BrowningBLR
Active member
First off, I am very lucky enough to have such an understanding wife. She sits by, as a widow, during archery season- I have tried to convince her to get a bow but she hasn’t yet…then she comes with me during rifle season. I am also blessed to have chosen a profession where I can go hunting during the Montana fall.
I am also blessed to have been able to learn almost everything I know, that's worth anything- hunting related or not, from my dad. It's great still spending hunting time with him.
I haven’t posted any of my elk hunting adventures since 2011 for some reason but here’s a quick update since this http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=248548 We had access to private land for 3 years, it was GREAT hunting while it lasted. Elk, deer, moose, ducks, geese, pheasants… you name it. The family friend that let us on had to sell it and the main reason the purchasers bought the land was for the hunting. So that ended our access rather quickly. We did take those 2 elk in 2011 off of the property, and the duck and goose hunting was absolutely phenomenal. I’m very happy and blessed to have been a part of it even if it wasn’t for what seemed like a very amount of time.
Here’s a quick recap of the past couple years:
2012- I shot a bull with my bow, my 16th bull in as many years, and a cow (B tag). I also shot my 2nd bear, blonde cinnamon. My dad shot his 51st bull, I was with him.
2013- My dad shot his 52nd bull, I wash with him again. I shot my 17th bull with my bow in Idaho, my first in Idaho… Have 1 in CO and 1 in WY a few years back. In Montana, I shot my 18th bull, a whitetail buck and my wife shot her 1st bull and 1st buck. It was the craziest DAY ever… overnight camping just the 2 of us, 3 horses, and 4 critters down. Unreal day!! (see below just the 4 heads in driveway)
Fast forward to 2014…
I hunted for elk 39 out of the 42 days during the archery season. A lot of those days were either just a couple hours in the morning or after work until dark. I was into elk about 75% of those days. Archery season came and went without me getting a shot at a bull, even though I came to full draw on 5 different bulls… I have never passed on a legal bull, never had the chance to this archery season. I had at least 10 bulls, on different occasions within 30 yards of me and probably another 10 more within 60 yards during the season. As small as a 4x4 raghorn up to a 370ish bull at 15 yards behind a small pine. You name it and just at the right time (actually the wrong time) something would happen, it was truly remarkable. A lot of the usual and obvious during elk hunting but some very random acts of God… in the end, it wasn’t mean to be during archery: Snow, wind, hail, fog, lightening, other elk moving, deer, horses, cattle, 4-wheelers, a drone, other hunters, getting winded, busted walking too quickly, paying the price for not acting sooner, getting caught between spots, aggressiveness, passiveness, bulls coming straight into calling, bull circling around to get high, then lower, letting out pathetic bugles with too wet of reed, realizing my thumb release was 2 miles back to where I had last sat down while surrounded by cows (luckily the bull didn’t come out)… branches, pines, junipers, stumps, cows, calves, bulls not stopping in shooting lanes, and bad angles while at full draw made for an eventful but in the end, unsuccessful. It was an unbelievably fun and unforgettable archery season BUT being in on elk that many days without getting a clear shot is very, very frustrating especially with the pressure that I put on myself… kept telling myself, “have to keep the streak alive”.
Opening day of rifle season, we were elk hunting but my wife and I decided to shoot these two bucks late in the afternoon. She shot first and as we watched her buck pick up speed as he rolled down the mountain, his friend came around the rock cliff to see what all the noise was. So I decided to shoot him as well. On the fall, her buck broke his back point, he was a 4x3 and mine is the small 5x4. 4 miles is quite the pack for just a couple deer, but we are happy with them and the daily double.
During the middle of the week, I filled by B tag on this cow. I was happy to take some of the pressure by filling the freezer but still had the pressure of a bull hanging over my head.
Thursday night my dad and I headed west of town a couple hours to the mountain range. We hiked in the dark 3 miles and set up camp. I hunted this area quite a bit during archery and knew of a couple meadows that I wanted to be at early in the morning. Over the campfire, I learned that this moderately popular mountain range that we were in was basically the only mountain range in SW Montana that my dad had never taken a bull out of. We were up early and at the first meadow that I wanted to be at… nothing happened for an hour so went to the second meadow that I wanted us to be at. It was the perfect set up. Not more than 5 minutes of sitting there, two bulls came through the meadow at 50 yards. Right before they got past a little clearing that would have allowed both of us to take a shot, the wind switched directions… the bigger bull turned around and ran where they had come from and went down, over the lip. The other bull followed but stopped on a point at 60 yards. I was 5 feet from my dad, I saw that he had a clear shot, I did not. I could see that he was hesitant to take the first shot, as he knew how hard I had hunted all year. I could see the bull getting anxious, even though he couldn’t see us, and starting to completely tense up, getting ready to follow the other bull over the lip. I told my dad, “shoot!”. He did. His bull didn’t go anywhere, once we confirmed that I made a loop lower to see if I could cut off the other bull. I sat in a little clearing about 500 yards from where my dad shot for about 20 minutes. When I was about to give up, I heard branches on antlers and saw movement. He came out of the thick trees and just enough into a small meadow to allow to me make a shot at 80 yards. Two bulls down!! Unknown to me, my dad was 300 yards above me, watching me from a point. I saw him shoot his bull, then he saw me shoot mine. It couldn’t have gone any better. 53rd and 19th down… He said his goal was to get to the “double nickel” 55, then he would go after the state record…. I kind of laughed it off but then realized I had no reason to double the guy…
5 miles from the truck, 2 bulls down, and I’m with my 67 year old dad… only two friends we need are Mystery Ranch and Badlands, Metcalf and Sacrifice. Had everything back to the truck Saturday morning at 9.
