Bugling during Muzzy Season

[ridgefire]

My son and I went over to the Eastside for the muzzy elk opener and it was a all night and day bugle fest where we were. One drainage we dropped in to had probably a dozen bulls going nuts in it. It's this normal for Muzzy opener or was Washington late this year on the bugling activity? I typically archery elk  hunt and this was the first time my son had a muzzy tag for elk. Good times but true spikes are tough to come by. He could have shot a decent bull at 35 yards if he had a bull tag. The attached picture is a screenshot from a  video I got of the bull we had at 35 yards. I may have to take up muzzy hunting myself.

[LDennis24]

It's typical for the first week of muzzy.

[hunterednate]

That's an awesome screenshot.

[camanofishn]

Great photo, thanks for sharing.  Hope your son can find the spike and fill his tag. 

[Gettin Birdie]

Ahh, the blue mountain unicorns!  I've had the same experience hunting muzzy in there, monster bulls, easy shots, but only got a spike tag, frustrating and cool at the same time.  They were bugling, just not crazy.  Good luck!

[JasonG]

They seem to bugling late this year for sure !

[elkrack]

They seem to bugling late this year for sure !

 
Definitely behind normal schedule where we elk hunt. A few years ago I had a bull that had his harem in front of my trail cam on October 13th and he was going nuts bugling

[WildcatRanger]

Great photo! Agree this is normal behavior for early Oct, nothing is behind schedule. Cows that weren’t bred during their first estrus cycle will go into estrus a second time about 3 weeks later. So these bulls are chasing the ladies who wouldn’t give it up on the first go round (I’m not a biologist, I just read too much).

[jstone]

I have almost  always had them bugle during muzzy

[huntnnw]

Some of the best bugling I’ve ever heard has been early October

[Matth]

Great photo! Agree this is normal behavior for early Oct, nothing is behind schedule. Cows that weren’t bred during their first estrus cycle will go into estrus a second time about 3 weeks later. So these bulls are chasing the ladies who wouldn’t give it up on the first go round (I’m not a biologist, I just read too much).

Exactly this.

[boneaddict]

I always thought muzzle had the best dates for the rut. 

[Bone collector 13]

My 2 cents is muzzy has a better rut then archery. But I think peak is right around the last week of sept? Muzzy bulls are always way more rutted up then archery it seems atleast where I’m hunting

[Karl Blanchard]

I always thought muzzle had the best dates for the rut.

  I'd take the first 5 days of October over any other time to bugle up bulls.

[baker5150]

Skagit bulls were piping off all weekend.