From mid-September through mid-October, male elk, or bulls, are out looking for female elk, also known as cows. During this time, the elk, particularly the bulls, get highly active and vocal. However, the noises the elk make are just a small part of rut season; their behavior also begins to change drastically. They also rub their antlers on trees, shrubs, and their ground to attract mates and intimidate other bulls.
Typically, elk are gentle creatures, but they get much more aggressive during the rut. They are also incredibly active, much more than other times of the year.
And while elk stick to same-sex groups most of the year, they form harems during the rut, which are groups of one bull elk with several cows. The wolves will usually move on in nomadic fashion. So the very next day might be back to normal. Be prepared to participate with the elk rut using estrus cow talk, or bugles when the night starts to fade into legal shooting time.
Check out the Elk Calling pages here. There is a problem with the peak of the elk rut, though. Bull elk in rut are not only facing hunters and weather conditions, but each other.
Once a big herd bull has an established harem why would he leave to fight a distant challenging bull? If you want to pull a herd bull away from his cows, you will have to be up close and in his face. Many hunters are well satisfied with that. Getting in close to a big herd bull takes a lot of skill and luck.
Usually the herd bull will simply move his harem away from a challenging bull, rather than risk the loss. Often he will even ignore a hot estrus call.
Now, if you have an opportunity to hunt during a rifle season when a bull is bugling, your chances of seeing him in range are good. There are several rut phases you should be aware of when deciding when you want to focus your elk rut hunts. Yes, you have to move fast after the kill, but click here for that process.
During the early weeks of archery season early September in Montana is my favorite time to hunt. Not only is the weather awesome, but all of the bulls are moving around in anticipation of the buildup of the rutting season. What have you experienced when hunting the early rut?
Bulls are scraping the ground and peeing in it to intimidate competitor bulls and to impress cows. They're raking small trees to build up their neck strength for potential fights.
During the warm weather, wallows are used more heavily. Wary bulls might not buy it that early. Listen to and read more about Elk Sounds here. During the rest of September most of the cow elk will come into estrus. But seeing and hearing is not killing.
As mentioned above, the peak of the rut ties the bigger bulls to their cows and smaller bulls are jockeying around the herd hoping to steal an opportunity. There will be lots of daytime noise and movement during the peak of the elk rut. Quiet time tends to occur between A. Probably a satellite bull, though. What are your experiences with hunting the peak of the rut? The chances dwindle quickly after the peak of the rut rages for a week to ten days, or so around the equinox.
At the end of September things quiet down a bit. The bulls are exhausted and the number of cows in estrus dwindles. However, a second phase of younger or unbred cows going into estrus again occurs to some extent in October, but not like the peak of the elk rut. Rifle hunters still call bull elk in after rifle season starts, if they are in the right place at the right time.
At this time the cows begin to herd up before winter. The bulls will join those herds that have young cows going into estrus. Consequently, these herds might be quite large and vocal. When herds are large, elk are actually harder to find because they aren't spread out all over the place.
If you find those herds and their travel routes, you've found some bulls to call and hunt! But remember the number of eyes available now to guard that herd. Hunt between the bedding and feeding areas. Use calf calls and excited estrus calls once you get close. Have you seen a late rut when hunting in October?
Some research indicates that a few very young cows go into estrus for the first time well into November. Wary bulls who have been well educated and reminded about sneaky hunters who sound like cow elk may be hard to pull in with a cow call. Otherwise, man the binoculars and make some tracks, ever ready for the unexpected.
The peak of the elk rut is pure magic! There is no more truly fascinating time for a hunter than being in the middle of a crazy, fighting, rowdy, noisy circus of elk acting plumb stupid. On a very warm morning in I shot a nice six point bull at A. Despite the heat, elk were still going nuts all around me and even walked up and looked at me while I was field dressing my kill over an hour later. In , after a quiet, discouraging morning on the public land side of the fence, some hunters from the private land side pushed a herd of around elk over to me.
Their elk rut activity was undaunted. They all walked single file from my right to my left as they fought, bugled, screamed and raked trees in transit just out of bow range of me. It was like watching a surreal movie. The whole scenario took a half hour to play itself out. The point is, remember the rules of thumb, but be prepared to throw the "rules" out and just go with the flow.
You do not want to end up as a decoration on elk antlers or brunch for the bears or wolves. With the weather cooling off, the elk should really become active for the next three weeks.
It is always fun to have five or six mature bulls announcing their availability. Enjoy some of it. If you choose local pickup, please get your gift certificate at our office at W. Sunnyside in Idaho Falls Dismiss. Elk breeding season is about to begin and you can observe the bugling bulls in eastern Idaho. Claus stunned with gifts from a real Secret Santa Utahn arrested after wedding party killing; more arrests expected.
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