mthillrunner
Active member
My wife has a antlerless elk depredation tag for MT that's good through mid February, started mid January. We were not able to get out until today. I took her out this morning, hiked a few miles, was great to be out with her. Didn't see anything. Had to get our 2 boys from school/daycare early afternoon. We decided we would go back out as a family & at least enjoy the beautiful day and do a hike.
We stopped on the highway, and saw four legal elk from 2-3 miles away in the spotting scope. Drove as close as we could & had a mile hike left. She's hunted with me a few times but never shot anything other than a gopher. When we left the truck I sent her and our 8 y.o. ahead, told them how I would go about the stalk. I wanted to see how she would do. I walked with our 3 y.o. My parting words were "if you are not comfortable WITH ANYTHING, don't shoot, no harm no foul"
The hike is a fairly abrupt 300 ft climb first 400 yds, then another 300 ft over the last 3/4 mile. Both boys literally flew up the hill. As my youngest and I created the hill, we saw it unfold ahead of us. The country is wide open. We saw my wife and older boy crouched not 100 yds from the elk. Due to curvature of the hill, she could only see their ears. I watched her creep forward to about 50 yds, but she appeared to still not be able to see enough to shoot at. I pulled out a cow call, gave 2 loud calls, they all four stood. About 2 seconds later I saw one drop. First elk in wide open country down, 50 yd shot. Could not have been more proud of her on her first elk, my 8 yo for guiding mom, or my 3 yo for doing that hike both ways on his own. Damn right, I am a blessed guy for sure! I'll wait til morning to get it home. Wish I had pics, but was dark when we all got up to it.
We stopped on the highway, and saw four legal elk from 2-3 miles away in the spotting scope. Drove as close as we could & had a mile hike left. She's hunted with me a few times but never shot anything other than a gopher. When we left the truck I sent her and our 8 y.o. ahead, told them how I would go about the stalk. I wanted to see how she would do. I walked with our 3 y.o. My parting words were "if you are not comfortable WITH ANYTHING, don't shoot, no harm no foul"
The hike is a fairly abrupt 300 ft climb first 400 yds, then another 300 ft over the last 3/4 mile. Both boys literally flew up the hill. As my youngest and I created the hill, we saw it unfold ahead of us. The country is wide open. We saw my wife and older boy crouched not 100 yds from the elk. Due to curvature of the hill, she could only see their ears. I watched her creep forward to about 50 yds, but she appeared to still not be able to see enough to shoot at. I pulled out a cow call, gave 2 loud calls, they all four stood. About 2 seconds later I saw one drop. First elk in wide open country down, 50 yd shot. Could not have been more proud of her on her first elk, my 8 yo for guiding mom, or my 3 yo for doing that hike both ways on his own. Damn right, I am a blessed guy for sure! I'll wait til morning to get it home. Wish I had pics, but was dark when we all got up to it.
