MTShane
Member
I thought I would take some time to share my MT elk hunt story from this year. I was finally lucky enough to be drawn for a limited entry elk permit in my home state of Montana. Along with the usual excitement of drawing a special permit, I felt a lot of pressure because I knew this was going to be a tough hunt and wanted to do everything in my power to capitalize on it. I had a steep learning curve ahead of me because I had never actually hunted in this unit before and applied for this area somewhat on a whim. This hunt would also be taking place completely on public land and BMA’s.
I started making scouting trips in early May to learn the area and set up trail cams. I spent about 10 days scouting the unit throughout the summer. I’m a newb when it comes to trail cameras, so the results of the cams were disappointing and at times comical. Many of my cameras got dislodged in the first few days from elk rubbing on them. It was good news that I found where elk were frequenting, but I didn’t get many stellar pics of them. Here are some of the better ones:
Archery season rolled around, and I was pretty much treating it like another opportunity to scout. I was just trying to locate as many bulls as possible to know where to concentrate my efforts for rifle season and to know where to set my standards for a bull, if any. Overall, I spent about 12 days in the unit during archery season and felt like I had a decent grip on several areas that held good numbers of elk. Most of these places were areas along public/private boundaries. Here are some of the elk I found during archery season, they are poor quality photos because I was taking them through my spotting scope by just holding my phone up to it.
Found this guy sound asleep:
I went up to the area a couple days before the rifle opener to scout a few more spots. I found another good spot with a decent sized group of elk, but I decided to go to a different spot for the opener that I had been to during archery season and had seen a few good bulls. My Dad was joining me for the first week of rifle season. My friend Jess was also going to be joining us for the first few days. I warned my Dad that my opening day spot was a good 6 mile hike to get to a corner of public land where I thought elk would be crossing from their private feeding grounds to get to their bedding grounds on more private. He assured me that he had it in him to do it once but couldn’t repeat it every day. I said it would probably just be for opening day and I had other places in mind for the rest of the week.
Opening morning of rifle season was finally upon us, and we got to our parking spot well before light. It was unseasonably warm, but the hike was pleasant because we were able to dress so light. The closer we got to where I wanted to go, the more bugles we heard. I misjudged how long it would take us to get to the spot, so we were a little behind schedule and it was already getting light out. We glassed ahead of us and saw a bunch of elk on the corner of public where I thought they would cross, but we were still over a mile away. The elk were on the move, so we had to hustle the rest of the way before they went on to private land. While moving at a healthy jog, we kept looking up ahead of us to see elk jumping the fence onto private land, including a few really nice bulls. Bugles were ringing out constantly since this was a group of several hundred elk. When we finally got up to the elk 95% of them had already jumped the fence and were standing less than 300 yards on the other side of the boundary. We watched as the last 15 or so cows moved across the public in front of us and crossed the fence. Several satellite bulls would go in front of us for the next 20 minutes as we sat there, but nothing I wanted to put my tag on quite yet.
I was devastated. If I had gotten there 15 minutes earlier, I could have watched the entire group move in front of me and pick out the biggest bull to take before they reached private. They were only a few hundred yards away, but it felt like miles.
We sat there watching the herd for the next hour, listening to the non-stop bugles, and picking out the biggest bulls in the herd. There were 2 definite shooters in the herd. One was a big 7 point that we agreed was the largest. The second was a bull we dubbed the “Bladed Dagger” bull because of a bladed feature on his right dagger. He didn’t have extra long main beams, but his points were impressive. As we sat there we decided we would do the same thing the following morning. The elk weren’t getting pressured at all, so we figured they might do the same thing they did this morning.
The big 7 point:
The Bladed Dagger bull:
My Dad informed us he wouldn’t be making the hike with us the next day as he spent all his energy up on this one and needed a day to recoup. While prepping for the 6.5 mile hike back to the truck, my Dad told us a story of when he would take me hunting with him when I was a little kid. When we would make long hikes, he would have to carry me back to the truck sometimes because I couldn’t make it back on my own. It was a funny way to illustrate how far we’ve come in our lives and to point out a role reversal for us.
