Late season Cow hunt

[11boo]

My body, and rifle, are ready for whatever. I’ll eat snow if I have to.

 

[TheDogInBlack237]

I have a public land tag for the December/January cow hunt. Went scouting Monday, elk were there, for now. Season opens 12-15 so anything can happen before that. Some snow would actually be welcome, it is dryer than a preachers joke.

Nobody has been up there since rifle season, and There are only about 300 tags out for this hunt.

This is either going to be an easy hunt or one of my toughest hunts. The terrain is very steep, and there are some saddles the elk love to use, so that’ll get my focus first .

I‘ll be tenting it most likely, with pretty cold night time temps. The wood stove will get a workout.
daytime temps could be anywhere. I typically bow hunt, but I’m pretty sure the usual camelbak will freeze in short order. No way I’ll go through the same amount of water I do in September, what would you recommend for carrying water? I think a couple quarts would be plenty. Do the disposable water bottles hold up in a pack? Would the big mouth Nalgene bottles be less prone to freezing?


This post is just a placeholder for my hunt report.

Good luck

 

[11boo]

Good luck

Thanks man. I’m already very lucky getting another shot and just being healthy.

 

[11boo]

Tomorrow is go day. Just made my meals for tomorrow. Everything but the guns loaded up. Hours at the range prepping for one shot. Going to be cold AF. I don’t care, been snowing up there a lot. I don’t care.

Just day tripping it for now, 90 minute drive and hunting. It’ll be fun to tent it up there later if I need to with the hot tent.

I gotta go find the sunscreen, tomorrow is supposed to be

 

[11boo]

Need any help packing it out?

Fred, be careful with that kind of talk ’)

 

[Phaseolus]

Fred, be careful with that kind of talk ’)

Have pack, will travel.

 

[hibernation]

Since this turned into a water bottle thread, I'll throw in my 2 cents.

If you're using nalgenes, the white ones are better than the colored/translucent ones. The plastic handles cold better and is much less prone to cracking from impact when cold. If you're putting them vertically in your pack, put them upside down so the water doesn't start to freeze around the lid and in the threads.

Jetboil is key on late season hunts. Midday ramen or noodle soup is the best way to hydrate, stay warm, keep up morale, and buy yourself some time at a glassing location.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Tomorrow is go day. Just made my meals for tomorrow. Everything but the guns loaded up. Hours at the range prepping for one shot. Going to be cold AF. I don’t care, been snowing up there a lot. I don’t care.

Just day tripping it for now, 90 minute drive and hunting. It’ll be fun to tent it up there later if I need to with the hot tent.

I gotta go find the sunscreen, tomorrow is supposed to be

Good luck.

 

[BDRam16]

I love being a newbie here and finding all the little bits of information you would never think about before your first trip out west. Like nalgene insulators. Added to the list lol.

 

[11boo]

Hit it hard yesterday, the elk have all moved down. Well, not that hard. Spent most of the day in the SxS. Gimme a break there, I’m helping a disabled friend try and get his last elk. He really can’t go more than 50 yards.

Fair bit of snow up high, a few inches down low. The Wolverine was more of a snowmobile than a ATV. Plenty of elk piled up on private land down low, we were hoping to get the stragglers. Had a really nice 6x bull cross 10 yards in front of us, but no cow.

Very cool having the whole area to ourselves. Nobody up there, and the snow on the road proved nobody came up all day.

The Nalgene bottles worked well, good tip guys. It was 18 degrees on top.

a few pics.

View from the top on a wind blown ridge, where the elk were. Broke thru a lot of deep drifts to get here.



My friend, he has done a lot for our disabled vets. I was hoping to get him on an elk, but we have a month.


Pretty cool frost on the trees.

 

[11boo]

The area really is incredible.

 

[hobbes]

Good luck to you and your buddy. I need to get after one this weekend myself here in MT.