Also learned to be shy from the guy too....
I am also blessed to have been able to learn almost everything I know, that's worth anything- hunting related or not, from my dad. It's great still spending hunting time with him.
I haven’t posted any of my elk hunting adventures since 2011 for some reason but here’s a quick update since this http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=248548 We had access to private land for 3 years, it was GREAT hunting while it lasted. Elk, deer, moose, ducks, geese, pheasants… you name it. The family friend that let us on had to sell it and the main reason the purchasers bought the land was for the hunting. So that ended our access rather quickly. We did take those 2 elk in 2011 off of the property, and the duck and goose hunting was absolutely phenomenal. I’m very happy and blessed to have been a part of it even if it wasn’t for what seemed like a very amount of time.
Here’s a quick recap of the past couple years:
2012- I shot a bull with my bow, my 16th bull in as many years, and a cow (B tag). I also shot my 2nd bear, blonde cinnamon. My dad shot his 51st bull, I was with him.
2013- My dad shot his 52nd bull, I wash with him again. I shot my 17th bull with my bow in Idaho, my first in Idaho… Have 1 in CO and 1 in WY a few years back. In Montana, I shot my 18th bull, a whitetail buck and my wife shot her 1st bull and 1st buck. It was the craziest DAY ever… overnight camping just the 2 of us, 3 horses, and 4 critters down. Unreal day!! (see below just the 4 heads in driveway)
Fast forward to 2014…
I hunted for elk 39 out of the 42 days during the archery season. A lot of those days were either just a couple hours in the morning or after work until dark. I was into elk about 75% of those days. Archery season came and went without me getting a shot at a bull, even though I came to full draw on 5 different bulls… I have never passed on a legal bull, never had the chance to this archery season. I had at least 10 bulls, on different occasions within 30 yards of me and probably another 10 more within 60 yards during the season. As small as a 4x4 raghorn up to a 370ish bull at 15 yards behind a small pine. You name it and just at the right time (actually the wrong time) something would happen, it was truly remarkable. A lot of the usual and obvious during elk hunting but some very random acts of God… in the end, it wasn’t mean to be during archery: Snow, wind, hail, fog, lightening, other elk moving, deer, horses, cattle, 4-wheelers, a drone, other hunters, getting winded, busted walking too quickly, paying the price for not acting sooner, getting caught between spots, aggressiveness, passiveness, bulls coming straight into calling, bull circling around to get high, then lower, letting out pathetic bugles with too wet of reed, realizing my thumb release was 2 miles back to where I had last sat down while surrounded by cows (luckily the bull didn’t come out)… branches, pines, junipers, stumps, cows, calves, bulls not stopping in shooting lanes, and bad angles while at full draw made for an eventful but in the end, unsuccessful. It was an unbelievably fun and unforgettable archery season BUT being in on elk that many days without getting a clear shot is very, very frustrating especially with the pressure that I put on myself… kept telling myself, “have to keep the streak alive”.
Opening day of rifle season, we were elk hunting but my wife and I decided to shoot these two bucks late in the afternoon. She shot first and as we watched her buck pick up speed as he rolled down the mountain, his friend came around the rock cliff to see what all the noise was. So I decided to shoot him as well. On the fall, her buck broke his back point, he was a 4x3 and mine is the small 5x4. 4 miles is quite the pack for just a couple deer, but we are happy with them and the daily double.
During the middle of the week, I filled by B tag on this cow. I was happy to take some of the pressure by filling the freezer but still had the pressure of a bull hanging over my head.
Thursday night my dad and I headed west of town a couple hours to the mountain range. We hiked in the dark 3 miles and set up camp. I hunted this area quite a bit during archery and knew of a couple meadows that I wanted to be at early in the morning. Over the campfire, I learned that this moderately popular mountain range that we were in was basically the only mountain range in SW Montana that my dad had never taken a bull out of. We were up early and at the first meadow that I wanted to be at… nothing happened for an hour so went to the second meadow that I wanted us to be at. It was the perfect set up. Not more than 5 minutes of sitting there, two bulls came through the meadow at 50 yards. Right before they got past a little clearing that would have allowed both of us to take a shot, the wind switched directions… the bigger bull turned around and ran where they had come from and went down, over the lip. The other bull followed but stopped on a point at 60 yards. I was 5 feet from my dad, I saw that he had a clear shot, I did not. I could see that he was hesitant to take the first shot, as he knew how hard I had hunted all year. I could see the bull getting anxious, even though he couldn’t see us, and starting to completely tense up, getting ready to follow the other bull over the lip. I told my dad, “shoot!”. He did. His bull didn’t go anywhere, once we confirmed that I made a loop lower to see if I could cut off the other bull. I sat in a little clearing about 500 yards from where my dad shot for about 20 minutes. When I was about to give up, I heard branches on antlers and saw movement. He came out of the thick trees and just enough into a small meadow to allow to me make a shot at 80 yards. Two bulls down!! Unknown to me, my dad was 300 yards above me, watching me from a point. I saw him shoot his bull, then he saw me shoot mine. It couldn’t have gone any better. 53rd and 19th down… He said his goal was to get to the “double nickel” 55, then he would go after the state record…. I kind of laughed it off but then realized I had no reason to double the guy…
5 miles from the truck, 2 bulls down, and I’m with my 67 year old dad… only two friends we need are Mystery Ranch and Badlands, Metcalf and Sacrifice. Had everything back to the truck Saturday morning at 9.
Also learned to be shy from the guy too....
Just kiddn!!