The second morning we got to our parking spot 45 minutes earlier than the day before. Jess and I took off for the long hike once again while my Dad stayed at the truck this time. As we approached the corner of public, we glassed ahead of us to see that most of the elk were still on their feeding grounds on private. They hadn’t made the move to their bedding grounds yet, so we had made it in time. We kept working our way to where they had crossed the morning before.
As we kept walking to get to the same knob we were at yesterday, I saw an elk by itself feeding on the public. We glassed it up and it looked like a pretty nice bull, so we got the spotting scope out to take a closer look. It appeared to be the Bladed Dagger bull through the spotting scope, but I thought that couldn’t be right. He was with all the cows yesterday, but maybe he broke away from them since we saw him last. I wasn’t fully convinced, so we decided to close some distance to get a closer look.
We closed the distance to 400 yards and looked some more. I decided I was going to take him. I can make a 400 yard shot on an elk, but the wind and topography were perfect to get closer so we closed the distance once again.
Now we were 200 yards away and it was go time:
I was having a hard time getting calm, so I took some deep breaths and focused on my aim spot and settled down:
The first shot knocked him down where he was standing. I was in shock. He picked his head up a little bit, so I put a second one in him for the final kill. He was done for. Jess and I celebrated and marveled at how well things turned out that morning, and we agreed this was the Bladed Dagger bull.
The walk up to him was a surreal feeling:
I immediately called my Dad to tell him we had a bull down. He was going to go see if a landowner would let him get closer to us for the packout. Although we were fully prepared to take him out where we came from, it doesn’t hurt to ask. We also made some calls to recruit some local friends for the packout.
Jess and I took some photos then went to work on him:
After a while my Dad called me to say he was able to get permission from a landowner that would allow him to get to within 2 miles of us with the truck. Great news! Jess, a local friend, and I were able to get the bull completely packed out that afternoon.
I’ve had several people ask me if I was disappointed that my hunt only lasted 2 days. I always kind of laugh at that because the hunt actually started in May when I first started scouting. So, I felt like I made the most of this one.
I started making scouting trips in early May to learn the area and set up trail cams. I spent about 10 days scouting the unit throughout the summer. I’m a newb when it comes to trail cameras, so the results of the cams were disappointing and at times comical. Many of my cameras got dislodged in the first few days from elk rubbing on them. It was good news that I found where elk were frequenting, but I didn’t get many stellar pics of them. Here are some of the better ones:
Archery season rolled around, and I was pretty much treating it like another opportunity to scout. I was just trying to locate as many bulls as possible to know where to concentrate my efforts for rifle season and to know where to set my standards for a bull, if any. Overall, I spent about 12 days in the unit during archery season and felt like I had a decent grip on several areas that held good numbers of elk. Most of these places were areas along public/private boundaries. Here are some of the elk I found during archery season, they are poor quality photos because I was taking them through my spotting scope by just holding my phone up to it.
Found this guy sound asleep:
I went up to the area a couple days before the rifle opener to scout a few more spots. I found another good spot with a decent sized group of elk, but I decided to go to a different spot for the opener that I had been to during archery season and had seen a few good bulls. My Dad was joining me for the first week of rifle season. My friend Jess was also going to be joining us for the first few days. I warned my Dad that my opening day spot was a good 6 mile hike to get to a corner of public land where I thought elk would be crossing from their private feeding grounds to get to their bedding grounds on more private. He assured me that he had it in him to do it once but couldn’t repeat it every day. I said it would probably just be for opening day and I had other places in mind for the rest of the week.
