Early season bugling

[cgsmith]

We plan to hit southwest Colorado the first week of September.  Will bulls be bugling at all or should I expect total silence that early?

 

[Backpack Hunter]

From my experience you wont hear much.

 

[Fullabull]

I have not hunted CO during that time but would guess that the elk would be acting the same as they do here in WA. How much they are bugling or rutting is all dependent on when cows start coming into estrus. I find that bulls will respond but mostly as friendly location or lazy bugle which is good for finding them. They might come in quiet to see who is in the area so always keep you ears on!


I got my bull this year on Sept. 5th. About 9:30 in the morning I let out a lazy bugle and he responded with the same bugle back. I waited a  little and did it again. He again responded with a lazy bugle but I could tell he was coming to check me out. He was very wary about coming into the open but he happen to stop in just the right spot in the trees that gave me a 32 yard shot at his vitals, he's not in my freezer


Check out Elknuts playbook, it has a lot of good information for all parts of the season.


Good luck

 

[Elkoholic]

Probably will be pretty hit and miss. Kind of depends on what the weather does. If it cools off you might catch a few in early morn or just as the sun is going down. If it's hot probably won't hear much.

 

[MT_mulies]

My buddy and I hunt the first week every year and where we are hunting in Montana they are making noise at night and early in the morning usually. Other than that they almost always come in silent. So when you set up to call and you are about to leave and try another spot. Stay put for about 15 extra minutes. We usually call for about 20 min or so and with 45 minutes of the initial call we usually get an elk to come in silent 80% of the time. Be patient. We started hunting together the first week of the season only 3 years ago and learned after year two to be patient and last year we tagged out in 4 days.

 

[Bullhunter]

I have only hunted one year at the beginning of season and they were quiet but other then that i usually hunt late in the season.