Sorry for the delay in putting this together, but it has been rather frantic at the Fin house lately. Decided I would stay up tonight and get this story written.
This hunt is the fifth entry to my hunting journal that takes place in the Durfee Hills, a place now very well known for the controversy, more than fine elk hunting.
Given all that was going on in the Durfee Hills, our trip was filled with a lot of apprehension. “We” being me, and Matt from OnXMaps. We had drawn rifle tags and were scheduled to fly in the Thursday before season opened. Idea being it would give us a day and a half to scout, even though I have hunted this area the four previous seasons. With the new fences and changes the fences could have on elk patterns, it seemed prudent to stick to that schedule.
With that plan, I picked up the camera guy, Nolan, in Billings Thursday morning. Met Matt in Roundup, and from there, we headed to the landing zone. By 3:00PM we were setting up tents and trying to get organized in time to make an evening scouting mission.
We sat on my favorite knob until dark. One elk was spotted on the public-private boundary. All the rest were far into the private, heading to feed. I assured Matt that tomorrow would show more elk and give us the entire day to make a plan for getting one on opening day, Saturday. My confidence came from past hunts here, where seldom did two days go by without spotting a nice herd of elk for the chase.
Well before daylight, the alarm shook me from my dreams. Green lamps provided enough light to find the Granola and Blueberries Mountain House breakfast. By far my favorite thing made by MH. Not that MH meals set the bar real high, but the Blueberries are worth the money and weight to pack them.
Though the breakfast was good, the wind was interfering with my already impaired hearing as I tried to locate a bugle I was confident would not be far away. Try as I may, no bugles could be heard. No worries. We would climb back to my favorite rock, glass up some elk, and then walk the new fence lines to see where the elk were crossing this new hurdle. A good five or six mile hike would do my legs some good.
It’s always fun to sit in the dark and listen for elk. Well, at least when there are elk to listen to. We sat until an hour past sunrise, with nothing heard. We did spot two bulls far off, but actually on public. One was a raghorn. The other was a wide bull with good fronts, crowned out on both back main beams. From the side he looked really short-beamed. When he looked at us, we could see his beams were average, they just grew outward, not back toward his rump.
I sighed as I watched the bulls feed off the public, cross a drainage where a newly blazed cut line was made to accommodate the new fences, then reappear well into the private ground. Those bulls would probably be off limits when season opened tomorrow. But, maybe not.
We dropped off the rock and decided to check out the new fence. From the perch 200 vertical feet above, the new corner post looked way off from what I remembered. Matt and I both ran our GPS and chips to see if there was much variance between the two. Almost no variance.
The fence line was almost dead on, as far as how it ran east-to-west, forming the northern most boundary on this west section of the BLM. That was comforting to see that this east-west boundary was +/- a few feet of what it showed on our map chips. Either the fence crew used the same map chips and GPS technology, or the GIS info was very close to what the true boundary is, or both.
There was one big exception. An exception that happens to be at the best elk crossing in this part of the BLM land. At that point, the private land fence line is way off from the GPS/chips. It encroaches by 400-500’ on the BLM and in the process, looks to divert elk from the normal crossing where elk love to go to the prime bedding on public land. The construction of the fence along the top of a small coulee and its location being way on to BLM, seemed to funnel the elk west. Or, at least that is what the tracks along the fence appeared to show. If the elk were funneled west, rather than their historic southern route, they would have no reason to bed in the thick public timber, rather they could find shade/shelter in the sparse private timber as they moved west and stayed on the north side of the fence.
Oh well, one exception is not going to end the hunt. Time to follow the fence and see what has come of the other four historically beaten down trails the elk use to get to public. And in the process, see just how accurate the fence line and/or our GPS’s are. Things continued to be very close to the GPS/GIS readings. So close, that it makes one wonder how they could be so far off in the area where the elk cross with greatest frequency.
By noon, we had made most of our loop. In an area where two years ago a fence was built and encroached on public by over 500’, that new fence was torn down and reconstructed almost exactly where the GPS showed the boundary. Even though the “No trespassing” signs were left standing on the posts that formed the old incorrect boundary, it was nice to see they had went so far as to remove the two-year old fence back to the real boundary. That made it even more curious as to why/how they could be so far off in the other location where the elk cross.