Opening morning of rifle season was finally upon us, and we got to our parking spot well before light. It was unseasonably warm, but the hike was pleasant because we were able to dress so light. The closer we got to where I wanted to go, the more bugles we heard. I misjudged how long it would take us to get to the spot, so we were a little behind schedule and it was already getting light out. We glassed ahead of us and saw a bunch of elk on the corner of public where I thought they would cross, but we were still over a mile away. The elk were on the move, so we had to hustle the rest of the way before they went on to private land. While moving at a healthy jog, we kept looking up ahead of us to see elk jumping the fence onto private land, including a few really nice bulls. Bugles were ringing out constantly since this was a group of several hundred elk. When we finally got up to the elk 95% of them had already jumped the fence and were standing less than 300 yards on the other side of the boundary. We watched as the last 15 or so cows moved across the public in front of us and crossed the fence. Several satellite bulls would go in front of us for the next 20 minutes as we sat there, but nothing I wanted to put my tag on quite yet.
I was devastated. If I had gotten there 15 minutes earlier, I could have watched the entire group move in front of me and pick out the biggest bull to take before they reached private. They were only a few hundred yards away, but it felt like miles.
We sat there watching the herd for the next hour, listening to the non-stop bugles, and picking out the biggest bulls in the herd. There were 2 definite shooters in the herd. One was a big 7 point that we agreed was the largest. The second was a bull we dubbed the “Bladed Dagger” bull because of a bladed feature on his right dagger. He didn’t have extra long main beams, but his points were impressive. As we sat there we decided we would do the same thing the following morning. The elk weren’t getting pressured at all, so we figured they might do the same thing they did this morning.
The big 7 point:
The Bladed Dagger bull:
My Dad informed us he wouldn’t be making the hike with us the next day as he spent all his energy up on this one and needed a day to recoup. While prepping for the 6.5 mile hike back to the truck, my Dad told us a story of when he would take me hunting with him when I was a little kid. When we would make long hikes, he would have to carry me back to the truck sometimes because I couldn’t make it back on my own. It was a funny way to illustrate how far we’ve come in our lives and to point out a role reversal for us.
The second morning we got to our parking spot 45 minutes earlier than the day before. Jess and I took off for the long hike once again while my Dad stayed at the truck this time. As we approached the corner of public, we glassed ahead of us to see that most of the elk were still on their feeding grounds on private. They hadn’t made the move to their bedding grounds yet, so we had made it in time. We kept working our way to where they had crossed the morning before.
As we kept walking to get to the same knob we were at yesterday, I saw an elk by itself feeding on the public. We glassed it up and it looked like a pretty nice bull, so we got the spotting scope out to take a closer look. It appeared to be the Bladed Dagger bull through the spotting scope, but I thought that couldn’t be right. He was with all the cows yesterday, but maybe he broke away from them since we saw him last. I wasn’t fully convinced, so we decided to close some distance to get a closer look.
We closed the distance to 400 yards and looked some more. I decided I was going to take him. I can make a 400 yard shot on an elk, but the wind and topography were perfect to get closer so we closed the distance once again.
Now we were 200 yards away and it was go time:
I was having a hard time getting calm, so I took some deep breaths and focused on my aim spot and settled down:
The first shot knocked him down where he was standing. I was in shock. He picked his head up a little bit, so I put a second one in him for the final kill. He was done for. Jess and I celebrated and marveled at how well things turned out that morning, and we agreed this was the Bladed Dagger bull.
The walk up to him was a surreal feeling:
I immediately called my Dad to tell him we had a bull down. He was going to go see if a landowner would let him get closer to us for the packout. Although we were fully prepared to take him out where we came from, it doesn’t hurt to ask. We also made some calls to recruit some local friends for the packout.
Jess and I took some photos then went to work on him:
After a while my Dad called me to say he was able to get permission from a landowner that would allow him to get to within 2 miles of us with the truck. Great news! Jess, a local friend, and I were able to get the bull completely packed out that afternoon.
I’ve had several people ask me if I was disappointed that my hunt only lasted 2 days. I always kind of laugh at that because the hunt actually started in May when I first started scouting. So, I felt like I made the most of this one.
