dig4gold

Have not heard a bugle all September! Spent the last few days in elk country and dead silence!
This week should be at or near the peak of the rut here in SE Wyo and nothing! Very weird.
It has been unseasonably warm and very dry.
So, if you don't hear them, does that mean they are not there?
Maybe the conditions have taken the elk's voice away.

V8Ranger

IMO, if its been unseasonably warm, there probably not very active. Now mind you its been light years since I have been Elk hunting in Colorado. But way back then, I got my elk while I was walking around. I never heard one bugle all day.

Colorado Luckydog

The bulls are screaming right now. If you don't hear them, then they are probably not there. Use your bugle as a locator. I promise you they will answer right now if you are close enough to them.

dig4gold

Yeah, I've bugled, cow called, coo cooed them at all hours of the day and night.
No response. Nobody is hearing them.
All I can figure is the warm weather has got their tongues.
Been hunting wapiti for almost 30 years and never had this happen.
Been high, low, and in the middle . . . they are not revealing their location. Very weird!!!!

jerseyhunter

If I were them I'd be lying low on the North side of them thar hills where it's cool. Good Luck and hope you find them.

Colorado Luckydog

I'll say it again. If they are not answering your call they are not there. The bulls are screaming right now. Everyone is hearing them. I think you should relocate. You probably need to go in deeper. They don't rut next to the road.

ILhunter59

i've never hunted elk before, but maybe the elk are being over pressured from other hunters in the area, and have learned not to answer back to calls. ive had this issue with turkey hunting, where too many people hunt next to my land, and now the turkeys will not gobble back to my calls cause of being over pressured, and sometimes they will runoff when i call. but when i was the only one hunting this area the turkeys would always run right to me when i called.

crenshaw

Yeah i would keep looking to the shady side of the mountains, also in my experience in the warmth its good to find some good water... springs, streams or something. then i look for benches above those waterholes and moving water. I find these benches in the timber close to water is where they will hold up during the day, especially if good forage is near by. If you can some how get above them and bugle they might respond. Granted everywhere is different.

Prairie Wolf

Got back from colorado a couple weeks ago. They bugled very little. Couple local guys said that was how it was the last couple years. It was a very difficult hunt, with no shots taken with four hunters. But the elk were there.