Montana elk hunting 2010.

[Cheetah]

Hello everyone, I have returned from this year's elk hunting trip! My dad and I went to Montana again as usual. The FW&P decided last year to change the zone we usually hunt from a guaranteed archery permit to a lottery. This year we were s.o.l. without a permit and left to either hunt a general zone in the mountains, or get a 80% refund on our licenses and do something else. We chose to head west and try something new areas.

Since we chose to go west, we had a lot of homework to do. I started by looking up all the data online that I could find on the MT FW&P HSOforum and found zones we could use our general licenses in, as well as rough success rates for hunters. Unfortunately they don't show numbers for public vs private land and archery vs rifle success, which is I am sure a huge difference, but it was better than nothing. My dad talked to some guys he knew who pointed us in some general mountain ranges they have hunted. I then hit up the USGS HSOforum and saved down about fifty different topo maps of areas we thought looked good. My dad then ordered a few big maps from the FW&P office which helped to know the recent roads and boundaries. On top of all that data, I used Google Earth and Bing 3D to look for areas that weren't so steep we couldn't hunt, and a little more open country so we could glass. I then printed out a bunch of 11x17 color pages of the topo maps for the areas we thought we would work throughout the week.

We also considered areas with atv access, and also thought about borrowing one for the trip, but instead decided against it since it would be more to haul and equipment to take care of we didn't have any experience with. Better to do what we know how to do, walk and glass.

After all that, we actually ended up finding the elk in an area I didn't really even look at in my research and didn't have topo maps printed for... go figure...

[Cheetah]

Friday, October 1st. We left the Twin Cities in the early afternoon. Drove straight through the night alternating every few hours. Uneventful drive for the most part.

Saturday, October 2nd. Arrived in Bozeman just in time for the sporting goods guy to show up at Wal Mart so we could buy our archery permit. Dad bought a new thermos for some reason too. We worked our way south-west and into the Tobacco Root Mountains. I had chosen this area because my cousin's husband grew up in Ennis and hunted that area. Most of this area is crisscrossed with atv trails and roads, so I picked an area that had limited access. As it turned out even this spot was full of recreational folks and rifle hunters scouting the area, no other bow hunters. It was pretty clear this was steeper country than I expected. We went for a walk out of camp two miles up the nearest atv trail, it was a killer. Only a couple elk had used the entire canyon, not a great start.

We spoke to some guys scouting for rifle season and they confirmed that the elk weren't really in the area. One guy suggested a different trail up to a more remote area that only dirt bikes can get into. I had already known about this drainage, but didn't know about the trail going up. It was a good 1000+ft up an extremely steep hill on switchbacks, but once up there it was nice. No elk sign though right up top, so we glassed until sunset and headed down. It was a nice looking area though.

Sunday, October 3rd. Back up the switchback hill in the dark to get up top at first light for glassing. We split up to cover both the top and bottom of the drainage. Shortly after sunrise dad saw a young bull moose come down from the high pines. No elk though. After meeting back up and wondering what to do we happened to see a lone elk much higher on the mountain above us, it appeared to be a small bull but we couldn't see it very well. It dropped into a far cut and we lost sight. We glassed some more and then I saw a single cow come from the right and fast walk through a clearing towards the general area the bull was in. Having nothing else to do we started walking that way, at least a mile. When we got there we had no clue where the elk might have gone, it was thick timber, so we found a meadow that was not visible from the ridge we were on and did some cow calling and sat for a while. All we got was a dirt biker coming down the main trail past us. There were a few elk using this area, but it was so thick they could be anywhere. We decided that given the limited sign for the area combined with what others had told us we would drive down to the Gravelly Range since we had better intel for that area. It wasn't a long drive anyway and we could get there with plenty of time to hunt that evening.

When we drove into the Gravelly Range via the Varney side we saw a lot of cattle. We passed one camp, and saw two trucks going down some primitive roads into different cuts. When we passed the cattle we found a decent looking spot to set camp for that night. We didn't expect this to be a long term camp, just a base to start from. We glassed the area behind it until sunset, but did not see or hear anything. No fresh elk sign, and very little deer sign.

[Cheetah]

Monday, October 4th. Since the cut behind camp was hard to glass and didn't have any fresh sign, I went to the topos and figured we should try back up and across the road on a big open mushroom shaped flat top that we could glass a lot of country from. We quickly saw the cattle had worked this entire area all the way down the mountain and there were no elk to be found. After sunrise we finally saw one elk about four miles out on a far high meadow. We were already a good two miles from the road, and would have to go down and up a 1000ft cut, no chance of going for it. We instead chose to head back to camp, eat, and then figure something else out.

