Journal of a New Elk Hunters First Season

[bbrown]

Hobbes - very well done and a great idea. Cant wait to read the rest....

 

[Becca]

Finally getting caught up on this thread...what an awesome story you are documenting for Issac! Thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[eaglecaphunter]

Great posting Hobbes, You definately put a ton of effort into your narrative. Good job keep up the hard work

 

[hobbes]

September 28, 2012 (Friday)


I was concerned that the elk may have moved during our one week absence and after the weekend hunt, but there was never a question about where we would hunt. We were hunting the same location as we did the 19th -21st.

We arrived early enough that we could hike in and position ourselves to intercept any bull that may be bugling before light. The trail follows a small trickle of a stream up a narrow gulch with tall ridges on both sides for a couple miles then opens up to a string of small parks. Several smaller ridges with flat open tops fade into the parks. We had been finding the elk above the parks steadily making their way to mid-day bedding areas. Our plan was to hike to the lower edge of the first small park then wait to hear any bulls that may bugle from above on either side.

A bugle rang out just before we reached the park. The steep ridges on either side of the gulch do a good job of echoing bugles back and forth and we were still walking when the bull bugled. We could not tell which direction the bugle came from, but the elk were still there. We stopped at the lower side of the first park as planned and waited for the bull to bugle again. We waited for several minutes before we heard him again. He was on the opposite side of the gulch from where we were so close the previous Friday, and he sounded closer than we expected.

We backtracked down the trail a hundred yards or so because I thought they may be coming down to water and I didn't want them to wind us before we even got started. He bugled several times as we moved, but went quiet after we stopped. It had been fifteen minutes or more and I was beginning to get worried that we had been busted when he finally bugled again directly above us three hundred yards or so. Maybe he wasn't as close as we thought.

It was still dark, but we started our climb to move into position. We would climb 50 yards and wait for him to bugle, and then climb some more. It wasn't legal shooting light yet, but it was light enough that we were watching for elk as we climbed. We finally made it to what I was guessing to be 100 yards. When the bull bugled next I could tell he was up over the next break in the slope, so we moved up another 40 yards. I moved us in front of some cedars that would provide good cover and good shot opportunities, but when we got there I didn't like how steep the ground we had to stand on was. I also didn't care for a small log that my ankles were pinned against because my feet wanted to slide under it while they were straining to stay positioned on the steep slope. Kneeling was out of the question on the steep slope and my knees won't allow me to stay set up like that for very long. I quickly scanned for a better set up, but there were elk moving just uphill from us. No matter how uncomfortable, we needed to make it work.

We could hear elk walking just uphill and no more than 50 yards away. Within a minute we could see a cow walking through a small park above us and to the left. We started seeing cows walking back and forth and the bull was bugling just up above the cows. A second bull bugled to our right. Maybe there was a bull closer to the trail than we had thought. Both bulls sounded mean. This was what we had been looking for, a herd with an extra bull or two trying to hook a cow and steal her from the herd bull. I started in with some light cow calling as soon as legal shooting hours came. The cows were talking and moving our way, both bulls were bugling, we were in business.

We started seeing the cows move closer and I was giving Isaac the "pick a spot" pep talk. They were moving down the hill straight to us behind a couple big cedars. We needed them to come to 25 yards or less and cross in front of us. They started moving right sooner than we wanted at about 45 yards. The first one out stared at us for a moment then moved on. The second did the same. The third was a spike and he started harassing the cow so she quit staring. The herd bull bugled next from just behind some cedars to the right and came blasting downhill toward a small bull that we couldn't see. The smaller bull ran to our left to escape the herd bull. Then the spike bolted as we saw the top half of the herd bull's right antler come out of the brush to hook a cow around to the right.

