MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

Checked my cameras this afternoon & added one to the mix. I also made some changes to my old Moultrie model that got ripped off a tree & customized a little box out of Trex deck lumber that I could secure to the tree... seemed pretty sturdy but we'll see if I find it in the middle of the trail again. The trail where Camera #2 is had been beaten into a 20 foot wide swath of 2" deep powder. The mountains have really dried out in the last month, water will be the key this year.
Here's the best of the bunch:




And, I just liked this one because you can see all the individual fibers from the velvet on this little guy.

Cool, got yourself and nice buck in there.

I agree with MM... thats a good looking buck.

That spot looks to be as good as it gets.

Another check of my cameras last weekend:



I moved 2 cameras over into another area of the property... we put down a few more miles than anticipated but I finally got to lay eyes on some country that I've been pouring over on Google Earth for a couple years. We saw lots of deer while hiking and as I was preparing to mount one of the cameras to a tree I watched a mountain lion scoot across a clearing about 50 yards away. It was one of those things that you see & then have a mental picture but have to keep asking yourself if that's what you really saw... it was pretty cool.
What wasn't cool was what went down on the ATV ride back to the cabin. My head started spinning and I started to not feel right. Heat stroke... and it was scary. I couldn't keep any food or water down for hours (but I kept drinking 'cause I knew that would eventually be what would make me feel better). It took 4 hours, a cold bath, 3 liters of water, and nap before I felt human again. The thing is I felt just fine while hiking and even got into a nice little groove there towards the end & felt like I could go forever... but as soon as I jumped on the ATV & relaxed a bit it all started to unravel. Very humbling if you ask me.
Anyway, I moved the cameras into this bowl (I posted a Google Earth screenshot of some elk in a pond a while back... well that pond is the visible water body right at the center of the picture). By the way, those ponds are full of huge tadpoles and salamanders, which was also pretty cool.

It's official, we've been through the dog days of summer. I always experience a bit of a slow time during these super hot & dry days.
I really only have a handful of noteworthy pictures from the thousands of "empties" that I had to go through.


Spot the coyote... it took me a little bit to see him but my eyes are quite poor & I'd been through several thousand pictures already so fatigue was setting in!


This little herd of cows comes into this pond on the regular & they seem to really enjoy getting in the water. This particular time they bedded on the opposite end of the pond and were there for nearly 2 hours.


Wasn't quite sure what to think of this one... I've never known moose & deer to be overly comfortable around each other but these two seem cordial.

Those old dirt dogs sure can blend in.

Found the coyote, but took a while.

Nice pics.