1st Washington Elk hunt

[JesseD315]

With my brother stationed in Washington, It became the best choice for the two of us to get together and do a little archery elk hunting. The plan was ide spend 3 days in unit 249 while he still had to work and then he'd meet me there and stay if I found good signs of elk or we'd find another location. While in 249 I only came across a blacktail and found very little elk sign. I wish I had listen to a contributer on a previous postninhad seen. Because I would have enjoyed those 3 days much more if I have brought a fishing pole and went after the trout in hope lake and the surrounding ponds. When he picked me up we basically went to the Idaho state line and spent a day walking around and finally settled in unit 105 around Churchill Mountain. The only animal we came close to besides cows was something we busted out of some thick timber the first night when we were leaving a glassing point. The only thing I would like a little help understand if why there was no bugling. Does anyone know if the rut was late. Or was i wrong and the bulls don't start bugging until the end of september/ early October. Any help would be appreciated. I'll still be making a run back out there this year to try again

 

[g_reems]

Typically peak rut is later in September. It can be very regional though. Also super weather dependent. I'm in NV I know for us last year the rut wat peaking around oct 1 (but we typically get a slightly later rut than Id/mt/wa). It's very difficult to gauge when peak rut will be but unless you're in an area with heavy hunter or wolf densities, you should get some bugling most of Sept ( if the elk are where you're at)

 

[Goduck]

Sorry to hear that your elk hunting trip didn't yield the results you were hoping for. It's possible that the rut was indeed late this year, or that the bulls were simply not active in the areas you hunted.