2023 rut-less observatons

[cnelk]

I’ve archery hunted my otc areas for over 30 years. The places that used to hold elk had nothing this year and nothing for the prior few years. No bugles. Very very few elk.

I haven’t drawn my bow in 2 years.

In the DAU I hunt the CPW dishes out cow tags like Halloween candy, saying the herds are over-objective. I’m calling BS.

IMO - the winter kill was worse than projected, and the hunter pressure is over the top.

I am done with Colorado OTC archery elk hunting. I have enough PPs in Colo and Wyo for the foreseeable future to put OTC in the rear view mirror.

 

[Jaquomo]

I’ve archery hunted my otc areas for over 30 years. The places that used to hold elk had nothing this year and nothing for the prior few years. No bugles. Very very few elk.

I haven’t drawn my bow in 2 years.

In the DAU I hunt the CPW dishes out cow tags like Halloween candy, saying the herds are over-objective. I’m calling BS.

IMO - the winter kill was worse than projected, and the hunter pressure is over the top.

I am done with Colorado OTC archery elk hunting. I have enough PPs in Colo and Wyo for the foreseeable future to put OTC in the rear view mirror.

Brad, I hunted two different WY general units this year, moved camp four times, hunted from 8200-10,400 and the "bow" hunting pressure from WY residents was unbelievable, and friends who hunted other generalnunits had the same story - tons of hunters, quiet elk. Guys were camping in wide spots in the road, tearing down closed road gates to drive in, bugling and calling like crazy, with some of the most god-awful calling I've ever heard. Many were roaming around in the woods during the day in swirling wind, leaving camp at noon to hunt, calling and calling and calling. It was no different than CO OTC, worse in some places.

Bulls were vocal and coming to calls the first few days. After that the WY hordes invaded and everything ended. Used to be that WY guys dabbled with bows a little on weekends while waiting for rifle season. Now with lightweight crossbows and the willingness to take 80 yard shots with compounds like the "bowhunting heroes" do on YouTube, bowhunting has become a "thing" in the past few years.

Meanwhile, just over the imaginary lines in the two wilderness areas I hunted around, it was a crazy bugle fest all day. Made me sick to stand on that line and listen to it day after day. I HATE the WY outfitter welfare law.

Finally got frustrated and came back to my CO "silent elk" area.

 

[S.Clancy]

It sounds more like the elk were really pressured, nothing else. We hunt several areas with high pressure, the elk bugle very quietly, if at all. They are still there and rutting hard. Just my experience

 

[2five7]

Having the same experience here in Central Utah on a cwmu I've hunted and guided on for 20 years, this year has just plain sucked. First time I've caught self wishing for elk season to just end already.

 

[deerhunt1988]

Yall don't forget to like and subscribe! We need more hunters.

 

[Fowl Play]

Did you guys who didn’t hear much get out there during the night or mid day? I had crickets many mornings and evenings but things would start to fire up about 30 min to an hour after Sundown. And then weirdly pick back up mid day. With the full moon, the night time antics made sense, I didn’t know what to make of the mid day bugle fests. Maybe sleeping in after a long night of partying?

 

[cnelk]

Yall don't forget to like and subscribe! We need more hunters.

Conservation!

 

[Next Ridge]

It sounds more like the elk were really pressured, nothing else. We hunt several areas with high pressure, the elk bugle very quietly, if at all. They are still there and rutting hard. Just my experience

This has been my experience last few years as well. Elk have learned to whisper, have to be within 200 yds to hear them to begin with

 

[tdoublev]

This was my first year, but described my experience to a T. Wasn’t CO OTC, but easy to draw tag. We didn’t hear a single bugle all week, but were finding fresh sign daily. Didn’t hear any bugles before sunrise or after sunset either. We resorted to still hunting timber and I got within 50 yards of a bull. He stood up and stayed there for a minute but we couldn’t count his antler tips because of the timber. Otherwise we had a perfect lane to shoot the vitals. As he started to walk off I let out a few soft cow calls and he literally ignored them. Didn’t even pause. Never saw him again.

I felt this year was a total failure but took pride in at least sneaking in to 50 with a shot. Hearing the others’ responses makes me feel somewhat better about this year, but not the future. We tried all possible strategies in book, early location bugles, advertising sequence, soft cow mews in timber. Nothing ever generated any sort of response. This was the 3rd week of September.

 

[IdahoElk]

I've hunted the Sun Valley Idaho area for almost 35yrs, this year was the quietest and least amount of Elk sign and Elk seen in all my years here, my hunting friends had the same experience.
My best guess is a combination of winter kill and the massive amount of rifle Cow tags the last few years, this area is done, sad.