At camp I looked at the maps again and found that we could take the roads around to that far ridge. We started driving, it turned out to be a good 20 or so miles... Longer than I expected. On the way we spotted a grouse on the road, so we stopped and I crawled under the back storage area to find the single-shot 20ga and some shells. The dumb bird never moved even after spilling a grocery bag all over the road. I finally got loaded and ran out front of the truck, shot, and missed... I ran up while reloading and another grouse flew into the tree next to the road. I crouched down and blasted it out, too close but it was a thick tree so I took what shot I had.

We finally made it to the area we saw the elk and we walked around the area looking for sign and doing a little bugling and cow calling. Nothing responded, and there were only a few sets of tracks that were clearly weeks old. Back to the truck and more driving. We went south even further and finally found an area that it looked like a few elk were coming to water at a pond near the road. Nothing too exciting though. We decided we would head back up top to find a place to glass for the evening.

This is where things took a turn for the worst. 40 miles from town while crossing back down the 9500ft ridge line the truck decided it was done. Engine light on, shuttering, no power, done. We happened to be at the start of an atv track, so we rolled back in and started checking for leaks and fluid levels and easy stuff. No clue what was wrong, it would start, idle rough, and just not go anywhere. It was late in the afternoon now and my dad figured we could make the five mile walk to the campground we saw some other hunters camped in. This was only the 2nd confirmed hunting camp in the entire area that we had found. We got about a half mile and got phone reception off a high point, got voice mail for two people who could look up a tow service station for us, then batteries died... great... I said we should go to the truck to re-charge then try again. On the way back we looked out above the Snowcrest Range. Black skies. Really black. Like you're screwed if you leave the truck black. Dad still had the idea of walking in his head, so I told him I had no intention of going out with that weather blowing in. He agreed and we spent the night in the truck at 9500ft watching black clouds go down both sides of the ridge we were stuck on. It was interesting how they would split around us, we were rained on, but nowhere near as bad as just below us, and who knows down the road we would have been walking on.

Tuesday, October 5th. With cell phone batteries charged and our warmest cold-weather gear on, we hiked back to where we could make some calls. I had remembered I was an AAA member, so we called the people we left voice mails with to let them know we were ok, then called AAA. Talk about a hassle... Between dead batteries and dumb people on the phones we finally got the worst of five people to get us connected to D&D Auto Repair in Ennis and I explained exactly where we were in the range. He knew the area well, we weren't he only guys to be towed out that year. The AAA jerk tried to end the call while I was still talking to the guy, made no sense to me why, but I was able to get the direct phone number to D&D before AAA disconnected us. I quickly called D&D back directly so dad could discuss the truck further. They said they could get up to us by about lunch time, which in reality was more like 2pm, but it gave us time to glass the area around us for elk, of which there were none.

When Dan from D&D came to get us he was a very nice guy. Turns out he is part owner with his brother. He stopped at our base camp so we could pack it all up in case we weren't able to get back up there for a while. It took about an hour and a half to get back to town, and we were able to get some information from him about what other hunters in the area had reported. When we got to the shop we were lucky to be there before they closed for the night. Dan put one of his mechanics on our truck right away with the code reader. Turns out four of our injectors weren't working on the engine... He checked the fuses, which we hadn't even considered, and found the fuse for that side of the engine was blow. He put in a new one, truck ran like a champ. I felt like a complete moron... They tried to figure out what would have actually caused it to blow though and nobody could figure it out. So we left the shop with some extra fuses and went to find a motel for the night and dinner. If anyone is ever staying in Ennis like we were, the Fan Mountain Inn was nice, and dinner at the Reel Decoy BBQ & Grill was very good and recommended by the lady at the inn.

Oh, and the best part, we figured this tow would easily cost us a couple hundred dollars. Turns out Dan was able to get AAA to cover the entire tow charge and mileage, and we just had to pay for the off road fee and the shop time! The end cost to us was half the rates they charge for local tows in the Twin Cities area! I sure hope AAA doesn't read this, they might send me a bill...

[Cheetah]

Wednesday, October 6th. Back to hunting. I figured we should go back where we at least saw the one elk, and there was a much easier way into it from the main Madison River side. I got us on the road early just in case, but we got up in the hills with lots of time to spare. Unfortunately the entire area was socked in with fog. We couldn't even see fifty yards. We both posted on spots we wanted to glass anyway, and as the sun started coming up I bugled a little and worked down the logging road. After a while I did actually get a solid bugle response, but couldn't pinpoint the location. Dad hadn't heard it at all. I thought I had heard a second bugle too, but wasn't sure. We headed down the road the direction I thought it came from, but never heard another peep. We found where some elk had been working down a cut, but not many. A lot more walking, a grouse 5 yards in front of me in a tree that I passed, some coyotes calling, and no more elk talking and we gave up.

