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Colorado Elk Hunting Unit Article
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Elk Hunting Season - When to Hunt Elk
from:If you are a beginning elk hunter, you might not be aware of how strongly influenced by the time of year that the elk are. If you are looking to hunt elk, knowing what the seasons mean to them will shed some light on this amazing animal and help you understand a little bit more about why it behaves the way it does. In addition to this, it will also give you a better idea of what you need to do and what you will encounter as head out. Elk are very strongly responsive to the changes of the year, and just like the weather and season will bring the elk down the mountainside, it will also prompt them to head back up. During the early fall, the elk are in rut and this is the best, some hunters would say, the only time to hunt this kind of large game.
During the early fall, you will be able to hear the distinctive bellow of the elk bulls as they contest for territory and females, a sounds that is called bugling. This time of year is called the rutting season for elks. Months before, the bulls will have started to separate from the cows, and they will start to stuff themselves full of fodder. Their antlers have grown back and, and while they are still in velvet during the summer, the lengthening of the nights and the shortening of the days causes biological cues which cause the velvet to shed and the antlers to unsheathe. While the antlers of the bulls are white or pale gray when the velvet is first shed, they will darken when the rut comes on them. You will find that the antlers are often stained with mud, bark and blood by the time that you yourself sight one of these magnificent animals.
A good elk hunter should be aware of the bull's disposition at this point in time. During the summer, the bulls wander the mountains in large bachelor groups, which contained mature and juvenile males. However, at the time of the fall equinox, when the days get shorter, you'll find that the male elks start getting a great deal more short tempered with each other. It is at this point that the bulls will start rounding up the cows and keeping them in harems, which the bulls will keep as numerous as they can. During this time, you'll find that the necks and humps of the bulls are swollen to twice their normal size. Their hair will be a great deal longer, darker and coarser and a bull elk in rut looks even larger than it really is. You will find that at this time of year, the bull elks are extremely short tempered and should be approached with a high degree of caution. By the end of the rutting seasons, the bull elk will have calmed down and wander back to their bachelor groups, down about a hundred pounds from their rutting season weight.
When you are going elk hunting, remember to keep in mind the state of the animal and the fact that it will be prone to behavior dependent on the time of year that you have encountered it.
If you would like to experience a truly once in a lifetime wilderness elk hunt, we invite to visit our site to find out more about Kohls Outfitting and to download our free Guide To Elk Hunting.
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