Benz's 2020 Montana Elk Adventure (detailed)

[benz1978]

Greetings from the flatlands of mid-central Illinois. Me and a few of my buddies (Rusty Rifle Crew) undertook the adventure of our very first western elk hunt in Montana. Wanted to share our experience along with some of the lessons we learned along the way. This will be detailed and is intended for the NOOB out there trying to sort through the sea of information from preparation to hunting area selection and ultimately, boots on the ground experiences. Realize this is my first hunt and without doubt, mistakes were made and there is room for improvement. I’m certainly open to any constructive feedback.

 

[benz1978]

Tag acquisition…we resolved to hunt in the great state of Montana based purely on some of the hunting success odds we looked at and availability of public land. We tossed around the idea of Colorado as well but ultimately landed on Montana. By our estimation, with a general elk tag, we could hunt units that were 20+% success rate for bulls. The general elk tag also got us access to vast areas of public land and we could research and game plan multiple areas with the same general tag.

Once we determined what state we were going to hunt, we paid for a preference point with the expectation that this would all but guarantee our general elk tag the following year. I believe the cost was about $50 plus some other fees (typical). What followed was a year of research and gear accumulation. Before I go any further, I would be remiss if I didn’t give credit to this forum (Rokslide), Corey Jacobsen, Randy Newberg and all of his content, Tim Burnett / Remi Warren and their content, Brian Call / Aaron Snyder and their content. I immersed myself in this stuff for a good year and half trying to learn as much as possible. Not just hunting stuff, but backcountry camping, navigation, gear, training, food, etc. It would be easy to be overwhelmed by all of the info out there, but I ultimately decided it was all good info and it was all relevant. You just have to pick and choose what makes sense for you and go with it. Nothing I could do from the comfort of my home in Illinois was going to help me determine which hunting style or piece of advice was going to bring ME success.

 

[benz1978]

Gear accumulation…starting here because once we had the preference point, we felt pretty good about our odds to draw a general elk tag. We were whitetail hunters and most of our gear was designed for long, cold stand sits waiting for whitetail to come. While some of it translated for the more active approach we planned to use out west, we definitely needed to procure some new pieces. For the most part, I chose to stick with a heavy dose of merino from First Lite. I had a few pieces and really liked the quality and fit vs. the other brands I tried. For this hunt, I would take a medium and heavy baselayer set… both in ¾ zip configurations. For outers, I chose the obsidian pants from FL and had 2 chamas…1 hoody and 1 non-hoody. These were fantastic pieces. I also brought along some North Branch pants I already owned and a set of puffy pants and puffy jacket. These were complimented with some FL gaiters and a part of Kenetrek NI Mountain Extreme boots. Tried on boots from Crispi and Lowa. I actually own a pair of Lowa Rangers that I absolutely love but really liked the support I got from the taller Kenes. I found them to be quite comfortable as well. I don’t think there’s a bad choice here as long as you try them on and they work for you. Don’t over think it.

I'm breaking this section up a bit and I'll add photos where I can.

 

[benz1978]

With the clothing out of the way, I focused on my house. This was a little tougher to decide on. I liked the idea of a lightweight backpacking tent (like the BA Copper Spur) but was concerned about the oddball chance we get a heavy dose of winter in our hunting trip during Montana’s rifle season. This pushed me to a hot tent combo and I looked at the Kifaru Sawtooth and the SO Cimarron. Ultimately, I was going to shop for whichever option I could score in the classifieds. Low and behold, I was able to get a SO Cimmarron and Medium stove for the right price. Reviewing the combination after a year of ownership, several local camping trips and a trip out west…I would recommend the setup. The size is right for two hunters. The stove proved to be very useful. I’m sure the Sawtooth would have served me equally well. I used a Tyvek ground tarp and invested in a Thermarest Neotherm and Enlightened quilt. I opted for a 10 degree with extra stuffing. Not sure where this put the quilt but wanted to be sure it was going to be adequate when the mercury took a dive. As an aside, if you go with a quilt like I did…make sure you bring a warm hat that you wouldn’t mind sleeping in. Some stocking hats make my head itch like crazy after a while. I ended up getting a hoodlum from Enlightened as well. The combination worked great.

