Montana Rifle Elk - Gonna be a good one
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
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So here is the gig on this year's Montana rifle elk hunt. For years, many of my resident and non-resident applications have been for areas with remote/difficult access issues, knowing if you solve some of those access issues, you might be in for a great hunt.
Tomorrow, Lawnboy, Photofin, and I get on a helicopter to be dropped off in an area that is completely landlocked by some huge ranches that do not allow public hunting. We will have a big chunk of BLM and state land to hunt, once we get there.
I have applied in this unit in the past, but did not draw. Last year I changed units and drew. I went back to this unit, but did not expect to draw. There are other units where I have contemplated doing the same thing and will probably apply in those units some year and do just what we are doing here.
Many of you read the thread about how we were denied the option of doing this in Colorado. I have spots in Wyoming and New Mexico picked out where I will do the same thing, if ever I am lucky enough to draw the units where this will work best.
It has taken me since July to get all the permits in place and get clearance from the BLM for filming and landing the helicopter. Thankfully, the permit showed up on Monday.
Right now, there are many choppers sitting idle due to the lull in oil and gas exploration. The availability and cost of choppers is down and many outfits are just looking to bill out some airtime. Lucky for me.
This chopper flight will cost about the same as the air transport flight we took on the Alaska black bear hunt - right around $700 per person, round trip. If we were not hauling camera gear, sponsor product, etc. and really wanted to go light, it would be even less.
We are going into an area that is all BLM land, with some state land mixed in. We have all the GPS coordinates logged and the boundaries dialed in on the GPS. Water will be the tough part, as I can find no flowing water on the public land, so we are flying in enough water for three guys, for five days.
You cannot land choppers on USFS land in Montana, nor anywhere in the west, to my knowledge. Therefore, we had to rule out the options of landlocked Forest Service land and stick to BLM ground.
Because we are doing this for a profit endeavor, if one wants to call this TV show a profit endeavor, we need all these permits. If any of you wanted to do this as individual hunters, you would not be burdened by this process, so long as your transporter had the proper permits and authorizations.
I had inquired of the landowners as to whether or not they allowed access across their property to these landlocked parcels. As I expected, the managers politely informed me that they do not allow access for public hunting, but one was willing to put me in touch with the outfitter that operates on their property. I thanked them for their time and did not follow up with the outfitter.
I did call a booking agency who books hunts on one of these properties, just to satisfy my curiosity of what the cost for a hunt is on these properties. LOTS!. I could fly half the Hunt Talk crew into this place for the price of a guided hunt, if the booking agency was giving me the real price.
So, tomorrow we will land in mid-afternoon, barring some sort of calamity. We will scout tomorrow evening and all day Friday. I have spoke with all the FWP enforcement personnel and the regional director of that FWP region. We have to wait 24 hours from the time we fly, until we hunt. Therefore, we are flying in on Thursday to have our 24 hour period come due on Friday. Had we flown in on Friday, it would have been some time on Saturday before we could hunt, causing us to miss the opening morning.
This should be a different spin on how hunters can hunt on our public lands, for our wildlife, all for less than the cost of many non-resident elk tags. I hope it works out.
We are taking a gamble that the elk will be in this isolated landlocked piece, when there are hundreds of thousands of adjacent private acres for them to be hanging out on. It is very possible that we will be standing on the BLM ground looking over the fence at all the elk out of our reach.
Oh well, it has been a ton of fun in the planning and I am sure we will learn a lot in the process. I have learned much already.
With proper reception, we will provide as many updates as possible and hopefully a few pics of the scenic landscape, my spike whitey, Lawnboy's cow elk, and if we are really lucky, a pic of my raghorn bull.
Wish us luck.
Tomorrow, Lawnboy, Photofin, and I get on a helicopter to be dropped off in an area that is completely landlocked by some huge ranches that do not allow public hunting. We will have a big chunk of BLM and state land to hunt, once we get there.
I have applied in this unit in the past, but did not draw. Last year I changed units and drew. I went back to this unit, but did not expect to draw. There are other units where I have contemplated doing the same thing and will probably apply in those units some year and do just what we are doing here.
Many of you read the thread about how we were denied the option of doing this in Colorado. I have spots in Wyoming and New Mexico picked out where I will do the same thing, if ever I am lucky enough to draw the units where this will work best.
It has taken me since July to get all the permits in place and get clearance from the BLM for filming and landing the helicopter. Thankfully, the permit showed up on Monday.
Right now, there are many choppers sitting idle due to the lull in oil and gas exploration. The availability and cost of choppers is down and many outfits are just looking to bill out some airtime. Lucky for me.
This chopper flight will cost about the same as the air transport flight we took on the Alaska black bear hunt - right around $700 per person, round trip. If we were not hauling camera gear, sponsor product, etc. and really wanted to go light, it would be even less.
