Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting early rut?

Just got back from the Colorado western slope. We camped in sight of drainage with about a 110-elk herd. Early in the morning the young bulls were hustling cow to cow checking. I got a report from a ranch owner this morning that he heard the first bugle of the year. Anyone else seeing activity?

The rut is driven by day length, not temperatures. The youngsters might be getting the hots but the cows won't start cycling until next month.

3rd week of September is the peak here. I hear bulls vocalizing in August, but not dominate herd bulls. The young bulls get to pretend for a few weeks that they are running the show, until the bigger bulls come around. Then the little guys shut up and stay on the periphery of the action, so as to avoid an azz whoopin.

If the choice were slightly earlier or later this year, I'd lean late.

With the New Moon at the last of September, the darker nights will surly trip a more vocal rut early October. Worded another way, the Full Moon of mid September might hold off a more vocal rut till closer to October.

Can anyone tell me how moon phase affects the migration?

For Colorado 3rd rifle (starts 11/5) the moon will be just starting the cycle from New to Waxing Crescent starting at about 28% visible and ending as a FUll Moon (11/13).

The moon will be setting about 10PM when the season starts and 5:30AM as season end when it is full.

I know that day length, weather and other factors play into the migration but my guess is the elk are more likely to migrate in strength as the season progresses and the moon is brighter and up longer at night.

Thoughts?

As I see it.

The rut seems to be triggered by the length of daylight. Shortening days help bring it on. The moon cycle seems to intensify how strong the rut sets in.

Migration seems somewhat nutrition driven. Frost burn all their grass, snow add to hunger they just need to spend more time every day to keep weight on.
Pure cold adds to hunger as well.

All bets are off during the rut.
Post rut it's back to business keeping their bellies full of cud.

Is it a fair guess the dark of the moon just suppress the length of time they feed and some old cow gets the idea to just move on to better graze?
Adding the security of darkness elk might just move more?