Pucky Freak
Well-known member
Very cool videos. Looks like everyone was having fun and congrats on the animals.
2019 Montana Elk Day-by-Day
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
My wife commented that I looked to be having more fun than normal. As I think about it, I probably was. Very often when we are elk hunting, we have guests who, though they might be experienced hunters, may live somewhere that elk hunting is not something they get to do regularly. As such, I feel the burden of finding and getting elk is more on my shoulders, a responsibility I take seriously, along with all the concerns about caring for the meat if we are successful. In many instances, we have guests who have not been on camera, something that also requires me to focus on carrying the conversation and dialogue. That might provide a more serious tone from me, which gives a more serious tone to the hunt/episode.
In this hunt, everyone with us has taken many elk. They have all been on our episodes in the past, multiple time, so I didn't feel I needed to instigate all the conversation and be in front of the camera as much as normal. Nobody needed any assistance from me, either in the hunting or filming. Any assistance they got from me was just because I love helping with the guttin' and gillin', or I wanted to hike and look for more elk, or they had engaged me in conversation.
I fully intended to be the one guy in camp who shot a cow and we were going to make a big celebration about it, how good it will taste, how I only had to pack it a half mile to a road, how I didn't have any antlers I needed to deal with, on and on......
Well, I didn't expect that we would encounter the number of bulls we did, making the opportunity to shoot a 5x5 seem like a great gift that was handed to me. Reflecting on my wife's comments, I think that is why I found this hunt so fun and relaxing. It was work to make a 12 mile loop on Day 3, but when packing out two elk, even that distance seems like fun and games.
Glad people enjoyed it.
bullbugle307
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2018
- Messages
- 934
@Big Fin Are you guys going to post video from your Wyoming cow elk hunt? I know it wasn't successful but I'd love to watch that hunt regardless.
Big Fin,
I love the Day by Day series you do. I’ve see you on other hunts where you express and sometimes show the large amounts of public land hunters. On this Montana hunt after having to switch locations you never really mentioned a ton of pressure or aired any footage. Was this spot you found fairly low pressure and that is why you guys had such great success?
I love the Day by Day series you do. I’ve see you on other hunts where you express and sometimes show the large amounts of public land hunters. On this Montana hunt after having to switch locations you never really mentioned a ton of pressure or aired any footage. Was this spot you found fairly low pressure and that is why you guys had such great success?
There was a ton of pressure near trailheads and in the lower areas. We just hiked further than most and got away the majority of people. There are clips of some folks walking along below us.
Thanks. That was fun to watch and looked like a great time. You had so many people including the Destination Elk crew....were you all hunting the same santuary? I’m just a midwestern whitetail hunter and would love to hunt elk someday! With 0 points seems like my only chance would ever be to hunt on a general unit tag. I like your gameplan of getting away from pressure and finding the sanctuaries. Just curious if one area has multiple sanctuaries and everyone hunted a different sanctuary or do most bulls use the same deep pocket in one area as the core sanctuary? In other words how far apart were all 4 bulls killed?
We all went different directions. Matt's bull was shot about six miles from Beau's. Mine about equidistance between them. Donnie's was about eight miles from Beau's.
