Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Satellite bulls

I ran across this old pic I took 10 or 12 years ago. These little guys were just satellite bulls hanging around the edge of a herd of at least 20 cows. The big guy was up the hill a ways. I got a glimpse of him and he was IMPRESSIVE.

Anywhere else, these 2 would have had large harems but they weren't up to butting heads with this guy.

Nice, and they became buddies later on with big boy.

THATS A SATELLITE BULL????N OMG I would give a body part for that one in the front. Outstanding !

I took that photo from about 80 yards. I was bowhunting but elk season wasn't open. If it had been open, I'm pretty sure I could have got within 50 yards as I had some good cover. He was looking my way but didn't see me.

I’ve never elk hunted before. If I had a chance too shoot either one of those I would be grinning like a [bleep] eatin possum. Especially that one in the front.

the herd bull was up the hill behind them, maybe 150 yards away. I only got a quick look at him but he was the biggest elk I've ever seen. I didn't get a good look at his rack but he could have possibly been a 7x7 or even larger. I haven't seen another like him. At that time, there wasn't an elk season in this area. Now there is and tags are VERY hard to draw. It's easy hunting and the bulls are big. Everyone wants a chance at one.

I’ve killed two elk bigger than the larger of the two satellite bulls.

And I’ve been chasing bulls for 40 years.



P

Big boys

Elk South of the freeway need to be named something else. They are not even close to the ones North of the freeway.

if your an elk hunter just seeing that nice elk picture puts that elk smell in your nose from memory and the sound of a bull elk bugle.

At least they weren't cable bulls. What network? Dish or other?

These were southeast of Twin Falls, in the Shoshone Basin area. There's a pretty good herd in there now if you can get the tag.

They aint Counce bulls either.

Network. Look at them antennas.

Doubt I would live long enough to draw a regular tag with 1-2% draw results. You can have one for about $15K by buying a landowner tag though.........South Hills hunting regulations are a mess. I think I preferred it 30 years ago before the elk moved in.

It's going to be a bigger mess next year after the Badger fire. I wonder how they're wintering in 90k acres of soot.

I can't remember just when, maybe 15 or 20 years ago?, the IDFG was going to transplant some elk into the south hills. There were already a few there that had migrated north out of NV and they wanted to add to the herd. The ranchers screamed and the plan was scrapped...or was it? The elk herd just kept growing. They claimed it was from continued migration from NV and of course there was no hunting season, but the herd grew fast. There was no proof but a lot of speculation that the IDFG didn't scrap the plan and did some transplanting.
There are quite a few elk there now and it's easy hunting but getting the tag is a real trick.
There are a lot of moose in there now, too.

I was with an Incident Management Team that managed several fires south and west of there several years ago. One group of fires burned together west of Jackpot and moved north up towards Salmon Falls reservoir. The other group along the Utah border, were stopped at the state line. It was a tough long, three weeks.

fire does help bring back good green grass for elk to feed on the next few years and helps a hunter see better in the burned area too.

Yeah, you better stay home and wait for the forest to bounce back.


That front bull looks like a 4 1/2 year old bull, good satellite bull.