On our way back to the truck we saw a coyote had just taken a big dump right in the road we were on. Another few hundred yards further and there he was out in the wide open field! I quickly went for an arrow and dad ranged it, 45 yards. I use a HHA slider sight this year so had to adjust since I thought it was further, then it starts trotting and dad says 60. I set for 70, draw, let it stop, release. Arrow is flying perfect, then the coyote takes a couple more steps and I hit... right behind him as he walked out from under the arrow... So close.

We made some phone calls at that point since a couple guys in our archery club had been to this area in September for the opening two weeks. They suggested going to the west side of the range since they had good elk that way a month previously. We had nothing to lose, so we got in the truck and drove. Set up camp at the main camping area, and went for a walk about a mile up the valley. Of course we didn't get to glass very long because of a big rain front moving through and we hadn't staked down camp completely...

[Cheetah]

Thursday, October 7th. Finally, after almost five whole days of hardly seeing a thing we were in elk! They were going insane in this valley! We had two bulls screaming at each-other non stop. We worked up on them as best we could, but were going in blind. Every time we thought we might see the bigger sounding one on the creek bottom he would be just over the next rise. Finally he worked up onto the main ridge and then back down the wall towards camp a few cuts over so he and the other bull could bugle back and forth to each other. Nothing we could do really since we didn't want to blow them out, so we listened for a while and glassed. Finally we saw the one bull as he passed quickly through an opening, very big! He had easily four cows with him, probably more. We backed out and went to camp for food.

We wanted to check another spot that was suggested to us as well, which was only about five miles down the road. We went over and parked, and really didn't think much of the area. Not much water, and it just didn't seem like a big enough area away from the roads to hold animals. Boy were we wrong. There was so much elk sign in there it reeked of cattle, but it was the elk! The whole way up the atv road through a grassy area they had been feeding and a couple small water seeps were coming down the hill. After going up past the majority of the sign I spotted a spike bull about 100yd into the timber. He had a friend with him as well, but I only saw it's feet. We couldn't get any closer, they just walked away up the mountain. I tried bugling a bunch on this road, but nothing would respond. They were there somewhere though, a lot of them.

Since we knew where elk were bedded from the morning we went back there right away after our mid-day walk. On our way in the bulls were already bugling at eachother. We set up below and down-wind of where they were bedded above us and waited. Then we had a third bull bugle right above us! He was just showing through some trees, and I saw big antlers, and he had a friend! We had no clue these two were there, and it was very early for them to be coming down. The smaller bull was legal size, and he was only about 150yd above us, so we split up to to spots he might come down the ridge. He never showed though... The bugling went on and on. Finally dad saw a cow and some calves come down to water about 200yd away. The bull they were with didn't like that though. The bull above us started going back down the ridge towards camp. So I decided I would stay with that group while my dad stayed with the original ones we intended to hunt.

I dropped back to the creek so my scent wouldn't blow up and to cover any noise I made. I could swear that bull was right down on the main game trail I expected them to come to. I worked closer and closer, he was grunting and bugling right there! And then he wasn't... I couldn't see him, and apparently he decided he wanted to back up into the timber where his cows were. After a while I realized the wind changed and was blowing right at the hill. I looked up and spotted a cow staring down from the high sage brush area. She knew something was up, and I saw her and two lady friends walk off. The bull I heard bugling his way back towards the end my dad was on. Which he confirmed later, apparently the bull wanted to get more cows from the main herd before committing to water.

I worked back up the valley to my dad, and he said the main bull we heard came screaming down the hill at the cow and calves and wouldn't let them stay at water. He never showed himself, but he definitely didn't want the herd to go to water yet, but rather to stay high. We walked back to camp in the dark, the bull bugling the entire time.

[Cheetah]

Friday, October 8th. Not many opportunities left, so we made the best of it. It had started raining before we woke up, and the forecast called for rain today anyway. The bulls started bugling at first light. We were already most of the way to them. The lead bull did the same circle through the aspens as he did the previous morning, so we knew he would circle back to the main timber wall. We worked up tight to him, and a cow spotted us from 100yd out on the game trail. It was still low light though, and she was up wind, so she turned around and walked to the herd. We had to hustle though in case she dragged them out too fast ahead of us. The bull didn't like the cows moving ahead of him so fast, so he screamed his head off. We spotted him at about 100yd and circled around a bunch of pines to get at least even with him. He stood there screaming while we worked around, luckily it was really wet to cover our noisy and fast approach. At the end of the pines there was one last rise with sage brush on top.