We weren't sure if this was the same bull we had been on the previous week, and wasn't completely sure that we had been on Nash the whole time anyway. Both of the bulls sounded similar and equally nasty. However, we hadn't had one look at antler during the previous hunts, so we could only imagine that they were good bulls. When the herd bull's left antler came out around the brush I could clearly see a big 4th (sword), a really good whale tailed 5th and 6th point. I couldn't see the left antler, the thirds or the fronts, but I really liked what I saw. For all I know he didn't have any of those other points, but if he did and they matched what I saw on the top.......he'd be well over 300, and anything in that range is big to me. I was willing to shoot any legal raghorn for that matter, and Isaac was willing to shoot any legal elk.

I caught one more glimpse of antler coming downhill toward my right side. I thought the bull was going to continue down to my right, so I prepared for a shot. Unfortunately he didn't continue moving down, but instead farther to the right. The second bull to the right was still moving our way and bugling back and forth with the herd bull the whole time, and the small bull to the left had started to feed in the open just above us about 60 yards.

The small bull had his head down, so I couldn't tell if he was legal or not. I could see a fork on top and I thought I could see brow tines when he raised his head. I told Isaac to keep an eye on him while I watched for one of the bulls to the right. I was hoping we could verify brow tines and he'd try to catch back up to the herd and in doing so move down our way to give Isaac a clear shot in the opening to our left. My feet and ankles were killing me at this point and I told Isaac I had to shift my feet. It shouldn't have been a big deal as much noise as the elk were making, but I brushed the heel of my boot against the log when I repositioned my feet. The small bull acted like I'd used my fingernails on a chalk board and locked onto us immediately. He stood staring for a while with both of us trying not to breathe. His position didn't afford us the same cover as when the cows had looked at us because he was off to the side. He bellowed out a nervous grunt and bolted up the hill into the trees.

I don't think the rest of the herd paid much attention, other than the spike, but when he moved into the trees he proceeded to pace back and forth and grunt over and over. If I didn't want to kill him before, I surely wanted to kill him then. The bulls to the right had moved around enough that I wasn't sure which bull was which. I was guessing the lower bull that was bugling at every cow call I made, and the idiots grunts uphill from us, was the second bull. I believed the herd bull to be farther uphill and pushing his cows away.

The idiot to the left finally ran over the hill away from us, and over the next 20 minutes or more I attempted to lure in the lower bull that continued to bugle to our right. He moved to within 100 yards and another smaller sounding bull bugled twice above us, but everything eventually faded away. We speculated they were all following the herd, so we started moving toward the bugles again. I thought what we were doing was creeping toward where we had last heard them, but after moving 100 yards, I spotted an elk above us. Apparently it had seen us because it quickly moved uphill away from us. We speculated that it was the smaller sounding bull that we had heard bugle above us, but I only saw the back half of the elk.

We kept moving toward the bugles, and at one point a bull bugled just over a ridge 150 yards from us. We slipped up the ridge and his next bugle sounded like it was another 400 yards.......at least. Wow these guys can move when they get the notion to. We weren't sure which bull we were chasing, but the bugles were the only thing we knew to go after.

We heard several more bugles that sounded like they had went over the farthest ridge we could see on the horizon, I guessed they were somewhat closer than that and down in a hole that was making them sound farther. I cow called when we finally approached the hole I suspected they had dropped into and got no response. I bugled and the bull screamed back before I was halfway done. We set up on him a couple times and he moved back and forth teasing us some, but would not commit. We decide to circle above him and try to sneak in on him through the thicker timber, but the wind started swirling every direction when we made it to the top. On top of that, I think walking on cornflakes would be an improvement over the dry stalking conditions that we were faced with. We backed out again. I didn’t think there was a snowballs chance that we could sneak in close enough for a shot. We hadn't run them out of the country yet and I wanted another morning with him. We were having too many close calls for one of these darn elk to not eventually make a mistake and wander into an arrow.

