Well I made it back from my 8 days in Montana and all I can say is WOW!! The country is so amazing I am super jealous of any of you who get to call the area home.
Well we got out to Montana and had some hello's to say so the first day was a bust hunting. my dad made it out and saw a small bull, my brother and I did some listening and heard our first bugles (great sound).
The first day of hunting was fun we hiked up the mountain and found a bull but he was on private ground so we got above him where we could watch him and try and see him come out, well after sitting for 6 hours the land owner drove a pickup onto the property and we watched "our" bull clear the county.
Day 2 was spent walking a lot and only hearing a few bugles no setups.
Day 3 was the same lots of glassing saw a couple nice mule deer but no elk close.
Day 4 was a change of area so the first half of the day was spent taking down and resetting camp. That evening we went out and just walked a couple trails to see the area before the morning.
Day 5 We are finally in ELK!!! heard several bugles and saw a dandy 6x6 with 5 cows come over the hill and work their way down the drainage my brother and I dropped in on them only to find 2 spikes already at the end, very cool to see them close tho. The big 6x6 never showed himself. Also had our first encounter with the mighty GRIZ she and her 2 cubs were across the canyon.
Day 6 We took a "new" trail up to the top of the ridge where we heard all the bugling the day before. Got up to a huge meadow without hearing a bugle but that all changed quickly as 2 bulls started bugling in the timber we just walked through. Being a couple midwestern whitetail hunters we setup on the edge of the meadow next to a well used trail from the dark timber and started calling. The 2 bulls would answer everything and than some coming hot towards us but they never would come out of the timber to the meadow (lesson number 234 of the trip). We could hear one of the bulls racking a tree. After about 30 minutes we looked to our left and a rag horn 5x3 was coming right at us, my brother had the bow and I asked if he was going to shoot it he said YES!!!, the bull was coming on a brisk walk and at 55 yards the bull in the timber let out a bugle and poof the raghorn was gone. Another 10 minutes of calling and a really nice 5x5 was coming on a trot he hit a tree at 25 yards and stopped in the tree. He didnt see a cow and turned around (lesson 235). Well the rest of the day we were glassing elk and trying to setup to no avail. We did see a lone 5x5 that we got within 100 yards and called for 45 minutes with nothing. We also saw 6 GRIZ that day with 3 of them being at 60 yards and "woofing" at us.
Day7 We moved to a new drainage and after a 3.5mile hike we were surrounded by bugling bulls. The biggest sounding bull was just over the ridge (lesson 236) well this played out as he was just over the ridge for 5 ridges before we watched him enter the dark timber. Again being whitetail hunters my brother and I sat down 80 yards from where he went in and were going to wait until he came back out (lesson 237). The bull would bugle every 5-10 minutes and I am sure some of you are like that is a dream scenario but we waited for 4 hours until he stood up and walked the other way. We sprinted and got in front of him and I cow called no response so I let out a bugle and was cut off and he was CLOSE. The bull would cut off all bugles and was ripping up trees at 80 yards but would not come any closer. Dark set in and the bull was still bugling total time was from 0700-1900 of bugles every 5-20 minutes.
Day 8 back on the same group of bulls from day 7. This time we knew were the bulls were going and we setup on the trail they entered the dark timber the day before (lesson 238) we had the heard bull and 3-4 satellites bugling and coming our way they hit about 100yards and they all split up and the heard bull entered the timber with 8 cows and the satelites kept walking. We had the wind so today we were going to walk into the timber and sneak up on this bull. Well he was bugling good again so we made the 150 yard stalk taking about 2 hours and when we got to 60 yards the woods erupted and we looked to our left and the 8 cows were running down the hill at us and the bull stood up and was gone the other way. Well after trying to see if our wind switched our why the cows would run, a wolf hunter came walking out of the timber (Darn it!!)
Well that pretty much took the wind out of our sails and we put our heads down and hiked out. It was a great trip and I already cant wait to come back! I want to thank everyone on this site that helped me out in preparation and a couple of you that even helped me once I made it to MT you know who you are and myself, brother and Dad can't thank you enough for everything you did for us!