We are going into an area that is all BLM land, with some state land mixed in. We have all the GPS coordinates logged and the boundaries dialed in on the GPS. Water will be the tough part, as I can find no flowing water on the public land, so we are flying in enough water for three guys, for five days.
You cannot land choppers on USFS land in Montana, nor anywhere in the west, to my knowledge. Therefore, we had to rule out the options of landlocked Forest Service land and stick to BLM ground.
Because we are doing this for a profit endeavor, if one wants to call this TV show a profit endeavor, we need all these permits. If any of you wanted to do this as individual hunters, you would not be burdened by this process, so long as your transporter had the proper permits and authorizations.
I had inquired of the landowners as to whether or not they allowed access across their property to these landlocked parcels. As I expected, the managers politely informed me that they do not allow access for public hunting, but one was willing to put me in touch with the outfitter that operates on their property. I thanked them for their time and did not follow up with the outfitter.
I did call a booking agency who books hunts on one of these properties, just to satisfy my curiosity of what the cost for a hunt is on these properties. LOTS!. I could fly half the Hunt Talk crew into this place for the price of a guided hunt, if the booking agency was giving me the real price.
So, tomorrow we will land in mid-afternoon, barring some sort of calamity. We will scout tomorrow evening and all day Friday. I have spoke with all the FWP enforcement personnel and the regional director of that FWP region. We have to wait 24 hours from the time we fly, until we hunt. Therefore, we are flying in on Thursday to have our 24 hour period come due on Friday. Had we flown in on Friday, it would have been some time on Saturday before we could hunt, causing us to miss the opening morning.
This should be a different spin on how hunters can hunt on our public lands, for our wildlife, all for less than the cost of many non-resident elk tags. I hope it works out.
We are taking a gamble that the elk will be in this isolated landlocked piece, when there are hundreds of thousands of adjacent private acres for them to be hanging out on. It is very possible that we will be standing on the BLM ground looking over the fence at all the elk out of our reach.
Oh well, it has been a ton of fun in the planning and I am sure we will learn a lot in the process. I have learned much already.
With proper reception, we will provide as many updates as possible and hopefully a few pics of the scenic landscape, my spike whitey, Lawnboy's cow elk, and if we are really lucky, a pic of my raghorn bull.
Wish us luck.
msnyder
Member
Wow - sounds like quite an adventure! Good luck, can't wait to hear the stories!!!
mdunc8
Well-known member
Make sure to get the pissed off outfitter and surgeon who paid thousands of dollars for his hunt in the background of all your pictures. Have fun out there.
belly-deep
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2009
- Messages
- 3,459
That sounds like a hell of a time. I hope you guys have good luck. I've always looked at a map and said "If I only had a helicopter"....you guys are actually doing it. I can't wait for the details.
IdahoBugler
Well-known member
Now that sounds like a blast. Good luck to you guys. I hope Troy brought enough tube socks. Just in case I would hide all your extras Randy.
Ya heard it here first. This show has the potential to win a Golden Moosie award on the Outdoor Channel. I hope you have to pay for extra flights to get all of the elk and deer meat out! As always, we are rooting for you guys.
Bambistew
Well-known member
Good luck Fin. I hope you shoot a monster out and you all 'steal' big bucks from the outfitter/rancher.
BRI
Well-known member
Good Luck Fin. PLEASE have the camera rolling when the outfitter/landowner comes charging in demanding you exit his property.
vander34
Member
That sounds like a ton of fun, good luck to you all!
DRAFTSTUD
Well-known member
Skin the Elk out and leave the hide attached to the Head....fly out with that hanging from a rope as you fly over the Outfitters! John
awsome. i have thought about this for years on a place in CO. interesting to see if you get some attitude from the outfitters. In a way I hope you do so you can tell them where to go.... and remind them they are standing on public land.
Dinkshooter
Well-known member
Anyone ever see the pic from another hunting forum a few years ago?
Landed. Now, where are the elk going to be? We have two evenings and one morning to find a spiker.
God, I love this stuff. Not many places in the world where you can be a Public Hunter and do something like this for merely the cost of a tag and transportation.
God, I love this stuff. Not many places in the world where you can be a Public Hunter and do something like this for merely the cost of a tag and transportation.
van franke
Active member
Good luck Randy, Im sure their are going to be some wonderful encounters with the surrounding landowner, outfitter. I Hope you shoot a monster bull.
I was told this morning that if you dont have permission from the landowner you shouldnt be in the area, and this was just because I was glassing off a county road. Funny how that works.
I was told this morning that if you dont have permission from the landowner you shouldnt be in the area, and this was just because I was glassing off a county road. Funny how that works.
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