Doubt we will ever hear from the OP again on this one. Although the first reply to him was without tact, the internet by definition is without tact and you have to take the good with the bad without losing your cool if you want to gleen some useful info.

As to the last part of the conversation, I have been walking in fresh elk tracks with steaming poop in mid/late September when the rut was surely happening, and heard no bugles for days. Had multiple bulls come to cow calls without a peep out of them too.