Not able to take my 2 week Elk vacation due to a new job and no vaction but still going to hunt on the my days off and evenings. I've been riding my mountain bike every other week through some local tree farms and have come across a couple nice herds and spotted 6 future really nice bulls about 5 miles away from the herds. One of the local herds hang out on private property during archery season and the other herd is huntable but a few archers are known to hunt them also. I'd prefer to stay away from them. The area that I found the bulls have not had any in recent years but since April I've come across 6 in the area. I havn't seen any cows though!!! The first 3 were in a bachelor herd about a month ago and were right off the trail. I was able to sit and watch them for about 10 minutes. They knew I was there and didn't even care. The other three were by them self about 30yards from the trail feeding on veg and also were not threatened by me.. This area has tons of feed and is not affected to much by drought concidering it is surrounded by marsh and has pretty thick tree cover with tons of huckleberry bushes, skunk cabbage and mushrooms that litter the forest floor in september. Do you think these Bulls are going to move come August to be with the cows? Do you think they will herd them and bring them up to these swamps? Or should I concentrate where the large herd is in September. One of these Elk is enormous in size alone is breath taking. I was also talking to an old timer picking Morels a couple week ago (Not giving away I was an archer) and he said it was a 7/8 last November when he was picking shanys. Should I get off my bike and start looking for good rubs? Would rubs tell that the Elk are in the area in September?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Thanks

I think you have a good idea with looking for old rubs because I think that would tell you they were there in Sep. They do tend to be creatures of habit in their migration.
We see animals in the same spots every year in the area I hunt.
Good luck figuring it out and good luck with your abbreviated hunt his fall.
Be sure to let us know how you do!

MP,

Since you know where the elk hang out in septemeber, I would start there first. If things dont pan out in the first location then check the spots you have been seeing the bulls. Checking for rubs and scrapes will let you know where they hang out duruing the rut. The past two seasons on the eastside the rut has started a little late for archery and fell into late september early october. In my experience elk only move because of five things.

They are,

human pressure,
snow,
extreme heat,
water, and
food.

If the area is not highly pressured, plenty of chow, water, and no weather events to kill the food or water then my guess is you have done your homework pretty good to this point. Since you plan on evening and dayoff hunts you should try periodic check ups on your location. This will allow you to get your timing down and figure out a good spot for the opener. I used to go once a weekend when I bowhunted and I would bring a target into the mountains and pratice shooting while I was scouting.

Remember deep quite breaths when you draw on that 7 x 8. THHPP WHACK! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! HE"S DOWN! HE"S DOWN! HE"S DOWN!

Hey thanks, for the imput. My next outing will be for old scrapes around that area. It would be nice to get that Bull this year.

Nice photo. That gets me fired up.