 

[hobbes]

September 29, 2012 (Saturday)
Same routine another day! We left the house 15 minutes earlier than Friday morning. That would allow plenty of time to get ahead of the weekend hunters. We would be at the trailhead two hours before legal shooting hours. However, another hunter had beaten us to the trailhead. Its public land and we had every right to hike up the trail behind the first guy. However, the first hunter up the trail was going to go straight to the elk if the herd was there and bugling. I’m not into competing with another hunter. It was a painful pill to swallow, but we drove to the next gulch and gave him some space. I wondered aloud if he would have given us the same courtesy.
I had not been up this new gulch and wasn’t sure how much of a trail existed. I had looked at aerial photos, but that had been a while. I knew some of the elk we had hunted before had moved this direction and I thought we had looked off into this gulch from the top before. I also thought if we couldn’t find elk here we may be able to use this gulch to reach the top of the area we had been hunting and reach one of the distant bulls we had heard before.
The trail was nothing more than a cattle trail and it ran out when the gulch forked. Nothing looked familiar to me. We decided to go right because it looked like there was more timber and I was confused how these ridges related to the ridges we had been hunting. The right fork turned farther right and then became steeper and narrower. It was a good thing we were early. We hiked up the right side part way to have a better look in the dim cloudy moon light and to listen for bugles. We couldn’t hear anything and it looked like we needed to hike to the top of the left side to get a better view.
We climbed down the right side and back up the left side. The climb up the left side was steeper than it looked in the dark. It was still early when we made it to the top of the ridge, but it was beginning to get light enough that I could glass a few open areas across a small basin. We took our packs off and laid back to rest and listen. Isaac was asleep and breathing steadily in seconds. I was afraid if I went to sleep that we’d both wake up well after daylight with elk looking at us. I let Isaac sleep while I listened and glassed the ridge across the basin. After 15 minutes I woke Isaac and told him we needed to get going and find some elk.
We moved 50 yards where I had a better view and I immediately picked up five elk on the opposite ridge. It looked like two cows, two calves, and a spike. One of the “calves” seemed too big to be from this summer, so it may not have really been a calf. It didn’t matter; all but the spike was fair game for Isaac’s “B” cow tag. We weighed our options on the safest route to them and started to move as they fed into the timber on the far side of the ridge they were on.
We had no choice but to cross some open areas and I told Isaac I didn’t like being in the open this early in the morning. We stopped beside a lone tree to scan the area for movement before we started across the 100 yards of open country. We had no sooner than cleared the tree when I saw three deer seventy yards away coming straight at us from the left. We sat down quickly, but the doe in the lead had already spotted us. We couldn’t shoot a doe, so that didn’t bother us, but when they bolted we noticed that theother two were both small four points. That was disappointing. If we had stayed put for a few more moments Isaac could have very well had a close shot opportunity at one of the bucks. It’s amazing how many times Isaac’s time machine would come in handy.
There was nothing to do but keep moving after the elk. We moved over the ridge into the thick timber and set up to do some cow calling since we didn’t know which direction the elk had moved after crossing the ridge. We had a bull respond with a half bugle half grunt after a couple series of cow calls. He was slightly up the drainage from us and not very far. A shot here would have to be really close because the timber was thick. He responded the same way again. He didn’t sound like much of a bull, but we hadn’t planned to be picky anyway. We could hear walking and a few limbs breaking. It sounded like he was coming. The wind swirled some after several minutes of waiting and not seeing or hearing anything. After a swirl or two we heard limbs breaking like an elk had bolted, but we didn’t hear any hoof beats like it continued to run away. We continued to wait because we weren’t sure what had happened.
The bull finally responded again and sounded like he had moved 500 yards up the drainage. We hiked to the top of the ridge and attempted to move far enough to get ahead of the bull. We eased down into the timber again and called. We weren’t too far, but he was still ahead of us. We finally spotted a spike a couple hundred yards ahead of the bugling that was below us. Apparently this wasn’t a lone bull. He likely had cows. We moved up and forward again. We were seeing a lot of fresh sign and the timber was starting to open up, so we slowed down. We approached a small opening and nocked arrows. I cow called and had a cow just ahead respond. We could hear them walking and didn’t feel like we could risk moving anymore.
After a few moments we spotted three cows on the left side of the drainage, but could still hear elk ahead of us on our side. The cows across from us were at the same elevation as we were and could easily spot us if we tried to move forward. We were pinned down. We stayed at this set up for almost an hour with elk moving around us the whole time. We saw one additional cow walk through an opening below us, but never could see those in front of us. The bull never did bugle again, but we knew he was there somewhere. At one point the elk walking in front of us sounded like they were just about to walk around some trees and into our lap. They may have been farther than it sounded because the elk across the drainage sounded close when they walked through the dry Arrowleaf, and I ranged them at 245 yards. We knew the elk ahead were closer than that because the cow below us wasn’t more than 75 yards away, but it made us wonder.
We finally decided we’d had enough and tried to slip up through some thicker trees. However, one of the cows across the drainage picked us off. We tried to wait her out, but after several minutes she had seen enough and alarm barked several times. The other two on her side ran up their side with their heads held high. I’m not sure what the elk on our side did because I never did hear them run. We eased forward looking for them but did not spot another elk. It was after eleven o’clock, so we decided to hike out to the truck, so Isaac could make it home in time for some afternoon plans he had.

