It's all wrapping up now, that is I'm wrapping up burger cuts now.
I had vacation from 11-26 Sep this year, sixteen days of solo backpack elk hunting. I started up a little hellhole drainage in western MT for the first nine days, and got blasted by absolutely the worst weather I've ever dealt with in September. For nine days an unending series of rain and snow storms took shots at me. I lost precious hunting time trying to dry out, and with constantly wet feet found it impossible to hunt my favored way - static setups that I'll stick to for 4-12 hours. I adapted to the wet conditions by still hunting, a tactic that I also love but that had not worked in recent Septembers because it was so dry.
In that country, I saw six different bulls and heard 1-5 bulls per day, and the main basin I was hunting had two 300-class bulls. The biggest was a 320+ brute, and I called him to 35 yards one day by crowding into his bedding area with his cows, and bugling. He was slightly quartered to me, and five yards out of my range. I hunted him for the rest of the week, and had him at 50 and 100 yards on two other occasions. Never saw a soul for nine days. I left that hunt when the food and dry socks ran out, having passed up three shots - two cows and a raghorn bull.
For part two, I headed to an area in the southwestern part of the state. The weather got somewhat better, but the bulls weren't as vocal - more hunting pressure. I got a 300-range nontypical bull to 60 yards one day, and had some real mind-bending experiences with smaller bulls. Actually the big bull kind of warped me. I ran out of daylight the evening I found him, and took a long circuitous route back to camp to avoid spooking him or his cows. Well, just after dark as I walked into camp, I discovered this bull chasing cows literally in my camp. Finally, a cow saw my tent and bailed out pronto, taking bully with her.
September 24th dawned warm and clear, ahhhhh, and I took off at dawn into a new basin that was near enough to the road to let me get any kills out before the vacation ended. Just after 2 pm, I was easing through a saddle that connects two crackerjack basins. I had just seen a little pine marten, curious little fellow with a blaze orange underbelly. I heard a coyote howl from within 100 yards, I mean it made a perfect "yip yip yeowwww" call. I started sneaking toward it pondering the oddity of maybe seeing a pine marten and coyote on the same day.
As I snuck forward, I became aware that my coyote was breaking some really sizable limbs up ahead. Huh? Since when do coyotes break limbs? If you're all in suspense now let me bust that up by saying, 'tweren't a coyote up there ahead! 'Twas an elk herd. I saw four elk, the trailer being a nice 6-point bull. I quickly sized him up, the herd was almost upon me, and realized that while he was nice he wasn't great (250ish). So I resolved to take the first noncalf that came into range.
I simply turned sideways and nocked and locked an arrow. I still had my daypack on and binos hanging around my neck. A calf passed at 25 yards, and seconds later a real nice cow stepped behind a big Doug fir. I drew, she stepped out at 18 yards, and instinct took over.
The herd exploded at the shot, but nobody knew what was happening. I gave my best throat cowcall, and the herd stopped for another look just 35 yards down the hill. My cow laid down there, and the rest of them milled around for 20 minutes trying to find the mystery "cow" (maybe they thought I was a coyote). Finally they left but she stayed and I had me an elk.
Took me 12 hours to pack her out on Saturday, and I'm just finishing butchering today. The meat is going to be A-grade.
good story. i was out in western MT last week also, had rain/sleet and a bit of snow for the first 3 days of the hunt. saw 4 bulls but couldn't get any in range and passed on a nice cow the first day of the hunt at 10 yards. ended up empty handed this bow season, hoping for some luck during rifle season.
Is Western Montana getting any Snow on the mountains at the higher eleveations or is Idaho getting any Snow on the mountains. I am hunting the St. Joes area of Idaho and praying for snow on the ground. I start hunting on the 16th of October.
Kevin
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We prove ourselves one hour at a time in the wilderness.
www.gotelk.com 406-722-HUNT
We had 3-6 inches of snow built up last week up high (here in western MT), but warm weather in recent days took care of that and now it's pretty much snow-free. By 16 Oct that could obviously change.
My Elk Hunting Adventure