I showed Matt the deep ruts formed by eons of elk heading into these hills to bed. The trails were deep and wide. Unfortunately, they were covered with fallen pine needles, completely absent any elk tracks. In the time since the fence had been built, not an elk had traveled any of these old trails. And with good reason.
Imagine walking west on a slope that runs downhill to the north. To your left is the south, the high side. To your right is north, sloping away from you. In their fence building, a line was cut from east to west, with the private to the north and the public to the south. One did not have to look long to see what challenge this represents for an elk.
The new fence was built in a manner where a bulldozer made a deep cut in the ground, making a level spot for the fence and carving a steep bank on the uphill side. The cut in the bank varied from 4’ to 10’. About three feet from the cut, to the north, the fence was placed.
So, when an animal is coming from the north, heading south, they encounter this fence. An elk can jump a fence at the right location. But, why would and elk jump a fence when two or three feet on the other side (south) of the fence is this very tall embankment formed by the bulldozer cut? If they do clear the fence, they are now in a pen between the fence behind them and this steep embankment in front of them.
Smart elk will just continue down the fence line and turn south toward bedding cover a few miles later, once the fence ends. The fence ends, because the BLM ends. Maybe it is coincidence that this fence was built this way. If the intent was to alter the eon-old movements of elk heading to their bedding grounds, then it was mission accomplished. Maybe I am too much of a skeptic. And, if it was done on private land, that is the landowner’s prerogative.
We hiked back for lunch and decided we would make another hike in the evening in hopes we could locate where elk were coming on the public, as they had in all other years I have hunted here. Surely a nice afternoon nap would produce an epiphany as to how the elk riddle could be solved. Well, it sure was a nice nap, even if it didn’t provide an insight to the elk riddle.
That evening we say the one raghorn. His crowned out buddy was nowhere to be found. We did see a LOT of aircraft bringing hunters to camps. The service we used brought in six other guys that day. Not sure how many private airplanes landed on the south end, but this 2,700 acres was going to be rather crowded when season opened the following morning. Such is public land hunting.
This hunt is the fifth entry to my hunting journal that takes place in the Durfee Hills, a place now very well known for the controversy, more than fine elk hunting.
Given all that was going on in the Durfee Hills, our trip was filled with a lot of apprehension. “We” being me, and Matt from OnXMaps. We had drawn rifle tags and were scheduled to fly in the Thursday before season opened. Idea being it would give us a day and a half to scout, even though I have hunted this area the four previous seasons. With the new fences and changes the fences could have on elk patterns, it seemed prudent to stick to that schedule.
With that plan, I picked up the camera guy, Nolan, in Billings Thursday morning. Met Matt in Roundup, and from there, we headed to the landing zone. By 3:00PM we were setting up tents and trying to get organized in time to make an evening scouting mission.
We sat on my favorite knob until dark. One elk was spotted on the public-private boundary. All the rest were far into the private, heading to feed. I assured Matt that tomorrow would show more elk and give us the entire day to make a plan for getting one on opening day, Saturday. My confidence came from past hunts here, where seldom did two days go by without spotting a nice herd of elk for the chase.
Well before daylight, the alarm shook me from my dreams. Green lamps provided enough light to find the Granola and Blueberries Mountain House breakfast. By far my favorite thing made by MH. Not that MH meals set the bar real high, but the Blueberries are worth the money and weight to pack them.
Though the breakfast was good, the wind was interfering with my already impaired hearing as I tried to locate a bugle I was confident would not be far away. Try as I may, no bugles could be heard. No worries. We would climb back to my favorite rock, glass up some elk, and then walk the new fence lines to see where the elk were crossing this new hurdle. A good five or six mile hike would do my legs some good.
It’s always fun to sit in the dark and listen for elk. Well, at least when there are elk to listen to. We sat until an hour past sunrise, with nothing heard. We did spot two bulls far off, but actually on public. One was a raghorn. The other was a wide bull with good fronts, crowned out on both back main beams. From the side he looked really short-beamed. When he looked at us, we could see his beams were average, they just grew outward, not back toward his rump.