Our view on the way out

 

[hobbes]

October 5, 2012 (Friday)

Morning

The weather made a drastic change a few days earlier. The lows were in the lower 30’s and upper 20’s, the highs were in the 40’s, and the higher peaks had turned white earlier in the week. I have seen plenty of cold weather while bowhunting elk, but I’ve never hunted this late in the year. Colorado is the only state I’ve hunted elk in prior to 2012 and their archery season starts a week earlier than Montana and ends before the end of September. Montana’s archery season is September 1st until October 14th. Also, an elk tag is either an archery or rifle tag in Colorado, not a general license that allows you to hunt in the archery and rifle seasons. In other words, I’ve never hunted elk in October and wasn’t sure what to expect. The only elk hunting I’ve done past September was a late season cow tag in December and January in waist deep snow.

Our obvious choice was to hunt the same location where we had been finding the elk on the last several hunts. The days seem much shorter now, so operating on the same schedule as early season gave us more than enough time to reach the area. We did not hear a single bugle on the way in. We climbed to the top of the ridge to listen for elk that may have moved farther up the drainage or into the next drainage over.

We weren’t hearing any bulls like we had before. We still had at least a half hour before legal shooting light, so I thought it best to wait and listen for elk. Isaac had a different idea. He slept while I listened. I can take some really good naps in the mountains, but Isaac can fall asleep as soon as he lays his head back on his pack. I hadn’t heard anything as daylight approached other than two coyotes howling. Isaac was 20 minutes into a good power nap when I shook him awake.
We moved to glass the surrounding ridge tops and any opening that we could see. I was unable to find a single animal. We decided to hunt into a drainage we had heard a bull chuckling from during our previous hunts but had never hunted. The area looked good, but we were unable to locate any elk. We found very little sign that would have indicated there was a herd close by. It had rained a few days earlier and we only located a track or two that looked like it had been made since the rain.

Where are the elk?

Bottom of the drainage

The morning was a bust. We had complained about the warm weather the entire season, but the elk disappeared as soon as we got the weather we were looking for. The snow flurries picked up for a little while as we hiked out and discussed what may have happened to the elk and where we should hunt in the evening. Our best guess was that the weekend hunters that we had avoided last Saturday had bumped them out of this area.

Snow flurries on our way out

 

[hobbes]

October 5 - Evening

We made up for being early during the morning hunt by starting too late during the evening hunt. We had never been in the new area that a buddy at work had pointed out. He had mentioned that the hike was steep, but I hadn’t counted on just how steep. It was almost time to hike out by the time we made it to the top and could see into the area we wanted to hunt. I wanted to at least take advantage of the view that was provided and glass the surrounding areas during the last half hour of daylight. If we couldn’t reach the elk now, we would have a starting point for Monday morning. I glassed some good looking country but could not find a single elk. We slid our way back down the mountain to the truck as darkness closed in.

We wanted to hunt back in there

We came from the bottom

 

[hobbes]

I know... I know.......lots of words and scenery but no hero shots. I'm growing tired of it also.

