All or Nothing - 2018 Missiouri Breaks Elk

teej89

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I've never done one of these before and not too sure how well it'll pan out but I'm going to try and keep it interesting.

Anyways, the story starts back in January, my dad, my buddy Chris, and I have been going to MT to hunt in September and November. This year was the same plan but my bud couldn't do the September elk hunt so he opted to go for just a deer tag and my dad and I were on our own for our elk hunt. Needing a third to help pack, because my dad is 68, I asked my neighbor who's been wanting for us to take him out west for a while now and he instantaneously agreed. I told him it's two trips a total of 16-18 days of vacation and he got the go ahead from his wife and we were getting our applications in.

Long story short... we ended up drawing an either sex rifle tag in the breaks on the CMR. We had all of the odds against us, even when applying my dad didn't even want to put in for a unit, he just wanted to get the general tag and not even try for anything else-. This was one of the few times I was able to look back and say aren't ya glad for listening to me dad. The day I drew I couldn't comprehend what we drew, I was in such shock and here it's my buds first elk hunt ever and my original friend was kicking himself in the arse for having to bail... As soon as we saw the tag I called my dad, half laughing/shaking from excitement, and told him there's no way I can make the family beach trip, that I need to save my vacation and he 100% agreed.


We've doing plenty of scouting and talking to people, some of you on here thank you very much for the insight and assistance. We're all 3 fairly green to elk hunting, only 4 seasons that my dad and I have hunted and my buddy 0 with my dad and I both killing rag horns in WY so we're not going to be too picky on bulls. Honestly we just want to have a fun hunt and my dad is the type of guy that'll be tickled to death with anything, my main goal is to make sure my old man gets his first public land bull.

That brings us to this week, I'm flying out Wednesday to Billings where my dad is picking me up and we're driving up to the CMR and getting boots on the ground come Thursday morning. We'll be out there 3 days straight, hiking dawn to dusk and hopefully getting a decent sense of the lay of the land.

Come the season we're getting out there 3 days early and hunting for 14 days straight before heading back. We're going to be giving it everything we got, until the last piece of boot leather wears off our boots, then we're going to go some more. I've been hiking 3-5mi each day with the dog with a 50# bag of sand in my pack, on top of lifting before work(I've always lifted but just started rucking in May). Basically we're giving it our 200%, hence the title All or Nothing, I think it fits?

My sister has a really nice camera and she's letting me use it for our hunt with the understanding that if I break it I owe her the same camera but the newest model. I'll be posting a bunch of pics from our scouting trip probably a week after we get back(work is crazy). Don't mind my photography skills, my sister just showed me how to use the camera but hopefully I'll have some nice/neat pictures to share with you guys and hopefully later this fall some pictures of us and some bulls, hopefully one!

Stay tuned...
T.J.
 
I'm guessing that the locals are delighted to have some carpetbaggers in there who are just looking for any public land bull. You should do well.
 
Hope you guys have a good time and fill some tags, your neighbor is going to be spoiled on his first trip! Hope to draw the breaks next year for archery, bonus only for me this year. Good luck to all of you and I'll stay tuned, looking forward to see how this story plays out.
 
I'm guessing that the locals are delighted to have some carpetbaggers in there who are just looking for any public land bull. You should do well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be shooting just any rag horn the opening week(my dad might but it's what makes him happy, I'll gladly pack it), especially if our scouting pays off and we're seeing bulls but if it comes down to tag soup or a 5x5 as my second bull/first public land bull I'll be more than happy to pull the trigger.
 
Well, I’m a local and I say who gives a rip what anyone else thinks? Congrats on the tags teej, and hope you guys have a great hunt! Really cool that you’ll get to share it with your dad. Maybe we’ll see you out there.
 
Well, I’m a local and I say who gives a rip what anyone else thinks? Congrats on the tags teej, and hope you guys have a great hunt! Really cool that you’ll get to share it with your dad. Maybe we’ll see you out there.

haha thanks! I appreciate it:D The handful of locals I talked to seemed very pleasant, it's been a great experience so far!

If you happen to see a guy in his late 20s and a gray haired man in his late 60s(of similar height) screaming at each other, you've found us, this is how him and I communicate. I tell all my buddies don't be afraid when we start yelling, that's a good thing, it's when we go silent with each other, that's when you should start worrying hahaha
 
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Can't wait to see your scouting photos. It's awesome country took me 11 years to draw a breaks tag consider yourself lucky. If you have that kind of time to put in don't get trigger happy there are some very nice bulls running around out there.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be shooting just any rag horn the opening week(my dad might but it's what makes him happy, I'll gladly pack it), especially if our scouting pays off and we're seeing bulls but if it comes down to tag soup or a 5x5 as my second bull/first public land bull I'll be more than happy to pull the trigger.

Sorry if I was taken the wrong way. It's just that some folks can take things like these premium tags a little too seriously. Sounds like you're already getting what you want out of the experience.
 
Sorry if I was taken the wrong way. It's just that some folks can take things like these premium tags a little too seriously. Sounds like you're already getting what you want out of the experience.

No worries, I didn't think you were. I just wanted to clarify our expectations a little more further, we're not expecting seeing 320 bulls in every coulee, and also we really don't know what to expect lol hope to maybe find some bulls this week, that's just the icing on the cake though, I'm just excited to get out there and walk it seeing an elk or not it's gonna be a great time this week!
 
What days will you be out hunting? First two weeks of rifle season I'm assuming?

Take note of the available water sources when you are out on your scouting trips. Lots of years it gets dry up in that country.
 
What days will you be out hunting? First two weeks of rifle season I'm assuming?

Take note of the available water sources when you are out on your scouting trips. Lots of years it gets dry up in that country.

We'll be getting in late Wednesday the week before opener and setting up camp then we'll be there for 2 weeks after opener. I have 2 days of vacation saved up so if I don't tag out I'm contemplating asking my boss to buy a day of vacation and going back out during thanksgiving week.

I was thinking about that but we're on the CMR right on the lake and was thinking the mornings and evenings I'm going to try and get as high as possible and close as possible to the lake to try and catch them transitioning to get water. So I wasn't sure how pertinent it would be to find water inland, I wasn't sure if they'd mainly transition to/from the lake for water in lieu of finding it inland.
 
Good luck,Swing by and pick me up in Az. I'll pack anything.I will thumb it to Alaska from there.Bucket list.:cool:
 
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