A Minnesota Elk Hunting Story, Part 1

[Gissert]

Back on August 6, I was just getting home from helping run the sporting clays shoot for our local chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF).

I grabbed the mail out of the mailbox, and there was a letter from the Bemidji office of the Minnesota DNR. I had a very funny feeling that I was going to like what this letter had to say. Upon opening it, found that I had been one of six people selected to take part in the 2005 Minnesota elk hunt. Not only was I selected, I drew the only bull tag! Better yet, the bull hunt was to take part in the heart of the rut. At last, I had my chance to hunt bugling elk! What a strange feeling it was to know I would be the ONLY person in the state hunting elk at the time. I had to read the letter multiple times to make sure it was for real. The hunt was to take place from September 17- 25.

There are many people who are unaware that there are wild, free ranging elk in Minnesota. Actually there are two herds now. The herd I would be hunting is known as the Grygla herd, which is northeast of Thief River Falls. This herd was estimated to be at 35 animals, minimum. The other herd is known as the Kittson County herd, and this herd is somewhat larger, but is not hunted at this time.

The first call I made was to our RMEF field director. It was hard to tell who was more excited. To our knowledge, this was the first time that a RMEF committee member had been drawn for this hunt.

I started to make a list of things I had to do to get ready.

On August 8, I called the Thief Lake DNR Refuge where the elk season orientation session will be held, and spoke with one of the managers there. He gave me an overview of the terrain and a breakdown of the private to public land ratio. He described the herd make up, and gave detailed direction of where the elk are often spotted, and where they usually rut. After our conversation, I immediately ordered plat books of Marshall and Beltrami counties, and eagerly awaited their delivery.

The plat books arrived on August 12, and immediately started highlighting the public areas, and looking at the names of the private owners that I would need to contact to obtain permission. I was getting a better picture of what to expect, and the urge to go on a scouting trip was overwhelming.

I had planned on driving to the hunt zone on August 15, but a massive hail storm had caused extensive damage to our house and vehicles the prior week. I had to wait for the insurance adjuster to come before I could make any trip. Since I had purchased some new brass for my .338 a couple months prior, a little time at the reloading bench would be good therapy while I waited for the insurance adjustor. I ran the new brass through the sizing die, and checked the cases for length. I hand primed the batch of 50, and set up the powder dispenser and scale. I grabbed my last container of Reloader 19, and my heart sunk. Empty! I looked at the clock, – 9AM. I had a couple of hours before my appointment, so I called the local reloading shop in town and they had one pound of Reloader 19 in stock. I ran into town and returned home and got to charging each case with 70.0 grains of powder, and then seated a Barnes 210 grain X-Bullet to complete the process. This load has been a very accurate combination for me. After the adjustor left, I grabbed my shooting bag, Savage 111 rifle, and headed to the range.

I put up one target each at 100 and 200 yards. As I settled into the sandbags, I could really feel the effects of not shooting a rifle for several months had left me rusty. After a couple of shots, I began to feel more comfortable, and tweaked the scope to get the bullets striking 1.5 inches high at 100 yards. I turned my attention to the 200 yard target. I shot a 5 shot group, and walked down to retrieve my target. I had flinched pretty badly on my last shot, so I knew I would have one flier. Apart from the flubbed last shot, the remaining four holes had a spread of 1.5 inches, with three of them leaving one ragged hole. That was a good note to quit on, so I returned home very happy with the results. A few more range sessions, and I should be good to go.

On August 16, I awoke at 3am and quickly hopped into my truck to go on a scouting trip. I wanted to hit the hunting zone shortly after daybreak. My eyes were itching and watering terribly from what seemed to be summer allergies. The sun began to crack the horizon as I drove along the southern edge of the Aggissiz wildlife refuge. The smell of heavy dew and swamp mud from the refuge heightened my excitement. I turned north out of Grygla at about 6:45. A few miles out of town, CR#54 takes sweeping turn to the east, and then back to the north. This was where the DNR manager from Thief Lake had instructed me was a good spot to start looking. As I began too slow down. My itchy eyes caught sight of two tawny forms in an open grassy field. Elk! Bulls! I coasted to a stop, and grabbed my field glasses. They were two respectable 5 x 5 bulls, still in velvet. They were about 400 yards out. I watched them for about 5 minutes until they cantered off behind a grove of trees. I drove on to the north, and then to the west for a few miles, looking at the public land against the plots shown on the platbook. I turned south, and then back east, coming back out onto CR #54 about a half hour after I had seen the two bulls. My eyes were really killing me at this point, and I was thinking of how welcome the September frosts would be to ease this eye irritation. My bleary eyes saw a speck of brown far off the road in another portion of the same field the pair of 5 x 5 bulls had occupied. Up came the field glasses….another bull! I could make out a long sweeping fourth dagger point, with two more points behind that forming the whale tail of a 6 x 6 rack. I forgot all about my itchy eyes for a bit. This was a very, very good bull.

