publichunter1
Well-known member
Congrats on the tags! Hope the trip is everything that you dreamed of.
All or Nothing - 2018 Missiouri Breaks Elk
- Thread starter teej89
- Start date
teej89
Well-known member
Day one of this pre-hunt went so great....... 3hr delay missing my connector in Chicago. Got a new flight from Chicago to Billings landing at 9am. Soon as she processed that, got a message on my phone that my flight was cancelled... next flight out of this airport gets me to Billings tomorrow night. So now it’s traveling 3hrs south to the next airport for a flight to get me into Billings at 1pm tomorrow. Gotta love traveling.... debating whether or not to bump my Sunday flight to monday retain that day lost of scouting.
Like my gf says, maybe all this bad luck will give us good luck on our hunt hahah she’s so positive all the time.
Like my gf says, maybe all this bad luck will give us good luck on our hunt hahah she’s so positive all the time.
bobsmith
New member
Jeez!
MT.PERCHMAN
Active member
It sounds like a Dream Hunt already !!
Best of luck to you !
Best of luck to you !
Schaaf
Well-known member
Good luck. Let me know if you’re anywhere close to Fort Peck.
starvingoutdoorsman
Active member
Gonna be a good year for you if you find a group like this to fill some tags on.
This was opening weekend of rifle season two years ago. Secret spot of course. But I'm sure you will have a good time.Yellowstoner
Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2015
- Messages
- 167
Good luck! Can't wait to follow along. Hope you find some bulls.
teej89
Well-known member
Well we made it back(I made it back Sunday)! Almost not my dad after I was a hair too enthusiastic on our first morning hike and didn't compensate for the amount of water we'd need, yikes! Anywho it was definitely a pretty good trip overall, I have a bunch of pictures to upload once my sister downloads them off the SD card for me(she has the camera since I flew).
I'll keep you guys updated on a debrief of the trip and pictures, thanks again for reading along!
I'll keep you guys updated on a debrief of the trip and pictures, thanks again for reading along!
teej89
Well-known member
View attachment 86015
Gonna be a good year for you if you find a group like this to fill some tags on.
Dang I hope so too! I have one place in mind that I believe will produce some monsters, bout a 4mi hike from the trailhead(farthest hike in in the unit from the trailhead while on CMR) and it's rugged like no other once you're out there. Unfortunately due to time constraints we didn't get to hike it but I'm going when we get in the wednesday before the season.
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teej89
Well-known member
Thanks! We're way on the lower end from you more towards the bridge.
teej89
Well-known member
Alrighty, took a while for me to get the pictures, sorry for the delay!
Anywho the scouting trip did not start as planned, delayed and cancelled flights, having to drive to a different airport to not lose too much out of our scouting trip for the first day was way more hectic of a start of the trip than planned. Anyways 12hrs later and I was on my way to Denver then to Billings then off to the breaks!
We turned off the main highway and started our drive to the CMR... the entire time we were joking if we would have taken someone to this place and been like yeah we're gonna hunt elk here and they woke up and looked around at this point in time I'm sure their comment woulda been "where?" The first hour of that drive is had us questioning what this is going to look like, I was all over google earth so I knew but my dad who just does the logistics planning (camp, food, travel, etc...) was probably like where is this kid taking me haha
Finally, we end up getting close and I look over and yell dad stop, a bison! This is the first wild bison either of us have seen before so we probably looked like a buncha yellowstoners pulling over and whipping out the cameras lol Crazy how tame these animals seem, he wasn't more than 200yds from us and could have given a hoot that we were even there.
We get to the refuge finally and I want to check out one spot that's fairly remote, I figured it was about a 2mi hike to the ridge I wanted to hunt then another 3.5mi to walk out the ridge. Well, like always not all maps read correctly, we try to drive to the area and get in a creek bottom to find the road led to a water tank and done-zo. Over an hour of driving 10mph for a bust.... well, that's why we're here, sorry dad. He doesn't care but I feel the need to apologize. All this time we're marking on our maps how long between roads the drive takes and driving time to trailheads. We finally get to another trailhead that I was interested in, it's about 5:30pm and I say lets just scoot out there real fast to see what we can see, I estimate it being 4mi round trip. We get about 1.5 mi in and again we're like where are we going to find elk in this prairie and rolling hills of juniper. We crest the next hill and I put up my hand, elk, bull, then 2 more bulls then another bull pops over the hill. All raghorns, a small 6x6 at best and one out of velvet all within 500yds. I apologize we did not have a spotter or my good camera on this hike so no pictures. We watch them then finish our hike and find a nice 5pt shed.
