rednechuntr
Member
After three years of bow/rifle hunting elk in Montana, I finally managed to notch a tag with my bow. After moving out to Montana from the midwest, elk hunting was an entirely different strategy compared to whitetails and without a mentor it took a while for me to figure them out.
Earlier in the morning I had called in a small 5x5 which spotted me when I drew my bow. Of course he did while his head was behind two trees. Unfortunately neither my buddy or I had a shot. Then his cow and two calves decided to come on in and he followed them again and I hoped my buddy would get another opportunity. To my amazement, the calves and cow decided to walk right to me and when they were about six feet away, I whispered "hey cow" to keep the girls from running me over and hopefully not spook the bull. They all froze and we stared at each other for 20 seconds or so and then all hell broke loose with elk running in very direction, haha. Still no shot on the bull so we went back up the mountain and had lunch. We decided to hunt down another drainage to a logging road with the thermals in our face. We set up on the edge of some thick stuff and began calling. Sure enough this little fella walked in silent, as did the other bull, and rubbed a little on a small tree. We were set up in rather open small lodgepole setting and I knew I had no opportunity to draw. Then he looked back where he came from and gave me the opportunity. The first arrow on a perfect broadside shot at 27 yds went high due to misjudging the distance and dropped him. I was instantly upset that I made such a lousy shot on a beautiful animal as he thrashed around. I quickly knocked another and he stopped for just an instant at a quartering-away angle and the second flew true into the pumphouse. I saw blood immediately out of the entry wound and I just fell down on my knees in a mess of emotions. Somehow, he got up and ran about 60 yards and crashed into a log where we found him.
I was and still am on a high over four days later. I have never felt so many emotions of anger (at the bad shot) and excitement all mixed together at once. Finally being able to put my hands on an elk that I had earned through hundreds of miles on my boots over the few years I have tried hunting these amazing animals. I also decided to process my own animals this year as I have two elk, two deer and two antelope tags in my pocket and didn't want to spend over a grand on processing the animals. The satisfaction of hard work in hunting, packing out and processing my own animal is beyond anything I have ever done before and I can't wait to try and help get my buddies an elk.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of you guys on this forum for your help whether you knew you helped or not. I have been a lurker for a long time just because I didn't have any experience or felt like my contribution to a thread wouldn't help any. I have gleaned and picked through so many threads of good information on here, so thanks to you all and especially Randy for the new video series on e-scouting with OnX. Good luck to you all out there and if any of you get half of the enjoyment I did out of this hunt, you'll stay addicted for the rest of your lives! I know where I'll be each September as long as my body permits.
Earlier in the morning I had called in a small 5x5 which spotted me when I drew my bow. Of course he did while his head was behind two trees. Unfortunately neither my buddy or I had a shot. Then his cow and two calves decided to come on in and he followed them again and I hoped my buddy would get another opportunity. To my amazement, the calves and cow decided to walk right to me and when they were about six feet away, I whispered "hey cow" to keep the girls from running me over and hopefully not spook the bull. They all froze and we stared at each other for 20 seconds or so and then all hell broke loose with elk running in very direction, haha. Still no shot on the bull so we went back up the mountain and had lunch. We decided to hunt down another drainage to a logging road with the thermals in our face. We set up on the edge of some thick stuff and began calling. Sure enough this little fella walked in silent, as did the other bull, and rubbed a little on a small tree. We were set up in rather open small lodgepole setting and I knew I had no opportunity to draw. Then he looked back where he came from and gave me the opportunity. The first arrow on a perfect broadside shot at 27 yds went high due to misjudging the distance and dropped him. I was instantly upset that I made such a lousy shot on a beautiful animal as he thrashed around. I quickly knocked another and he stopped for just an instant at a quartering-away angle and the second flew true into the pumphouse. I saw blood immediately out of the entry wound and I just fell down on my knees in a mess of emotions. Somehow, he got up and ran about 60 yards and crashed into a log where we found him.
I was and still am on a high over four days later. I have never felt so many emotions of anger (at the bad shot) and excitement all mixed together at once. Finally being able to put my hands on an elk that I had earned through hundreds of miles on my boots over the few years I have tried hunting these amazing animals. I also decided to process my own animals this year as I have two elk, two deer and two antelope tags in my pocket and didn't want to spend over a grand on processing the animals. The satisfaction of hard work in hunting, packing out and processing my own animal is beyond anything I have ever done before and I can't wait to try and help get my buddies an elk.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of you guys on this forum for your help whether you knew you helped or not. I have been a lurker for a long time just because I didn't have any experience or felt like my contribution to a thread wouldn't help any. I have gleaned and picked through so many threads of good information on here, so thanks to you all and especially Randy for the new video series on e-scouting with OnX. Good luck to you all out there and if any of you get half of the enjoyment I did out of this hunt, you'll stay addicted for the rest of your lives! I know where I'll be each September as long as my body permits.
