Day Four

"Three days down, three more days to go," was the comment I said to Dad this morning at breakfast. We briefly discussed how long we should wait until we settle for a cow (not the beef cattle), and decided we would wait until Thursday.

PJ took Dad and I to the same ridge as the morning before. Today, however, was the opposite from a weather perspective. Although a little cold at around 24 degrees, it was a starry, moonlit morning with no wind.

We were in position beneath the first rows of black timber by 7:20, still 20 minutes before shooting time. Once again PJ put Dad on a stand site, and then he and I hiked to the far end of the ridge to another stand. It is barely light enough to see at this hour, but through binoculars the grassy meadows are become quite visible. We stopped often to glass, but did not spot any elk moving up toward the timber. Upon reaching the end of the ridge, we finally spotted 5 or 6 elk, out of reach on private land far off in the distance. After further investigation, it appeared that these were the last of a larger herd that had already made it into the pines.

We then headed down the ridge toward a couple small stands of pine. Our hope was that elk had settled into one of these stands, rather than going further up to the big woods. PJ had a plan to walk through the lower stand as I waited. Once he came out, we would head back up toward Dad and call it a morning.

Nearly 45 minutes later, I saw PJ coming out of the stand of pine. I sighed, thinking that now we only had two more morning hunts left to get our elk. Then, I saw PJ stop in his tracks, raise his binoculars to his eyes and peer across the fields beneath him. There, perhaps over half mile away, were 30 some head of elk running toward us. I was already running toward him when he turned to wave me down.

All you can do at times like this is use your judgement that is born of experience. We (PJ mostly) had to guess which way they were going to go. The elk had been spooked. They were moving at a good clip, coming toward our right. There was a fence, a cut of aspen trees lining a creek, and then another fence ahead of them. They initially appeared to be headed around the stand of pines PJ had just come through. So PJ decided we needed to get around these pines, and we ran 400-500 yards over the knoll we were on to beat them to the other side. Once there, we could not see them. Finally, PJ spotted them through the pines, and they were just coming through the creek and aspen, and had turned to parallel the creek. So, we ran right back over the knoll to where we had been.

We tiptoed into the pines. The stand of pines runs 400-500 yards along a steep slope, and is only about 20-30 yards wide. We moved slowly down the slope to the edge, being careful to remain concealed in the boughs of the trees. As we neared the edge, we saw the elk, but also saw 20 antelope that had come out of the aspen. Antelope have very good eyes...if they spotted us, they would bust out of the area and alarm the elk.

The elk started moving up further along the aspen. Through binoculars, we identified one good bull in the group. It was time to get into shooting position. I sat and asked PJ for a distance. His range finder had them at 350 yards. If they kept moving in their current direction, my best opportunity for a shot would be at 300 yards. We kept an eye on the antelope, and they still had not spotted us. The elk then cooperated, and moved to the knoll at 300 yards. The bull initially did not present a shot, as it stood facing us. But as I stared through my scope, trying not to shake from the adrenaline rush, it finally turned broadside. BANG! One shot, the elk turned away from us, as if in disgust, and dropped. No chase, no tracking, just a good clean kill. My first elk!!! He is a nice 4 X 4, as you see in the picture.


The rest of the story is good also, but let me sum it up by saying that the ranch folks in these parts are mighty friendly. They helped us by driving one of their trucks right up to where we gutted him, and hauled him out (try lifting 700 pounds of dead weight into the bed of a pickup!).

We are off tonight to get one for Dad....so stay tuned.

Day Three

Our third day started out a little nasty. Our routine is to have breakfast at 5:45, and then head out to the gun-house to get geared up and review the plan for the morning. As we stepped out to the gun-house, we were greeted by a cold, wind-blown rain. After gathering our gear, we reviewed our plan to hunt the area where Dad and Tyler had missed one the day before. We jumped in the trucks, and headed out.

We are at 6500 foot elevation at the Lodge. Upon arriving at our hunting spot, we realized that we were higher than 6500 feet, as what had been rain at the Lodge was now a wet, driving snow, and was sticking to the ground. Weather not fit for man nor beast!

The land we are hunting is a valley cut between two mountain ranges that parallel one another. The valley floor is rich pasture land, and home to vast beef cattle ranches that spread for miles. At the point where the valley floor starts its steep incline up to the mountain peaks is where the ranch land stops, and national forest land starts. The national forest land is heavily timbered, with mixed lodge-pole pine, juniper, and spruce. In Montana, they call it "black timber." The idea on the morning hunts is to position yourself to catch the elk moving from their valley floor feeding grounds, up to their black timber bedding grounds.

On this particular morning, I am quite certain that every right-minded elk in the valley was already up in the black timber. Wind gusts were 40mph, and although it did stop snowing, it was cold. Thus, no game seen during the first few hours of the hunt. Late morning, we did catch a small herd of 15 heading up toward the timber, but they crossed onto private land that we cannot hunt.

The evening hunt was spent with PJ, the third of our three guides this week. He took Dad and I back into some of the most beautiful country...the kind you imagine when you think Montana mountains. We drove then hiked through deep cut ridges lined with various pine, aspen, and large rock outcroppings. JP put Dad on a stand site, and then he and I hiked down into a postcard perfect clearing where we hoped a few elk would emerge. No luck, however, as Dad saw 12 mule deer does, and JP and I saw nothing.

Perhaps Day Four will be better.

Day Two...

Had an awesome hunt this morning! For those of you that get bored with these hunting stories….I will get right to the point…both Dad and I…………..

