Bulldog0156
Well-known member
I was on the fence about posting this story, but decided to tell it. I've bought a wolf tag the last two falls since you never know what may happen when you're out in the woods.
Last weekend I went out with the plan to deer hunt in a new area relatively close to where I have been exploring this fall. I had been seeing quite a few does but only a couple bucks so far. I had seen one pretty good mature buck that I decided to pass on shooting since I saw him right at the start of the rut and I figured there would be plenty more opportunities. Since I was heading to a new area, I decided to sleep in and time things so that I would be leaving the truck right at shooting light or a little after. I was intending to hunt very low and figured the place would be crawling with deer.
An hour and a half into my hunt, I had sat a couple open places and tried some rattling with no response. The area was logged at some point in time and had some openings. I had not seen much for deer sign either, and in fact had seen more evidence of elk than deer. I decided to make my way towards an old logging road that appeared on satellite imagery.
Shortly after I hit what was left of the road, I saw a couple white tails flashing across the road about 150 yards away; the deer didn't appear to be spooked but instead it looked as if it was a buck chasing a doe. I got into shooting position as quick as I could, in time to see a small spike chasing the doe back across the road. I continued my way down the road, hoping a bigger buck might show himself but to no avail. I did see one more small deer as I made my way down the road but it saw me first and quickly disappeared. After making my way maybe 2/3 of a mile down the road, I decided to turn around and head back to the truck. The lack of deer sign and abundance of predator sign was making it pretty obvious that there were better places to be looking for deer. I had found a pretty recent wolf kill of a cow elk near the logging road. I figured there was no point taking my time getting back to the truck, I was burning daylight and I might as well be burning it in an area that holds deer. I needed to cross a creek to get back to my truck and was looking for the crossing I had used on my way in when I saw a yellow flash of fur come up out of the creek bottom, right where I had crossed the creek on my way in. I instantly knew it was a wolf. The wolf was moving at a trot in a half-moon trajectory around me. It was spooked but apparently not too scared. I raised up to shoot but I couldn't get my fingers out of my flip-over mitten before it went behind a small group of trees. I quickly made a move to my right and brought my rifle up; if the wolf kept moving in the same direction I figured I'd have a split second shot before the wolf disappeared into the trees. Sure enough, it cleared the small group of trees it went behind and stopped 90 yards away, quartering away looking over its left shoulder-away from me. I quickly settled the crosshairs on the middle of the body and squeezed the trigger. It instantly reacted by biting where I hit it and then disappeared.
A rushing sense of the events that had just unfolded then overcame me; "holy shit, I just killed a wolf." I just stood there for a brief second before going to search for it. I made it about 60 yards when I saw yellow fur behind the pine tree that the wolf was in front of when I shot.
When I took it to the check station to get it tagged, they estimated the wolf to be a year and a half old. It was a female, and as far as I could tell, she had been all by herself.
It was a strange feeling to shoot a wolf. I left the truck that morning with the intention of hopefully finding and shooting a deer. As I progressed through the morning I started thinking more and more that I might actually see a wolf because of all the sign I was seeing. To actually see one at close range like that and actually get a shot was really a surprise to me though. This was the third wolf I have seen this hunting season. The first two I saw while hunting elk, and they were a mile or two away both times. Wolves are really cool animals and I'm glad to see that they have done so well since their reintroduction. I think in the long run, the health of the deer and elk herds will benefit from wolves in the ecosystem. At the same time, I'm also glad that Montana has the ability to manage its wolfpacks.
Last weekend I went out with the plan to deer hunt in a new area relatively close to where I have been exploring this fall. I had been seeing quite a few does but only a couple bucks so far. I had seen one pretty good mature buck that I decided to pass on shooting since I saw him right at the start of the rut and I figured there would be plenty more opportunities. Since I was heading to a new area, I decided to sleep in and time things so that I would be leaving the truck right at shooting light or a little after. I was intending to hunt very low and figured the place would be crawling with deer.
An hour and a half into my hunt, I had sat a couple open places and tried some rattling with no response. The area was logged at some point in time and had some openings. I had not seen much for deer sign either, and in fact had seen more evidence of elk than deer. I decided to make my way towards an old logging road that appeared on satellite imagery.
Shortly after I hit what was left of the road, I saw a couple white tails flashing across the road about 150 yards away; the deer didn't appear to be spooked but instead it looked as if it was a buck chasing a doe. I got into shooting position as quick as I could, in time to see a small spike chasing the doe back across the road. I continued my way down the road, hoping a bigger buck might show himself but to no avail. I did see one more small deer as I made my way down the road but it saw me first and quickly disappeared. After making my way maybe 2/3 of a mile down the road, I decided to turn around and head back to the truck. The lack of deer sign and abundance of predator sign was making it pretty obvious that there were better places to be looking for deer. I had found a pretty recent wolf kill of a cow elk near the logging road. I figured there was no point taking my time getting back to the truck, I was burning daylight and I might as well be burning it in an area that holds deer. I needed to cross a creek to get back to my truck and was looking for the crossing I had used on my way in when I saw a yellow flash of fur come up out of the creek bottom, right where I had crossed the creek on my way in. I instantly knew it was a wolf. The wolf was moving at a trot in a half-moon trajectory around me. It was spooked but apparently not too scared. I raised up to shoot but I couldn't get my fingers out of my flip-over mitten before it went behind a small group of trees. I quickly made a move to my right and brought my rifle up; if the wolf kept moving in the same direction I figured I'd have a split second shot before the wolf disappeared into the trees. Sure enough, it cleared the small group of trees it went behind and stopped 90 yards away, quartering away looking over its left shoulder-away from me. I quickly settled the crosshairs on the middle of the body and squeezed the trigger. It instantly reacted by biting where I hit it and then disappeared.
A rushing sense of the events that had just unfolded then overcame me; "holy shit, I just killed a wolf." I just stood there for a brief second before going to search for it. I made it about 60 yards when I saw yellow fur behind the pine tree that the wolf was in front of when I shot.
When I took it to the check station to get it tagged, they estimated the wolf to be a year and a half old. It was a female, and as far as I could tell, she had been all by herself.
It was a strange feeling to shoot a wolf. I left the truck that morning with the intention of hopefully finding and shooting a deer. As I progressed through the morning I started thinking more and more that I might actually see a wolf because of all the sign I was seeing. To actually see one at close range like that and actually get a shot was really a surprise to me though. This was the third wolf I have seen this hunting season. The first two I saw while hunting elk, and they were a mile or two away both times. Wolves are really cool animals and I'm glad to see that they have done so well since their reintroduction. I think in the long run, the health of the deer and elk herds will benefit from wolves in the ecosystem. At the same time, I'm also glad that Montana has the ability to manage its wolfpacks.
