WV Hunter

Its a baby Muley...

sabotloader

I do not have enough experience with trail cameras to be a reliable source of information. We have four cameras out and of the four the pictures of this Cabelas are usually the best.

I have fond that I think the camera is to sensitive, I have it set on the lowest response I can and yet still get a lot of pics with nothing moving but clouds, shadows, or slightly moving brush branches

Here is another one

Semisane

I get a fair number of blanks also. Always figured it was something like a bird flying past the camera.

ronlaughlin

A couple of weeks ago while hiking up hill, i stopped for a breather. Taking my time i studied the contour lines on the GPS to try and decide how i was going to navigate back to the truck, without retracing my steps, and without having to struggle with cliffs. Of a sudden two bulls much the same as the two in the photo appeared just above me on the same trail walking directly toward me. They were a tad less grown than those two in the photo, but both were definite branch antlered bulls, as are those bulls. Too bad i was standing right out in the open, other wise they would have passed near close enough to touch; the breeze was just right.

When the lead saw me, he was maybe 15 yard away, and he stopped. I was able to get my rifle off my shoulder, and count coup on him about 3 times, before he bolted away. He stopped about 40 yard away, and studied me some more. Some more i counted coup on him with my rifle. When the wind shifted they ran up over the ridge, and i never saw them again.

Walking up that little drainage isn't something i planned to do when i left the truck, it just happened.

sabotloader

So often especially for myself that is the way it happens... my dad use to say all the time elk are where you find them.

Here is another shot of some a couple days later

ronlaughlin

What's that bull doing with it's nose in the air, and it's leg up off the ground?

Not a pine tree in sight, as far as i can tell; dampish area 'eh, or perhaps that is the nature of the forests around there? Seems like there should be some Lodgepole in the vicinity, but no Ponderosa.

Is that tree without needles to the right, a live larch? Maybe just dead fir?

sabotloader

I think there just might be a little bit of light hearted sparring going on.

I think that point might be a natural mineral lick for them - other than that there is no real reason for them to hang out there so much.

This area was logged by Potlatch probably 6-10 years ago and it is recovering. No lodgepole if we can help it - it is considered a weed here but we do use it in areas that nothing else will grow in then underplant it when the LP is established. Ponderosa will grow well here but the timber companies want the more valued species of trees - Doug Fir, Larch, and White Pine.

Just a snag left over - dead fir. The small one on the right edge of the picture is a live Larch without needles yet.

ronlaughlin

Yes, that is the one i meant.

The forest there is reminiscent of the forest around Missoula. It has been years since i last saw a Larch. They seem to be a West Slope specie. Larch aren't found around Great Falls, which is on the East side of the Divide. Lots of Fir there though.

Here, there are mostly Ponderosa, Black Hills Spruce, and Oak, with patches of Aspen. Don't recall ever seeing a Doug Fir.

Elk are everywhere.... but only where you find them....

Muley Hunter

I think they're where you don't find them too.

super_hunt54

More often than not