I just want to see if others have had the same scenario's and can confirm that this is a pre-cusror to the best of the rut. For the last 3 of 4 years in my regular hunting area of Idaho I have had this happen around the 20th thru the 25th and from roughly the 26th on the bugling would get hot and heavy. The dates are rough and not the exact days that this happened.

I was in a differentg area of N. Idaho over the weekend and I experienced some soft chuckling at first light and last light. I heard roughly 5 chuckles total and 1 weak bugle . So can the experts chime in on this with their thoughts and experiences.

[Wapiti]

When a bull is chuckling he is talking to his girls. This can be early season or late season.

[ElkNut1]

Chuckling is a sound used mostly by bulls that send out a message! It can call either gender, it is most commonly used to call or collect cows a bulls way. This sound can be heard anytime of the year as can any elk sound from bugles to cow talk. Chuckling is n more commonly heard in rutting times since this is the time we hunters are generally near elk, the rest of the year we are not!

ElkNut1

[Indian Summer]

I also find that chuckling is a regular thing with some bulls while others just don't seem to have it in their vocabulary. I've met a few bulls that chuckled after every bugle and others that ended their bugles with a squeal and never did chuckle.

I've never head a chuckle in January or February..... because I'm rabbit hunting.

[Rangerz]

As stated above, we heard some bulls chuckle every time they bugled in the first week of Sept., (listened to one for over a week), some would just give a throaty growl at the end.