My dad kept pushing me to move faster and the said to get up it. As I peeked over I saw the bull and his six or so cows clustered on a small rise in front of me. Up to now my glasses were fogging over any time I stopped, and this was no different. I struggled to slow my breathing to stop the fogging, couldn't get a range on them, figured 60 yards. But... one aspen tree, right between us, with all the branches covering the whole group... I couldn't believe it. Before I could really do anything or even decided if one was truly open for a shot the wind swirled and they blew out.

The bull was a big 6pt, and when I look at it in my mind again I see him as the most open of the group, quartering away, standing there. I should have shot... My arrow probably would have gone over the single branch only partially covering him. Maybe if I stepped up a little higher on the rise I was on I would clear it, I don't know. I ranged it later for 70 yards. Maybe I would have missed, I don't know, I was seriously bummed out at this point. We slogged back to camp, the other bull on the ridge was still bugling to himself a little, nothing we could do, he was up really high and we were soaking wet and tired.

We rigged up our blind/cook-shack as a clothes dryer. Lantern and stove going all day to get the rain gear and boots try as best we could. The rain actually stopped and we got some sun, so that helped. I started taking a nap when I heard my dad yelling from across the campground. I heard something about moose and campground, so I jumped up to run for the camera. There was a small bull, cow and calf that was passing right through. We had been seeing quite a few actually in this area every time out.

By afternoon anything hung dried out. We went back and split up for the evening, I went high hoping they might try that same move again, dad went low. Nothing happened. The elk shut up and sat tight, we didn't know if they were there or not. I did actually see one elk come down very early, probably a spike, couldn't tell. I also saw a big cow moose step out to check the area before sunset.

[Cheetah]

Saturday, October 9th. Last chance for a quick morning hunt then going home, and it was a cold morning. The elk weren't in the area we expected them to be in. After hiking back in we heard some bugling, but on the far left side of the area clear across all the aspens. We made a big circle in case they woke up on the wide we expected them to be on. No luck, we kept walking to the one we could hear. While crossing the aspen/meadow area we came across two moose, I didn't see them very well, but dad said the bull had a huge rack, probably 4ft across with tines like an elk. I wish I was in his spot to get a photo, by the time I could see them all I saw was black blobs entering the pines.

We worked up to the bugling elk, sneaking our way up the slope as it got steeper into the pines. It was very rocky on this side of the valley, and we came up to a big boulder field about 80yd wide. As my head came up to look I saw an elk on the far side looking our way. It heard us, but couldn't get our scent. We had a stare-down for a while and I could see it was a bull. It stepped forward, now perfect broadside and wide open like shooting in an open field. I ranged it slowly, 60 yards, small antlers.... Got the binocs up, a big spike... Talk about luck, last minute stalk, and we are only allowed to take cows and brow-tined bulls. I had to let him walk. He knew something was weird but never got our scent even though he kept licking the air. He turned and walked up towards the spot we heard the bull bugling. We kept after him, but either he warned the herd or they moved on their own, we didn't know. They were just gone.

While heading out of the mountains we saw that some of the higher peaks had snow on them from Friday's storms. It looked like the areas about 9500+, a couple were only a few miles from us.

The ranchers were pulling out their cattle as well, and were joined in the drive. Not like we had an option to go around.

The ranch fields around Varney are filled with whitetail deer, mule deer and antelope!

[Cheetah]

And that was that, no elk, one grouse, almost one coyote, and more moose than we could shake a stick at but not shoot. Our best moose day was the last, we saw 7 different moose that last morning. If we were the to grouse hunt, it would have been an awesome week. The grouse are thick in there, or at least we managed to find some every day that would be easy shots. I could have taken shots at for sure three in trees that I remember, but preferred to not keep my arrows instead.

We had heard about the two grizzly attacks in the Gravelly Range this fall, but we never saw any tracks or sign of bears. We also didn't see any sign of the wolf packs in the area. There were a few coyotes around, but not many.

I don't know what we are going to do next year. Dan from D&D Auto said he heard rumors the non-res elk permit price is going to go up quite a bit. I won't post numbers since I haven't found anything official, but it's enough to make us stop going to Montana. Everyone we talked to in town and in the field said the same thing about the low elk numbers in the Gravelly Range. We'll have to see what happens with the fees I guess. We would also greatly prefer to hunt the Missouri River Breaks area, so we might see about just trying to buy any leftover cow elk tags that might be available. I'd also like to do some deer hunting out west, but can't do two long trips each fall. We will just have to see what happens.

