Theres been a few times over the years that people have said they've heard bulls bugling well into late October and even in part of November but I have always kind of called BS on some of those stories partly because of who told me but this morning I had a first hand experience of one bugling and chuckling.
Theres a spot where I am beaver trapping and I have been in checking the traps every morning in this spot for the last week and 3 days ago there was a herd about a 1/4 mile away from my traps that had a decent sized (for this time of year) 5x5 that my dad and I watched for a few minutes. Right when I got out of the truck this morning, I made about 5 steps and heard bugle a couple hundred yards away. I'm not positive it was that exact bull this morning but considering where its at, I would bet its him. I didn't get to see him exactly this morning but he wasn't much farther in the bushes than the few cows and calves I could see. He bugled and chuckled on and off for about 45 minutes, plus the calves were doing a lot of chirping as well. They were all real vocal until I broke a big stick about 100 yards from the closest cow and then it was silence. Still kinda hard to believe a bull would be that vocal this time of year. My dad has heard one bugle before during late archery but it was just one random cruddy bugle from little 4x4 rag-horn and it never made a sound again after the first try. Is there a possibility of a real late estrus cow? This is almost 3 full months after the start of the rut.