![\"Bull](\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1-CB-blog-2elk.jpg\" "\\"Bull")
<\/a>The aspens are turning, the bulls are bugling, and the cows are filing out of the timber\u2026a magic moment, and just maybe the bull will step out of the timber before it gets dark!<\/p><\/div>\n
That said, I am not an elk specialist, certainly not to the degree that writing colleagues like Jim Zumbo and Wayne van Zwoll are! If you want serious elk knowledge, those are guys to follow! I recall that, years after he moved from Arizona to Idaho, Jack O\u2019Connor wrote that, living in good elk country, he could<\/i> go elk hunting every fall, but in some years did not. Only briefly have I lived in good elk country, but although I love every part of it (except, perhaps, packing out quarters!) elk hunting is not something I do every year. So, I guess I\u2019m more of an \u201cO\u2019Connor-casual\u201d elk hunter. Even so, I\u2019ve done a lot of it over the years in most of the Western states. Enough that I believe that an early fall elk hunt, when the bulls are bugling and the leaves are turning, ranks as perhaps the<\/i> most classic North American hunt, one of the greatest outdoor experiences a hunter can have.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not convinced that the early bugling season is the very best time to put elk venison in your freezer. I like late hunts, too, after the snow flies. I\u2019m pretty sure more of my bulls have come late in the season, long after the bugles are silent. There are two reasons for this. First, like all things in Nature, the exact timing when the rut\u2014and serious bugling\u2014kicks off is uncertain. Hit it right, and magic<\/i>. Hit it wrong and early elk hunting, when it\u2019s warm and there\u2019s lots of cover, can be very difficult. Second, I admit, with no apologies, that I am primarily a rifle hunter<\/a>. Without question,\u00a0bull elk are most vulnerable during the rut. So, as our seasons evolved and bowhunting grew in popularity, it became traditional across much of the West for archery elk seasons to be held early, spanning the primary bugling time, theoretically increasing opportunity but reducing harvest. More rifle and \u201cgeneral\u201d elk seasons open later after bugling is finished.<\/p>\n Although the most exciting by far, Boddington is not convinced early bugling seasons are the best times to hunt elk\u2026much later, after the snow flies, elk concentrate in big herds and are generally much easier to locate.<\/p><\/div>\n I won\u2019t question the science, but it\u2019s fact that archery equipment is far more efficient today than when this system developed.\u00a0 <\/span>Across the millions and millions of acres of public lands throughout the West, and with many of our elk herds at all-time highs, archery elk hunting<\/a> is one of North America\u2019s great opportunities, and one of our very best \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d adventures. For some years I was a bumbling bowhunter. I never took an elk with a bow, but it was a goal, scotched by a shoulder injury. I don\u2019t begrudge bowhunters, but they have carved out some of the best opportunity to hunt bugling elk\u2026and, in any given year, harvest some of the biggest bulls. Of course, bowhunting is bowhunting, lots of effort with reduced impact, which is what makes the system work.<\/p>\n This awesome old bull had bedded near his wallow, bugling from his bed as elk often do. What a great setup for a bowhunter to slip in on him!<\/p><\/div>\n If I were truly serious about becoming an expert elk hunter\u2014with a desire to harvest giant bulls\u2014I\u2019d study the archery seasons. Success is not as high as with a rifle, but, trust me, when love-maddened bulls are screaming all around you it is not necessary to fill a tag to enjoy the experience of a lifetime! We rifle hunters can have the same experience, just not as readily available \u201cover the counter.\u201d There are plenty of drawings for early rifle bugling tags. The best areas are not easy, but preference point and bonus point systems help. However, I\u2019ll be honest, whether archery, muzzleloader, rifle, or whatever, it can take years (and years) to draw some of the great tags. <\/b><\/p>\n All \u201cpretty packed\u201d and going good, in northern Wyoming, headed toward the Yellowstone boundary. A wilderness elk hunt by pack string is one of North America\u2019s greatest hunting experiences!<\/p><\/div>\n The only sure thing is this: If you don\u2019t apply you will not draw! Do your homework, accept the odds, and get in the draws. Other opportunities include private land tags, Indian reservations, and outfitted hunts, not only in the American West but also in western Canada\u2019s awesome elk country, where seasons open earlier than ours.