wildernessmaster
Lil-Rokslider
The 2019 elk season was my 3rd archery hunting. I am a total noob. More so, given I am an "old guy" it was my first forays into backpack hunting and solo backpack hunting. I am an east coaster, but have spent 4 previous seasons in Montana hunting.
During the previous (2018) season my brother had gone along with me on several "day" archery hunts. On one of the first we found ourselves in the middle of over 15 bulls bugling their heads off, most within 150 yards of us. I was heavy timber and heavy timber fall so sight and movement were difficult. That said, I had bugled one to come to me, and was listening to him crash through the timber at about 60 yards, bow drawn and ready for him to exit into my little clearing, when the wind shifted and the world went totally silent.
That was also the day I blew up my bow by partially dry firing it while trying to work some heavy trail grit (from ATV ingress/egress) out of the cams. Lesson learned, won't be repeating that one!
Back to 2019...
I was excited with this archery season as we had found 2 good places to bow hunt elk in the previous season and we felt like we would at least get a shot.
Prior to the season opening I came out to Montana and my brother and I hiked in and put in some trail cams in an area we knew the elk were moving through. We wanted to get an idea of what and when they were moving. We did not want to spook or soil the area so our plan was to leave em be until the week before and go fetch the memory cards out and review them.
Bad plan... As when we did, one cam had a card format failure and never worked and the other had 1 day of a cow elk which knocked the cam off the tree due to curiosity.
Side note... One of the lessons learned in this season's archery hunting is that elk are very curious and detailed creatures about their environments...!!
We knew the elk were there, so we planned our opening weekend to ATV in to within a short climb to our position; backpack the rest of the way up; and set camp and hunt. It would be a non-solo, first backpack hunt in Montana for me. The climb in is very steep. As in about as vertical as you can climb without some assistance. Furthermore the ground is covered in ground cover making it hard to cut a boot into dirt for anchor. Oftentimes it is moist to wet, so guess what - it can be a fun climb. With a heavy pack you can multiply the "fun" by 1000.
We set camp at the furthest point from where we would want to be hunting along the ridge top. That night we could hear some decent dusk bugling, a bear growling and huffing below us, coyotes pretty much all around us, and some other noises we weren't quite sure what. Both of us were up well before first light and made our way down the ridge to two positions we thought would be a good starting point.
As first light dawned we heard a few faint bugles in the distance, mostly down in the deep ravine off to one side. They were too far to move to and the path to the locations was heavy big timber deadfall - no way to be quite and quick. A good two hours after first light we started to scout a bit and see if we could find some signs or better locations. We walked about 3 miles in one direction and 2 in the other and no bueno... Nothing. Other than the few sounds at sunlight that were clearly off in the distance - nothing. The next day was SSDD.
We both had felt like with the warm wet summer that the full rut might be off a little and so we wrote off opening day as an "exercise".
The next weekend we planned to go back in, this time I would be staying 2 days longer than my brother. We hiked back in as we did before. Set up camp about in the same location and day 1 and 2 heard and saw absolutely nothing. Lockjaw. My brother left the evening of day 2, and I stayed. It was a miserable cold, wet, top of the mountain night as it rained rather hard all night. I got up before sunrise and moved to my planned position. At sunrise all I heard was a big bear snapping trees down a wood line looking for food. I hunted the area all day.
Day 4 I awoke to a heavy, heavy mountain fog. It was so heavy that I could barely see my hand on my outstretched arm. I moved very slowly can cautiously as it was a good time to run face to face into a bear. I hoped the fog would lift, but by 1 it had not, so I packed my gear and headed back.
Unfortunately this was my archery season for 2019. I had that time period to hunt. My brother (a Montana resident) continued to go out on weekends (he has kids) and 2 weekends later felt like the rut went into full tilt. I guess the first two weekends were pre rut.
Lessons Learned:/Things to Figure Out
1. My bow and kit worked pretty well this year with few issues. I think I have it set up right.
2. I need to trim down my backpack hunting kit to save weight for those climbs.
3. We definitely know where to hunt some birds now as we found them every trip out!
4. We found a decent wallow to watch in the future.
5. Need to research more and learn how to hunt pre rut.
6. Expand our scouting... On one of my brother's subsequent trips he went down into the ravine and that is where he found them full tilt.
7. Get a bigger tarp... I was tarp tent camping and brought my little hiking tarp (5' x 8') wrong answer for the mountain top blowing rain. Need a good sized tarp. Screw the weight - your gear doesn't get wet.
8. Food storage/Cooking in constrained spaces in bear country. Given we were working a ridge top we didn't have the ability to set up a 100x100x100 camp/storage/cooking pattern. That would require you to go way down the ridge to do that.
9. How/can you hunt elk during heavy fog?
10. Good down sleeping bags can work when wet!
11. If you are gonna use tech... make sure it is working right. Had we had our trail cam info we may have moved to the ravine area!
