Hunting & Fishing Gotta love the Rut!

[hognuts]

Nothing like being surrounded by bulls that are bugling in the thick of the rut! We were able to call this guy in last weekend in the Spring Mountains in Nevada. He stopped about 20 yards out and bugled one last time before he winded us and trotted off...no elk tag, we were just playing while out mule deer hunting and we had heard them bugling the afternoon before, so we came back with the bugle and a cow call and got this big boy to come right to us...pretty bad ass, makes the hair on the back of your neck getting this close to these beasts!











I can't wait for October! Heading to Wyoming for elk/wolf hunt in the Bridger Tetons in the "Thorofare", just south of Yellowstone, and although I am a little concerned with what I have heard about the elk numbers being low up there, I know we will have a great hunt, always good getting out there with the hunting crew and having a few beverages next to the camp fire and seeing some amazing country....and I am really hoping to get a wolf in the crosshairs of the 6.5 SAUM this fall! Good luck to y'all on your hunts this fall.

 

[Idaho Savage]

Absolutely stunning photography. Well played, sir.

 

[EasternNChunter]

That is Awesome!!!

 

[Young_Engineer_89]

Love them Nevada Bulls, I havent ever seen them down south around you guys, but we are entering my favorite time of year

 

[hognuts]

This was in the Spring Mountains not to far from Vegas, they are in there...Yeah they are bugling like crazy down here. I am going back up this weekend to see if I can call them in. I am going to see if I can get some video.

 

[6mech]

Some of my fondest memories are from being in elk country during the rut. Some truly spectacular sights and sounds! Glad you got to experience it. Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[rhildy77]

Great pictures hognuts. That is one thing I am looking forward to when I get back from this deployment. Don't have tags but just going to go glass and see what I can find. I'm thinking about building a 6.5 SAUM as well for hunting have to let me know how it works out on game. Good luck

 

[hognuts]

Yeah, I also enjoy just getting out there and watching them. Pretty amazing animal. I will definitely post up results if I get an opportunity with the SAUM this year. I will be in elk/wolf country for my first hunt, maybe not as many of the elk due to the wolves, but we shall see how it goes. That area is known as an area where the elk migrate through when they are coming out of the park, if the numbers are truly down 80% in the park that doesn't bode well for us hunting in an area that is a migration area coming out of the park. We shall see I reckon. I am also hunting mule deer in Nevada, so I "should" get an opportunity to exercise the rifle between the two hunts! Good luck to everyone this fall!

God speed getting back from your deployment! Thank you for your service.

 

[William_LXIX]

Oh Yeah! Definitely makes me feel primal being around those animals when they are stirring like that!

 

[FN in MT]

We live in central MT along the MO River. Great elk country. Several years back my non hunting wife decides she wants to shoot a deer and or an elk to simply experience what it's like and to maybe spend some time with me...As I was gone from Sept to December hunting back then as I was Guiding.

So we set her up with a M-70 compact in 7mm-08, 4X Nikon, etc. she is a good shooter, and with a little practice she is up to speed enough to kill anything at a reasonable range.

She drew an early season, either sex rifle tag for our local area. A local Ranch allowed her to hunt as long as she shot a mature COW. they were over run with elk.

We get out there early one late September morning and get right into the middle of an easy hundred head in broken timber and rolling hills. We were in a pile of big rocks with sage around it. With over a dozen love starved young bulls literally all around us. I'm sure they winded us but they didn't care. They were bugling, chasing each other as well as the occasional gang up fight with a pair starting then another two or three getting into it with the first two. There were half a dozen hapless young cows being chased around endlessly.

THE POINT of the story....I look over at my Wife and she has a borderline TERRIFIED look in her eyes. She had NEVER been this close to rutting elk before! She was unprepared for how aggressive they can be.
We had a pair of rag horn bulls sparring antlers within 20 feet of us at one point. I was glad we had the rocks between us and them as they were really going at it.

Finally A mature cow came over the hell and after I had Karen dry fire a few times and she stuck a 160 gr Nosler partition into her chest at 120 yds and that was the end of that.

I've had larger bulls advance on me, in open fields, literally trotting up to within 40 or 50 yds, challenging me! They surely DO get crazy when the rut is on.

Great pictures!

 

[hognuts]

^^^^ That is awesome.

We were lucky enough to hunt the early hunt up in Montana one year and put down a decent 6 point bull in the Absaroka Beartooth. We did a drop camp with Absaroka Beartooth Outfitters out of Big Timber. (I live in Vegas now, but grew up in Montana, went to school in Boulder Montana until my Junior year and graduated from the thriving metropolis of Roundup Montana!) We saw the bull about 1200 yards out and my buddy called him in with a bugle, shot him about 300 yards out tearing up a jack pine with his antlers and stomping his feet, he was coming in to whoop our ass! Very cool experience!

 

[mdesign]

Neat pics...it is quite an experience seeing up close and bugling like that.