I sighed as I watched the bulls feed off the public, cross a drainage where a newly blazed cut line was made to accommodate the new fences, then reappear well into the private ground. Those bulls would probably be off limits when season opened tomorrow. But, maybe not.
We dropped off the rock and decided to check out the new fence. From the perch 200 vertical feet above, the new corner post looked way off from what I remembered. Matt and I both ran our GPS and chips to see if there was much variance between the two. Almost no variance.
The fence line was almost dead on, as far as how it ran east-to-west, forming the northern most boundary on this west section of the BLM. That was comforting to see that this east-west boundary was +/- a few feet of what it showed on our map chips. Either the fence crew used the same map chips and GPS technology, or the GIS info was very close to what the true boundary is, or both.
There was one big exception. An exception that happens to be at the best elk crossing in this part of the BLM land. At that point, the private land fence line is way off from the GPS/chips. It encroaches by 400-500’ on the BLM and in the process, looks to divert elk from the normal crossing where elk love to go to the prime bedding on public land. The construction of the fence along the top of a small coulee and its location being way on to BLM, seemed to funnel the elk west. Or, at least that is what the tracks along the fence appeared to show. If the elk were funneled west, rather than their historic southern route, they would have no reason to bed in the thick public timber, rather they could find shade/shelter in the sparse private timber as they moved west and stayed on the north side of the fence.
Oh well, one exception is not going to end the hunt. Time to follow the fence and see what has come of the other four historically beaten down trails the elk use to get to public. And in the process, see just how accurate the fence line and/or our GPS’s are. Things continued to be very close to the GPS/GIS readings. So close, that it makes one wonder how they could be so far off in the area where the elk cross with greatest frequency.
By noon, we had made most of our loop. In an area where two years ago a fence was built and encroached on public by over 500’, that new fence was torn down and reconstructed almost exactly where the GPS showed the boundary. Even though the “No trespassing” signs were left standing on the posts that formed the old incorrect boundary, it was nice to see they had went so far as to remove the two-year old fence back to the real boundary. That made it even more curious as to why/how they could be so far off in the other location where the elk cross.
I showed Matt the deep ruts formed by eons of elk heading into these hills to bed. The trails were deep and wide. Unfortunately, they were covered with fallen pine needles, completely absent any elk tracks. In the time since the fence had been built, not an elk had traveled any of these old trails. And with good reason.
Imagine walking west on a slope that runs downhill to the north. To your left is the south, the high side. To your right is north, sloping away from you. In their fence building, a line was cut from east to west, with the private to the north and the public to the south. One did not have to look long to see what challenge this represents for an elk.
The new fence was built in a manner where a bulldozer made a deep cut in the ground, making a level spot for the fence and carving a steep bank on the uphill side. The cut in the bank varied from 4’ to 10’. About three feet from the cut, to the north, the fence was placed.
So, when an animal is coming from the north, heading south, they encounter this fence. An elk can jump a fence at the right location. But, why would and elk jump a fence when two or three feet on the other side (south) of the fence is this very tall embankment formed by the bulldozer cut? If they do clear the fence, they are now in a pen between the fence behind them and this steep embankment in front of them.
Smart elk will just continue down the fence line and turn south toward bedding cover a few miles later, once the fence ends. The fence ends, because the BLM ends. Maybe it is coincidence that this fence was built this way. If the intent was to alter the eon-old movements of elk heading to their bedding grounds, then it was mission accomplished. Maybe I am too much of a skeptic. And, if it was done on private land, that is the landowner’s prerogative.
We hiked back for lunch and decided we would make another hike in the evening in hopes we could locate where elk were coming on the public, as they had in all other years I have hunted here. Surely a nice afternoon nap would produce an epiphany as to how the elk riddle could be solved. Well, it sure was a nice nap, even if it didn’t provide an insight to the elk riddle.
That evening we say the one raghorn. His crowned out buddy was nowhere to be found. We did see a LOT of aircraft bringing hunters to camps. The service we used brought in six other guys that day. Not sure how many private airplanes landed on the south end, but this 2,700 acres was going to be rather crowded when season opened the following morning. Such is public land hunting.
