09 Montana Hunting Adventure.

[Cheetah]

In an effort to tell as good of a story as Scoot, here is the tale of my Montana adventure this year.

Our trip started as most elk hunting trips do. We were drawn for tags, permits, etc. then procrastinated until a week before the trip to really get our act together. We hunt the Missouri River Breaks in Montana, usually every two years due to how the drawing usually works. There are two ways to hunt this, either driving through miles and miles of gravel and ranch roads to access from the land-side, or by boat and camping on the river shore and working up from there. We prefer the water, but this year proved interesting.

I had taken the time to watch the weather reports, and our chosen week looked decent. We couldn't really change it anyway due to a cousin getting married on the 9th, our usual trip week. The basic report said windy to start, chance of showers on Wednesday, and sunny and calm after that. Once we hit the road, the reporter got worse and worse...

We arrived to 30-40mph sustained wind conditions that would maybe taper off to the 20+ range. There was no chance in hell we were going to take the boat 10 miles in those conditions loaded with gear. We left the boat in town and decided to drive the long way around to hunt from above. In all the years my dad has hunted this area, he never took this route. 100+ miles of gravel, lots of antelope, and we finally arrived at what ended up being an abrupt end to the road that the map said continued on. We set up camp in the wind, and [PoorWordUsage]'d with a local who hunted that morning and had just walked out to head home with his 10 y/o son. They reported seeing jack squat for elk and weren't coming back. Not a good sign for us.

We managed to get a quick walk in to check out the country from the hill top before sunset that night. Spotted a cow and calf, and figured we would have a shot at them in the morning. Also glassed a herd (flock?) of 16 or more big horn sheep on a far off hillside. That was neat. Too far for any decent photos though, and no big rams visible.

Sunday was our first morning of real elk hunting and was less than spectacular. We walked a few miles back in burned out timber to get to the bluffs above the river coulees we normally hunted. On the way we came across part of the big horn sheep group we had seen. I took some nice photos of them at 200 yards, they couldn't care less that we were there.

By mid-morning we had yet to see a single elk, heard no bugling in the wind, and managed to find two camps from other hunters. Definitely a bad day, and now our prime hunting area was cut off by two camps of multiple hunters each. The one closer to us even had horses, so they could cover far more of the country than us in less time. I was starting to feel a bit depressed, and hoped that the wind would quit so we could pack up and drive out to get the boat. We walked back to camp and had lunch, took a nap, and waited until mid afternoon to try a different area. That proved to be good, and we at least finally found an elk that was huntable. He was too far to chase that evening before dark, but a small 6pt bull got my hopes up for the trip.

As we hiked back to camp before dark, not more 200 yards away I looked up and saw an amazing sight. A single elk in an old dried watering hole eating grass! We glassed him, it was a spike, and he was as good as dead if we could get a shot. We aren't proud, too many years of blown opportunities and two tags to fill. Of course I looked again and guess what, two mule deer, walking right for him. Great, just what we need, those buggers blow more stalks than I care to think about. So we went for option two, the cow call. He was solo, he'd come to us right? Wrong... He got nervous is what he did, and went to hide behind a juniper bush. Since it was close to dark, we had to move, and we snuck in hoping he wouldn't spot us through the juniper. 80 yards out, breeze on the back of the neck, and off goes Mr. Elk. What the hell? 30mph winds in our face all day and now it swirls behind? Good grief...

Day two, Monday, we woke up and decided we would head towards the 6pt bull from the previous evening. We glassed and glassed, and didn't see much of anything. Finally I found a single cow moving fast over a ridge and into a cut near where we had seen the bull the previous day. We decided to hike the half mile closer to try to spot her in the cut she walked into. We arrived only to realize that what appeared to be a small cut was really a huge cut with lots of pine trees and areas we couldn't even begin to see into. Not much option though, we hoped she was alone, so we tried sneaking through it. This produced no results though, found some good fresh sign, but no real elk. The walk back to camp was a lot further than it seemed when there was actually an elk on the other end.

That evening we went back to our morning glassing positions and couldn't find a single elk. Heck, the only one I saw was the 6pt bull come walking out of the place we tried sneaking the cow in the morning. How the heck did we miss him in our trek through his bedding area? He walked onto the ridge, and as I went for the big camera he disappeared over the top into the far far FAR coulee.

Our first two days were done, nothing to show for it, but we did manage to get some cell phone reception. Good thing too, we found out that what was originally just some slight showers was now a major rain system moving across the entire state and would eat up Wednesday and some of Thursday for sure. The ranch roads near our camp would be a mess, no way in hell we'd get out in those conditions. So we decided we would hunt Tuesday morning then get out and hope to come back by boat.

