What are they doing now?

[Nuck]

We hunted the last week of bow season in southwest Colorado. There was very little bugling during our hunting window and seem to be the same for other hunters that we ran into. Our thoughts were that we were in front of the peak of the rut. Was wondering if anyone lived in Colorado that could report what the elk are doing now that another week has past. I know that the seasons are closed but wondered if anyone was scouting for first rifle season

[ColoStateHunter]

They are screaming! Be heading out for the 1st rifle season out of Walden. Since I only have enough vacation to hunt 5 days, I bowhunt the 1st rifle season as it has better rutting action anyway.

Hopefully some of the big bulls that were quiet before will be a bit more vocal in the CO backcountry.

[Bullnuts]

Colorado has a two-week resting period between archery and rifle season, and it's typical that the elk will be going nuts during this span. A lot of cows are already bred and the boys are running out of time and girls so the calling is becoming much more intense now. It will typically taper off around the first rifle season, but if you get in place a few days before the rifles start booming you should be able to locate bulls pretty easily now.

[Nuck]

Yes I realize that break is certainly for the elk. I guess I should have put it a little different. Does the peak bugling time seem to be getting later? We live in va so we have nothing other than our experences and what other people share with us to go on. Our experiences indicate less bugling over the last five years. Some of the locals have also indicated that the peak seems to be sliding towards and into oct.

[Bullnuts]

Tough question. I think that a lot depends on moon phase. For instance, last year the Colorado season started late in August and the opener was very close to the new moon - the elk were bugling like mad and were coming in to calls like crazy in my area. This year the season started the 3rd week of August and on the full moon - the elk weren't saying a word until later in the season. Another factor is the weather. We have had some pretty hot starts to the season here in Colorado, so we might hear quite a bit of bugling at night when it's cool but they pretty much shut down around 8 in the morning. We actually had a bull bed in front of us at around 730 in the morning this year and he took a bit of coaxing with cow calls to get him up and moving our way again. That bull bugled once early in the morning and then never said another word. The rut is genetically programmed so I don't think it occurs much later or much earlier any year, but the weather and other conditions dictate how hard they hit it.

[Nuck]

We normally hunt the last week of now season and the last few years have definatly warmer. I couldnt imagine how cows would all of sudden start coming in later in the year. I'm sure it's a lot of different factors( weather, pressure, moon) that can affect it. It is the same way with va whitetails. I guess I just need to find a months vacation instead of a week and just hunt the whole season. I shouldn't complain we killed a 300" DIY bull this year and had several other encounters. It was 4 of us, that's 25%. Which is more than double the success rate for our area.

[Bullnuts]

I'm sure that the elk rut is very similar with the whitetail rut. Pre rut, peak, and post rut behavior should be very similar with chasing, peak mating, and then the last minute hustle and the timing is going to be pretty much the same every year, depending on where you're hunting. Vocalness (if that's a word) isn't really an indicator of the rut,but an indicator of how those other factors are affecting, or not affecting, the elk. AND since you guys are 25% on the year, you definitely have something figured out!