We had intentions of camping in our cots that evening, till about 9pm rolled around and realized we were becoming dinner to the local mosquito population. Ended up setting up the tent and safely sleeping the night away listening to coyotes howling all night. Morning came fast with anticipation; the sunrise was gorgeous.
I packed 5 bottles of water and my dad 3, I told him he should do more but he's stubborn in his ways... Long story short our scout that morning turned into 9 treacherous miles in maybe 4hrs, the first 4 were fine but the heat and lack of water kicked in on the last 5 and I was a hair nervous for my dads safety so we stopped and rested in the shade as many junipers as we could. I've done many of long hikes but in that prairie under the blazing sun and temps that red 95-100 degrees, that was some hot hiking for sure. That being said our hike turned up 5 bulls(no pics again, we bumped 4 then bumped another) and a bighorn which was awesome! We got within 100yds of him and it was the coolest thing watching him itching his back on the rim rock and stomping his bed down before bedding for the day. Walking out we found a 7pt shed, but was way too exhausted to even take a picture of it...
This was our first full day and we had a partial day on Saturday to scout so as miserable as I felt I was determined for an afternoon hike. We moved to another trail head, I slept in the shade beside the car and 2hrs later it was 4pm and I was ready to move out. The old man stayed in the truck in the AC and I set off for another 7mi round trip, this hike was rough(mentally). All prairie for the most part and having to drop up and down draws the entire time to get to where I wanted to be. Finally I'm there and realize I dropped my walkie talkie, so I have no contact with him. I decided I'd quickly glass then head back, in 20min of glassing I turned up 3 raghorn bulls, couple muley bucks, a cow and a bunch of muley does. This place was gorgeous and I didn't even get to glass at last light or for fairly long. As much as it sucked I know I had to get back b/c I dropped the walkie on the prairie and had no contact telling him I was fine and just glassing. I kid you not, just using my onxmaps tracker and having it zoomed in as far as I could, I backtracked my steps and looky here, my walkie about a mile from the truck haha that was lucky! Here's some pics of the bulls and bucks, sorry for the terrible phonescoping.
All in all it was a great trip, we found elk and crossed off bad roads and gathered a bunch of information. The last day we spent trying to get back to that one spot we attempted on the first day and after a long loop around we found a road taking us to a trail head. Unfortunately I didn't get to hike it just drive to the trailhead but the place is screaming my name. Long hikes and steep terrain is my motto and that has it all, we're getting in Wednesday evening before the hunt and I believe Thursday and Friday I'll be spending out in this area trying to collect all the intel that I wasn't able to collect on our scouting trip. See below for more pictures from the rest of our trip, I'm not the best writer but I hope you guys enjoy it! Only 6 weeks now!!
Anywho the scouting trip did not start as planned, delayed and cancelled flights, having to drive to a different airport to not lose too much out of our scouting trip for the first day was way more hectic of a start of the trip than planned. Anyways 12hrs later and I was on my way to Denver then to Billings then off to the breaks!
We turned off the main highway and started our drive to the CMR... the entire time we were joking if we would have taken someone to this place and been like yeah we're gonna hunt elk here and they woke up and looked around at this point in time I'm sure their comment woulda been "where?" The first hour of that drive is had us questioning what this is going to look like, I was all over google earth so I knew but my dad who just does the logistics planning (camp, food, travel, etc...) was probably like where is this kid taking me haha
Finally, we end up getting close and I look over and yell dad stop, a bison! This is the first wild bison either of us have seen before so we probably looked like a buncha yellowstoners pulling over and whipping out the cameras lol Crazy how tame these animals seem, he wasn't more than 200yds from us and could have given a hoot that we were even there.
