The Yellowstone River.....

...In all its colorful splendor...


Carters Bridge

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Emigrant

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Some dudes coming off the river..

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Point of Rocks

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Mallards Landing

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Livingston, for a bite to eat..

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Saqaguea Park (I'm sure thats spelt wrong)?

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My destination thru town was to cross the river at 9th street bridge and find the islands under the interstate..(found them)...

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Even Montana has a few graffitti artists it appears...

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As the sun set I put the camera away and busted out the Sage Z-Axis again and threw on a hopper dropper and caught two nice sized rainbow right off the bat.

"Hot damn!"

Thats a great spot to fish, but not entirely allowed I dont think; as its signage leading in said for:'residents only' (to cross the bridge); but oh well. I also caught several white fish; as they're spawing right now and very agressive.

It was such a nice way to spend my day off...so beautiful, peaceful and relaxing; I intend to do the same tomorrow.

Cant wait!


Moe

Bulls are tending cows now...

... as the big group seems to have split up a bit...

This is good news actually; not so much for pictures but better for hunting. My hope is a few elk head back toward the public-areas I've pretty well scouted by now; and I might see one before gun openner with bow in-hand...

When I stopped to checkout the area they've congregated in the past two weeks all I saw were three bulls and a few cows (above); no sign or sound of the massive herd from just days before.

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About a mile up the road I spied a tan hide moving thru the brushy hillside; so slowed to see what it was..?


..Two cows and a spike calf were feeding into the openning and right behind them was this guy.

He didn't stick around long, and even ran the young spike off; before tending his cows corralling them back deeper into the forest and out of sight.

Still, at this location it puts them less than two miles from public-access and moving in the right direction..
It's purely wishful thinking they might keep going and stumble back into public lands; though that's about the only strategy I have right now.

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I'm off for the next two days, but with temps in the 80's here in Bozeman; I'm more likely to go fishing on the Yellowstone than hunting in the Bridgers, but still intend to stop up there one of the evenings to see what I see...

Check back; I'm sure I'll have more pics up by Wednesday..


Moe
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New Country....chasing after big bucks this time...

Headed up to check out some old whitetail haunts from last year and saw quite a few nice ones...


While I intended to simply try and put a doe in the freezer; once there I realised I'd mistakenly purchased a doe tag from another district. Being ethical and lawabiding I decided to do the right thing and not fling any arrows at any doe till I got that straightened out. Kinda absurd really, not just me driving an hour to kill a doe when there's a half dozen in the pasture every morning, but not being able to shoot one here was a bit ridiculous too; since I saw well over 200 doe's in all.



This is the Sheilds River bottom and I figure the doe-to-buck ratio must be around 40 to 1. While this little guy was all alone, most of the bucks I saw were travelling in bachelor herds still and tough to get close too.


Had I snagged an antelope permit for this region these would have been fair-game and a tag would have been definately punched; considering I was very close with bow in hand at the time they were taken. Both the antelope and myself were surprised to find ourselves in such close proximity that I barely got off a frame. They didn't stick around long enough for another one though once they realised what I was and what I was doing there.


These two were on a BMA I have hunted before, but were not the caliber I moved to Montana for so I didn't even get out and sign in. They were with three more smaller bucks and all very nervous when I pulled to a stop to take their picture.


The colors were fantasic, even though the light wasn't. It was bit overcast and cool around 50 all afternoon. Perfect for deer hunting, but I just wasn't into it for some reason. I'd slept most of the day, not used to working five days a week, and even after having Monday off I was still dragging ass and not too intent on killing anything but time.


That is until I spied this guy and his friends!!! The one in front had me freaking out at how to circle on him in an open field and not be detected..?? Though they all were on a private piece, they couldn;t have been a few hundred yards from the public stretch I'd signed-in on at the time.


....It'd be near impossible, but was worth a try...


..As expected it was a bust, couldn't get within 400 yards. Still I have these pics as incentive to try again next week ...when I get another 'day off'.


Before I'd stopped to hunt I'd also spotted some promising grounds for taking the girls up after birds. I waved to a few local ranchers and even told a lady on an ATV where she could find four of her stray cows. I did all this so I could then go back next week and ask for permission to hunt their land. It probably wont work and they'll forget they ever saw me, but at least it was worth a shot.


It wasn't a total bust since I wasn't at work and got to drive back home thru Montana...

Moe

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'...



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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...

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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

Nice Bull......

Was headed up to see if I could squeeze in an evening bowhunt around Bridger Bowl and spotted this fella and his harem of cows on a ridge below the roadway...


He wasn't very vocal though obviously must have been to attract the ladies he had hanging out with him. I'd heard a few good bugles two nights earlier, in the same area, so assume they were from him.


They were obviously on private land at this point, but not a half-mile from public so I'll give it a go tomorrow night and see if there are any others nearby.


Moe