It was getting to be about 8AM, so I drove around some more of the elk zone, seeing numerous deer and sand hill cranes. A quick visit to the Thief Lake DNR station, and I headed home. I could not get over my eye fatigue, and my sunglasses and windshield just would not clean up enough to ease the irritation. It was time to start calling landowners, and I grabbed a telephone book in Thief River falls on my way south.

When my wife arrived home from work, I told her of my day, and how excited I was to have spotted three bulls. After a few minutes, she causally asked, “Hey, honey, did your eyes bug you today?” “Yeah!” I responded, “ Even the air conditioning did not help. How did you know?”

“Well, you put in MY contacts this morning.”

I contacted the landowner of the fields where I had spotted the bulls, and he quickly granted me permission to hunt. His fields have a large amount of public land adjacent to them, so this made nearly 5 square miles for me to hunt. He gave me the name of another nearby property owner I should contact, as they had drawn a cow tag on a landowner permit last year.

I contacted them and spoke with the landowner’s college age son. He and I had a lengthy conversation about the herd, and how much he liked to watch them. We talked of deer and elk hunting, and he was so engaging that I forgot all about asking permission to hunt their lands. He gave me additional names of more landowners to contact.

I spoke with them, and they quickly and graciously granted access to their land.

So far, things were going very well indeed!

To be continued……

[Juice]

Thats harsh man...Leaving us spell-bound like that! Its like a commercial at the best part of the movie!

[tealitup]

KEEP GOING

[fishnhooks]

Rick might have to add ELK to the Deer-Bear-Moose-Varmit forum.

Can't what to hear more!

"hooks"

[hobbydog]

Not to hijack your story Gissert but thought I would add a pic and a bit more info. The Grygla herd is a non native elk herd that was imported to try re-estblish elk in MN. They never did well and the farmers did not like the damage they did. The herd in NW MN is believed to be native elk that have moved back down from Manitoba and reclaimed areas that they used to occupy before the 1900s. Thanks the The Nature Conservancy's great efforts, the habitat is there. Also, the farmers/ranchers and locals in this area love the elk and have known about their presence for several years now. They were not eager for word to get out that there was a decent size herd in the area. My cabin is right in the middle of this area and it is fun to see these magnificent animals back in Minnesota. Below is a pick of a nice bull I shot in late June of 2004.

[BLACKJACK]

C'mon Gissert, forget work and get back to the story, we want to hear it!! Loved the part about the wifes contacts!!!

[hanson]

I think I know how the story ends but I can't wait to read it from Gissert.

[Gissert]

Hobbydog -

Thanks for the picture and information. I am an elk junkie, especially so with these two Minnesota herds.

Some of the DNR lands right on the "S" curves on CR54 was purchased with Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation funds and given to the DNR, circa 1987. There is a very nice winter wheat looking food plot on there right now.

Where abouts is your cabin at?

[hobbydog]

Quote:

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Hobbydog -

Some of the DNR lands right on the "S" curves on CR54 was purchased with Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation funds and given to the DNR, circa 1987. There is a very nice winter wheat looking food plot on there right now.

Where abouts is your cabin at?

---

It is about a mile east of Caribou...if you know where that is.

[Gissert]

Oh, I thought you had a cabin near Grygla.

That Kittson herd is bigger than the Grygla herd, and the RMEF is very excited about it.

As a matter of fact, I know exactly where Caribou is.

Do you happen to have a brother in the aviation industry? If so, I think I have been to your cabin in the mid 90's.

[JEV]

Ah...caribou....I know where that is...caught some nice catfish off that bridge this summer...there are some dandy elk in that area. We have friends who live in that area and they have some pretty awesome sheds from some big bulls...

JEV

[Gissert]

I just spoke with my RMEF Field Director. He just received some video of two bulls in the Caribou area challenging each other. The are both in the 380 Boone and Crockett class.

I'll see if I can get some of that footage here if Rick wants it.

[hobbydog]

Quote:

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Oh, I thought you had a cabin near Grygla.

That Kittson herd is bigger than the Grygla herd, and the RMEF is very excited about it.

As a matter of fact, I know exactly where Caribou is.

Do you happen to have a brother in the aviation industry? If so, I think I have been to your cabin in the mid 90's.

---

Yup, that would be him.

[Gissert]

Wow, what a small world! I see your brother every day, LOL.

What a great place to have a cabin. I had a wonderful time the weekend I spent there.

[Rick]

Yes,

we would love to see the video