Bulls starting?

[bkondeff]

Been scouting central Idaho. Hunting a new to me area for a Oct opener rifle hunt. Looking for water sources, possible scrapes and wallows. I did find some some good possible sites, but found no recent use on scrapes and wallows.

Is anyone seeing elk with rubbed off velvet and hitting wallows yet.. I did see some bulls ,but they were a long way off and I didn't pull spotter to verify velvet or not.

Regards,

 

[Baerman]

Saw one fresh rub this weekend but no bulls this time. I have about seven different bulls on my trail cam but they stopped showing up about nine days ago. Cows and deer are still frequenting the trail though. I am thinking they are starting to break up from bachelor groups and are moving into their bedrooms per say. They should have started rubbing this past week in general. We did see one fresh rub on the hike in to check the cameras.

 

[MtnWest]

Between the 15th and 20th is when I have seen most mature bulls rubbing velvet off. Majority of wallowing will happen in a few weeks. Good luck

 

[OpenCountry]

This bull was rubbed completely clean this weekend. He seamed to be ahead of schedule compared to the smaller bulls.

 

[BuzzH]

Saw four 6 point bulls today, only one had shed the velvet.

 

[Trigger50]

I saw 5 bulls last friday. The 3 bigger were clean. The 2 raghorns were in the process of shedding.

 

[TheTone]

Walked past a wallow today that had been visited within the past day or two and found three fresh rubs within about 400 yards of each other. I'm pretty excited to go check a camera in a couple days

 

[teamhoyt]

I saw five Bulls sunday, 2 had shed and the others still had some left

 

[elkohalic]

Saw a raghorn last weekend that was slick horned and with cows. Livin it up till the big guys move in I guess.

 

[Eyeguy]

Saw a raghorn last weekend that was slick horned and with cows. Livin it up till the big guys move in I guess.

Haha this made my day. Poor guy thinks he has it made. He will get a rude awakening in a couple weeks....

 

[windymtnman]

I'm in Southern Colorado. Yesterday, I found a freshly tore up Spruce that obviously indicates a Bull is shedding his velvet.

 

[bkondeff]

All things being equal, it seems that things get started a little earlier the farther south you are, correct?

I've had more and more reports this week of some bulls here in Central Idaho shedding and wallowing.

I know for a fact the bulls were pretty quiet through much of Sept last year and didn't really kick in until about the 3rd week and were going strong into early Oct. Friends called in an killed bulls with rifles Oct 15th too.

Thoughts on if this year is likely to go earlier or not? I assume Moon and weather will help dictate.