Greg Galloway, my son Jared and I decided to try a new hunting area a few years back and decided on some national forest adjacent to Ted Turner's Double D ranch southwest of Bozeman, MT. We were going in on horses, which meant I had to get up a couple hours prior to leaving to let the horses get some hay in 'em. I have to say that hunting with horses has it's pros and cons. The pros being of course riding rather than walking, being able to get beyond the normal foot hunters and being able to ride out after a long day of hunting. The cons are, they're a lot more time consuming to get ready and you never know what their "idiocy of the day" is going to be.
We would normally have left well before daylight, but since this was a new area that we were not familiar with we headed out after daybreak. We wanted to learn the trails, see what meadows were in the area, look for fresh elk sign and then plan an evening hunt from what we learned. I would suggest you do the same anytime you head into a new area as it makes it much easier to get out when you have some idea what the area looks like in daylight. We rode on a National Forest trail along side the fence line of the Double D, but did not see much fresh sign. We turned around near the top end of the better looking areas and headed back to another ridge line we had noticed on our way up.
We still didn't see much sign on this next ridge, but didn't have any other option than to spend the afternoon next to a fire and wait for that "last best" hour of shooting light to work our way back to the trail head in the hope of finding some elk.
We ate lunch, napped and BS'd around that fire for almost four hours. It doesn't do much good to hunt in the afternoon. You can do some hunting in the timber in their bedding areas, but for the most part, unless you've seen fresh sign to know they are in there, it's a waste of time and you might end up spooking elk from the area. In addition to that, sneaking in on elk in their bedding area is next to impossible in crunchy snow. It's best just to bide your time, as the majority of your elk are going to be taken in the first two hours of morning and the last hour of shooting light in the evening.
It was about 3:30pm when we decided to get ready. We put our gear away, spread the fire out, tore out the hot embers in the fire bed and then filled it up with snow. We started down the trail through the timber and eased our way up to the first meadow, didn't see anything and started on to the next. We got about half way across and Greg decided to take some photos of the Spanish Peak Mountains behind us. He asked Jared and I to get together on the horses so he could get a photo of us with the mountains as a backdrop. Jared and I struggled a bit, trying to get the horses faced towards the camera and as we were doing that, Jared said, "There's an elk." He had spotted an elk about 350 yards behind us, bedded down in the thick timber. We all dismounted and looked it over with binoculars and Jared said, "It's a bull!" I still couldn't make out any horns, but did see a bunch of dead limbs behind it that could have been mistaken for horns. Jared swore he could see the elk move it's head and when it did the "horns" moved too. The bull was bedded down broadside to us and did not seem spooked or nervous at all.
I thought it would be best if Jared and Greg both got good rests and shot at the same time since it was a bit longer shot than Jared had ever taken and the bull was right on the edge of a big steep canyon full of dead fall. Greg said he couldn't really see the bull very well, which he told me later was a little fib, he just wanted Jared to have the bull all to himself.
We got Jared into a good steady prone position with a couple of backpacks to use for a solid rest. The bull was still not spooked so I told him to take his time and when it felt right, to squeeze the trigger nice and slow. Of course, it seemed like forever but finally the shot was taken. I could see the bull try to rise up out of his bed, get halfway, then slide down the hill out of sight. It's fun, as a father, to take your teenage son hunting, see him make a good shot and have him turn to you with a big grin from ear to ear.
We left the horses with Greg and Jared and I headed around a deep draw over to the bull. I tried to get Jared to walk. I did not want him winded when we got to the bull in case he needed to make another shot, but I might has well been talking to the horses. He jogged all the way until I was able to slow him down about 100 yards from where we last saw the bull slide down the hill. When we got to within 75 yards, I made him stop, relax and get his heart rate and breathing under control.
We snuck slowly down the hill, finally spotted him and he was still alive. Jared made one more well placed shot and put the bull down for good.
