Wyoming elk hunt recap

[bklotthor]

Just got back home from 8 days of elk hunting in the eastern Bighorns. We were there 9/16-9/24. The bulls were really quiet until the morning of the 24th. I would guess that we heard a total of 5 or less bugles before that morning and we were covering 10-15 miles per day all over different parts of the unit hiking to find elk. Still found elk each day but the bulls were silent and all solo within tiny little bedding areas. It seemed more like late or early season than pre or peak rut. I did end up killing a nice six point on day six by spotting him bedded and moving in for a 20 yard shot.

Wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences with quiet elk at this time of September in this area? Some locals that we ran into said that they tend to see that the action really doesn’t start until the last week of September historically. Interested in what others have to say from experience.

Tough hunt but still a great one as I killed my best elk to date and saw some awesome country.

 

[crock239]

Great bull. Congrats! Just back from 10 days in CO a few days ago...it was pretty quiet there too, and bulls weren't coming to calls at all. Tough archery hunting when they're not talking...way to stick w it!

 

[kansasdad]

Congratulations!

The forest gets super thick in there. Your elk sniffer must have been working just fine to be on elk everyday.

 

[jvanhoy]

Awesome bull! Congrats.

 

[Deleted member 40728]

Good work! Congrats

 

[CRAZYCARL]

Nice bull

 

[Rzrbck918]

Awesome! Stalking a bedded bull must be extraordinarily exciting.

 

[bklotthor]

Awesome! Stalking a bedded bull must be extraordinarily exciting.

It was pretty wild. Everything was perfect about the stalk, steady cross wind, bull looking the opposite direction, our location being above his, and it had just showered about an hour before which helped with noise.

 

[fallfreak]

Bummer they weren't screaming there heads off. Congrats on a nice bull and sticking with it. That's hunting.

 

[rogerthat]

Just got back home from 8 days of elk hunting in the eastern Bighorns. We were there 9/16-9/24. The bulls were really quiet until the morning of the 24th. I would guess that we heard a total of 5 or less bugles before that morning and we were covering 10-15 miles per day all over different parts of the unit hiking to find elk. Still found elk each day but the bulls were silent and all solo within tiny little bedding areas. It seemed more like late or early season than pre or peak rut. I did end up killing a nice six point on day six by spotting him bedded and moving in for a 20 yard shot.

Wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences with quiet elk at this time of September in this area? Some locals that we ran into said that they tend to see that the action really doesn’t start until the last week of September historically. Interested in what others have to say from experience.

Tough hunt but still a great one as I killed my best elk to date and saw some awesome country.

View attachment 241502

Great job! I will throw my $0.02 in on this. I don’t overthink it. Hot cow = bulls going nuts. If the bulls were quiet I would say the cows were not cycling much yet or you weren’t around many cows.

 

[bklotthor]

Great job! I will throw my $0.02 in on this. I don’t overthink it. Hot cow = bulls going nuts. If the bulls were quiet I would say the cows were not cycling much yet or you weren’t around many cows.

That's basically what our conclusion was as well. On the morning of the 24th we found what we think was an area with a hot cow as there was a herd bull and three satellites bugling and responding to a breeding sequence type of setup.

 

[BEvans]

Beautiful bull, congrats. I hunted the weekends of Colorado muzzleloader this year (9/10-9/11 and 9/17-9/18). The first weekend the bulls were bugling constantly until 10am and didn't start again until after dark, the second weekend they would only bugle in response to a call.

 

[cheeser]

i hunted from sept.4th to 24th. i hunted in wyoming for 9 days and montana for the rest, hardly any bugling heard, I did end up calling in 4 bulls, very frustrating to hunt quiet bulls. just got home.

 

[matechakeric]

I'm rifle hunting near Jackson and I'm only seeing signs of post rut activity. Wallows and signs of peak run look at least a week old. No bugles and small cow herds, no bulls. The bulls I have found so far are in nasty terrain solitary and only coming out first/last light.

At least where I'm hunting, the peak rut appears over which is perfectly fine for me since I'm not a caller

 

[TheTone]

Congrats! Way to make it work even if they weren’t acting like we hope for. I’m going to send you a pm

 

[JF35]

Congrats on the nice bull! Yes we had a strange 6 days of hunting in Oregon. We only had 2 days of good bugling and 2 days of a single bull bugle and 2 days without a single noise. We did have a big thunderstorm roll over us so that may have had something to do with it. We had a blast but came up empty. Mostly because of rookie mistakes.

 

[Sagebrush77]

Congrats! Great bull!! Thanks for sharing the pic.

 

[MTLabrador]

Nice bull, I’d be pretty happy to find one like him this week.

 

[D705]

Nice bull congratulations

 

[.270Rem]

Good for you for finding a way to punch the tag and congrats on your best bull.