FYI - you may have recently seen this posted for sale in the classifieds. While I loved the tent, decided to lighten it up a bit and go with a L or UL version. Still haven't decided. Keeping the pole and stove and plan to stick with the cimarron. I really do think it's ideal.

 

[benz1978]

Back to my sleep system, if I had it to do over, I’d probably get a chilkoot or other generously sized bag. I’m pretty broad shouldered so the garden variety sleeping bags you find at REI are generally not roomy enough for an active sleeper like me. The quilt worked fine but inevitably, as I shifted around through the night, I found the bands that kept the quilt tucked in to prevent drafts didn’t always hold up as I flopped around. I never got uncomfortably cold but I did find myself adjusting the quilt from time to time to keep out the drafts. This was never a problem when I had the stove going (for obvious reasons) but we ditched the stove for one leg of our hunt and draft management was key.

 

[benz1978]

For water and misc essentials, I got a platy gravity filter system (2L) and took an extra filter and some aquamira pills just in case. I built out a first aid kit that included the usual assortment of bandaids, bandages, keto tape, combat gauze and various OTC first aid drugs. Nothing too fancy. I did opt to buy a skin stapler. I read that these were easier to use w/out much training vs sutures and had visions of someone opening themselves up pretty good w/ a sharp knife in the back country. This was one of those better to have an not need vs. need and not have items. Maybe overkill?

For navigation, we had lots of gear here. I had a Garmin 64 GPS unit, a Garmin inreach, OnxMaps offline maps on my phone and a topo map and a couple compasses. I was hell bent on not getting lost out there. Watched lots of videos on navigating with a map and compass (including one really good one by Aaron Snyder where he talks about UTM). I loved this video but I’m geeky like this. I don’t know that I ever used the Garmin 64 or the topo map. I did use my compass a lot, just to confirm my bearing matched my phone. I kept a Suunto clipper attached to the lid on my FHF bino harness and I found myself using it quite often. Highly recommend this unless you were born with the natural gift of knowing your cardinal directions w/out a compass. I relied almost exclusively on the OnXmaps app and my inreach maps in the Earthmate app. Both worked equally well.

 

[benz1978]

Food…the most important part of the trip. I spent a lot of time picking out my cookset. I liked the idea of a jetboil but the versatility of a pot and stove. Ultimately, I decided to go with an evernew titanium set and a soto stove. The combo worked great. I made a pot cozy for the pot and found that it worked really well when I used it. Lots of trials camping locally and cooking meals in my home with this combo. Not sure why, but I ultimately abandoned this for the trip and decided to cook in mylar bags. If I had it to do over, I would go back to the pot and just plan on cleaning it. The mylar bags took up so much space and my meals never hydrated as nicely in these bags as they do in a pot. Maybe something I was doing wrong. Back to the food…lots of good info out there on the best store bought meals and there are some great options out there. But I’m a DIY kind of guy and decided to put my food dehydrator to use (for something besides jerky). Ultimately, ended up creating a few concoctions that I really liked based on some recipes I found online. As I mentioned previously, I would pre-mix the dehydrated ingredients in mylar bags and then seal them at home. My own mountain house meals. These were good, using ingredients, spices, etc that I was used to eating. Didn’t want to completely change my diet for a couple of weeks while I was in the backcountry. From what I understand, this leads to more stomach issues than anything else. Be happy to share some of my recipes if anyone is interested. Coffee was Starbucks Via packets and several nut / granola bars.

 

[benz1978]

Oh, one quick lesson learned. I made a ton of butthole sandwiches using bagels, bacon and peanut butter. I then froze them and then used my foodsaver on them. The food saver smashed them into bricks. I even did some without letting the foodsaver get all the air out. I taste tested one before the trip and while it was good, ultimately ditched them in favor of some tuna packets and tortillas. They took up so much space and I was trying to be bear diligent and make sure all my food fit in a URSACK bear sack.