The most interesting part of this hunt was that the bull was bedded down not 150 yards away from where we had spent the entire afternoon. It had snowed some in the early morning, not much, probably about an inch. That bull's bed had no snow in it, he had been there all day and there's no doubt he heard us, but knew that we could not get close to him before he could bail off the side into the deep wooded canyon. He was old and smart, his ivorys' were worn right down to his gum line. He was also the toughest piece of meat I ever tried to eat.
Most people who have never hunted elk come out west believing that like whitetails, there are elk everywhere that the habitat looks good. Nothing could be further from the truth. Elk are..where the elk are, period. During our last hunt in Ed Hake's old camp (Ed sold the business, but was still guiding on occasion) I did not see an elk for the first five days, not even a cow. On the last evening the day before we were to leave camp I was hunting with guide "Russ" and we were at the top of Middle Ridge. We had hunted all day and were frustrated of another day of no elk, not even much sign. I believe a major part of the reason for lack of elk was that wolves had moved out of Yellowstone National Park into this area in the previous two years and the numbers just weren't there anymore.
We had about another hour of shooting light and had moved to the backside of the ridge to look down into another drainage. It was a beautiful late afternoont for hunting,.... cold, soft snow and just enough of a light breeze to be used in our favor. As we stood there looking into the other drainage, we heard it, a bugle, followed shortly after by another different toned bugle. Two bulls were down in the bottom of that drainage and they were obviously interested in a cow that was in a late estrus.
I've lived in Montana since 1997, hunted there since 1993 and there have only been two times that I've heard bugling during the rifle season. Russ and I looked at each other, both with the same thought. It was late, we did not have time to get to a trail where we could get the horses down into this drainage and this might be my one and only chance for a bull before we had to leave tomorrow afternoon. I looked at Russ and stated the obvious, that I was headed straight down to get into those bulls before we lost our light.
Russ stayed with the horses and I took off over the edge of a very steep slope and into the timber. It was quick getting down, the snow was about knee deep and I managed to do a quick jog to the bottom. Once I got down, I snuck quickly through the timber and stopped every once in a while to get a bearing from the continued bugling. I got to those bulls about two minutes after legal shooting light and the only thing I saw was the bull's horns and ass sliding out of a meadow into the timber.
It took me over an hour to climb back up that slope that had taken me 15 minutes to come down. I found Russ at the top, explained what happened and we headed back to camp.
Russ and I headed back into that drainage the next morning. We had to leave a few hours before daylight as it was a long ride from camp, but when we got near the area, sure enough, we heard bugling. We tied the horses up, made our way into thick timber and as we got close, we were spotted by a couple of cows. The wind was in our favor, so we just held tight for about 15 minutes and listened to a bull bugle from what couldn't have been more than a hundred yards, but we could not see him. The wind had to have shifted slightly, because the next thing to happen was a crash of limbs as the entire bunch headed out. I ran up the small hill as fast as I could, spotted cows charging across a very small meadow and then the bull came through the thin timber in a half run and Russ gave a quick cow call. That bull stopped on a dime, looked over at me and I made the shot.
Montana is tied with Wyoming as the states with the second highest elk herd at about 120K. Colorado still ranks number one with about 280K. Success rates for tagging an elk are highest in WY at 43%, but it's one of the most difficult states in the west to get drawn as a non-resident. Colorado has over the counter elk tags for non-residents and in Montana you have about a 60% chance of getting drawn as a non-resident.and both states have an approximate 22% success rate of filled tags. The drawing ratio in Montana might get higher soon as they have eliminated "outfitter sponsored" tags, which placed those tags into the general drawing, but raised the tag price from an already high $675 to almost $1000 for non-residents. I think the tags will be plentiful, I'm just not sure the general public is going to be willing to buy them all up at that price. I believe the voters of Montana made a mistake by eliminating "outfitter tags" and will suffer the consequences of unfilled tags. For the most part, I don't believe the general public understood this when they voted.
There are not elk around every tree in Montana and for those first time elk hunters who come out west to bag one, be prepared to pay the outfitters price, which will increase your chances many fold. If you come on a "do it yourself hunt," do a LOT of research, get in great physical condition and if you bag a bull, well then, you've really accomplished something.
Hunt hard,
Ron
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