October 8 (Monday)

We were able to squeeze in a Monday morning hunt. We decided to hunt an area that we had only hunted one other time during the first weekend when we bumped the herd. It was a nice cool morning and I expected to hear elk or at least find elk. We never heard a peep and the only animals we found were several does. I did find where a herd had been a week or two earlier, but that didn't do us much good now. I know they haven't shut down completely because I've talked to a couple different folks that heard them bugling over the weekend.

Next weekend is the last weekend of archery season. We will hunt on Saturday and possibly Sunday afternoon. The following weekend is the start of the rifle season. I could continue to bowhunt, but with no elk in the freezer and Isaac's first season..............we are packing rifles. I've never killed a bull with a rifle (I've only killed one with a bow), but I have killed two cows with a rifle during late season in CO. I had considered us just packing one rifle between us, but with zero elk in the freezer and wanting less recoil for Isaac than the 7mm mag offers, I bought a 308 Remington ADL package deal at Scheels for Isaac to use. Isaac is no stranger to recoil because he's shot a number of 12 ga. turkey loads, so the 308 recoil is a walk in the park for him. Handling the rifle isn't my main concern, but instead.......elk fever.

Some elk I found while driving around in a new area last weekend. They didn't offer much chance for a bowhunter, but a rifle hunter could have gotten within range................if he could beat the orange army to them.

 

[Coastal]

Great memories and read! Keep it up!!

 

[hobbes]

October 13, 2012 (Saturday)

We hiked to the ridge that we hunted on September 29th. We had seen several elk and the two small mule deer bucks on that hunt. We hiked straight up the ridge instead of hiking the trail up the gulch. I could tell that I had sat in a chair all week because my calves were on fire as we hiked up. We finally arrived on top and skirted the timber in the dark. We took a 20 minute break in the trees while we waited for enough light to glass. Isaac was asleep as soon as he laid back.

I glassed the entire area around us but could not see anything moving. It doesn’t take much to hide a herd of elk in the mountains, but it was hard to believe that I could look at so much country and not see anything alive. We hunted up the ridge we were on and continued to glass whenever new country came into sight. We weren’t finding anything that made us think the elk were in there.

The temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and it started to rain/sleet later in the morning. It never got really nasty, but the lack of elk combined with the wind and rain were enough to make us look forward to the truck.

We were unable to hunt anymore during the weekend, so I’ve finished off another archery elk season without releasing an arrow. I went into this season with lower than average expectations because I felt like I was starting over after leaving CO and moving to MT. However, we were consistently into elk during the first 2/3’s of the season. In fact, I heard more bugling and experienced more rutting action than I have over the last five years. My expectations increased drastically once the action picked up and I expected that the encounters would eventually result in a shot opportunity for us. I’m sure I can look back and say I should have done this or that and the results may have been different. I know for certain that I skipped several afternoon hunts that I shouldn’t have.

The remainder of our season will consist of the general rifle elk/deer/bear season. I’m hoping we can get an elk packed into our freezer so we can bowhunt rutting whitetails here in Montana. The Montana terrain will look much different than Illinois, but bowhunting rutting whitetails from a treestand will feel familiar. We will also be visiting Illinois over Christmas/New Year where we will bowhunt whitetails again.

I don't have any photos to share with this report, but will try to make up for it in my future entries.

 

[hobbes]

We hunted until 11 am this morning during the youth deer season. The only deer we found were does and fawns. It definitely felt different wearing the blaze orange.
The good news was we found a small herd of elk with a couple bulls that we're going to try and get into tomorrow morning. They are up high, but not that far from the main road. Its a really steep climb through some rocky stuff before we can sidehill up high toward the elk. I think we can get to them undetected if they are still there. There was a group of does and fawns below them so we'll have to watch for them so we don't blow them through the elk. My main concern is what will the rest of the hunters do. I'm hoping that most of the orange army stays on the trail until farther back where its easier to hunt, but we'll see. I really don't know what to expect, but can imagine some really crazy stunts for the first day of the general rifle season.

