SeriousHunter,

The first rifle elk season was moved back a week this year.
We could have been hunting in all the good weather that you allude to, but no.
In October, each passing week starts stacking the weather odds against you.

Even at that, the elk were in a secondary or tertiary rut/heat cyclewith the cows and bulls still together.
Bugling, Roaring, Croaking, and Mewing.
We were serenaded on the opening morning from 5:00 a.m. solid thru to 8:30 a.m. and then they shut down by 10:30 a.m.
That part wastotally awesome.

I think I heard more gun fire this year than any other previous, I'm thinking CDOW will see a pretty good harvest percentage.
On a frustrating note, I kept hearing one idiot with an 8 shot semi-automatic pop-gun (real lite report).
I heard him empty the clip three different times over the course of four hours.
One shot, a pause and then the other 7 in rapid succession.
I'm betting he had more elk die on "time delay" thanwhat he ever located or even thought about. [:@][:@][:@]