November in September

[TradLife406]

Anyone else struggle in Western Montana this past week with the knee deep snow and winter conditions? The Wednesday night before things got western, I packed into my spot for base camp and heard a bugle. Never did find him. The next morning I called in a nice bull who snuck in on top of me and he got lucky I wasn't ready as I was only doing some location bugles.
Then the snow hit and everything died as far as a rut. I heard a spike scream this past Tuesday morning and one bugle Wednesday morning.

I figured I'd hit it just right with the moon, but God had other plans. I packed out today as more snow was coming down.

Maybe the elk did their dirty business under the full moon and in the heat before winter hit?

Covered a lot of miles inside my unit but it was basically general season with a longbow!



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[Jordan Budd]

Word. It's annoying. Supposed to be sunny here in the morning and no snow, so I'm going to get up a couple hours early and do some location bugles in a few spots. Hopefully they'll be back moving around and at least make a noise.


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[sasquatch]

Anyone else struggle in Western Montana this past week with the knee deep snow and winter conditions? The Wednesday night before things got western, I packed into my spot for base camp and heard a bugle. Never did find him. The next morning I called in a nice bull who snuck in on top of me and he got lucky I wasn't ready as I was only doing some location bugles.
Then the snow hit and everything died as far as a rut. I heard a spike scream this past Tuesday morning and one bugle Wednesday morning.

I figured I'd hit it just right with the moon, but God had other plans. I packed out today as more snow was coming down.

Maybe the elk did their dirty business under the full moon and in the heat before winter hit?

Covered a lot of miles inside my unit but it was basically general season with a longbow!



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They gonna do their business whenever the cow dictate by coming into heat, and the cows dnt have physical control over that to change it.


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[MT_Wyatt]

Same story with me - it literally feels like rifle season out there in MT. Snow totally changed things, and really seems to have the elk moving to other areas with how deep it is.


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[Journeyman]

Yep I feel like I've put down some miles so far this season and while I've cut plenty of tracks I've not heard much at all and haven't got into them.

Hopefully this nice weather window will change our luck.

 

[LongWayAround]

Northern Colorado got cold this weekend too. It rain/snowed from about noon until 7:00pm yesterday.

There was a lot of bugling going on where I was at the last few days, but a miss means I eat my tag this season.

 

[Brendan]

Just got home yesterday - we got worked over pretty bad by the weather. Wildfires/smoke/heat to start, then heavy rain, then snow, then wind, snow, more wind. Had a couple bugles early, got close on one herd bull, had one small bull come in, but then they shut down and that was it... We hit 3 different mountain ranges, maybe 5 locations over 11 days. Finally threw in the towel and went river-bottom whitetail hunting (awesome, by the way), and at least came home with a small buck.

We met up with a friend out there who works for US Fish & Wildlife who helped us out some - he commented it was the worst archery season he's seen in that area in the 20 years he's lived in SW MT...

 

[widnert]

Same story here. Got back up there Wednesday evening and got one started Thursday morning. Couldn't close the deal. Thursday afternoon, the Rancher that borders this section of NF was working his fence-line with ATVs and UTVs and made all kinds of racket. No more elk in there - plus, gained a few beef-cows in the NF as they escaped. Then, started raining Thursday evening. Woke up Friday morning to snow down at camp. Went ahead and headed up Friday and found ourselves hiking through 6 to 8 inches of fresh snow. That was it again. Just like last weekend. The snow evidently drove them down lower which, is all private. Came home Saturday evening to re-group. Spending some time e-scouting BMAs at lower elevations to see what I can put together. It's been kinda frustrating but, that's elk hunting.

 

[mountainman406]

Same story here as well. Put on some miles over the past few weeks. First snow had the elk bugling like crazy but since then they've been almost completely silent. Bulls seem to be pushing cows from what I've seen though. Tough hunting this year.

 

[hobbes]

Similar story here, but I'm not giving up.

Found a bull with a half dozen cows last night. He was nosing around the cows but no bugling. (A bull moose hit my truck while driving home. He survived.) Got close to at least the cows this morning, but no bugling. I would have killed a cow (I've a B cow tag in this unit), but no shot opportunity. Heard three bugles around 10 AM. Thought he was gonna do it when last bugle was only 100 yards max, but disappeared. Not sure what happened. Almost convinced myself that it could have been another hunter, but sure sounded real.

 

[ridgefire]

We had snow and wind almost every day for 10 days in the Lemhis. Turned the bugling off for us.

 

[pbcarch]

We were really trying to get out west for our first elk trip but work got in the way, looks like it woul have been one hell of a learning experience in dealing with the mountains. Funny how different things have been here in the East, i have been sweating in my stand...80s, 90s and very high humidity

 

[KHNC]

We had snow and wind almost every day for 10 days in the Lemhis. Turned the bugling off for us.

I spent a week in the Lemhi`s as well. Terrible!!! High country covered in snow, ice, rain and no elk to be seen or heard. Had a tough time even finding a track up high. Down low were TONS of hunters with no way to get away from them. Saw one or two dead elk in camps the entire time.