 

[IdahoElk]

Just as I finish my post about not seeing Elk this comes through my backyard, go figure?

 

[cnelk]

Everyone needs to be sure to comment on your G&F surveys!
Tell ‘em like it is!

 

[IdahoElk]

Everyone needs to be sure to comment on your G&F surveys!
Tell ‘em like it is!

I'm calling Monday morning, yeah we have resident Elk in the valley but it was a ghost town in the woods.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

I’ve been a pretty dyed in the wool rifle hunter most of my life, so I don’t have as much experience to lean on as the rest of you. Went into an area, a large area where last year elk were bugling all day long without care and I was seeing elk every day I hunted, the elk were still there this year, I know because I found fresh sign everywhere I went, but I think I heard 3 real elk bugles in 8 days of hunting and only saw elk 3 times. The other difference from last year to this year was zero people hunting the area last year, not one other camp seen driving in or out for miles, whereas this year there were people everywhere. I think there was a weird lull in hunting pressure last year as folks returned to their jobs after Covid and this year everyone remembered how much fun it was to elk hunt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bradyhunt]

My anecdotal experience:
I live on property in a river bottom where a number of local herds hang out all year with zero hunting pressure. This year seemed to be typical with calving and cow/calf numbers.
Come September there are usually multiple mature bulls pushing each other around and bugles any and all times of day. This year I've heard ONE bull bugling and only at night. It's been absolutely bizarre. It's possible they have just moved somewhere else with the good grass growing season this area has had... I guess. Hard to say why this year is so different from any other.

Hunting wise put in 10 days of day hunts b/w wife's mz tag and my archery tag. Zero encounters, one actual elk bugle heard, only a few of areas of relatively fresh sign. Only 2 bulls on cameras, one of which overlooks a typically-well-used wallow that finally got hit for the first time Sept 29th.

 

[IdahoElk]

Did you guys who didn’t hear much get out there during the night or mid day? I had crickets many mornings and evenings but things would start to fire up about 30 min to an hour after Sundown. And then weirdly pick back up mid day. With the full moon, the night time antics made sense, I didn’t know what to make of the mid day bugle fests. Maybe sleeping in after a long night of partying?

I camped in the area hunted, heard a bull on the last night of a 6 day hunt, typically you hear Bulls bugling throughout the week at night.
We are used to seeing 50-100 Elk on that hunt, this year we couldn't even find fresh rubs or sign, weird!

 

[Overdrive]

But But with over 280,000 Elk,the largest Elk herd in the world everyone should be seeing and hearing Elk everywhere.

I know one thing for sure a lot of hunters need to hang up their bugle tubes until they can use them properly, sounded like a Junior High band concert, no wonder the Elk are so silent.

I still saw Elk and heard bugles but it wasn't a consistent occurrence. Glad I don't hunt early season anymore it's so popular.

 

[CMS829]

I had them talking for a few days where I was. Couldnt get a shot with the swirling winds, but got close. With that said - I only heard 1 bugle that wasn't a response to my calling. And that was around 5:45 am.

Not a single other unprovoked bugle aside from the responses I got. Found around 4 bulls. 1 was a giant that came in silent and caught us before we caught him. Also only saw 1 cow the entire 8 days.

 

[Jaquomo]

Did you guys who didn’t hear much get out there during the night or mid day? I had crickets many mornings and evenings but things would start to fire up about 30 min to an hour after Sundown. And then weirdly pick back up mid day. With the full moon, the night time antics made sense, I didn’t know what to make of the mid day bugle fests. Maybe sleeping in after a long night of partying?

I was out there the whole month and found no difference with the moon phases. I drove around in the night, bugling up into known elk haunts, and only occasionally got a single answer, but they were always silent or long gone by daybreak. Once in awhile a bull would bugle in the night on the bench above camp, but they were apparently way up the deadfall mountain by first light. The exception was across the line in the WY wilderness, where they found refuge and bugled day and night.

One day at noon a bull accidentally wandered across the line and was bugling above my camp at noon. I knew this bull, was hunting his hangout right on the edge of the Forbidden Zone and had been trying to call him across for a couple days, succeeded once but no shot. Wind was blowing every which way. Within a short time two different guys attacked him from different directions, blowing their horns, and ran him back into the wilderness. He never came out after that.

 

[Gerbdog]

Be interesting to hear the first rifle reports here in a week and what they are seeing, if the rut is late, or if it was just weird this year.