Stone_Ice_1
Well-known member
Back in April I found out I drew a special Bull elk permit for Montana after 17 years of putting in. This is one of the premier tags in Montana and the area is quite well known and rhymes with Smell Korns. If you can't get it from that, I can't help you. I have a statistics background and my analysis before the season, even with 17 points only had me at about a 3.6% chance of drawing this tag so I was ecstatic. While I knew this tag was not what it once was, living right next to the district, I always put in with the idea that some day I would get to hunt those mountains I can see from my living room. I have never hunted the district, always staying out of it because personally I don't want to hunt a district that I can't even shoot a big bull if I do happen to see one. It is also a thing for me that I just generally stay out of the district to allow the people that do draw these tags their best chance at a quality hunt. So I started reaching out to friends and others that I knew had hunted the tag recently, some of those folks were people on this forum and had plans of scouting all summer to learn the district and where I wanted to hunt.
My scouting started pretty much the next day, even though it was April and bulls wouldn't have much if any kind of head gear. Its a solid 8 miles according to google from my living room to an area that holds elk but I was able to spot a few from my perch out my front window. My original plan would be to do a fair amount of scouting, including putting out several game cameras during the summer and determine what kind of bull I would be looking for during the season. I hunt both the archery and rifle seasons so I would have ample oppurtunities to chase elk in those hills. I also started clearing my schedule up a bit and making sure I didn't schedule anything during the fall. For example I planned on coaching my youngest in football this year for 3rd grade flag football but that would have to wait until next year.
Then at the beginning of May I had a work trip that sent me to Detroit. When landing and first getting to my hotel I remembered that today was most likely the day the moose, sheep and goat tags results would come out. Once again I knew from my analysis before the season that I had about a 12.3% chance of drawing any one of the Big 3. Part of me was hoping that this wasn't the year as I was already starting my planning and scouting for elk. Laying on the bed of the hotel I pulled up the results and with 14 points it said "Successful" for mountain goat! I could not believe it, matter of fact I went back and double/triple/quadruple checked the results. Sure enough I had basically a once in a lifetime elk tag and a once in a lifetime goat tag in my pocket for the same fall. One way or another this was going to be an epic fall, whether it was crash and burn style or hunter hero style.
My goat district is a district with very few roads and mostly a backpack style hunt. This is the exactly kind of tough backcountry hunt that I wanted for a goat and the reason I applied for this particular district. Originally I had hoped to have a summer of scouting and backcountry flyfishing as part of my goat plan. But with 2 premier tags I wasn't sure how much of this was going to become a reality. I have never hunted goats or had any of the Big 3 tags so the excitement I had was pretty astronomical. My first step was to purchase and read the big "A Beast the Color of Winter" and learn as much as I could about goats. I did know that I wanted a mature Billy, even though it is technically an either sex tag.
My scouting started pretty much the next day, even though it was April and bulls wouldn't have much if any kind of head gear. Its a solid 8 miles according to google from my living room to an area that holds elk but I was able to spot a few from my perch out my front window. My original plan would be to do a fair amount of scouting, including putting out several game cameras during the summer and determine what kind of bull I would be looking for during the season. I hunt both the archery and rifle seasons so I would have ample oppurtunities to chase elk in those hills. I also started clearing my schedule up a bit and making sure I didn't schedule anything during the fall. For example I planned on coaching my youngest in football this year for 3rd grade flag football but that would have to wait until next year.
Then at the beginning of May I had a work trip that sent me to Detroit. When landing and first getting to my hotel I remembered that today was most likely the day the moose, sheep and goat tags results would come out. Once again I knew from my analysis before the season that I had about a 12.3% chance of drawing any one of the Big 3. Part of me was hoping that this wasn't the year as I was already starting my planning and scouting for elk. Laying on the bed of the hotel I pulled up the results and with 14 points it said "Successful" for mountain goat! I could not believe it, matter of fact I went back and double/triple/quadruple checked the results. Sure enough I had basically a once in a lifetime elk tag and a once in a lifetime goat tag in my pocket for the same fall. One way or another this was going to be an epic fall, whether it was crash and burn style or hunter hero style.
My goat district is a district with very few roads and mostly a backpack style hunt. This is the exactly kind of tough backcountry hunt that I wanted for a goat and the reason I applied for this particular district. Originally I had hoped to have a summer of scouting and backcountry flyfishing as part of my goat plan. But with 2 premier tags I wasn't sure how much of this was going to become a reality. I have never hunted goats or had any of the Big 3 tags so the excitement I had was pretty astronomical. My first step was to purchase and read the big "A Beast the Color of Winter" and learn as much as I could about goats. I did know that I wanted a mature Billy, even though it is technically an either sex tag.
