Just when you think you're a badass

and start acting like rutting buck,....You sometimes get that feeling that there's a much bigger badass coming up right behind you......



the date and time on my trail camera is wrong... I need to change that. It's not quite elk season yet, but this big guy and a bigger friend of his are running around in my zone... They like to play reindeer games, mostly they play "get away from my girl" you bastard!



Could be some elk steaks on the grill sometime soon.....

o0norton0o said:

and start acting like rutting buck,....You sometimes get that feeling that there's a much bigger badass coming up right behind you......

View attachment 116805

the date and time on my trail camera is wrong... I need to change that. It's not quite elk season yet, but this big guy and a bigger friend of his are running around in my zone... They like to play reindeer games, mostly they play "get away from my girl" you bastard!

View attachment 116806

Could be some elk steaks on the grill sometime soon.....

Click to expand...

It looks like the Bull Elk rousted the Whitetail and then encountered another Bull of his size?

In the original picture all you could see where the glowing eyes of the elk. When I was messing with the deer picture I saw the elk image behind him and enhanced the picture to make him visible beyond just a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness...

Honestly, I knew there was a 5 x 5 out there and you rarely know if you keep seeing the same one or if there's more than one without having a trail camera to compare racks and body markings.... When I saw this image I just about lost my mind... I texted it to my hunting partner with the caption, "look one for each of us!" Needless to say he was pretty psyched...

o0norton0o said:

In the original picture all you could see where the glowing eyes of the elk. When I was messing with the deer picture I saw the elk image behind him and enhanced the picture to make him visible beyond just a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness...

Honestly, I knew there was a 5 x 5 out there and you rarely know if you keep seeing the same one or if there's more than one without having a trail camera to compare racks and body markings.... When I saw this image I just about lost my mind... I texted it to my hunting partner with the caption, "look one for each of us!" Needless to say he was pretty psyched...

Click to expand...

Pretty excited? I'll bet he went flat out bonkers.
I always loved elk hunting. I used to hunt N. Mexico during archery season in my other life.
I still hunt archery season but now do so in my home state in pursuit of whitetails, age has become rather effective in dictating my activities these days.

Lineslinger said:

It looks like the Bull Elk rousted the Whitetail and then encountered another Bull of his size?

Click to expand...

Even though the time stamp is wrong (but has been corrected now) the elk rousted the deer 3 hours before he and his buddy started their "discussion" in front of the trail camera. There's something about the grass right in that area that draws them in at night to feed. You would never know they were around with the exception of some turds, but for the camera I mounted there. My friend and I are both totally psyched. We're into our 3rd year here with cameras.

Here's the head butting buddies just before sunrise... Having a friendly clinking of the horns even though the rut is over. I guess it's still just their nature to compete, even this passively..

https://live.staticflickr.com/video...Dg5NmYwMDBhZjU5YjhkZTljYTQ4YWNhNTkiLCJ2IjoxfQ

o0norton0o said:

Even though the time stamp is wrong (but has been corrected now) the elk rousted the deer 3 hours before he and his buddy started their "discussion" in front of the trail camera. There's something about the grass right in that area that draws them in at night to feed. You would never know they were around with the exception of some turds, but for the camera I mounted there. My friend and I are both totally psyched. We're into our 3rd year here with cameras.

Here's the head butting buddies just before sunrise... Having a friendly clinking of the horns even though the rut is over. I guess it's still just their nature to compete, even this passively..

https://live.staticflickr.com/video...Dg5NmYwMDBhZjU5YjhkZTljYTQ4YWNhNTkiLCJ2IjoxfQ

Click to expand...

Over the last 40+ years I have managed to rattle in some serious bruisers. Some charge in so fast I never had a chance to get my bow up, others slink in right next to me or under the stand.

Lineslinger said:

Over the last 40+ years I have managed to rattle in some serious bruisers. Some charge in so fast I never had a chance to get my bow up, others slink in right next to me or under the stand.

Click to expand...

The elk we're hunting are woodland animals. Very small groups living in dense wooded areas. They have to be sneaky to survive. One year my buddy had gone into some really heavily overgrown forest (washington state) and was sitting with his back to some stump or tree when he heard a twig snap just to one side. When he looked to that side, the elk's head was about 4 feet from his nose. Like you, he was bow hunting that year and that elk who had walked up to 4 feet of him without making a sound he could hear, roared past him and out of sight through heavy brush in just seconds...

There is enough human trespass for hiking, biking, and hunting on this land for these animals to never let down their guard. Unlike some herds in other locations that just kind of travel around in plain sight but never allow anything to close the distance between them, these elk are the ultimate "hide and seek" players. Certainly, the cameras are cheating in a game of hide and seek.

I've got them in certain areas, going in the same direction, at the same time of day, on multiple days, withing legal hunting hours, so I have a plan... I've been adjusting some of the vegitation that covers their approach path so I'll get an early glimpse of them so I can position myself and be motionless when they have a chance to pick me out..... Hopefully, I'll get that little bit of luck needed and the wind will be right and that 6 x 5 will walk right by my position during hunting hours..