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- Jan 28, 2003
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- 13,341
This weekend kicked off our preseason scouting. As I've mentioned before my wife drew a Rocky Mt goat tag and I drew a Shiras Moose tag this year. This weekend was a moose scouting weekend. We arrived in the afternoon set up a quick camp and headed into the river bottoms to look for moose. the first critter we saw was a nice pronghorn buck enjoying the afternoon with a little nap in the sage brush. Sorry about the poor photo but the one thing we forgot was the camera so these were all taken with a cell phone. You can see the tiny little dot in the middle of the shot. That's him.
Mule deer are thick in this area. we also saw about 25 head of elk but none would pose for a photo. These mule deer were happy to model for us.
Several hours into our scouting we were driving along a small creek. My wife casually says "hey look a bear". I stopped the truck and sure enough pretty as picture, was this fat black bear in the trees. We watched him for a while then continued on our quest for moose.
So I mentioned to my wife that she'd seen deer, antelope, elk and bear the only thing she hadn't seen yet was a moose. About ten minutes later she looks over at me says you mean a moose like the one that is running in the ditch right outside my window? I ignored her and kept driving. She looks at me and says I'm serious there was a moose right out my window. So I stop and turn the truck around and warned her that she better not be messing with me, cause we don't joke about moose sightings in this family!
She wasn't joking, he was just getting ready to cross the road when we came back around the corner. A young bull.
Next stop was an old cabin where we did some fishing. We had no luck with the trout so we continued on.
About an hour before sunset we decided to take a walk down the river. About a mile in we stopped to watch a group of 8 cow elk and their babies. they were about 300 yards up the hill and the cell phone cameras were useless at that range so we didn't take any photos. After enjoying ourselves for a bit with the elk we moved on. My wife was in the lead and as usual her eyes were scanning the brush she suddenly stopped and pointed. A nice mature bull moose was grazing on the willow brush about 50 yards ahead of us. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching this bull go about his business. He was in velvet and just starting to grow paddles.
We got back to camp after dark, ate a quick meal and slept hard. The next morning Kim got up and stretched. She poked her head back in the camper and said "Tatonka O'Wajii!!". I rolled over and mumbled something about how tough my life is, having to put up with a crazy woman. Turns out we had camped on the fence line of a big commercial bison ranch. But domestic or not, it sure was neat to see and hear the buffalo herd as they mawwed to each other and the calves bounced and played.
2015 is shaping up to be a fantastic season! Next time out I promise to bring a better camera. Hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed taking them!
Mule deer are thick in this area. we also saw about 25 head of elk but none would pose for a photo. These mule deer were happy to model for us.
Several hours into our scouting we were driving along a small creek. My wife casually says "hey look a bear". I stopped the truck and sure enough pretty as picture, was this fat black bear in the trees. We watched him for a while then continued on our quest for moose.
So I mentioned to my wife that she'd seen deer, antelope, elk and bear the only thing she hadn't seen yet was a moose. About ten minutes later she looks over at me says you mean a moose like the one that is running in the ditch right outside my window? I ignored her and kept driving. She looks at me and says I'm serious there was a moose right out my window. So I stop and turn the truck around and warned her that she better not be messing with me, cause we don't joke about moose sightings in this family!
She wasn't joking, he was just getting ready to cross the road when we came back around the corner. A young bull.
Next stop was an old cabin where we did some fishing. We had no luck with the trout so we continued on.
About an hour before sunset we decided to take a walk down the river. About a mile in we stopped to watch a group of 8 cow elk and their babies. they were about 300 yards up the hill and the cell phone cameras were useless at that range so we didn't take any photos. After enjoying ourselves for a bit with the elk we moved on. My wife was in the lead and as usual her eyes were scanning the brush she suddenly stopped and pointed. A nice mature bull moose was grazing on the willow brush about 50 yards ahead of us. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching this bull go about his business. He was in velvet and just starting to grow paddles.
We got back to camp after dark, ate a quick meal and slept hard. The next morning Kim got up and stretched. She poked her head back in the camper and said "Tatonka O'Wajii!!". I rolled over and mumbled something about how tough my life is, having to put up with a crazy woman. Turns out we had camped on the fence line of a big commercial bison ranch. But domestic or not, it sure was neat to see and hear the buffalo herd as they mawwed to each other and the calves bounced and played.
2015 is shaping up to be a fantastic season! Next time out I promise to bring a better camera. Hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed taking them!
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