Dzlmech
Member
Thank you so much for that input I’ll be sure to call before we leave I never thought about that.
Another Missouri River Breaks thread
- Thread starter Dzlmech
- Start date
OpenCountry
Well-known member
Be prepared for mosquitos this year. Just spent a few days in there and they are easily comparable to what they were during the 2014 or 2015 season when it was just as wet as it is in there this year. There’s water in a lot of new places with the big rains they got earlier on.
Dzlmech
Member
Thanks for the heads up. We were at Costco early this year and they had the Costco sized bug sprays I’ll be sure to pack them
Hopefully elk are attracted to deet
Dzlmech
Member
So here’s something I just have come to the realization in my trip planning is fuel. Is there any fuel stations within a half hour both gas and diesel? I had planned on bring some fuel but I can’t seem to find anything closer than Malta. If that’s the case I may plan on bringing lots of spare fuel
We’re the mosquitos bad in the hills or along the river?
Dzlmech
Member
I’ve got two yetis and an arctic cooler. I may invest in a big Coleman to put meat into should I be lucky enough. I hopefully won’t need it but I guess I’ll pack about 20 gallons of fuel
OpenCountry
Well-known member
There’s fuel in Zortman and at the DY store on the corner of 66/191
OpenCountry
Well-known member
Both on the river and up in the flats as well. I didn’t notice a difference in either or in between the two. Any place that could hold water from the run off is, so plenty of places for them. If the wind was blowing good it wasn’t to bad but as soon as it died down a little they were all over
EYJONAS!
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I've had to wear my rain gear some nights on sits...... the breaks grow bugs like ones from the original Jumanji movie.....
EYJONAS!
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Unless your planning on taking a break and getting fuel bring some the next closest place in bohemian corner about 36 miles to the south of the bridge. Do you have an idea for a butcher if you get one down early in the trip? We've used the guy in malta and even the one in hilger before. Good luck
Dzlmech
Member
Normally we have butchered our own deer in the past. And I’ve thought heavily about the meat care portion and if needed I have a friend in Lewistown that had a big freezer I could take the meat to. But researching closer butchers is next on my list. Thanks for bringing that up, sometimes that gets forgot about on a trip
EYJONAS!
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We've also brought a deep freeze and a generator. Just depends on the weather to I guess some times it's so hot up there about your only chance of saving anything is doing it yourself.
SAJ-99
Well-known member
You got good info here. Weather drives a lot in that area. You are either fighting dust or mud. A lot depends on the date you expect to go. Last year there I got a mix of rain/ice which froze my water in early October. I have never hunted the zone you are targeting but make sure you have multiple plans for the weather. If it rains, everyone pulls their campers off of the dirt roads and onto the gravel. I noticed that some branch of gov (county, BLM, ?) decided to put up signs that say something to the effect of "this road may be impassable when wet". I assure you this is not a government conspiracy to keep you from the best hunting areas.
Good luck.
SJ
Good luck.
SJ
teej89
Well-known member
We took our bulls to a butcher in Malta last year and it was reasonably priced. Sniders Wild Game Processing (406) 654-1027
Also... I got my euro done by a young guy in malta, he finished them in 3 days and they are phenomenal!
https://www.facebook.com/pg/BorderLandTaxidermy/photos/?ref=page_internal
The wood used to mount the euros are old wood fence posts, they're amazing!
Dzlmech
Member
Thanks so much for that information! That saves me a pile of leg work. And we had decided if we are lucky enough to harvest bulls that we would do euro as well since we don’t have space in our house and all of our deer are euros.
I’m definitely going to owe you some high class beers!
teej89
Well-known member
When are you guys going to be up there again?
Dzlmech
Member
We’ll be there the 14-22 of September.
Well also be out there for the long Labor Day weekend to scout things out and find our bearings
Dzlmech
Member
Well I just got back from making an initial scout trip. Now I didn’t get as much boots on the ground miles as I had hoped as we had our two dogs with us and I get nervous about taking them into some country I’m not familiar with.
But we arrived at the (what I thought was the slippery Ann camp area at 1:20am on Saturday morning after leaving Kalispell at 5:40pm. Turns out what I thought was it was just an equipment parking area. But we could have camped there. But I moved camp down to the real camp area after getting a couple hours of shut eye. We spent most of the day Saturday just driving. Covering some road miles, familiarizing ourselves with the country. Every now and then we’d stop and hike 1-2 miles tops let the dogs do their thing and for us to just put eyes to country. Without much luck of seeing what we were looking for may I add. But I wasn’t too discouraged as I had two dogs being crazy after being in the truck for the long drive then the bumpy roads. Sunday we left the dogs at the camper as they were wore out and we hiked into a drainage that I had picked out via escouting and luckily for me it was also gated as of aug 28th but we got about 4.5-5 miles into it and found next to no sign. Some year or two old scat maybe a track from the last heavy rain. Which I didn’t need think to check when that was. But nothing that said we gotta get back in here in two weeks. I did find a nice little 3point mule deer that I was able to practice some spot and stalk on. Needless to say that was not a success. So after being struck out in what I thought was a great area, I called an audible and grabbed the dogs and we drove all the way to the eastern border of the 621 region. A place I had gathered some intel from and thought it could be my Hail Mary. Well the burn that happened there this year, that the game warden had said was a small spot fire, was indeed not a spot fire but a quite large fire. Now the grass was growing back green already but it was far more open than I had planned. And again no elk in sight.
