a couple of trailcam pics

[TexasCowPoke]

I love to see what shows up on trailcams. Here are a couple from this year and one from last year. I never saw the bigboy this year.

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This post was edited on 11/23 12:47 PM by TexasCowPoke

 

[cowpoke74]

love the big 8

 

[osumark]

Sweet, I wish I would see a shooter on my property.

 

[OSUTulsa]

Nice! Lot's of variety... Did you shoot a buck?

 

[TexasCowPoke]

No... I only bowhunt this area. My buddy, and OSU gradX2, did shoot a nice symetrical 8 pointer. I had a big (140ish or better) 10 under me at dusk the last evening, but he stopped right behind a small bush and wouldn't move as I help full draw for what seemed like forever. One step more and I'd have him at 14 yards. By then, I was losing light and could barely see my pins. Then he bounded off after a doe that came thru. Had hoped to see him the next morning, but didn't.
I'm going to hopefully shoot a small buck with my rifle tonight on my home place with my grandson Clay, as that is the only hunting it looks like I'm going to be able to do.

 

[dtspoke]

Here is a spike with a horn growing out of his forehead.

Here is a bull elk sniffing my camera.

 

[TexasCowPoke]

Not a spike! It's a Unicorn!

In that second pick... is that a ...... moose?!

 

[dtspoke]

It's actually this guy.

 

[dtspoke]

The camera with the elk is set up over a wallow on the north end of our grazing permit. Over his left horn (right side of pic), you can see a big tree in the background. That tree is a 60 foot tall ponderosa with no branches the first 35 feet. There is a tree stand at 30 feet.

Unfortunately I didn't draw an archery elk tag for our unit this year. Maybe next.

I've got a ton of trail cam pics from out here.

Here is a bachelor group of some little guys that need a few more years.

I went after this guy in front with my bow and had him close twice. One time he was moving off at 50 yards and I couldn't close the distance, the other time he was less than 10 feet away, but he was with 9 other bucks and I was sitting in an stand of aspen saplings. A little 2x2 was literally 3 feet away feeding and I had no chance to draw. But it was a cool experience.

I passed on this guy opening week because I thought I could do better, and he's pretty dang young. If I had seen him the last week of season, I would have shot him in the face.

This post was edited on 12/9 10:41 AM by dtspoke

 

[dtspoke]

Here is one more.

I've been watching this guy since he was 2. In the summer he's never more than a half mile from this location and it's been that way since he was born. He doesn't even run with the bachelor groups in the area.

We about 90% sure that he is 3, and he is probably in the 190+ range right now. This picture was taken in July and you can tell he's got a ton of growth left to go. He'll be over 200 this year because I'm pretty sure I saw him hauling butt at about 300 yards this November. He's cagey already.

I know where he lives and I'm going to try with my bow if I can get a tag. If not, I'm going to help a couple of kids this fall and see if we can get him. The problem is that he basically disappears around the first of October.

This post was edited on 12/9 10:51 AM by dtspoke

 

[Dally1up]

What camera are those DTS? They look cool but almost seem "cartoonic" in a good way (unless it is just me).

 

[dtspoke]

The trailcams are both Wildgame Innovations IR4's. I got 4 of them through Cabela's for like $70 each. Not very good quality, but they are out in the middle of public land so they get beat up and the odds of theft are good if someone saw one.

The last pic is from a Nikon D40 taken from a couple hundred yards away. I blew up the pic with my cheapo Windows software, so that is why the quality is so awesome.

 

[dtspoke]

The front of the camera set up on that elk wallow is covered in mud. The last series of pics was smeared to heck and it was so bad that when I pulled the camera the lens wouldn't even trigger a picture.

There are quite a few pics like this on the camera:

 

[dtspoke]

In that one spot, the best I could tell, I had 7 different bulls in the span of one week during the peak of rut, not including a few spikes. Not one pic during the night and not one pic during the early morning or late evening.

They were working that mudhole to death during the heat of the day during the heat of the rut. Pretty interesting.

Before and after that, nothing. Just a few cows and they pretty much steered clear of the mud. Don't know what that means other than if you hit that spot at the right time, you can pick your bull, otherwise you are watching squirrels fight for pinecones.

 

[OSUTulsa]

What unit do you hunt? I'm putting in for 66 or 67 this year. Nice pictures.

 

[dtspoke]

Originally posted by OSUTulsa:
What unit do you hunt? I'm putting in for 66 or 67 this year. Nice pictures.

50/500/501

My dad hunted north of Red Cloud for years. Killed some elk over the years, but you have to really put in the time to get a shot at a big one. They are there and the numbers are really good, but the big one's are in bad back country due to pressure.

 

[OSUTulsa]

Thanks. I've been hunting unit 54 or 55. To much pressure the elk are call shy... I've got a friend who lives in Gunnison. He knows the back country and shoots nice bulls every year. We shall see.... It's tough with a bow.

 

[dtspoke]

If you find the elk and some good cows, bowhunting is pretty awesome, but seeing a 300+ bull at 400 yards covered in cows is discouraging in the middle of September.

I've found that bowhunters work harder than just about anyone in the state of Colorado, but there just aren't the numbers to screw up the dark timber bulls.