It's one of those things I don't think anyone has completely nailed down. We all have our experiences to work off of. Weather, lattitude, annual feed and water conditions...Who knows? I do think that you can be fooled by other hunters if you are hearing bugles in late October (or even later) Some guys will hit the horn even though the rut is long gone. Around these parts this year, we've seen more bulls than we've heard in the last several weeks. It has been pretty quiet. And oddly enough, most of the bigger bulls were hanging solo or in small groups. The only bulls we've seen hanging with cows have been young ones. This is usually how they are distributed after the rut is gone. Kinda puzzling this year.

"Friend of Men, Lover of Women, Purveyor of the Brutal Truth"