12. Wear stiffer soled boots for vertical work. First trip I wore my softer sole boots for being quiet in the woods... Climb sucked!
During the previous (2018) season my brother had gone along with me on several "day" archery hunts. On one of the first we found ourselves in the middle of over 15 bulls bugling their heads off, most within 150 yards of us. I was heavy timber and heavy timber fall so sight and movement were difficult. That said, I had bugled one to come to me, and was listening to him crash through the timber at about 60 yards, bow drawn and ready for him to exit into my little clearing, when the wind shifted and the world went totally silent.
That was also the day I blew up my bow by partially dry firing it while trying to work some heavy trail grit (from ATV ingress/egress) out of the cams. Lesson learned, won't be repeating that one!
Back to 2019...
I was excited with this archery season as we had found 2 good places to bow hunt elk in the previous season and we felt like we would at least get a shot.
Prior to the season opening I came out to Montana and my brother and I hiked in and put in some trail cams in an area we knew the elk were moving through. We wanted to get an idea of what and when they were moving. We did not want to spook or soil the area so our plan was to leave em be until the week before and go fetch the memory cards out and review them.
Bad plan... As when we did, one cam had a card format failure and never worked and the other had 1 day of a cow elk which knocked the cam off the tree due to curiosity.
Side note... One of the lessons learned in this season's archery hunting is that elk are very curious and detailed creatures about their environments...!!
We knew the elk were there, so we planned our opening weekend to ATV in to within a short climb to our position; backpack the rest of the way up; and set camp and hunt. It would be a non-solo, first backpack hunt in Montana for me. The climb in is very steep. As in about as vertical as you can climb without some assistance. Furthermore the ground is covered in ground cover making it hard to cut a boot into dirt for anchor. Oftentimes it is moist to wet, so guess what - it can be a fun climb. With a heavy pack you can multiply the "fun" by 1000.
We set camp at the furthest point from where we would want to be hunting along the ridge top. That night we could hear some decent dusk bugling, a bear growling and huffing below us, coyotes pretty much all around us, and some other noises we weren't quite sure what. Both of us were up well before first light and made our way down the ridge to two positions we thought would be a good starting point.
As first light dawned we heard a few faint bugles in the distance, mostly down in the deep ravine off to one side. They were too far to move to and the path to the locations was heavy big timber deadfall - no way to be quite and quick. A good two hours after first light we started to scout a bit and see if we could find some signs or better locations. We walked about 3 miles in one direction and 2 in the other and no bueno... Nothing. Other than the few sounds at sunlight that were clearly off in the distance - nothing. The next day was SSDD.
We both had felt like with the warm wet summer that the full rut might be off a little and so we wrote off opening day as an "exercise".
The next weekend we planned to go back in, this time I would be staying 2 days longer than my brother. We hiked back in as we did before. Set up camp about in the same location and day 1 and 2 heard and saw absolutely nothing. Lockjaw. My brother left the evening of day 2, and I stayed. It was a miserable cold, wet, top of the mountain night as it rained rather hard all night. I got up before sunrise and moved to my planned position. At sunrise all I heard was a big bear snapping trees down a wood line looking for food. I hunted the area all day.
Day 4 I awoke to a heavy, heavy mountain fog. It was so heavy that I could barely see my hand on my outstretched arm. I moved very slowly can cautiously as it was a good time to run face to face into a bear. I hoped the fog would lift, but by 1 it had not, so I packed my gear and headed back.
Unfortunately this was my archery season for 2019. I had that time period to hunt. My brother (a Montana resident) continued to go out on weekends (he has kids) and 2 weekends later felt like the rut went into full tilt. I guess the first two weekends were pre rut.
Lessons Learned:/Things to Figure Out
1. My bow and kit worked pretty well this year with few issues. I think I have it set up right.
2. I need to trim down my backpack hunting kit to save weight for those climbs.
3. We definitely know where to hunt some birds now as we found them every trip out!
4. We found a decent wallow to watch in the future.
5. Need to research more and learn how to hunt pre rut.
6. Expand our scouting... On one of my brother's subsequent trips he went down into the ravine and that is where he found them full tilt.
7. Get a bigger tarp... I was tarp tent camping and brought my little hiking tarp (5' x 8') wrong answer for the mountain top blowing rain. Need a good sized tarp. Screw the weight - your gear doesn't get wet.
8. Food storage/Cooking in constrained spaces in bear country. Given we were working a ridge top we didn't have the ability to set up a 100x100x100 camp/storage/cooking pattern. That would require you to go way down the ridge to do that.
9. How/can you hunt elk during heavy fog?
10. Good down sleeping bags can work when wet!
11. If you are gonna use tech... make sure it is working right. Had we had our trail cam info we may have moved to the ravine area!
12. Wear stiffer soled boots for vertical work. First trip I wore my softer sole boots for being quiet in the woods... Climb sucked!