We get to the refuge finally and I want to check out one spot that's fairly remote, I figured it was about a 2mi hike to the ridge I wanted to hunt then another 3.5mi to walk out the ridge. Well, like always not all maps read correctly, we try to drive to the area and get in a creek bottom to find the road led to a water tank and done-zo. Over an hour of driving 10mph for a bust.... well, that's why we're here, sorry dad. He doesn't care but I feel the need to apologize. All this time we're marking on our maps how long between roads the drive takes and driving time to trailheads. We finally get to another trailhead that I was interested in, it's about 5:30pm and I say lets just scoot out there real fast to see what we can see, I estimate it being 4mi round trip. We get about 1.5 mi in and again we're like where are we going to find elk in this prairie and rolling hills of juniper. We crest the next hill and I put up my hand, elk, bull, then 2 more bulls then another bull pops over the hill. All raghorns, a small 6x6 at best and one out of velvet all within 500yds. I apologize we did not have a spotter or my good camera on this hike so no pictures. We watch them then finish our hike and find a nice 5pt shed.
We had intentions of camping in our cots that evening, till about 9pm rolled around and realized we were becoming dinner to the local mosquito population. Ended up setting up the tent and safely sleeping the night away listening to coyotes howling all night. Morning came fast with anticipation; the sunrise was gorgeous.
I packed 5 bottles of water and my dad 3, I told him he should do more but he's stubborn in his ways... Long story short our scout that morning turned into 9 treacherous miles in maybe 4hrs, the first 4 were fine but the heat and lack of water kicked in on the last 5 and I was a hair nervous for my dads safety so we stopped and rested in the shade as many junipers as we could. I've done many of long hikes but in that prairie under the blazing sun and temps that red 95-100 degrees, that was some hot hiking for sure. That being said our hike turned up 5 bulls(no pics again, we bumped 4 then bumped another) and a bighorn which was awesome! We got within 100yds of him and it was the coolest thing watching him itching his back on the rim rock and stomping his bed down before bedding for the day. Walking out we found a 7pt shed, but was way too exhausted to even take a picture of it...
This was our first full day and we had a partial day on Saturday to scout so as miserable as I felt I was determined for an afternoon hike. We moved to another trail head, I slept in the shade beside the car and 2hrs later it was 4pm and I was ready to move out. The old man stayed in the truck in the AC and I set off for another 7mi round trip, this hike was rough(mentally). All prairie for the most part and having to drop up and down draws the entire time to get to where I wanted to be. Finally I'm there and realize I dropped my walkie talkie, so I have no contact with him. I decided I'd quickly glass then head back, in 20min of glassing I turned up 3 raghorn bulls, couple muley bucks, a cow and a bunch of muley does. This place was gorgeous and I didn't even get to glass at last light or for fairly long. As much as it sucked I know I had to get back b/c I dropped the walkie on the prairie and had no contact telling him I was fine and just glassing. I kid you not, just using my onxmaps tracker and having it zoomed in as far as I could, I backtracked my steps and looky here, my walkie about a mile from the truck haha that was lucky! Here's some pics of the bulls and bucks, sorry for the terrible phonescoping.
All in all it was a great trip, we found elk and crossed off bad roads and gathered a bunch of information. The last day we spent trying to get back to that one spot we attempted on the first day and after a long loop around we found a road taking us to a trail head. Unfortunately I didn't get to hike it just drive to the trailhead but the place is screaming my name. Long hikes and steep terrain is my motto and that has it all, we're getting in Wednesday evening before the hunt and I believe Thursday and Friday I'll be spending out in this area trying to collect all the intel that I wasn't able to collect on our scouting trip. See below for more pictures from the rest of our trip, I'm not the best writer but I hope you guys enjoy it! Only 6 weeks now!!
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teej89
Well-known member
Dah they're all sideways, I apologize! Was trying to get them out before work, I can fix em tonight.
targetpanic
Well-known member
Great pics!!!
teej89
Well-known member
absolutely, this isn't like other areas where we can get away from them. It's inevitable that we're going to run into them so like you said there's Plan A through Z in the making lol!
duckhunt
Well-known member
Great stuff.
dirtclod Az.
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2018
- Messages
- 2,776
Looking forward to the write up and pics of your hunt.
