12 Bulls...on one hillside all bugling at the same time!!!

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes, counted them myself, and taken the pics to prove it...


Today's weather changed dramaticly as a cold front moved into the northern part of the state and though Bozeman only saw the southern end of it; I was convinced it would likely be good for elk movement so made the trip after work. I wasn't disapointed, while the lighting was shit the bulls were going balistic and chasing, fighting, and just doing what they do in September; but even more so because of the low cloud cover and light rain (temps dipping into the low 40's before sunset).


The seven bulls in the pic preceding this were all together and slowly working their way out of the treeline down to the action below. Once there they interacted with another band of bulls; some who were already working cows and others who entered the show from the woods right of frame. All in all I counted 12 individual bulls. Not all were huge trophys of course as several were rag horns and satelite bulls lingering just out of frame, but a couple young ones spared and even a black one showed up which really blew my mind (pics below)...??!!!




As you can tell from the above pic I'm quite a distance away so the pics have had some post editting to get them clear, but one things for sure; I have done nothing to manipulate the image of the black one your seeing and am still scratching my head about that one.


Here he is again, entering in the upper righthand corner, and appears to have a messed up rack as well; especially compared to the HUGE guy below him whose G-4's are absolutely incredible!!


I dont know if there's anything to this, but viewing the above pic the dominance of the biggest bull being 'above' the other bulls on the hillside appeared to have quelled any mischief they might have been up too before the big guy showed up.


One last look at the big man before he disappered into the thick stuff with is small harem of hot cows..


Meanwhile these two satelite bulls continued to spar (for the second time) and put on quite a show..


It continued for well over a minute and covered roughly 100 feet of field before they called it a draw...


As soon as they stopped they immediately looked toward their female audience, though didn't get the reaction they expected; so continued duking it out for a third time instead...


While doing so another much bigger bull showed himself briefly and simply ignored the two satelites and came in to get the girls up outa their beds and 'show them who the man was afterall'...



..............

I swear rain or shine, 88 degrees or 20; Montana was always the place for me and I'm damned glad I quit my job and moved here!!

To think such incredible things are right here in my backyard is almost like heaven on earth I tell ya...

...

I'll be sure and see what they're up to next week too; so check back often if it interests ya...

Later,

Moe

Elk, Elk, and even more Elk.....

I dont think I'll ever get tired of seeing these dudes do their thing or hear their screams either...


While I'd like to set up camp and just take pics of these bulls every night a guy's gotta work (I found a new job)..; plus I gotta hunt and fish in between, but will be up there every 3 days from here on out after work to get more footage (so keep checking back).


I'll admit that fence was a bummer in the foreground, but he just wouldn't jump it till his cows did first. My poor attempts to use my cow call only spooked him and spooked him bad (he actually ran away).

"#@%*"


His' cows and calves however, seemed gald to be rid of him and all jumped the fence and barely paid me any nevermind.


One even began nursing her calf right in front of me.


Eventually the dude entered the field and within minutes forgot all about me over behind the bushes. He even went about bugling and getting pretty aroused I might add..(I hope thats piss?)


He then chased a hot cow into the bottom and they did their thing. I've yet to capture the act itself, but intend too.


...I know this is gonna sound crazy but there were 7 bulls up on the hillside screaming their heads off and well over a hundred elk in all; in less than a 40 acre area. While a couple sparred pretty good too, they were just too far off for good pictures.

I figure this is the seasonal meeting place for nearly every elk in the Bridgers and its no secret they're here either; as a half-dozen other photographers/spectators were parked nearby.

Still, the fact this unique spectacle is less than 16 miles from my home (10 from Bozeman); makes it easy to get too before the sun sets.

As long as the show lasts I intend to capture it every chance I get.

Stay tuned...

Moe

Two Even Bigger Bulls!!!!.....

While I thought the 6x6 was a "nice bull", these two fella are in an entirely different class...


Since they were considerably further away than the younger bull was on Friday, my images aren't nearlly as sharp, but you still get the feeling these two were the ones actually in-charge of the harem (which now included over 60 cows) in the same area...


I was about sure these two bulls were gonna scrap, but the one bigger (second picture) simply skirted the one above in the field and they never came closer than 100 yards...

Two more bulls sounded off repeatedly within the same area, but I never got a good look at them. Its assumed at least one of those was the 6x6 from Friday, but who knows how big the other one was...

Though these bulls were on private inaccessable lands as well, not two miles up the road I even spotted another bull chasing cows and while this fella (too blurry pics to post) wasn't near the caliber of what I have; he was much closer to public lands and would be just perfect hanging above my bed in the singlewide.


Moe