Where do the bulls go?

[TeacherMan]

Over the weekend (Friday to Sunday) I counted close to 90 elk, all cows and one 1x2 in north Idaho. The first group was on private, 58 elk, that was the group that had the big spike in it. Then yesterday I had one of the coolest hunts of my life without actually harvesting an elk. From 5:24pm to 6:01pm I had over 30 cows pass me under 100 yards. I know the times exactuly because I took a ton of film of them. NOT one bull. I kept hoping one would be tailing the herd, but nothig?

Do you think the bulls are done rutting and have pulled away from the cows and are moving back up the mountain? One week ago I had a big bull bugling back at me that wouldn't leave his herd. The questions you ask yourself afterwards 

[Mtnwalker]

In a hole somewhere resting  usually still see satellite class bulls with the herds this time of year but we're at that time where bigger bulls start dropping off and going into recovery mode. Remaining bulls could have already been harvested but maybe not enough hot cow activity left to draw in replacements... 

[oldleclercrd]

Probably retreat back up to the high country to lick their wounds.

[pianoman9701]

When I used to hunt Ryderwood and Willapa Hills, we'd drop down and ride around the Whitetail Refuge and the larger bulls would always be hanging out together. Might be a little early for that yet. 

[mikey549]

There was a time when a lot of the big bulls were in the refuge. There were some absolute tanks in there. The game dept finally ran them all out of there . I did see a dozen or so in there a few years ago that looked as though they wanted to cross the highway and get back up on the hill. No bulls though.