..... had our own guide this morning. Cody and I, and Tyler and Dad. Cody and I had a classic spot and pursue hunt that culminated with a textbook stalk to shooting range. Tyler and Dad had a similar hunt, as they spotted elk just after first light and planned a tactical hunt for a shot. In the end, I passed on a 250 yard shot at a fork-horn bull. Dad had a long 375 yard shot at a small 5x5 bull that did not find its mark. But, as I said earlier, each were exiting, well executed hunts that simply did not end with a kill.

The afternoon was less exciting. Dad did not see any. I saw 10 including a bull, but it was right at shooting time…so no shot.

No other elk harvested in camp yet this week, other than a small 6x6 taken on Sunday night.

All else is good, and we’re having a great time!

Day One...

The land we are hunting here in Montana is a mix of private ranches, state, and BLM (federal) land. This makes for an interesting hunt, as you might be watching a small herd of elk from 300 yards away, but cannot shoot because they are on land we do not have access to. This was the case for us this morning. As we stalked up the ridge behind the lodge....I mean HIGH up behind the lodge....we saw roughly 50 elk pass by on the other side of the fence. Even though there was not a shooter bull among them, our only option was to watch them go by.

The balance of the day was spent glassing, driving, glassing, and driving....napping, then back out to sit some high mountain meadows until dusk. Other than some 150 elk that we saw far off in the distance, we otherwise only added few mule deer does to our "sighted" list.

Tomorrow should be a better day we are told, as the warm weather will keep the elk out in the fields longer in the morning. On Tuesday snow is moving in, which will keep the elk moving more during the day...again enhancing our chances.

Stay tuned....and I will post more pictures tomorrow (awesome scenery)...

Second post today....We have arrived!

Russ Kipp, our outfitter and owner of High Country Lodge, asked that we arrive at the lodge between 1:00 and 4:00pm. Dad and I rolled into the driveway at 1:04....fashionably late.

Link to Montana High Country Lodge

After a quick tour and unpacking, we headed to the range to make certain our rifles still shot straight. Ben, a solo hunter with us this week, joined us. Dad went first, and after a minor adjustment, was right on. After my rifle also proved to still be shooting straight, we tried our luck at the 300 and 400 yard targets. We each hit the 300, and (a little bragging here) I was the only one to hit the 400. Now...we'll see if we can all do that with the added pressure of a live animal in our sights.

That's it for now...but here are a few pictures of the area thus far...


Snow covered peak, taken from
truck while driving down from Butte.

From the lodge, 10,000

foot peaks to the east.

Dad at the
shooting range

5 States, 1300 miles, 20 hours of travel...

The only bad part of a long day of road-tripping like Dad and I just completed is the part where I only had about 1 hour of sleep the night prior. I DO NOT recommend this. Although a certain amount of adrenaline and excitement was in my veins, I struggled much of the day to stay awake. Dad did better...but had about 4.5 hours of sleep the night before.

Anyway, it is currently Saturday AM, and we are sitting in a Hampton Inn in Bozeman, MT as I write this. We are 1300 miles from home...which took about 20 total hours, 18 of that actual driving. Our first major stop was in Mitchell, SD, where we enjoyed a Perkin's breakfast along with numerous duck and pheasant hunters. We then made a quick run into the Mitchell Cabela's store...to refresh our memories on what elk look like...and make a few last minute purchases.

Back on the road, eastern and central South Dakota is not much to look at (no offense, Duke). The scenery did not get interesting until we reached the Black Hills area, save for the Missouri River crossing mid-state. We stayed on I-90 through Wyoming, up to where it catches I-94 about an hour into Montana. Saw quite a good number of antelope, and a few deer in Wyoming. The final leg of our journey was from Billings to Bozeman. The first 80 miles of this section of highway was shockingly thick with mule deer, antelope, and elk. We stopped counting at around 300 deer, 300 antelope, and 25 elk. There is an old adage in hunting...."Hunt where the deer are"....I guess this area would be a good place to hunt.

We were met (thanks to a little pre-planning) at our hotel in Bozeman by a friend of mine at GE who lives here in town. Mike Hall became our tour guide for a couple hours, as we headed to historic downtown Bozeman for a great dinner and good conversation. Mike said that much of the high-country already has a few inches of snow on the ground....which is a good thing as it drives the elk to lower elevations.

We have about 2.5 - 3 hours of drive to the Lodge...and plan to make that trek starting around 10:00 this morning. Look for next post tonight or tomorrow night...

....and feel free to add comments if you wish. Simply click on the COMMENT link at the end of each post.

Feeling at Home on the Range...

Today, is Thursday, October 18....one week and a few hours to departure! After more discussion, we have modified our trip plans, and will now depart Hartland at about midnight on Thursday night the 25th. This will put us into Bozeman, MT, by around dinner time on Friday night, and enable us to have a decent dinner and good night's rest prior to trekking the final 2.5 hours to the Lodge on Saturday. Also, I suppose it will allow a little acclimatization...as Bozeman is nearly 1 mile above sea level.

Yesterday Dad and I made a trip down to McMiller Sports Center to sight in our rifles. We will both be using .300 Win Mags. Our goal at the range was to sight-in such that we are shooting approximately 2 inches high at 100 yards. With this approach, the idea is that you can hold the scope crosshairs on your aiming point at animals that are 75-250 yards away, and still strike the vitals for a clean kill.

We each shot 10-15 times, and after a few adjustments, feel quite comfortable that our rifles are sighted properly....and ready for the hunt.

This is likely my last post until our trip has commenced....so look for update once we reach Montana.