 

[benz1978]

On to the rifle. Lots of info out there on what the right cartridge is for elk and what’s ethical and what’s not ethical. I mulled around with several rifle chamberings including 308 Win, 280 Rem (including AO), 300 WM, 300WSM, 6.5 Creed and the ole 30-06 standby. I’m a lefty so finding options in stock at my local stores was difficult at best. This was especially true in Illinois where big game hunting is limited to shotguns and bows. Often, I would shoulder right handed versions in the stores of makes/models I knew were offered in LH configurations. I narrowed it down to a Tikka T3X and a Christensen Arms Mesa. The Tikka was cheaper but knowing me, I knew I would likely replace the stock right away if I went that route. At the time, T3X stock options in LH were very limited (McMillan and Manners were the only ones I believe). Ultimately, I decided to go with a Christensen. I held one at my local Scheels and it felt good in the hand and it was purdy to my eye. I also ended up going with a 308 Win. Based on my research, I felt like I could ethically take an elk with that chambering out to 350-400 yards. Ammo would be plentiful…as would components. My local gun range only offered targets out to 200 yards but I was able to find a friend with some property and could practice out to nearly 400 yards. I threw a Leupold VX3i 3.5-10x40 on top and opted for a CDS dial. I felt pretty good in this setup. I’ll talk about the ammo I used in a bit…but I will say that I ended up reloading my own for the trip.

 

[benz1978]

For the ammo, I started w/ Lapua brass and then went right to Varget powder and had a couple different primers to play with (Federal 210M and CCI 200). I wanted to use Nosler Accubonds in 165gr configurations and decided I would start there and if the rifle didn’t like it, I would try Barnes TTSX or Partitions. I really wanted to keep the BC high. Hornady had a couple nice options as well but I never had to go that route. The ABs ended up grouping well (3/4” moa) and the 2700fps was right where I was hoping I would end up. I really enjoyed the whole reloading experience. Working up loads, shooting through chronos, grouping, etc. The only components I really changed out were primers. I also used some Nosler Ballistic Tips in 165gr and to my surprise, they grouped up nicely with my AB 165s. This provided me with a less expensive practice range bullet that behaved like my ABs on paper. I would ultimately verify everything with ABs but the BTs were used to get me close.

 

[benz1978]

Lastly, the pack. I feel like we have some really good options in this space as well. Stone Glacier, Kifaru, KUIU, Mystery Ranch, Seek Outside, and EXO to name a few. Obviously, I was looking at internal frame packs. Again, these aren’t common in my area so trying them on wasn’t really an option. I had to rely heavily on research and ultimately decided that Stone Glacier 5900 with the x-curve frame was for me. Love this pack. That being said, a friend of mine got a MR Marshall for the trip and it performed equally well. Really well made and seemed to carry the big loads just as easily. Again, probably not a bad choice here if you go with a reputable company. I ran a hydro holster on my pack and a rifle carrier. Both from SG. Really well made and no frills bags and accessories. I think I mentioned this before, but I ran an FHF bino holster to carry my Meopta Meostar HDs in 10x42. I also carried a S&W329PD in a Kenai chest holster. I was able to adjust the straps to get the reolver to run comfortably under my FHF while still providing quick access to the firearm. Really nice setup. Quite a few straps to deal with when you are running a holster, bino harness and a backpack. The Razco harness piqued my interest but didn’t like the idea of carrying my binos on me all the time and I certainly didn’t want to be anywhere w/out my sidearm in grizz country.

 

[benz1978]

Ok…that was a lot. Haven’t gotten to any of the good parts. Trying to preface each section with a subject so that you can pick and choose what you want to read.