Well we got out to Montana and had some hello's to say so the first day was a bust hunting. my dad made it out and saw a small bull, my brother and I did some listening and heard our first bugles (great sound).
The first day of hunting was fun we hiked up the mountain and found a bull but he was on private ground so we got above him where we could watch him and try and see him come out, well after sitting for 6 hours the land owner drove a pickup onto the property and we watched "our" bull clear the county.
Day 2 was spent walking a lot and only hearing a few bugles no setups.
Day 3 was the same lots of glassing saw a couple nice mule deer but no elk close.
Day 4 was a change of area so the first half of the day was spent taking down and resetting camp. That evening we went out and just walked a couple trails to see the area before the morning.
Day 5 We are finally in ELK!!! heard several bugles and saw a dandy 6x6 with 5 cows come over the hill and work their way down the drainage my brother and I dropped in on them only to find 2 spikes already at the end, very cool to see them close tho. The big 6x6 never showed himself. Also had our first encounter with the mighty GRIZ she and her 2 cubs were across the canyon.
Day 6 We took a "new" trail up to the top of the ridge where we heard all the bugling the day before. Got up to a huge meadow without hearing a bugle but that all changed quickly as 2 bulls started bugling in the timber we just walked through. Being a couple midwestern whitetail hunters we setup on the edge of the meadow next to a well used trail from the dark timber and started calling. The 2 bulls would answer everything and than some coming hot towards us but they never would come out of the timber to the meadow (lesson number 234 of the trip). We could hear one of the bulls racking a tree. After about 30 minutes we looked to our left and a rag horn 5x3 was coming right at us, my brother had the bow and I asked if he was going to shoot it he said YES!!!, the bull was coming on a brisk walk and at 55 yards the bull in the timber let out a bugle and poof the raghorn was gone. Another 10 minutes of calling and a really nice 5x5 was coming on a trot he hit a tree at 25 yards and stopped in the tree. He didnt see a cow and turned around (lesson 235). Well the rest of the day we were glassing elk and trying to setup to no avail. We did see a lone 5x5 that we got within 100 yards and called for 45 minutes with nothing. We also saw 6 GRIZ that day with 3 of them being at 60 yards and "woofing" at us.
Day7 We moved to a new drainage and after a 3.5mile hike we were surrounded by bugling bulls. The biggest sounding bull was just over the ridge (lesson 236) well this played out as he was just over the ridge for 5 ridges before we watched him enter the dark timber. Again being whitetail hunters my brother and I sat down 80 yards from where he went in and were going to wait until he came back out (lesson 237). The bull would bugle every 5-10 minutes and I am sure some of you are like that is a dream scenario but we waited for 4 hours until he stood up and walked the other way. We sprinted and got in front of him and I cow called no response so I let out a bugle and was cut off and he was CLOSE. The bull would cut off all bugles and was ripping up trees at 80 yards but would not come any closer. Dark set in and the bull was still bugling total time was from 0700-1900 of bugles every 5-20 minutes.
Day 8 back on the same group of bulls from day 7. This time we knew were the bulls were going and we setup on the trail they entered the dark timber the day before (lesson 238) we had the heard bull and 3-4 satellites bugling and coming our way they hit about 100yards and they all split up and the heard bull entered the timber with 8 cows and the satelites kept walking. We had the wind so today we were going to walk into the timber and sneak up on this bull. Well he was bugling good again so we made the 150 yard stalk taking about 2 hours and when we got to 60 yards the woods erupted and we looked to our left and the 8 cows were running down the hill at us and the bull stood up and was gone the other way. Well after trying to see if our wind switched our why the cows would run, a wolf hunter came walking out of the timber (Darn it!!)
Well that pretty much took the wind out of our sails and we put our heads down and hiked out. It was a great trip and I already cant wait to come back! I want to thank everyone on this site that helped me out in preparation and a couple of you that even helped me once I made it to MT you know who you are and myself, brother and Dad can't thank you enough for everything you did for us!
I am sure I could add 1000 to the list of lessons what a learning curve.
