I was in central MT from 9/11 to 9/20. They were cranking in two gulches that we hunted from 9/11 to 9/14 when the Sitka clad weekend masses shut them down. Fat guys in Sitka crack me up. The elk went daytime quiet, but bugled sporadically at night until 9/17, then started to slowly get moving again. You could tell which areas had a hot cow and which were still waiting.
One issue we ran into was the amount of good food. It was everywhere, and the elk were spread out more than usual making for low competition among the bulls. Even little guys had a couple of cows, so there were few satellite bulls dogging herds.
Still a fun hunt, and we filled tags.
Jeremy