I know some of you may not be into hunting so if it is not your thing I apologize. But here in Montana it is a big part of our heritage and who we are. So with that being said today was opening day of hunting season and I took my 12 year step son hunting for elk. Had a great day as we say well over 300 head of elk and we ended up getting a nice bull, which was his 1st. What made it a really awesome day was that we started at 6:00 am and drove to my parents ranch. Got to my favorite hunting spot of 640 acres (1 mile x 1 mile) and immediately saw 150 or so head feeding towards to the top. We made our gameplan and started hiking trying to get above them. Now when I say get above them I mean we had to go about a 3/4 of a mile with about 770 feet of elevation change while being sneaky Doesnt sound all that bad on paper but it is one heck of a hike when ur trying to hurry. So we get up above this group of elk and they are feeding towards us right according to plan when I hear an elk bugle just above us about 100 yards away in the timber. So now we have elk above and below us and I am just waiting for the wind to change direction and we will not have a chance at anything. At this point we go into full stalk mode and belly crawl through some open spots and slowly get to where we can see the elk above us. However it turns out to be a group of a few cows/calves and some very samllish type bulls so we decided to wait for those below us to come within range. Meanwhile I just happen to glance to the east and see another herd of around 250 plus head come over the ridge in the neighbors property where they had evidently been spooked by some other hunters. We now had elk above, below, and coming from the east. We were basically surrounded and had them just where we wanted them. With the new bunch coming on we decided to just stay put as we could see all 3 herds. As we were waiting for the main bunches to get closer we saw a good six point bull start working through the trees below us about 200 yards away. I felt pretty comfortable shooting that far with my .300 winchester short mag but I wasn't sure if my son could make the shot off hand with his .270. The rifle was capable as it was my 1st rifle that my dad bought me when I was about 13 and I had shot a lot of deer and elk out that far with it before. So I was more worried about "buck" fever and a steady hand. So I decided to move him to the other side of the small scrub pine we were hiding behind so that he could use a branch as a rest. He then assured me he was rock solid and I told him to take the shot when the bull stood still. He let me know he was about to shoot and I put my scope on the bull to watch for shot placement. BOOM! The bull flinches and jumps and spins and then takes off running back the way he came into some young pine trees where I lose sight of him. I immediately jump ahead to the next clearing but I do not see him cross it. But since I have guided hunters professionally before I know that he could have very easily taken a path that would not go through the clearing and could be heading for the next county . I saw that he was hit good but at 200 yards I wasn't 100% sure how good. So needless to say I was a bit worried. After we shot all 3 herds took off running as we were right in the middle of them. However, they had no idea of where we were so what a sight. We had elk within 20 yards of us before we got spotted and if you can imagine 400 head of elk running all around you it was awesome. So we watched the show for about 20 minutes and let the rest of the elk settle down and start moving off towards their bedding ground before we started back down the mountain to pick up the blood trail. I was very nervous at this point because we had no snow on the ground and with the down angle of his shot I was unsure if we would even be able to find a blood trail. We marked the spot where we thought he was when he shot and started working up and down the hill trying to pick up some sign. As I was starting to really panic I noticed a funny branch sticking out of the sagebrush about 50 yards from where we started and low and behold there he was. A perfect shot right through both lungs and very pretty six by six bull elk laying there. Needless to say I was pumped and so was he. It was perfect Montana morning and we had the perfect hunt. In all we hunted for about 2 hours but then it took us another 4 hours to get him down to the rig and loaded up. At least it was down hill though. I hope you all enjoy this and I would love to hear some of your stories if you have them. Pics of the Elk and my Son(Warning Dead Things) Spoiler Spoiler
Mmmm food. Nice. I don't hunt (dad didn't either so I never learned) but my godfather hunts deer in Jersey and I have gone around with him to his deerstands (not at hunting times though)
I once said to a group of guys (hunters) that I'll join them in their duckhunt once the ducks are refitted with .303's under their wings. Similarly, hunting reindeer gets a whole lot more interesting if you sharpen their teeth and mount a quad 20mm autocannon turret on it. Imagine hunting bears if they had a .50 cal rifle as primary weapon and a pair of UMPs as a PDWs. On a more serious note, I believe in using the meat from your game and since I'm too fancy lad to butcher the thing I don't see myself doing a lot of actual hunting unless I really needed to. Eventually I would like to buy a sniper rifle and learn how to use it and also get to know how to butcher an animal so I'd know how to do that if I needed to. It's still nowhere close to actual practical skills of a seasoned hunter, but it's a first step.. Once I get there.
Lucky kid, and on his first hunt too! My first hunt we were duck hunting and we only saw a single duck! ...and we missed
been a while since i had elk. one of my favorites. i didn't know you were from Montana. I grew up in Miles City and went to college at MSU.
We usually went up towards Townsend to do our elk hunting. A buddy of mine knows a few of the ranch owners up there so we had pretty decent access back into the mountains around there.