Tuesday morning was upon us, I knew this might be our last chance at elk with the weather turning worse. We hiked out of camp and glassed the same area where we had managed to at least see a couple elk. We found zilch. Nada. Zippo. Finally I saw three far off in the distance. What the heck, lets go for a walk. It's only three coulees over and probably four+ miles of hiking just to get there.

As we started walking we got maybe a hundred yards and I looked up to the east. My eyes went wide at the sight of it. Five elk were barreling across the far ridge line coming towards our end of the coulee! I couldn't believe it! We ran fast to get ahead of them and down into the bottom of the cut to try to get a shot. The whole time praying they would slow down, they did of course once they hit pine trees, but they were still moving fast. We hustled to the bottom and I snuck up to a juniper bush on our side of the cut. My dad was to my right, and just as I got to the bush he ducked and swore, cow elk, close. He was made, he figured he just blew the hunt because she was right on top of us. I never saw her, apparently she came up not 20 yards away on the other side of my juniper just as I got to it. She didn't bail out though, she just balked off below us and the other four sat on the far side of the cut. We ranged them for 115 yards, with the closest point being 95 yards if they walked past us. Not good. We decided after ten minutes of watching them that I would crawl back out of sight and hustle to the bottom and get across the main coulee. They were obviously eyeballing the trees on the far side and wanted to go there. It took a while, I got in position, and the elk never moved. Finally after what was probably a total of 45 minutes from the time they got into that cut in the first place I looked out to see them moving. The wrong way... They crossed the cut towards my dad, but they went above him probably 80 yards away and he couldn't see them. He knew they moved, and got up to the juniper I was next to, but couldn't get close enough for a shot. The whole group disappeared over the top.

That was it right there, one flash of excitement and we had to go back to pack camp to get the heck out before the rain moved in. When we got to town we went to the library for internet access, the weather report and radar was even worse than before. A major system was developing, and it was a good thing we got the heck out of there when we did. It was guaranteed we would be in mud city, population us.

That night we camped at a state campground, they had showers! Sorta hot too! We spent some time talking with a federal fisheries guy who turned out to be from Mankato of all places. He gave us a great idea! There were still surplus whitetail and mule deer doe tags available, all we had to do was go to the main DNR office and see what they had. THE TRIP WAS SAVED!

Now, I'm going to stop here, because both of my cameras are in my dad's boat. Figures I would forget the most important bag when we got home. I will finish with three photos from the rest of our little adventure in Montana. I hope you guys get excited.

30 yards from my hiding spot under a cottonwood tree.

40 yards from my spot.

Me being really pumped after watching six huge bucks within bow range.

Tune in again in a day or two once I get my cameras and more pictures ready.

[Scoot]

Great stuff, Cheetah- thanks very much for sharing! I'm looking forward to the rest...

[mrklean]

great story so far

[DonBo]

Great story Josh, I'm leaving Thursday. Could you have your story all wrapped up by then please?

[S.D. Ice Angular]

So are you using a bow or rifle?

I did not realize the season was open in Montanta that early

What towns were you areound?

[Cheetah]

DonBo, you should call my dad and tell him how important it is that he digs my cameras out of the boat. He forgot them yesterday, I got my extra boots though.

SDIceAngler, archery only for us. Most states archery opens early to mid September for deer, and elk opens in August in some states I believe. We were hunting in region 6, check out the MT Block Management site for land to hunt, the number of opportunities out there is insane. Nothing like trying to scrounge up a few acres in MN.

http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/hunteraccess/blockman/default.html

http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/hunteraccess/blockman/region6.html

[Cheetah]

Prepare yourself for action, suspense and drama! This is way better than TV!

Like I said on Monday, the trip was saved now that we were able to buy some whitetail deer licenses. We bought one each, with the option of coming back for more herd management tags later. The nice lady at the FWP office helped us find some Block Management areas that would be good places to check out, and she also gave us the name of a rancher in the area named Willie who was asking for hunters to come clean out his fields of nuisance deer. We were happy to assist. His only request was that we not shoot the really big buck, his daughter was finishing firearms safety and wanted that one for her first deer. We didn't have buck tags, so it was no trouble, we took pictures though.

Finding Willie wasn't too hard, and he took us for a tour of his fields in his pickup. He didn't own a lot of fields, his cattle herd was on land somewhere else, we were going to hunt his cut wheat and alfalfa fields. He pointed out where the deer tend to come out in the evening, and how he would regularly see 60+ at a time. Back in January and February he had the FWP come out and do a herd control kill where they shot 120 deer and donated them to the food shelf. 120!!! And he still had 60+ each night in his fields! I was excited.