 

[shooten]

Great writing and story. I've learned more from your adventure than anything else besides being out there doing it. Good luck!

 

[hobbes]

October 19, 2012 (Friday)

The two day youth deer season started on the 18th. We were unable to hunt but had time to get in some shooting practice that evening. We practiced shooting in conditions similar to hunting by sitting and shooting from a tripod I’ve constructed from wooden dowel rods that we carry with us. Isaac is shooting well but a little more practice wouldn’t hurt. I’m comfortable with him shooting an elk out to 200 if he has a good rest.

Checking the 100 yard target

We wanted to look at some new country on the 19th, so we hiked into an area that I’ve looked at on aerial photos but haven’t had a chance to hunt or scout. Isaac is willing to shoot almost any buck we find. The farther we are from the truck, the higher the standards will be, but nearly any 4 point will be fair game. Another goal for the day was to find elk to hunt on the 20th, opening day of the Montana General Rifle Season. We did locate two bulls and a couple cows high on the opposite side of the drainage, so we plotted out a path to them for the next morning’s hunt.

A bull on the opposite ridge

The only deer we found was a group of does and fawns. They were directly below the elk, so it would have taken a really good buck for us to risk bumping the elk. We will keep them in mind because they may have a buck with them in a couple weeks. We did manage to find a small shed antler on our side, so there has been at least one buck in here in the past.

I'm not sure what that look is about.......maybe I'm not feeding him enough

I like this country and we’ll definitely be checking it out during the archery season next year.

Isaac posing on our way in

 

[hobbes]

Aspens are few and far between in this country

 

[hobbes]

October 20, 2012 (Saturday-First Day of General Rifle Season)

We left early enough to beat most of the crowd and give us plenty of time to hike up to where we had seen the elk on Friday. The ridge the elk were on is very steep on both sides. It looked like the best route up was to climb the shortest steep slope on the lower end to the spine of the ridge then follow the more gradual spine toward the elk. Once we reached a saddle that we had glassed we would remain close to the tree line to stay out of site as we approached the area that the elk had been in.

After a miscalculation that required some minor rock climbing in the dark we made it to the spine in one piece. We dropped our packs and took a break. We spotted several “shooting stars” while resting. Isaac likes to watch the stars, so he pointed out a few constellations as well. After the short break we started on up the mountain. The spine of the ridge looks like a gradual slope because the side slopes are so steep, but it will take the wind out of you. We made it as far as we dared in the dark and stopped for Isaac’s usual morning nap. I can rarely nap for fear of oversleeping and I was too jacked up about the possibilities at daybreak. I was also watching and listening for other hunters to wander by us, but it looked like we would be alone on top.

As shooting light approached we moved into position to glass the area. We continued slipping forward, glassing while staying in as much cover as we could. We weren’t seeing the elk, but the terrain had more breaks in it than I had noticed the day before. I expected the elk to step out at any minute, so we held up and watched the area. We finally decided that we would have to hunt through it to find the elk. After an hour or so we decided the elk weren’t there.

We had heard several shots since daybreak, and at one point a volley of shooting erupted lower than us across the main drainage where we had parked. Either someone was chasing down a wounded elk or there was a line of guys shooting at a herd as they tried to escape (likely both). It sounded like a war had started. I was glad we weren’t mixed in with the madness, but a little jealous that we weren’t seeing any elk and someone else was.

I read and hear guys decry bowhunting, swearing to a bow’s ineffectiveness. They base their conclusion on the actions of a few. Considering the amount of racket that a few rifle hunters can make shooting at an escaping herd of elk, I could easily conclude that all rifle hunters are lunatics winging bullets at running targets that are out of range. I hope that is not what we heard, but I could easily imagine a herd trying to escape from unsafe crossfire that was hitting them everywhere but the kill zone.

We took another seat and glassed the surrounding area for elk. I found several hunters with the binos, but no elk. We decided to hunt over the ridge and continue searching for “our” elk. We found a lot of sign that indicated there had been a small herd living on this ridge, but were unable to locate them. We hunted farther up the ridge and peeked off into several areas where we hoped the elk were hidden, but never could find them.
 

