It looks like something had them spooked and they weren't sure which way to run. Nice big herd. Is this the area you will be hunting this year? If so, I hope they stick around. Should be an exciting hunt.
FYI, if you would have held your phone horizontally, you could have captured the action with less camera movement. People often video like they'd look around with their naked eyes, which results in what I call "vomit video". The steadier you hold, and slower you move the camera, the better the results usually are. Just a little constructive critique. I hope you're not offended.
Here's a few videos from 2 years ago. This was the first of 4 bulls I called into bow range that morning. They were definitely talking from a distance, but when they decided to check me out, they would come in silently. He was 7 steps away when he spotted me. It felt weird to scramble for my phone to shoot video instead of my bow. I had never passed on a legal bull in my life. But it was early in the hunt, and I had my sights on much bigger bulls that were in the area.
This one was at a dried up watering hole. They came to bed in the taller trees around the hole. Notice how the last cow turns and looks back towards the end of the video. I thought for sure there was going to be a monster bull that was trailing this small herd.
Here's what showed up a few seconds later. A busted up rag horn. LOL. They bedded about 40 yards from me for at least an hour. Then the bull got up and let out a light bugle that was a signal for the herd to get up and move on. It was a cool encounter.
This one was near the end of the hunt. I had been dogging the herd all morning when they decided to bed down for the day. Unfortunately, the bull I was after bedded down out of range, with about 30 cows all around him. About 3 hours later this little guy got up for a mid-day snack and nearly stepped on me.
All of these were shot with my iPhone 11. It's amazing how far the smartphone photo and video technology has come. My big DSLR camera and lenses rarely get used anymore.
Thanks Matt...pretty cool vids. Brad.....I didn't know but when I saw the herd it reminded me of the herds I've been running into in WY this year. Congrats on the new property!!!
Last summer the wife and I went into town to get groceries. On the way home just about dark a cow and 2 calves were crossing the road in front of us. We stopped, cow went into the woods, the calves ran up to the car and were sniffing around it. Mommy in the meantime was having a cow. About every 5 seconds was a new call. Eventually the calves left. I imagine they went without supper that night.