Before anyone gets too excited, I'm not going to go into detailed accounts of every single deer that walked by. We'd be here all day, I lost track and every time out I saw anywhere from 20 to 70 deer, I stopped counting after the first dozen would walk by...

Wednesday evening, first night on Willie's land, and we went right where he directed us. It was super windy from the storm we were in the middle of, and raining. My dad took a tree stand along a trail that looked more like a highway. I crawled under a big cottonwood tree that had a main beam leaning out to the side so I had cover from the rain, wind, as well as a good natural ground blind. The deer were on us instantly, I no more than got in position and glassed a group of 6 or more bucks plus does working towards me a hundred yards away or so. They came in faster than I expected, and the wind direction was not ideal, so the first buck in the field caught me and blew out the herd just as the does were coming through. I remember having at least four groups come through of 10+ deer each. The big 10pt that Willie told us about was in one of them, though my photos didn't come out as well as I had hoped on that guy. Unfortunately the only deer close enough for shots were bucks, all the does were at 60+ yards. I finally had one come by near sunset, and I drew on her, but she moved through too fast and quartering away with no shot. My dad managed to get off one shot and in the wind he just grazed a doe, no blood trail, and arrow lost to the alfalfa field.

That night a strange thing happened. This is a first for me hunting with my dad. He actually sprung for a HOTEL! I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. He was pretty cold from being in that tree in the wind and rain.

Thursday morning was slow for us, my dad stayed in the original corner we hunted Wednesday night, and I moved off to another field across the road that Willie owned. We quickly found out that the deer don't stick around in these fields too long into the morning. I managed to sneak up to a group of mule deer, which at first I couldn't identify. I almost shot the big doe when she came up to about 5 yards from me crouched next to a cottonwood tree. I finally got a better view of one of her friends and ID'd them as mule deer. I kept hoping they were just funny looking whitetail deer, but the tail proved I was not so lucky.

Thursday afternoon we back out and I decided to move to down the field edge a bit from my dad. I found that there was another small alfalfa field that was a good 20 feet lower in eleveation than the rest, like a wide river bed. Of course it had two dozen deer standing in it feeding! I snuck above them in the upper field along the irrigation ditch and couldn't manage to find any does that would be within bow range if I snuck into the brush. Finally one managed to see my head moving through the grass and the herd spooked out. I eventually crawled down and set up a ground blind on the side of the field. The wind was still high, and this was a good spot to have tons of deer with no chance of smelling me. Long story short, all the deer came back, and then some. I'd guess 50+ deer walked past me that stand, not many within 40 yards, they sure do like the far half of that field, which was only about 80 yards wide. I didn't want to take any long shots in the wind though. Finally one doe came by at 20 yards and stood for me, I shot, and the string hit my sleeve. Arrow flight was good, but she was skittish in the wind already and ducked the second she heard me shoot. I gave her a haircut as the arrow slid over her back. A half our later they circled back as sunset was nearing, and I got another shot at 30 yards this time. I had my arm guard on this time to keep my jacket held back, but it didn't help. She too was skittish, and she ducked even faster than the 20yd deer. She beat my arrow by a good three or four inches. I couldn't believe it... I still had a good 20 minutes to hunt, but half the herd piled into the far end of the field, and the other half ran off.

On my way back up the hill to go to the car, I quickly spotted another group that was coming out right above me. A few big bucks, some does, fawns, a dozen deer for sure. They were 60+ yards into the field, but one doe came my way and presented a 30yd shot from the irrigation ditch. I shot, and she ducked. I wasn't sure due to the low light, but I thought I might have hit her high on the back. I glassed her as she ran across the field, then stopped, and stood around looking to see what happened for a good five minutes. I couldn't find any blood on her, and she walked away. I never found that arrow.

Like I said, I didn't keep track, but there sure were a lot of nice 8pt bucks running around in the groups I saw that night. I know at one point I had 6 bucks all together that looked nearly identical.

On my way to the car I saw my dad out in his field, when I got to him he had just finished gutting a nice doe he had shot at 30 yards. Never mind that he missed one before that.

Friday morning, another slow one for us. I moved back to the field where I missed the deer the night before, and had my dad take a tree stand 50yd from me. I could see plenty of deer above the far side moving down a fence line. Sure wish I was over there... A bunch of deer crossed the field from my side, seems they didn't like the idea of walking to me, but preferred to go to the herd I was glassing. Eventually I had a half dozen or so circle back around and come in from my left, but none would come close enough. They spotted my dad up in his tree and eventually spooked. After a while we drove off to check the block management farms we had picked out, and they were similar field setups. We tried driving one small section of river bottom, and my dad pushed a 6pt buck right past me, but no does.

