Hairy Beasts and Smell Korns

[Stone_Ice_1]

The weekend after the 4th I went in to grab 2 of my other cameras because I wanted to move them to another location. I wasn't expecting much at this location but was pleasantly surprised. This camera was about 100 yards off a road and I just wasn't expecting much.View attachment Bear.JPG
Not a big bear but a pretty one.

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This guy was unique. As I said before I usually have 2 cameras fairly close to each other. It is amazing how often you get the same bull within minutes of each other on the cameras, even if they are several hundred yards to a quarter mile apart. This guy was no exception.

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Another typical bull for what I was seeing early in the season. Longer brow tines and 3rds and fairly narrow. This one did have more on the back end than most of them though. When I went in to check this camera, the area reeked of elk. I kept expecting to see them. I didn't but they couldn't have been far off. A bachelor herd had come through the previous day and a few of them were good sized.

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[BrowningCitori]

This post is off to a great start, well time for off-season reading. Keep the posts coming

 

[Caseknife]

Antler growth should have been real good given the lush vegetation, some real healthy looking bulls. It would be neat to just have the ability to join someone on this hunt and go along for the eye candy.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

After picking up the cameras in the last post I took the four wheeler in on a rough road to a new area I had never been. I had started up this road many years before in my truck and decided it was not worth it. So with the 4 wheeler I went in after work in the evening. My plan was to ride in a ways and I had some spots I wanted to hike to that I had found on google earth. I was hoping I would have enough time to get in and out before it was too late. Even though it was now July, the high elevation in this area and it was obvious that most of the elk were not in the area. I ran into a group of 12 young adults that were clearing out some areas for the Montana Conservation Corp. They told me it was day 9 of their 10 day stay in the area and they had not seen another person or an elk in all that time. I found that hard to believe as there was some sign around but mostly the elk weren't there yet. But they were running 10 chain saws all day every day so I imagine the game stayed away. They were certainly chatty and happy to see somebody new to talk to.


These pictures are all taken from a old mine/cabin location. If you have been up the road you may know what I am referring to.



I put the two cameras within view of this last picture. One is in the creek bottom near the openings you see on the far left of the picture. The other is over the top of the ridge where that opening is. There are a couple of opening just on the other side and it was an elky looking place that had a spring seeping up in it. No lack of water up here right now but as I said it was early and the snow had just melted off with patches of it still around.

I did run into 2 other guys up here. They were staying in the cabin. It was already getting dark when I talked to them and they were surprised I still had to drive all the way back down. Told me they hadn't seen any elk either. On my ride out I saw 2 cows in some openings before I headed back down but was a little disappointed I didn't see more. It is a beautiful area and always fun to explore someplace new, especially when it is so close to home.

 

[BuckRut]

Those parks in that very farthest shaded bowl are where the elk hang out.