 

[benz1978]

E-scouting…this was probably the biggest challenge. Not having been out west on any sort of hunts, I was really relying on online content. Lots of secret honey holes out there and lots of hunters publishing content on how to e-scout but taking a very general approach. Translating that info into something specific for the units we were going to hunt was challenging. I knew I wanted to focus on locating glassing areas into areas I felt like would hold elk. Finding the glassing areas wasn’t so bad. Finding areas where I thought elk would be was tougher…I really had no idea. I would ultimately look for glassing areas that offered visibility into meadows with N facing timbered slopes. The thought here was that the elk would bed in the timber and they would feed in the meadows. I could glass into the meadows to locate them while they were feeding and potentially see them go to bed in a timbered area. The focus here was to cover as much ground as possible with glass vs. our boots. Finding these types of areas on Google Earth, OnX, etc proved challenging. I ultimately landed on the following approach…happy to take input here. Step 1, determine the area we want to hunt. Step 2, locate the access points into public land (parking areas). Step 3, Locate access points to ridgelines that someone besides a billy goat could get to. Step 4, locate glassing areas (meadows) that could be viewed from those ridgelines. We were really trying to locate areas that were 3-5 miles in. Finding an area that was 3-5 miles in but could be glassed from about 2 miles was the ideal scenario. Can’t say we found too many of these but again, we were NOOBs. Using this process along with harvest data from the Montana fish and wildlife website, set us on a path to hunt severely units along I-90 and progress through plan A, B, C, D, etc. We really wanted to hunt a unit on the western side but if we could find elk a bit closer to home, that would be a bonus.

 

[benz1978]

Another quick note here. I know sharing hunting area info isn’t popular and I’ve intentionally buried it deep in this write up. My intention is to share as much info as I can without completely giving up the info on the exact area where we hunted. Apologize for any of you who hunt these areas if you feel like I’m drawing more traffic your way.

 

[benz1978]

On to the trip…we planned to head out a couple days before opening day with the expectation that we would scout for a couple of days and possible bounce from plan A, to plan B, etc. and be ready for a hunt on opening morning. We drove straight through the night and made it to Billings before stopping to crash in a hotel. From there we drove into our first scouting area west of Billings. We headed down a NF road and saw lots of pronghorn and mule deer along they way. This really heightened our excitement. We found our parking area and lo and behold we were the only truck there. All of the talks on the forums about the army of hunters on all the popular units caused us to scratch our heads a bit but we were happy nonetheless. We would camp there and it was going to get to zero degrees that evening. This would be a good test for the guys w/out a stove to see if their tent / sleep systems would handle the sub zero temps that were in the forecast. We set up camp and then scouted around all afternoon for elk or elk sign. The area were we were in appeared to have been clear cut as there weren’t many large stands of timber. Lots of what looked like Norway spruce to me. They were anywhere from 6 to 10’ high. Navigating through them was close to impossible if you got off the trail. We did manage to get some altitude and all 4 of us spread out and glassed until dark. At dark, we headed back to camp and turned in for the night.

 

[benz1978]

The morning met us with a hard frost. It was definitely colder than it was yesterday. Our water bottles had frozen and climbing out of the bags was an act of bravery and courage. We climbed out and headed to the truck (our eating area away from camp). When we exited the timber and looked into the parking lot, 2 other trucks had arrived over night and in the morning. They were already out on the trails. Obviously, they were tougher than we were. We huddled around the truck and had coffee / bfast. After yesterday’s glassing adventures, we decided we would break camp and head to plan B. We just didn’t feel like pushing in further was going to change much for us and this first stop wasn’t our favorite after the e-scouting we did. So, we broke camp and headed out again. We would push into a different area of the unit but it would be further off the beaten path. As we got closer to our new parking area, it was obvious we were on a road that hadn’t been maintained very well. There was a good foot of snow covering the road and I could barely make out where the road was. Obviously, we were breaking new tracks in this area with the truck here again. We got to our site and felt much better about this location. It was kind of at a pinch point with access to public land but heavy private land pinching our area. We would have to push into public land a ways to get some relief from the tight private land borders. Here again, we set up camp. This would be an even colder night and there was snow expected in the forecast. “Light to heavy” snow….whatever the hell that means. In an effort to keep the non-stoved tent guys from suffering too much, we decided to marry up the tents using a large tarp and have the heater buddy and stove keeping both houses warm. It was ugly, but we managed to pull it off and we headed off into the public land to scout. We didn’t have much time to scout this evening so we didn’t venture too far away from camp. We found a nice area for one group to hunt about ½ mile from camp. My partner and I would venture into the wilderness and make way towards a meadow we saw on our GPS maps.