Later that night we went for another hike, didn’t end up as long as I had thought I would be cause we ended up finding some fresh tracks very quickly and followed them into a very thick timbered area. Very similar to what I have here in NW Montana. But if I can’t get them to respond to calls what am I to do?
On our drive back to camp in the dark, we had just gotten back onto the slippery Ann elk viewing area and I have to slam on the brakes cause there’s a cow elk in the road, and quickly notice there’s a whole bunch more on the hill to the right. Just staring at us. At that moment I saw a shadow move to my left and here comes the herd bull... a beautiful 7x7 something I had not really had the opportunity to see here in Nw MT. He did not care that we were in the road watching and taking pictures in the dark.
But they came out of the bottom willows. And we’re heading towards timber.
So this morning before we cleaned up to head home I had to explore these bottom willows that everyone talks about.
What a miserable place!!! Between the bugs even coated in bug spray (I forgot my thermacell at camp) and the sticker bushes and the grass up to my armpits. How does one hunt that besides a tree stand. (Which I accidentally found someone’s already set up) but other than those “unhuntable” herd, we did not see any other elk. I really thought we would see some. So my confidence level went from like a 7 to a 3 which is frustrating my wife cause she’s an optimistic person where as I’m more of a realist. Now granted we did not hike in in the dark and out in the dark as we did want to enjoy a little “camping” as we hadn’t done much this year. But I guess my question and statement is this.
If the elk are where you find them, how do best increase your odds of finding them?
But we arrived at the (what I thought was the slippery Ann camp area at 1:20am on Saturday morning after leaving Kalispell at 5:40pm. Turns out what I thought was it was just an equipment parking area. But we could have camped there. But I moved camp down to the real camp area after getting a couple hours of shut eye. We spent most of the day Saturday just driving. Covering some road miles, familiarizing ourselves with the country. Every now and then we’d stop and hike 1-2 miles tops let the dogs do their thing and for us to just put eyes to country. Without much luck of seeing what we were looking for may I add. But I wasn’t too discouraged as I had two dogs being crazy after being in the truck for the long drive then the bumpy roads. Sunday we left the dogs at the camper as they were wore out and we hiked into a drainage that I had picked out via escouting and luckily for me it was also gated as of aug 28th but we got about 4.5-5 miles into it and found next to no sign. Some year or two old scat maybe a track from the last heavy rain. Which I didn’t need think to check when that was. But nothing that said we gotta get back in here in two weeks. I did find a nice little 3point mule deer that I was able to practice some spot and stalk on. Needless to say that was not a success. So after being struck out in what I thought was a great area, I called an audible and grabbed the dogs and we drove all the way to the eastern border of the 621 region. A place I had gathered some intel from and thought it could be my Hail Mary. Well the burn that happened there this year, that the game warden had said was a small spot fire, was indeed not a spot fire but a quite large fire. Now the grass was growing back green already but it was far more open than I had planned. And again no elk in sight.
Later that night we went for another hike, didn’t end up as long as I had thought I would be cause we ended up finding some fresh tracks very quickly and followed them into a very thick timbered area. Very similar to what I have here in NW Montana. But if I can’t get them to respond to calls what am I to do?
On our drive back to camp in the dark, we had just gotten back onto the slippery Ann elk viewing area and I have to slam on the brakes cause there’s a cow elk in the road, and quickly notice there’s a whole bunch more on the hill to the right. Just staring at us. At that moment I saw a shadow move to my left and here comes the herd bull... a beautiful 7x7 something I had not really had the opportunity to see here in Nw MT. He did not care that we were in the road watching and taking pictures in the dark.
But they came out of the bottom willows. And we’re heading towards timber.
So this morning before we cleaned up to head home I had to explore these bottom willows that everyone talks about.
What a miserable place!!! Between the bugs even coated in bug spray (I forgot my thermacell at camp) and the sticker bushes and the grass up to my armpits. How does one hunt that besides a tree stand. (Which I accidentally found someone’s already set up) but other than those “unhuntable” herd, we did not see any other elk. I really thought we would see some. So my confidence level went from like a 7 to a 3 which is frustrating my wife cause she’s an optimistic person where as I’m more of a realist. Now granted we did not hike in in the dark and out in the dark as we did want to enjoy a little “camping” as we hadn’t done much this year. But I guess my question and statement is this.
If the elk are where you find them, how do best increase your odds of finding them?
