Rut Activity

[bigorange]

4 minutes ago, Viper said:

A buddy is up in 4B. He hasn't heard a bugle yet. I will be up Friday night to help a friend with his first archery bull tag. He also said most of the waterholes are dry.

In my limited experience that’s the usual for 4B getting going a bit later...they’re probably bugling across the highway in the next unit though. 

[muledeerarea33?]

1 hour ago, rossislider said:

I'll be headed up tomorrow night to help out a few hunters and will be bouncing back and forth between 3C and 3B. Can't wait!!!

If you want to share 3B info after after then hunt I’m all ears.

[WHT_MTNMAN]

It is a weird year for sure. I think the rut will be just fine but I did not hear a bugle on Monday or Tuesday or Today of this week. Granted I only went out for a few  hours on Monday and an hour and a half of tues and today, before work.  But that is not the norm this time of year.  I did glass up a solid bull yesterday that was with cows but kind of on his own. I didn't hear or seen him bugle at all. 

 

 

[AzDiamondHeat]

1 hour ago, Viper said:

A buddy is up in 4B. He hasn't heard a bugle yet. I will be up Friday night to help a friend with his first archery bull tag. He also said most of the waterholes are dry.

last year it was DDDDRRRRRYYYYYY as in dust bowl dry. Only a couple of the deeper/bigger tanks had water. Looking a ittle similar this year.

This weekend up in Strawberry it went stone cold quiet as soon as all the people came out for the weekend. I wouldn't gauge activity based on this weekend.

But mine is a very small sample so hard to say.

 

 

 

[Beaton]

Quiet in 7west. We have seen lots of elk. All our cameras have bachelor herds of raghorns. All after dark. Lots of cows and calfs on our cameras during daylight hours though. Looks like spot n stalk or water until it kicks in. My buddy is in unit 10 also.  He heard 1 bugle since yesterday. Hopefully it kicks in or it will be tough.

[knothead]

Where I was at here in Central AZ last Friday to Monday the bulls were going crazy every morning from about 5:00 am to 8:00.

[idgaf]

Last night during the storm they were going pretty good.

[dcshorthairs]

10 hours ago, ctafoya said:

Bulls are definitely bugling in 1. The wind better start cooperating though. 

Yep. Definitely getting some noise each night. Should only get better for us

[knothead]

I have a love a love/hate relationship with wind during hunting season.  By far and away it is much easier to put a stalk on an animal.  One year while hunting elk on the WMAT Res, the wind was blowing about 35 miles per hour and I pretty much just walked right up to a herd of elk.  When all the leaves and branches are swinging back and forth they can't pick up human movement from all the other stuff.    I hate that it is harder to find animals and you can't hear any bugles.

The advantage goes to the hunter in the wind.

[ctafoya]

Lots of good action in 1 this morning. Then a helicopter started flying down all the canyons. It saw the elk i was watching and they literally rounded them up and drove them out of the canyon then they flew away. Game and fish aerial survey? Maybe driving them to 27 to lower success rates in 1? I have the numbers from the helicopter. I'm tempted to call it in. 

[trphyhntr]

5 minutes ago, ctafoya said:

Lots of good action in 1 this morning. Then a helicopter started flying down all the canyons. It saw the elk i was watching and they literally rounded them up and drove them out of the canyon then they flew away. Game and fish aerial survey? Maybe driving them to 27 to lower success rates in 1? I have the numbers from the helicopter. I'm tempted to call it in. 

That’s pretty whack. 

[creed_az_88]

13 minutes ago, ctafoya said:

Lots of good action in 1 this morning. Then a helicopter started flying down all the canyons. It saw the elk i was watching and they literally rounded them up and drove them out of the canyon then they flew away. Game and fish aerial survey? Maybe driving them to 27 to lower success rates in 1? I have the numbers from the helicopter. I'm tempted to call it in. 

Call it in! If they were clearly working elk with a helicopter then game and fish needs to know. Otherwise, they will continue to do it if they're not legitimate. 

[Viper]

22 hours ago, AzDiamondHeat said:

last year it was DDDDRRRRRYYYYYY as in dust bowl dry. Only a couple of the deeper/bigger tanks had water. Looking a ittle similar this year.

This weekend up in Strawberry it went stone cold quiet as soon as all the people came out for the weekend. I wouldn't gauge activity based on this weekend.

But mine is a very small sample so hard to say.

 

 

 

That's a good point. It gets hammered up there on Labor Day weekend. It may take 4 or 5 days to get back to normal.

Two years ago, it was pretty quiet for the first few days of the hunt, then started getting better each day.

[CatfishKev]

6 hours ago, ctafoya said:

Lots of good action in 1 this morning. Then a helicopter started flying down all the canyons. It saw the elk i was watching and they literally rounded them up and drove them out of the canyon then they flew away. Game and fish aerial survey? Maybe driving them to 27 to lower success rates in 1? I have the numbers from the helicopter. I'm tempted to call it in. 

I hope you made a video

[muledeerarea33?]

I’ll be up tomorrow checking things out. Try not to step on any toes of the archery guys.