 

[benz1978]

That evening, we got pounded with snow. Another 8-10” I’m guessing. Several times in the evening, I got up and was shoveling snow off the tents to keep our makeshift shelter from collapsing from the weight of snow. It was a cold and miserable night. We got up the next morning and headed off into our designated hunt areas. Walking through the snow was TOUGH. At several points along the way my partner and I were waist deep in snow trying to climb up to a ridgeline to make our way to the designated meadow. It was about 2.5 miles away and we knew it would take a while but the snow really slowed us down. Some locals from Bozeman had charged into our camp that morning and they were planning to hunt a different meadow along our path. They ultimately hit the trails before we did but we later caught them and hiked past them. They never made it to their meadow before deciding the travel was just too difficult and turning back. We pushed on however…ultimately only getting in about a mile away from camp before deciding we could push further but if we had to bring an elk back in these conditions, we’d likely spend a week doing it. We found a small open meadow and set up with the wind in our face overlooking the meadow. We built a small fire to warm up and dry off. After hunting there for a few hours we decided to head back to camp and talk to the other guys about relocating again. Really felt like we didn’t give this area an honest try but it wasn’t ideal for the type of hunting we were trying to do. Way too much heavy timber and glassing beyond a couple hundred yards was difficult. Back at camp, we ran into our hunting buddies. They hadn’t seen much activity that morning and we really concerned about the incoming cold front. Last night’s snow and temp drops were difficult on them and our makeshift shelter needed quite a bit of work to reconstruct. Ultimately we decided to head into Bozeman for a couple nights while the cold front passed. The temps would get to -10, -25 in various parts of Montana. Certainly colder than anything we had experienced and dangerously cold for the gear we had brought. The temps would jump back up into the 20s after these two nights and we could certainly manage that.

 

[benz1978]

While in Bozeman, we decided to skip one of our interim units and go straight to the one we really had our heart set on. The interim unit was just another stepping stone along the way to our top choice and it wasn’t really where we wanted to be. We decided we would focus the rest of our time here for the remainder of the hunt. We also decided we had packed WAY too much food. I noticed I would eat bars for bfast and then lunch was typically just jerky and granola or trailmix. Sitting down to eat a tuna packet just wasn’t something I cared to do. Especially with everything freezing all the time. Frozen tuna is not yummy. So we pared down out food supply to meals for dinner, bars for bfast and snacks for lunches. This cut weight from our packs and helped us downsize quite a bit.

 

[benz1978]

Off we went. We had talked to a couple other hunters in Bozeman who had been in the unit we were headed to on opening day. They saw a couple hunters who were successful filling their tags on opening day. They were planning to rejoin the hunt after the cold front as well and were contemplating heading back to the same unit vs another unit they had previously scouted. They did mention that there were lots of locals hunting where we were headed. While discouraging knowing we wouldn’t be as isolated as we were in the other units, we felt like the locals probably knew more about where to kill elk than we did and we would hike in to get away from as many of them as we could. We got to our designated parking area. We had e-scouted an area we wanted to camp / hunt while in the hotel. Using OnX’s distance measuring tools we determined that I was just about 4 miles in. This would be our most adventurous hike but we felt like we hadn’t really gotten into the hunt yet. We set off on the trail and made slow progress watching the little blue dot creep along the map on the OnX app. The nice thing was, the weather was warmer and the snow was much lighter in this unit. Hiking was certainly much easier than the waist high snows we faced in earlier. Signs of previous hunters showed us the way. As we continued, the boot tracks dried up and we were hiking on horse tracks. Continuing, the horse tracks eventually dried up as well and we were on fresh powder. Is it possible that we would be hunting an area that saw no pressure on opening weekend? The hike continued for what seemed like forever. This was the longest 4 miles of our lives. We felt like we were really out of shape and crawling along. The further we went, the elk sign started to increase. About a ¼ mile from our designated camping area we ran into a new set of tracks…GRIZZLY. And there was more than just one. They had worn the fresh snow down to the mud traveling the trail along the same path we were headed. The tracks were fresh so we readied our bear spray and side arms. One of the men in our group was carrying a 45-70 lever gun as well. We pressed on. Silently hoping the tracks would deviate from the trail before we got to our camp area. No such luck…the tracks proliferated the area we had planned to camp in. We were exhausted. I don’t recall the exact time but we were a good 5-6 hours into this hike before we finally got there. I just wanted to get my pack off my back and start making camp. We picked out a flat area where the tracks weren’t so heavy and started to clear away snow for the tents. There was a quiet nervousness in camp because we knew the grizz were in the area and they were in here often. That evening, we made a nice big camp fire and I stayed up later than usual feeding the fire. The hope was that the fire would alert our friends that we had arrived and they would find alternative routes to avoid us. I had designated 2 large logs that I would feed the fire before turning in and let them burn through the evening.

