Elk Rut Question

[Okiehunter]

I am considering changing my 3rd season elk rifle hunt to an archery hunt this year. Considering going back to Colorado unit 74. I have been looking at the season dates and when the peak rut is likely to occur based on moon phase.

I have heard that the peak of the rut generally falls 25 weeks after Easter (6 months and 1 week). If this is true the 2009 elk rut will peak between September 28 and October 9th. The Colorado archery season runs from August 29 through September 27th, thereby missing the presumed peak of the rut.

Assuming the rutting period generally lasts a full month; if a fellow hunted the last 10 days of the season (Sept 18 to 27) he would likely be hunting the beginning of the rut or during the “pre” rut. There is a new moon on Sept 19th which some consider being the best moon for day time activity.

My question then becomes, (not withstanding the archery vs. rifle debate) am I better off bow hunting, every though I will miss the peak rut or staying with the 3rd season rifle hunt.

Good news for 2010, the peak rut hits between September 20 and October 1st.

Your thoughts please

[Stins]

the pre-rut is a good time as the herd bulls will be more responsive. during the peak of the rut its harder to call a heard bull away from his harem.

i will be up in unit 75 during this time.

[GR5]

2nd week of September... be there

[Mudslinger]

First week is generally the latter part of August and possibly a little hotter, the second wee is when we have normally gone and have had rutting activity almost every year. The third week is when the muzzleloaders are hunting along with the bowhunters and the last week is the week after all the muzzleloaders and 3 weeks of archery hunters have badgered them. I would and almost always have gone the second week.

[Ricky T]

What Mudslinger said.

Elk being what they are, unpressured critters (before muzzleloaders) are a better bet IMO than TRYING to catch the rut just right.

That sentence is a condensed kernel from many years of bowhunting wapiti.

[Okiehunter]

Elk being what they are, unpressured critters (before muzzleloaders) are a better bet IMO than TRYING to catch the rut just right.

Good thoughts I did not consider. The DOW estimates that only 140 hunted with a muzzy last year. There were a total of 397 in the unit that archery hunted. Will adding 140 more hunters’ add significant pressure to the critters?

[J-Bird]

definately pre-rut...talkn to bulls much easier and rewarding

[gar6]

How much rain and how cold we go on sept 16 to bow hunt how high do you hunt,the last six years we moved up to ten thousand eight hundred feet it has been good the nights get around twenty and days up to mid sixty.

[Felix40]

Yeah the muzzleloaders make a pretty big difference. According to your numbers the number of hunters in 74 will go up 30% when muzzleloaders come in. Just the increase in traffic on the mountain roads makes a difference. Second week is the best. By the last week they will be down in the oak brush and really spooked, but you may find a few that will answer a call still. Its still fun this time of year. If you decided to go in rifle season the only decent way to hunt is to drive around on the little roads and hope you catch one trying to get away from other hunters and who wants to do that.

[Randy]

Ive hunted the first fifteen days of sept and Ive hunted the last fifteen days in Sept. Hunting the later part of the month proved much more productive for us.

I have video of several large bulls together with cows everywhere the first week that didnt have a care in the world. We left to go home ten days later and they were just starting to get worked up when we left. We were relying on water holes. Rained every day and they didnt move much.

Next year we moved it to the last two weeks of the archery season. Everyone had good opportunity.

I hunt 741 not far from 74

[Okiehunter]

If you decided to go in rifle season the only decent way to hunt is to drive around on the little roads and hope you catch one trying to get away from other hunters and who wants to do that.

We found the best way during the high traffic hunts is to get on a semi-remote ridge, over looking another ridge and sit and wait for the other hunters to push them across the area we were watching. See lots of elk that way, but I get all the sitting I want while sitting in a tree waiting on a whitetail to come by.