My 7mm Mag and Isaac's 308 with another shed

The wind increased to the point that we could barely stand in the open on the west or north facing slopes, so we made our way back to the timber on the east facing slope we had started in. We decided our best option was to wait out any elk that we may have missed or wait for someone to push an elk to us. We glassed for the remainder of the day but never did see any elk. When we got back to the truck we saw a hunter loading horses that he had used to pack an elk out, so at least one of the shots from that morning had killed an elk.
I wanted to hunt Sunday afternoon, but Isaac was beat. I’m not going to make him go and I’ve grown so accustomed to hunting with him that I couldn’t bring myself to go without him. The snow has started to fall this week, so we have high hopes for next Friday’s hunt.

 

[hobbes]

October 26, 2012 (Friday)

Next Saturday, November 3, will end Daylight Savings time for 2012. Sunrise for our region in Montana will be 8:14 on the 3rd. An elk hunter couldn’t ask for more “sleeping in” time during hunting season. Sunrise was 8:02 on Friday, Oct. 26th, so we slept in to 5 AM and still had a full hour and a half to hike into the area we chose to hunt.

The elk camps were still out in full force during this first week of the rifle season, and there was already one truck at the trailhead. During bow season I may have moved on, but there are hunters at every trailhead right now, so we parked and started hiking. We eventually caught up to the couple ahead of us while they took a break on the trail. They were friendly and I asked what their plans were and assured them that we would hunt opposite of them since they were well ahead of us. They were planning to hunt toward the right. That worked out good for my plans of hunting up and over the ridge on our left. We wished each other good luck and we kept hiking up the trail before climbing the ridge to our left.

Daylight was approaching as we neared the top of the ridge. It had been snowing each night this week, so we had fresh snow to look for tracks in. We noticed a set of elk tracks from earlier in the week and a set of lion tracks from that night that were made while it snowed. Shortly after daylight we found where three elk had been feeding during the night then turned down the mountain. The lion tracks followed the elk for a short while, but eventually turned off their tracks.

Tracking snow

Lion tracks

We had heard half a dozen shots from that direction on private land, but I didn’t think the elk would be in the area the shooting was coming from. However, after following the tracks for several minutes we heard two shots about half the distance between us and the previous shots. Those shots were in the general area that I expected the elk were. After hiking a little farther to a vantage point we could hear someone talking, rather loudly, below us. I couldn’t tell if it was two guys or one guy on a cell phone, but we suspected someone had an animal down or they wouldn’t have been talking so loud.

We speculated that one of the elk we were following had been killed, so we got to another vantage point to glass. We couldn’t see the hunters or any elk, but glassing was limited because the fog had moved in. As trigger happy as everyone seems to be, we opted to veer as far away from the other hunters as we could. We dropped into an area that I was hoping elk were hiding in but found only one set of elk tracks that had been through during the night and were headed toward the shots that had been fired that morning. We also crossed lion tracks again that I think were left by the same lion.

We hunted the rest of the day, other than a snack and lunch break, without finding another track. The snow was treacherous while slipping and sliding down the steep slopes, but we made it back to the truck without any major falls.

 

[hobbes]

October 27, 2012 (Saturday)

We hunted Saturday evening from 2:30 until dark. We haven’t found elk in the areas we bowhunted, so we decided to start looking in areas that we’ve never been. We were hoping to change our luck for the better (it couldn’t get much worse). The hike in was typical for this country, two thirds of the elevation in one third the distance to the top. The snow made it that much more interesting. The country has broken patches of timber, old burn areas, and vast openings. It looked more like deer country than elk country, but I wasn’t finding elk in “elk country” and we both have mule deer buck tags.

