Kenetrek Boots

NW MT rainy day bull

drahthaar

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Joined
Sep 26, 2006
Messages
1,711
Location
Kalispell/Helena, MT
I guess you could say the sun does shine on a dog's ass once in a while. I finally got off the raghorn express.

I take Thursdays off, so I dropped the girl off at grandma's, the boy off at school, ran into town and did a couple errands. Wasn't even planning on hunting, as its been the wettest friggin season EVER!! Tired of trudging through jungles of water(I know, whine whine), just sayin, its been ridiculous.
Got home at 10:00, went through the channels on TV and decided, WTH, threw on the rain gear and headed to my little close to home "raghorn honey hole" where I had not been yet, as my friend has been there twice and said nothing is in there now, "but I haven't been up on your ridge". Cool, I will see for myself. I have til 3:00 to pick up the boy from school.

Its only a 15 or 20 minute hike up a hill and over the other side, next to a clearcut, where the timber is dark, and elk like it. Perfect timing, as they are probably out of the clearcut and in the timber by now. I hit the timber at about 10:45, and right away see some brown legs, chins, and white rumps going away deeper into the timber(nothing in there eh). Its wizzing rain and quiet walking. I move in closer, find where a root wad came up creating a little pit to get down in and call. Hopefully a bull comes back for his "lost cow". Well about 1 minute into calling, a stick snaps directly behind me, downslope. And CLOSE!! OH SHEEEEEEIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTEEEE. I turn my head to see this bull 15-20 yards down the hill, he startles, and circles downhill about 10 yards, I cow call and he stops, really wanting to see a cow I am sure. Broadside, ummmmm, 30 yards give or take a couple. Tree on the left, tree on the right, branch high, branch low, perfectly framing the ribcage on this bull. I somehow weasel around to a shooting position, and get drawn. And I let her go!! The fletching disappears but the bull leaves the "window", not sure how the shot went. I cow call again, and hop out of my pit. The bull circles downhill 40 yards more and is just standing there. Thinking, drop, fall, die, do something(other than bolt down this steep freaking slope all the way to the creek. Then his rump starts sagging, and he lurches over backwards and expires. Yeahhh!!!!!

Couldn't have been more blessed on this day. He is even a nice 6.

Sorry about the blurry, pics with spots and blood. You know how cameras are when its wet as hell.

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The last load!! Thank you Mike for the help!!!
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Nice bull! Congrats! You probably even managed to have him quartered and off the hill by the time you had to grab your son. :)
 
There are no elk close to the Flathead. You had to have been somewhere else. ;) Congrats. I head out on a 4 hour drive in the morning to hopefully score one as nice or close to it as yours. If I don't I'm headed home to the South Fork the following weekend.
 
Nice!
That's an awesome bull Draht, congrats.
Even cooler that you were able to get it so close to town and got it off the hill that quick.
 
There are no elk close to the Flathead. You had to have been somewhere else. ;) Congrats. I head out on a 4 hour drive in the morning to hopefully score one as nice or close to it as yours. If I don't I'm headed home to the South Fork the following weekend.

South Fork is where I have been hunting. So has the rest of the planet. Did an overnighter last weekend, miles into a basin, sitting down to a nice mtn house seafood chowder, and two guys come hiking up some 2000 feet up onto the ridge I was on. LOL. Seriously???? The look on their face was priceless.
They have closed the west side road from the dam to 11 mile. Soooo the east side is getting pounded. If you know a good basin in the middle fork, you may want to hit that, the pressure on the east side has got to be pushing some elk into the middle fork.
 
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