I hope everyone enjoyed my writing!

[HooknHorns]

Thanks for taking the time. Im always interested in hearing out of state adventures. Sounds like you just ran out of time.

[DHost21]

Awesome stories! I was out in montana last year and two years ago and didnt get drawn this year we hunt the helena national forest in the little belt mountains its a pretty good area and lots of deer around town you can hunt also. Its worth looking into if youre interested in montana hunting again. I havent heard about the price changes i sure hope it doesnt tho its already spendy. It sounds like you had a blast tho. I know i always did whether we would get elk or not. We stay in white sulfur springs at little hotel very nice tho and have a blast your stories and pictures reminded me of it so much thank you! It is always cool hearing about other people that hunt out there and know some of the areas of montana and the struggles and rewards of elk hunting!

[engfish]

The photos and the story were great. Thanks for sharing them with us. Maybe an antelope hunt next year?!?

[Scoot]

Great work, Cheetah! Thanks very much for taking the time to take the pics in the field and also to write it up and share with us. I know it takes a good bit of effort. Those of us who didn't get in the mountains this year really appreciated your efforts though!

You may have been disappointed with the outcome, but look at it this way-- I was sitting at my desk at work while you were out there chasing elk! To shoot an elk is great, but to be in that country is the real treat! Consider yourself very lucky to be able to have gone again. BTW, in case you can't tell... I'm jealous!!!

My cousin and brother hunted in the same range as you this year. He was out there the first week of Oct and they struggled mightily. I've had members of my family going to that general area for a couple decades and they know the area pretty well. This year was exceptionally tough for them. They called the trip off after four days of hunting due to a lack of numbers of elk-- they just couldn't find much at all and the elk weren't talking. That makes it so hard...

That area has a small but stable number of local animals. It also gets an influx of elk late in the year, when the big snow falls happen South of there. Some years there is a bigger migration, some years not as much. One thing you definitely captured in some of your pics though, it sure is pretty country! Did you hunt any of the areas by the Notch, the Hog's Back, or the Vipon? Just curious...

Regardless, thanks again for sharing!

[mrklean]

tons of speed goats out there looks like a great time but no elk still great memories

[Cheetah]

The vast majority of the antelope we saw were on the private ranches along the Madison River. There are tons of deer down there too. We only saw one herd of antelope up above Varney, and not many deer in the public land either. Once we were in the elk, there were deer, but everywhere else it seemed like the wildlife was pushed out by the September hunting pressure.

Scoot, I don't recognize those areas, but the maps kinda blurred together already in my head. Were your relatives camping up in the mountains? Maybe we saw them, there were only two other camps when we got there in the northern half of the range. We saw one trailer way up on the north end as you come in from Varney. The other was a tent at the Clover Meadows campground, I think they bailed out the day we got towed out, not sure though. After that we never saw another bow hunter, just a few vehicles driving through to sight see.

[sticknstring]

Thanks for the recap Cheetah & great pictures. That's some beautiful country and even though you came home without elk steaks, the memories & experience will stay with you. You'll have a better understanding for the next trip as well.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Awesome experience! I have a Sis that lives out in Bozeman and am hoping to hunt out there in the coming years. Let's hope they don't jack up the prices anymore!

[PFUNK]

Cheeta... the rumor you have heard is indeed the truth. But it is only up for vote right now and nothing has been decided yet. The proposal is known as I-161 and if it passes the state will replace the current 5,500 outfitter-sponsored big game combination licenses with 5,500 general nonresident licenses. The cost of these licenses will increase from $628 to $897. Pretty hefty increase in my opinion. I'm thankful I moved out here for school and have since gotten my residency here. Saves me a ton of money and hunting this country is absolutely amazing. I go to school in Missoula though so I hunt further west than you were at. Your story was a blast to read and it sure sounds like it was full of ups and downs. That's how my season has been here as well. We have had great luck seeing bulls but trouble getting on them. A few weeks ago we finally called one in and I got a shot at 26 yards and drilled him. However, I got terrible penetration (must have dead centered a rib) and never found the bull. Won't be shooting an expandable broadhead at these critters ever again. I think you may have been just catching the end of the rut while you were here. They were really going nuts around Sept. 18-20. It quieted down after that it seemed though. Thanks for the post!

[Cheetah]

Thanks for the info PFUNK, I googled I-161 and found it.

http://sos.mt.gov/elections/archives/2010s/2010/initiatives/I-161.asp

Sorry to hear about your bull. I just talked with my uncle the other night who was in Idaho, he hit one as it walked and hit a back through the chops and into a vertebrae and had no penetration, bull pulled out the arrow and kept going.