The “deer country” observation proved true when I glassed two bedded bucks on the next ridge as soon as I put the glasses to my eyes. They weren’t big bucks, but “buck” was the only word Isaac needed to hear. It looked like it would be impossible to get to them before dark and we knew they would be up very soon. We laid out a quick plan to circle and hope to find a way to cross to their ridge undetected. We couldn’t find a way to get around them without being in the open while sliding down a snow covered ridge to the bottom. During the morning we could have hiked far enough to get around and drop in above, but we wouldn’t have time this evening.

While scouting for a route to the deer we ran across elk tracks from that morning. There were four sets and they all looked like big tracks. I’m a novice at tracking but It sure looked like four bulls had crossed our ridge and over the ridge the deer were on. Maybe it was four giant cows, but this “deer country” had elk in it or at least crossing through it.

It was getting late, so we started our hunt back toward the truck. While still in the open from our attempt to hike around the bucks I spotted a buck on the edge of the timber ahead of us. The buck was a little better than the first two bucks, a tall 3 point as wide as his ears. He already had us pegged, but stood long enough that we could have taken the shot. I don’t intend to shoot a mule deer buck before the rut unless he’s a really good buck, and 245 yards is farther than Isaac needs to be shooting. We let the deer walk up over the rise and hurried to close the distance. We hoped we’d catch him watching his back trail and give us a closer shot, but we couldn’t find him. We saw several more does on our way back to the truck, but no bucks.

The hike down the mountain turned into a slide instead of a hike. The wet inch and a half of snow on the near vertical slope was going to take us forever to navigate. A foot of snow would be safer than the shallow coating. We had already unloaded our rifles because of the potential for falling. After sliding onto our backside several times we decided to stay there……on our backside, and made short work of the descent. I hope no one saw us, but that was our first official day of sledding this year. I’d rather they saw that than either of us needing rescued with broken bones or a rifle sticking out of ribs. Isaac thought it was fun.

 

[hobbes]

October 28, 2012 (Sunday)
We decided to give the deer from Saturday another chance on Sunday evening. We found that there was an old trail in the bottom of the drainage immediately below where the bucks had been bedded and where we had glassed several does. We hunted up that trail glassing the side of the ridge then hunted toward the top of the ridge where we would have a view of the area the bucks were in yesterday.
I may have overlooked them without the snow, but we couldn’t locate them. I wanted to check to see if the elk that had made the elk tracks yesterday may be hiding in the timber on the other side of the ridge. We hiked higher and planned to hunt back down this ridge just before dark when the deer were sure to be on their feet.

Hiding from the wind

As we climbed higher the wind picked up to a very uncomfortable level. We started back down after no luck with locating the elk. We picked our way down toward the truck, glassing as we went. We found four does in the next drainage over and watched them for several minutes but never saw a buck. We continued on down and finally spotted several deer ahead of us seventy five yards that appeared to be all does. We kept watching and had just about concluded that they were all does when a small buck stuck his head out from behind a tree. Isaac was preparing for the shot when one of the does that had decided we didn’t look quite right bolted taking the whole group with her.

Isaac wasn’t terribly disappointed but it was nice to end the evening with a little excitement. We will keep this area in mind over the next few weeks as the bigger bucks start to show up with the does.

We are getting our butts kicked by the animals here in Montana. The bugling was keeping me in elk during the archery season. A month ago it was hard to imagine not killing an elk as soon as we picked up rifles. However, the absence of the rut and the onslaught of the orange army have left me at a loss. I know I’ve got a lot to learn in this country, but this is ridiculous. Hopefully I can locate an elk for us to put in the freezer next weekend or my plan to bowhunt whitetails during the rut may go down the tubes.

 

[hobbes]

double post

 

[hobbes]

Side Note:
We did get some good news today. Dad, Isaac’s grandfather, killed a whitetail buck this morning back home. He had taken at least a ten year hiatus from hunting deer. I talked him into several cow tags in CO over the last few years before he finally killed a cow in 2010. That apparently boosted his desire to hunt more and in 2011 he shot a couple whitetail does. The buck below is the first buck he’s killed in at least ten years. My brother said he was really excited.

At least someone has a grip and grin photo in here

I'll have to educate my father on the latest photo etiquette...HA!