Thoughts on Pre Rut elk hunting...

[Ghost]

Im thinking of archery hunting from 9/5-9/14 this year, Im wondering on the bugling activity during the pre rut, calling success ect. What time of year do the bulls normally disperse? Ive seen bachelor herds into the second week of sept and Ive also called them in solo the second week, is there a rhyme or reason to bull dispersal? Looking at the calender, it looks like I might be a week early given my limited experience with rutting elk.

[ElkNut1]

9/5 to 9/14 really isn't pre-rut that entire time. Come Sept 8th & on you can be in some serious bugling action. We experience this every year. Right place right time is key anytime in Sept. As far as satellite groups they can be together throughout the month & rarely separate. Nothing written in stone there. In many cases there are only so many cows & so many bulls & few are herd bull quality, the rest are satellites.

We've taken countless bulls from Sept 1 to the 14th, your time spent there at that time can work out well, hunt hard, hunt smart & always be determined to succeed! Our tactics don't change much early on or later in the month. We take each day as it comes evaluate it & go from there. Bulls can be rutting hard on any one of those days, if that happens we treat it with aggressive action if it doesn't we tone things down & do our best to fit in, this has worked out well for us!

What are your concerns? Maybe we can help out further if we knew you had specific questions. Thanks!

ElkNut1

[BrentLaBere]

The last two years I have gotten into bugling action the first part of September. They seem to be hitting wallows hard at that time, although I have yet to figure out on capitalizing on it. New ones seem to pop up daily. Activity always seemed to be really early or late in the day, but like it was mentioned before, it is area dependent. All it takes is one 'hot' cow and the bulls will be ready.

[Ghost]

Maybe we can help out further if we knew you had specific questions

Im trying to weigh the pros and cons of hunting pre rut vs the rut. My first archery hunt was in the Missouri breaks in 9/7-9/16 2007, tons apon tons of elk, must have seen 50 bulls, problem was they were pressured so bad that calling wasnt an option and they bugled almost exclusively at night. Fast forward to my second archery hunt in the Crazies, I was on elk the first day but the weather was horrid the rest of the hunt (rain/sleet/snow), actually drove me out of the mountains for fear of hypothermia, I heard probably 4 bulls, that hunt was 9/10-9/17.

Since Ive never hunted the "heart of the rut" (9/22) Im wondering the major differences. One of the reasons Ive gone early is to hunt before the majority of hunters hit the woods. I know both in the Crazies and the Breaks, when I started hunting there were 1 or 2 trucks at the trail head, when I left there were 6 or 8. I guess what Im asking is it looks like the later you get in September there is more bugling rutting ect but is that enough to offset the increase in hunters? Make any sense?

[AlexG]

I prefer to hunt the pre rut because there are usually less people in my areas and it fits my style of hunting the best as i like glass from a vantage point early morning and find them in there feeding area and work the dark timber into there bedding area without calling at all, and glassing at dark back at a vantage point.