Bull elk behavior. Whats your score?

[Jhg]

Have you recognized specific bull elk behavior that you did not read about but realized on your own and see every year? What do you call it? When does it happen?
Is the behavior time or date specific? Is it something you plan for when you hunt?

My main behavior observation in bull elk that I can identify as specific (rather than general, like mating) is seen early archery season where I hunt. I call it "walkabout" after the aboriginals ritual of going on a journey as part of the manhood passage rite. In bull elk, I see this year on year by bulls searching for cows. They will walk and walk and walk, quietly bugling every now and then. I have seen some very nice bulls doing this mid day, the largest a monster 6x that had the deepest chest on an elk I have ever seen. I have seen bulls walk across an open meadow in broad daylight. Bulls are VERY vulnerable when they are on walkabout. Its like they check their caution at the door and become moose.
I have other behavior observations but this is the first I really understood myself and identified on my own. I use it when I witness it to close the deal.

Case in point: in my beginning as an elk hunter I noticed in one drainage a bull would come down and stage for a day in a specific spot. Then he would go walk all over the place around. I know he was in constant travel mode because he was on my back trail several times later in the day. Wow I thought, all I gotta do is be right over there, first days of second week and I shot this bull the third year, a small body 5x that because of genetics would never be "top dog".

What do you claim as "your" elk behavior?

[Lefty]

This should be a good thread.

Ill post a few examples tomorrow

Some of you have heard the dirty joke about the Holstein , Angus or Texan bulll ( cattle's ) on the ridge. As a joke I never cared for what ever some thought was funny about it. Until my first year elk hunting.

Anther hunter explained about how bulls staged ( he knew, I knew) bulls often bedded in the tall sage brush and waited for the cows to stroll by in the evening.

And the desert there is some weird elk behavior. Like traveling 8-10 miles to feed and drink in the ag field I had a series of trail cams of the same bulls hitting one location after another

[Tigger]

A slight variation of the "walkabout bull", I have seen the "mission" bull a number of times. This is a bull that is walking on a mission to go somewhere. he bugles every 100-200 yards but is immune to your calls. He may or may not respond, but he never stops his march to the great unknown. He is just on a mission. He gets a person all excited only to dash his hopes.

[saddlesore]

Just like calving season, cows have certain areas they go to, and cows have breeding areas they frequent every year. Those bulls that wonder around, I believe use that bugle as a location bugle also.They are locating other bulls in the area and are staking out their territories.

[Swede]

Set-up is critical for calling a bull into bow range. What will happen if you are not in a good location is the bull will walk back and forth twice then leave from the direction he came in from.

Never answer a bull when you hear them bugle fairly near the water hole where you have your tree stand. They are checking to see if other elk are at the water hole and will leave if you answer. Stay quiet. It may take a while, but they will come if you stay quiet.

[7mmfan]

By far the most consistent bull elk behavior I've noticed is that they are never where I want them to be, and are very good at staying that way.

[Indian Summer]

I knew this one bull in Montana… he was a nice 6x about 320 inches. Definitely the top dog on that big long ridge. He liked to bed down in a certain area. There was one hump that stuck up and he’d perch on that a lot but could be anywhere in this thick alder covered bedroom. The interesting thing is that all through the phases of the rut, even during the peak, he would be alone there. I could sneak through there and not see any sign at all but eventually there’d be that one smoking hot pile off elk poop. I’d whisper to myself “I know you’re in here” I called him in to 25-30 yards twice. Once with my brother up front as the shooter but he’d always be on the other side of some thick stuff and we never got a shot.

At night that bull would surely stroll on over to where there were herds of cows and effortlessly run off the smaller bulls that spent all day dogging the cows. It just always struck me as odd that he went his own way for long periods of time and bedded solo instead of staying glued to the cows who could be ready to breed at any point.

He was a smart bull. One day he came in to about 50 yards and kept moving left to right and back but wouldn’t take a step forward. Then he walked back up onto that hump stopping to bugle a few times until he crested the top. Then he went silent and vanished. We waited a long time because I figured he wasn’t going far. After awhile we slowly made our way up toward his perch. I was about 30 yards from the top when I looked up and saw him. He was standing on the opposite side of a giant boulder with his neck stretched out peeking over the top. All I could see was from the chin up. He looked me right in the eye and blew my hair back with a bugle and then vanished for real. I had other encounters like that with him but he probably ended up dying of old age. Even though I knew where he lived his solitary way of life made him impossible to kill. I would have liked to turn Elknut loose on that bull because he definitely pissed me off a few times. So close but so far away! I guess that’s elk hunting.

[Swede]

I think that bull could have been taken from a tree stand if done at the right time, and in the right way. If there were no good trees, then a pop-up blind could have worked. Just my thinking without seeing the place.