Friday evening, this was it, time to shoot something! Dad went back to the original corner we hunted, and I set up in a tree along the field I got my shots in. It was tough setting a stand with six deer standing in front of me, hearing every noise I made cutting branches and stuff, but there was good wind and lots of cover so they never spotted me. Not 10 minutes after getting situated the herd moved back into the field and I had two dozen deer in front of me again. Lots of photo opportunities, and no does would come in range. Good grief. Near sunset I finally had a few fawns come by, but I didn't feel like shooting one of the little buggers.

We decided that night that we would hunt Saturday morning before packing up to go home. I had one more opportunity to finally shoot something, and by this point it was pretty rediculous with all the deer running around that I couldn't get one. I moved in across the alfalfa I had been hunting and managed to find a tree big enough for a stand along the far fence line they were going up and down every morning and evening. I got in before the deer came through, but I could see them out in the cut wheat. They farted around for a while, and started coming right to me. 100 yards out the big bucks in the group decided it was a nice day to see what it was like on the other side of the field. They grunted a couple times, and the whole herd hopped the fence and took a leisurely stroll to the far tree line. grrrrrr

After standing there for almost three hours with the whole herd not where they were supposed to be, I started getting ready to go. I glassed one last time and by some miracle spotted one deer on the tree line of the lower alfalfa field. It was small, but no horns, and I was on my way home. I figured it was slowly moving across in front of me, and might give a 50yd shot, so I hopped out of the tree and ran to cut it off. I snuck into the cottonwood tree line and found it bedded 40 yards in front of me, I could only see it's head. I figured it for a fawn based on the size, whatever, Willie wanted the deer killed and I had a tag to fill still with only minutes until we left for home.

As I stood there with no options for sneaking closer, at least ten minutes passed. I tried grunting, but it wouldn't stand up. Finally I heard something coming up behind me, and as I peeked over my shoulder I found my dad walking up to me. I signaled to him that I had a deer in front of me, so he got an arrow nocked and crept up to another tree ten yards behind me. The noise of him walking got the deer up, and I drew as it dropped down to the field line and came right in. It stopped right in front of me, and I shot for 30 yards. Right over it's back. Duh, little deer, only looks farther. It ran back a little, but was curious what the heck just happened, so it came right back! I was already at full draw with another arrow and had to grunt to make it stand still. 20 yards, horrible shot. The deer was quartering towards me, and I managed to hit far right across it's chest and hit it's front left leg, no vitals at all. I swore as it ran off with one leg flopping in the wind. I couldn't belive I just crippled a fawn so badly... I went to get my stand, angry at myself for such a horrible shot.

When I came back, my dad already found the arrow I hit the deer with. It had good blood, and the trail was great. We tracked it about 60 yards to some brush, and I went around the left expecting it to run out any minute. It was dead though. Apparently I had shattered it's far leg, but best of all I basically slit it's throat in the process. It bled out quickly.

[DonBo]

Great last minute heroics Josh, sorry about the elk, but way to save the hunt! I am shocked your Dad popped for a hotel! Knowing him, I thought you'd be sleeping in the truck.

[Cheetah]

Don, not only one night, but THREE! The first night was in the fancy place in town, after that we found a cheap motel. The first night he had a good excuse, it was really cold in the wind and rain. After that though, I think it's just because he is getting old. He turned 60 a few weeks ago. You didn't hear that from me though.

[mrklean]

cool story what do the doe tags cost out there?

[sticknstring]

Geeesh... talk about being run over by the deer. A whitetail hunters paradise. At least you were able to salvage the hunt. How do you get to Willie's place?

[Sifty]

Great story sound's like you had a great adventure.

Sifty

[Scoot]

Good stuff! Congrats on a great time!

[Cheetah]

cool story what do the doe tags cost out there?

Surplus tags for non-residents (does only) are $75 for the first, and $20 for each additional. Whitetail tags were for the whole region. Mule deer tags were by sub-zone, and some were sold out. There are also some tags where you can shoot either, but those too were sold out.

Buck tags are $350 and you'd need to put in for a drawing. Doesn't look very promising when I checked the regs today.

I have a few more videos to show from the trip, this was from Friday evening in my tree stand. I set up my Canon SD800 IS with a Gorrilapod tripod and wrapped it around a tree branch, and also tried it attached to the seat on the stand. The idea was to record an actual shot at a deer, but that didn't happen. The video quality is really good though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR12QZGnqq0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtN9ioUuM94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXv0Q_3-Ejw

[riverside]

Great story!!! I am heading out to the Fort Peck area the end of the month, Gun hunting muley & antalope (doe only). Where in Montana were you?