teej89
Well-known member
I've never done one of these before and not too sure how well it'll pan out but I'm going to try and keep it interesting.
Anyways, the story starts back in January, my dad, my buddy Chris, and I have been going to MT to hunt in September and November. This year was the same plan but my bud couldn't do the September elk hunt so he opted to go for just a deer tag and my dad and I were on our own for our elk hunt. Needing a third to help pack, because my dad is 68, I asked my neighbor who's been wanting for us to take him out west for a while now and he instantaneously agreed. I told him it's two trips a total of 16-18 days of vacation and he got the go ahead from his wife and we were getting our applications in.
Long story short... we ended up drawing an either sex rifle tag in the breaks on the CMR. We had all of the odds against us, even when applying my dad didn't even want to put in for a unit, he just wanted to get the general tag and not even try for anything else-. This was one of the few times I was able to look back and say aren't ya glad for listening to me dad. The day I drew I couldn't comprehend what we drew, I was in such shock and here it's my buds first elk hunt ever and my original friend was kicking himself in the arse for having to bail... As soon as we saw the tag I called my dad, half laughing/shaking from excitement, and told him there's no way I can make the family beach trip, that I need to save my vacation and he 100% agreed.
We've doing plenty of scouting and talking to people, some of you on here thank you very much for the insight and assistance. We're all 3 fairly green to elk hunting, only 4 seasons that my dad and I have hunted and my buddy 0 with my dad and I both killing rag horns in WY so we're not going to be too picky on bulls. Honestly we just want to have a fun hunt and my dad is the type of guy that'll be tickled to death with anything, my main goal is to make sure my old man gets his first public land bull.
That brings us to this week, I'm flying out Wednesday to Billings where my dad is picking me up and we're driving up to the CMR and getting boots on the ground come Thursday morning. We'll be out there 3 days straight, hiking dawn to dusk and hopefully getting a decent sense of the lay of the land.
Come the season we're getting out there 3 days early and hunting for 14 days straight before heading back. We're going to be giving it everything we got, until the last piece of boot leather wears off our boots, then we're going to go some more. I've been hiking 3-5mi each day with the dog with a 50# bag of sand in my pack, on top of lifting before work(I've always lifted but just started rucking in May). Basically we're giving it our 200%, hence the title All or Nothing, I think it fits?
My sister has a really nice camera and she's letting me use it for our hunt with the understanding that if I break it I owe her the same camera but the newest model. I'll be posting a bunch of pics from our scouting trip probably a week after we get back(work is crazy). Don't mind my photography skills, my sister just showed me how to use the camera but hopefully I'll have some nice/neat pictures to share with you guys and hopefully later this fall some pictures of us and some bulls, hopefully one!
Stay tuned...
T.J.
Anyways, the story starts back in January, my dad, my buddy Chris, and I have been going to MT to hunt in September and November. This year was the same plan but my bud couldn't do the September elk hunt so he opted to go for just a deer tag and my dad and I were on our own for our elk hunt. Needing a third to help pack, because my dad is 68, I asked my neighbor who's been wanting for us to take him out west for a while now and he instantaneously agreed. I told him it's two trips a total of 16-18 days of vacation and he got the go ahead from his wife and we were getting our applications in.
Long story short... we ended up drawing an either sex rifle tag in the breaks on the CMR. We had all of the odds against us, even when applying my dad didn't even want to put in for a unit, he just wanted to get the general tag and not even try for anything else-. This was one of the few times I was able to look back and say aren't ya glad for listening to me dad. The day I drew I couldn't comprehend what we drew, I was in such shock and here it's my buds first elk hunt ever and my original friend was kicking himself in the arse for having to bail... As soon as we saw the tag I called my dad, half laughing/shaking from excitement, and told him there's no way I can make the family beach trip, that I need to save my vacation and he 100% agreed.
We've doing plenty of scouting and talking to people, some of you on here thank you very much for the insight and assistance. We're all 3 fairly green to elk hunting, only 4 seasons that my dad and I have hunted and my buddy 0 with my dad and I both killing rag horns in WY so we're not going to be too picky on bulls. Honestly we just want to have a fun hunt and my dad is the type of guy that'll be tickled to death with anything, my main goal is to make sure my old man gets his first public land bull.
That brings us to this week, I'm flying out Wednesday to Billings where my dad is picking me up and we're driving up to the CMR and getting boots on the ground come Thursday morning. We'll be out there 3 days straight, hiking dawn to dusk and hopefully getting a decent sense of the lay of the land.
Come the season we're getting out there 3 days early and hunting for 14 days straight before heading back. We're going to be giving it everything we got, until the last piece of boot leather wears off our boots, then we're going to go some more. I've been hiking 3-5mi each day with the dog with a 50# bag of sand in my pack, on top of lifting before work(I've always lifted but just started rucking in May). Basically we're giving it our 200%, hence the title All or Nothing, I think it fits?
My sister has a really nice camera and she's letting me use it for our hunt with the understanding that if I break it I owe her the same camera but the newest model. I'll be posting a bunch of pics from our scouting trip probably a week after we get back(work is crazy). Don't mind my photography skills, my sister just showed me how to use the camera but hopefully I'll have some nice/neat pictures to share with you guys and hopefully later this fall some pictures of us and some bulls, hopefully one!
Stay tuned...
T.J.
The handful of locals I talked to seemed very pleasant, it's been a great experience so far!