 

[benz1978]

The next morning, we woke, water bottles still frozen. This was the worst part of the trip. Trying to stay hydrated while our water kept freezing. We put together a couple game plans to hunt that day and set off. My partner and I started off tracking along a creek bottom making our way towards a couple meadows. The creek bottom got difficult to navigate so we ultimately decided to ascend. On our way up we saw several sign. Lots of tracks, fresh droppings, beds, etc. We could smell them. They had been there recently. We got to an opening where we could glass on our way up and I took out a cow call. I made a couple calls (practiced a little at home before the trip). A bird mocked my calls to the east and then a heard a faint bugle to the west in some dark timber. I wasn’t sure if I heard it (first time hearing a bugle) but I took out my binos and started glassing the timber. Elk! I had spotted an elk in the timber. I could see everything but it’s head. I assumed it was a bull and had my partner pull out the rifle and prepare for a shot. I just needed to confirm it was a legal bull. He attempted to find the elk using his binos and the rifle scope. I watched as it slowly made its way deeper in the timber. Never really getting a confirmation on whether it was legal or not. Darn…opportunity lost. The excitement levels elevated, and we pushed up further towards the ridgeline. On the way up, maybe 30 minutes later, I stop to look around and off to the west I see a cow elk in a snow shoot. I signal to my partner that I see elk. Another cow materializes. Then two legal bulls. He’s ahead of me and can’t see them through a stand of timber blocking his view. I lay my pack down and position the rifle to take a shot. I tell him I’m going to take one of the legal bulls. As I prepare for the shot, the bulls step into some trees in the snow shoot and I don’t have a clear shot. More elk feed into the area. I watch them…waiting for one of the bulls to give me an opening. As I watch them, they slowly start to bed down. One by one, until all of them have bedded and the bulls have bedded in cover. My partner and I settled in and resolve to wait them out. I range several shooting lanes ranging from 275 to 350 yards. After about an hour or so, they cows start to stir and get on their feet. They start moving about, then the bulls get up. Rather than moving down the snow shoot like we had hoped and getting closer to us, they start to head back up the snow shoot away from us. Both legal bulls start to head away and I feel the opportunity slipping away again. There is one final shooting lane at 350 yards that they may enter. I adjust my CDS dial and focus on the bulls moving through the timber. I can see them moving and one of them starts to move towards my final opening. As he enters the shooting lane, he’s quartering away from me. It’s a perfect setup (minus the 350 yard distance). I settle in on his shoulder and send one down range to meet him. The rifle recoils and I lose him through my field of view. By the time I reload the rifle and have line of sight into the shooting lane again, there are several elk running away. I can’t tell which one I shot and they are starting to slip into timber again. I see what appears to be my bull stop and stumble a bit…then turn around and stumble down the snow shoot before disappearing behind a tree. I think I got him! My partner takes my rifle and he looks for any remaining cows or legal bulls in the area. It wasn’t meant to be though…they had all run off.