<\/p>\n A good New Mexico bull taken during an early bugling hunt on private land. Draw tags, private land tags, and reservations offer some of the best opportunity to hunt bugling elk with a rifle.<\/p><\/div>\n I guess I\u2019m saying that great elk hunting comes at a price, either in patience or coin of the realm. But that\u2019s enough gloom and doom; there\u2019s another odd dynamic that makes hunting bugling elk more accessible today than when I was young. Whether you believe in global warming or not, we\u2019ve experienced a succession of milder, later autumns. Without question, this has pushed back peak bugling by at least a week. Forty years ago, Colorado\u2019s first \u201cgeneral\u201d rifle season, early October, caught some residual bugling, but it was very post-rut. Today this has changed, usually with good bugling at least through the first week in October.<\/p>\n Boddington, Tom Arthur, and Mark Jones with a fine 6×6 Colorado bull bugled into about 20 yards in northwestern Colorado, during the early October rifle season. These days that period can catch a tremendous amount of rutting activity.<\/p><\/div>\n The last couple of times I hunted this season elk were still going absolutely crazy! Colorado probably isn\u2019t the best place to look for a monster bull, but with a large and seemingly ever-expanding herd she is one of my favorite places to hunt elk\u2014and her early general season offers some of the best, most accessible, and most affordable opportunity to rifle-hunt for bugling elk.<\/p>\n Another Colorado bull bugled in during the early October rifle season. This is sort of a \u201craghorn\u201d 4×5\u2026a bull like this is a much more reasonable expectation than a really big bull, but when elk are bugling its truly about the experience.<\/p><\/div>\n Regardless of what equipment you prefer, hunting bugling elk is a bucket list North American hunt. Perhaps surprisingly, it doesn\u2019t have to be in North America! Most of us know European red deer are so similar to our elk that we long considered elk a subspecies of red deer. The red deer is smaller, more reddish in color, typically forming a cluster of points or \u201ccrown\u201d at the tip of the main beam. Habits are similar, but red deer don\u2019t bugle; they \u201croar,\u201d a long, guttural, one-note bellow. It\u2019s said this sound carries better in heavy forest, while our \u201cbugle\u201d carries better in mountains and plains. Recent DNA research suggests red deer and elk are different enough to be separate species: The red deer remains Cervus elaphus<\/i>, while science now labels wapiti Cervus canadensis.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Looks just like so much of western Montana\u2026but this is Asian wapiti country in northwestern Mongolia. The trees are an Asian species of tamarack, turning golden in late September\u2026and there are bugling bulls among them.<\/p><\/div>\n Four subspecies survive in North America, plus the extinct Eastern and Merriam\u2019s elk. From the Pacific westward to Central Asia there are also several subspecies of Asian elk, where they eventually transition to red deer. As I write these lines I\u2019m in Mongolia, late September, and about a week ago I shot an Asian wapiti, what we used to call “maral.” At a distance, they seem visually identical to our elk, but when you get close the bodies are grayer and less yellow, similar but definitely not exactly the same. Hunting them was<\/i> much the same, definitely the same tremendous thrill, the same great venison. And, yes, their lilting three-note bugle is exactly<\/i> the same, echoing through the Altai Mountains. So, it turns out our Western elk hunters don\u2019t have a copyright on that awesome September song!<\/p>\n The Asian wapiti is visually almost indistinguishable from ours, same size and antlers. Look close and this Mongolian wapiti or maral stag is a bit too gray in color, rather than the almost yellow body of our elk.<\/p><\/div>\n It’s almost that time of year. Elk hunting is one of North America\u2019s great opportunities, and one of our very best do-it-yourself adventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":97854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1239,13,1217,4320,1256,1219],"tags":[1304,1209,1263,1350,1351,1349],"featured":[],"hunt365":[4089],"class_list":{"0":"post-97839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-big-game","8":"category-craig-boddington","9":"category-hunt365","10":"category-hunting-hunt365","11":"category-stories","12":"category-technique","13":"tag-elk-hunting","14":"tag-hunt365","15":"tag-hunt365top1","16":"tag-october","17":"tag-rut","18":"tag-september","19":"hunt365-hunting"},"yoast_head":"\nSEE ALSO:\u00a0Setting Up A Rifle For An Elk Hunt<\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>***Shop GunsAmerica to gear up for your next hunt***<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"