2016 Recap: Famine to feast

TRS_Montana

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Joined
Nov 19, 2014
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759
Location
Helena
I am finally getting a little bit of time to sit down and document the 2016 season. One of the best I’ve had, both in terms of memories and meat.

Season started off with a few days in a new area we now call “Big Bull Hallows”. We found this spot on Google Earth because of a wallow that was pretty obvious in the middle of a meadow. We covered roughly 50 miles in this basin and saw lots of elk, but (despite the moniker) nothing too exciting.

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A quick trip to one of my local favorites and we quickly gave up on making the weekly 2-hour drive to Big Bull Hallows. The rest of the archery season was spent at the old spot. For some reason, this year was incredible. One day we had (what we guess was) about 10 bulls on the side of the same mountain all fired up and going crazy. We played the thermals wrong and ran those boys out of the county! Here's the hill we scampered up in our attempt to close the gap:

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Archery season ended with no elk and about 120 miles on the ground. Lots of great encounters. At one point, I had a sow and cub black bear digging roots within 30 yards.

Opening day of antelope rifle season was gorgeous. A crisp 44 degrees. The night before, we had pushed a big herd out of the field we were going to hunt when we were going to set up camp. I was a little discouraged, but on Saturday morning, a lone buck comes walking up out of the creek bottom. It didn’t take long to decide he would be a great buck to fill the freezer with. A quick sneak and well-placed shot and that was that. Called my wife and she headed over with our little guy on her lap. Not a public land, back country hunt…but one I wouldn’t trade for anything. I can’t wait until the day that it’s Oliver’s turn to pull the trigger.
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We headed back to Helena and on Monday I was out to fill a doe antelope tag I had bought for the valley. I have seriously never had an easier hunt. I drove 5 minutes to a nearby alfalfa field, spotted the herd bedded down, walked 300 yards in a dry irrigation canal, and crawled to within range for my Mossberg 500 to send a slug through the lungs of a nice mature doe. Two antelope in the freezer and we were feeling pretty good about our meat situation.

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A couple weeks into November now, and I decided to check out a spot for elk that was about a 5 minute drive from work. I head out of the office at 3:30PM and park at the trailhead about 5 minutes later. As this was a fairly well-used trail, I decide it would be best to head up the nearest hill and scale the ridgeline to get up to my spot. As I crest the hill (~400 yards from the road), I suddenly see about 20 mule deer does. Luckily, I grabbed my deer tag on my way out the door. I’m really not too excited about shooting a mule deer, so I don’t turn on my ninja mode. As I’m watching the deer (all within 75 yards), I notice one that is bigger and sniffing a lot of butts. The longer I looked at him, the bigger he got. Eventually I decided that the circumstances were too serendipitous to pass up. Thus ended my deer season. Despite being one of the worst smelling animals I have ever encountered, he tastes fantastic.

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Back to elk.
My wife had drawn a cow tag this year. I had been seeing a fair number of cows and calves in a spot I had been hunting off and on, so we planned for my parents to come over and watch Oliver one Saturday morning. The morning of the hunt, we headed up to our meadow (about a 3 mile hike) by 5:00AM. On the way up, we got to a bigger meadow that rarely held elk because it was so close to the trailhead. That morning, though, there was about 30 head in the big opening. Since it was still dark, we sat and listened in despair to what sounded like 400 elephants mowing down the forest. I had a good idea of where at least some of them might go, so up we head. Right about 7:50AM (ten minutes before sunrise), we peek our heads out into a clearing. Sure enough, there are two big cows out in the open with their heads down. We watch for about 5 minutes, and I get Linnea set up on the bipod. When shooting light comes, I softly say “Whenever you’re ready, settle the crosshairs behind her shoulder and squeeze.”. We sat there for few more minutes and she says “I don’t have a clear shot.”. I scratch my head a bit, but assure her that there will be more to come. Another big cow walks out. Same thing, no shot. Finally, a little calf hobbles into the clearing. Linnea emphatically says “That’s the one.” I chuckle a little and briefly contemplate the fate of that poor calf. Before I can collect my thoughts, I’m startled by the report of a shot and the strangely satisfying “thud” of a good hit. The calf spins, obviously confused, and lays down for her final breaths. I can honestly say that there isn’t a hunting memory in this neural library of mine that is more concrete than the events of that morning. Everything was perfect and I am so thankful for the experience of that morning with my wife.

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My hunting buddy and I covered a lot of miles and spent a lot of time in the woods for the rest of the season. As most will tell you, it was a tough hunting season in the west. Finally, on Thanksgiving week, we head out for one last hoorah. We both agreed that we were going for broke. There was a spot that I wanted to get to that was about 5.5 miles from the trailhead and through some pretty crappy deadfall, but I knew there were elk there. About 2:30PM, we crest the peak of the mountain and begin our descent to “the lair”. 50 yards down, we bust what sounds like two bulls running together. We retreat and rethink our plan. As we’re sitting by a fire on the peak of the mountain, another hunter walks right by us. I couldn’t believe. Johnny Appleseed, we called him. Weird fellow. He just keeps walking and heads down in the direction of the elk. We give it about an hour and start angling away from Johnny. About 200 yards off the top of the mountain, we start to hear hooves. Out of nowhere, I see an elk hide moving through the trees. They know something’s up, but are confused. This raghorn took 3 steps in the wrong direction and stopped just long enough for me to get one into him at about 45 yards. He ran 20 steps and laid down.

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2016 ended up being a fantastic year. We are fortunate to have as much meat as we do, especially since we are expecting a second kid in August. I don’t expect next hunting season to be so bountiful.
 
Great write up and great pics!! Congrats on a heck of a season! You definitely earned your success. Thanks for sharing
 
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