Chasing Elk

The trip was a goose hunting trip, but ended up with a bit of extra time on our hands.  We figured there wasn't any better way than to go out and find some elk to chase, even if it was only with a camera....this time!  Over the weekend we found at least six or seven different really nice bulls with sets of cows.  We have some awesome video footage of elk roaming, bugling, and a little bit of fighting with a couple of nice 6-points that crossed paths with their cows.  We have some video footage of a really good whitetail as well if we can figure how to get them up on the blog, we'll get them up.  We saw one very nice 6x7 that was significantly bigger than all these pictured, but could only get him good through the spotting scope, so no pictures turned out.  Blake was able to call a couple bulls after dark to within about 15-20 yards.  It was something else to have that many elk responding all at the same time.  

A few nice shots of this decent 6-point.  This guy was very active in trying to protect his cows from invaders.  There were a ton of elk in the area and he was cruising back and forth to the east and to the west where he had other bulls trying to come in from both sides to get a shot at his cows.  

We really didn't have to go far to find this bull.  Got him right at the right time to see his breath during a bugle.  Elk were screaming all around the valley from dusk, all through the night, and most of the morning each day there.

Watched this guy fight with another really nice 6-point that was a little bigger than this one for a minute.  He was chasing some cows that were straying a little bit later and a small 5-point came in on his cows.  He came back about 5-10 minutes later and ran that smaller bull off very quickly.  We didn't get any footage during the action, we weren't in position to see it with anything but our eyes.  But it was quite the show.