Braveheart
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2023
- Messages
- 81
After asking a lot of questions here, the time came for a 53 year old retired guy to set off on his first Montana elk hunt solo. I drove from Missouri to Montana, 23 hours total. Its been a long time since I took that long of a road trip.
It was decent weather when I got here Sunday, I was able to glass the 1200 acres in Mountain City that I am hunting, which is just ten miles south of Helena, MT. The land is made up of several meadows with two active creeks following through it. Also it is surrounded by mountains on two sides. There is a few dense pockets of pine timber on the place with a lot of sporadic timber pockets with a lot of little coves of grassy areas. Some of the grassy areas near the creeks are still very green. I was given a tour of the farm, which has been homesteaded since 1907 by the same family. It has several access roads leading to the various parts of the farm.
I am able to glass most of the place from one high spot which is located near the entrance to the farm. The first day, I saw a cow and her calf. I was within 50 yards of them for about 10 minutes. I saw no other elk. Yesterday, I saw no elk. Each day, I have checked a few pockets of timber after glassing for a few hours. Today when I pulled into the farm this morning there were several elk present in the dark in the meadows. I could see several elk through my bino's even thought it was not yet legal shooting light. As it started to get light in about 15 mins, I could hear and see the elk begin to move off the property onto the neighbors. There is a rock quarry near the farm and I have seen several elk crossing the road from there to the weapons restricted area basically located across the street. I am sure after studying the map, those elk went across the street into that area as I have seen several cross the road behind the neighbors since arriving here (antelope use the same path as well). I see a ton of elk sign on the place and a couple wheel barrow loads of elk poop in most of the fields and coves
I have five days left to hunt, I slipped through some pockets of timber checking some coves today to see if I could find any bedded elk. I saw none. The most depressing part of the trip is the incoming weather. It is allegedly going to snow 8 to 12 inches here in the next few hours. Then the temps will nose dive below freezing for days with single digit temps at night, by this Saturday, it may warm some above freezing and be in the teens at night.
What will the elk do in weather like this? Feed in the meadows more? I tell myself, that I need to restrict myself to glassing from the truck and set out to intercept any elk that I see as there is now way in these wind gusts a person can survive single digits for long. It is not what I had thought my elk hunting trip would be like but, I must adapt. My plan is to glass from the truck most of the day and maybe make some short trips to check some pockets of timber weather permitting. I know that I cannot kill one if I am not here, so I plan to be here as much as possible.
What would you experienced elk hunters do in this weather?
It was decent weather when I got here Sunday, I was able to glass the 1200 acres in Mountain City that I am hunting, which is just ten miles south of Helena, MT. The land is made up of several meadows with two active creeks following through it. Also it is surrounded by mountains on two sides. There is a few dense pockets of pine timber on the place with a lot of sporadic timber pockets with a lot of little coves of grassy areas. Some of the grassy areas near the creeks are still very green. I was given a tour of the farm, which has been homesteaded since 1907 by the same family. It has several access roads leading to the various parts of the farm.
I am able to glass most of the place from one high spot which is located near the entrance to the farm. The first day, I saw a cow and her calf. I was within 50 yards of them for about 10 minutes. I saw no other elk. Yesterday, I saw no elk. Each day, I have checked a few pockets of timber after glassing for a few hours. Today when I pulled into the farm this morning there were several elk present in the dark in the meadows. I could see several elk through my bino's even thought it was not yet legal shooting light. As it started to get light in about 15 mins, I could hear and see the elk begin to move off the property onto the neighbors. There is a rock quarry near the farm and I have seen several elk crossing the road from there to the weapons restricted area basically located across the street. I am sure after studying the map, those elk went across the street into that area as I have seen several cross the road behind the neighbors since arriving here (antelope use the same path as well). I see a ton of elk sign on the place and a couple wheel barrow loads of elk poop in most of the fields and coves
I have five days left to hunt, I slipped through some pockets of timber checking some coves today to see if I could find any bedded elk. I saw none. The most depressing part of the trip is the incoming weather. It is allegedly going to snow 8 to 12 inches here in the next few hours. Then the temps will nose dive below freezing for days with single digit temps at night, by this Saturday, it may warm some above freezing and be in the teens at night.
What will the elk do in weather like this? Feed in the meadows more? I tell myself, that I need to restrict myself to glassing from the truck and set out to intercept any elk that I see as there is now way in these wind gusts a person can survive single digits for long. It is not what I had thought my elk hunting trip would be like but, I must adapt. My plan is to glass from the truck most of the day and maybe make some short trips to check some pockets of timber weather permitting. I know that I cannot kill one if I am not here, so I plan to be here as much as possible.
What would you experienced elk hunters do in this weather?
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