Well to start- in the middle of october the elk are harder to get some idea of pattern. Though elk don't pattern like whitetail and turkies they are some normal paths that they will take between feeding and bedding times. After the rifle hunters get to pushing them around they can stray from these normal patterns. The beginning week of the season.(last couple days of august we set up on bedding grounds and catch the bulls coming in and out. As the season progresses the bulls get a little more active and a little more vocal. As september rolls on into the third week the bulls are in the peak of the rut. This will continue for a couple of weeks and then the rut starts to die down. You may still be hearing undesturbed bulls into the rifle season in October but the peak has already passed by then. If I where going to spend alot of money to hunt out of state I would try to plan it when the hunting is the best. There are some good late rifle hunters that kill bulls consistantly. But the early season bowhunters around here are some of the most successful that I know. The rut is great and also the first week of the season can prove fatal also. I have killed my elk in the first week for the past five years. They don't talk a whole lot then but can be very responsive to the right calls.

Fieldmouse, take you wife out for her birthday and head out after, Your timing will be perfect.