Scouting gold too soon?

[Clawsar]

Hey everyone,
I went and picked up my trail cam this weekend and found a couple of different bulls and some various elk running around. Even better, while picking it up and hiking back out the 1.5 miles I saw a herd of about 20 elk with several calves and at least one spike going in and out of the timber on the opposite hillside. If it were September 5th I would have blown off my commitments and gone after them. Unfortunately I'm getting shipped to Taiwan for several weeks to o lay get back a couple of days before the opener. Should I still plan on hitting up this area or are they moving through? I was An hour north of Missoula Montana if that helps. I'm bummed my scouting season is cut short but excited that I finally saw them and could watch them for 10 minutes before they disappeared again.

Thanks for any thoughts! Here are some of the trail cam pics...nothing great but really got my pulse pounding.

[Clawsar]

image.jpg (135.93 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

[WapitiTalk1]

The important question is: Did you stop along the Clarkfork and do some fly fishing on your scouting trip? .. Looks to me like the 8 JUL pics are of a couple of bachelor bulls and the 28 June pic is a spike. That particular area seems to be the men's room to me (bachelor bull hangout spot). I'd be looking for those bulls to be closer to where you saw the herd of cows come the Montana opener if it were me. What time of day did you see the cow herd and where did it appear they were heading? That's another piece of the scouting puzzle in your situation...... Looks like a very good area! Have a safe overseas trip bud.

[Stick]

That bottom pic with the bull to the right back in the trees looks pretty good. Thought he might be the same bull as first pic seeing they are just 5 minutes apart but after looking closer seems to me he is bigger. ......cool pics!

[Clawsar]

Thanks guys! The cows were 3/4 mile away on the opposite wall of this little basin at about 1. They were heading down and along the basin on the north face. It looked like they may have come over the ridge through a saddle and heading down near a lake. I tried to see where they went but it's thick and I quickly lost them in the timber. If I could figure out how to edit a map on my iPad and load it I'd show you.