HSi-ESi
Well-known member
This hunt started out as a 'last minute' decision. Both my Brother and I have young families and higher-than-normal stress jobs. We had decided to focus our hunting this year on trips with our Dad. Since he's getting a little older (and a bit mobile impaired) - an OTC elk hunt can be a little problematic. So we've really focused on where to do some good Deer / Pheasant / Sharp-tail hunting with him on an extended weekend (coming in the near future). With our allotted time off being spent on that hunt - both my Brother and I had written off a good solid elk hunt.
Well, the week before rifle opening - my Brother called to mention that his opening weekend had opened up. One of his wife's college friends was coming into town - and it was OK if he went hunting. I talked it over with my wife - and she had been assuming that I would be going over opening weekend anyway. So with the weekend cleared, we started to focus on getting an elk.
Both of our freezer's were low on elk meat - so top priority was getting one down. Neither of us had had any time to do any scouting this year (except for a bow-hunt weekend in a different part of the state in September). So we immediately went with an old standby area in Southwest Montana, which for the last few years has been Brow-Tine only on the OTC tag. Our original plan was to pack in 5 miles or so - and keep a light, mobile camp (bivy's, limited food). This way we could cover ground and figure out where the elk were on Saturday, and hope to have one down early Sunday so we could make it to work Monday. We both knocked off early Friday so we could get to the trailhead at a decent time Friday night.
Since we made it with a little bit of light left on Friday, we glassed 'The Face' a bit. There wasn't much snow, so I wasn't putting much stock in finding any elk down low. But with only 10 minutes of glassing we turned up 2 different groups of elk. This changed our plans. We decided to make a go at these elk in the morning, and if things went bad - we could change areas to camp out Saturday night. The biggest issue in chasing elk on 'The Face' in this area is the number of hunters. In our experience, if the elk show themselves at all - then it's crawling with hunters in the morning. In anticipation of this, we decided to get above the elk in the dark and hopefully intercept them when they were pushed up to us.
With a general plan laid out, we ran back into town for food supplies and hit a quick dinner at one of the local bars. After dinner we ran back out to the trailhead, got our packs ready for the morning and slept in the parking lot.
Trucks started to come by us at 3:15 in the morning. We were surprised that folks were getting going this early. We had planned for a 4 AM start, but quickly got ready and on the trail. All of the trucks in the morning were headed to another parking lot, so it seemed like our group of elk would be un-molested.
There was no cloud cover that night and the moon was bright (even though it was a half-moon). So we walked up without using headlamps. As we moved up the mountain, we would see trucks coming up the valley floor. When they got near our parking lot, we'd stop and watch to see if they would stop - all of the trucks that morning continued on. We were very surprised that no-one had thought to come up the ridge and hunt the group we spotted Friday night.
At about 5 AM, we had managed to get within 500 yards or where we had spotted the elk the night before. As we glassed the face, we found that the elk had not moved since we last spotted them. This was good and bad - we knew where they were, but could no longer get above them (normally they work a little lower on the face, which would have given us a chance to move above them). So we sat in the 'moon-shade' of a tree and listened to the bulls bugle. This gave us a little rest to take care of some needed business (I had eaten a little too much for dinner the night before) and to watch trucks go by our parking lot.
Shooting light was 7:22, so at 6:50 we began our sneak. We both determined that we were 'sneaking' on the elk, even though it was still dark. By 7:05, we were under 200 yards - and the bulls were still bugling and cows talking. We waited until 7:22 and then started to move in to close the deal.
While we worked around a small clearing on a section on the ridge, we heard footsteps moving through the timber. The timber was still a bit dark, but we could see elk walking under 50 yards. The cows were talking a little bit - but we couldn't make out any bulls. The elk didn't have us pegged - the wind was still holding for us. But they were moving away from us. I cow-called - and was able to bring one of the bulls down to 30 yards. But he stayed in the timber and didn't present a solid shot. After the elk crested the ridge - we knew that we had to make a move - and following them on the trail seemed to be the best option at this point.
My brother was in the lead, I was back a hundred yards or so. We were near the head of a large drainage and the trail we were on would lead us to some open benches in half a mile or so. We thought we'd be able to get a clean shot when the timber opened up a little bit.
While we were chasing, shots started to ring out in our drainage. I started counting shots, and didn't have visibility to my brother. The shots were a little farther away than I thought my brother was - but sound can do funny things in the mountains. I picked up my pace trying to get into the action. At this point there had been roughly 5 shots fired.
As I'm moving along the trail - a cow comes busting along - I get a good visual at 30 yards. She spots me right away and moves off the trail. I don't see any legal bulls with her. Then I notice some elk above me, maybe 40 yards through the trees. 2 calves followed by a legal bull. I don't have a clean shot, and was trying to figure out the best way to flank them when I see my brother running up the trail.
"There's a good six-point up here, and he doesn't know which way to go" he told me. So I followed him at a run. While running along, I notice a small raghorn laying dead on our trail. One down I thought.
Just before I got to the last spot my Brother had spotted the bull, I hear a couple of locator bugles from up on the mountain. That bull isn't around anymore I thought, then I spotted 3 hunters about 100 yards away. Gigs up I thought, so I went down to them for a quick chat. They had shot a nice 5-point and had done most of the shooting. Their shooter had scoped himself on the first shot and seemed a bit rattled by it. I had counted a total of 11 shots that morning, but still didn't know how many my brother had taken. After congratulating them, I moved back to our elk for pictures and my brothers side of the story.
When the other hunters started shooting - my brother was about 150 yards ahead of me. The elk had turned around and started running back on the same trail we were on. The lead cow had gotten within 20 yards of my brother before she spotted him. She went up-hill 10 yards or so, then started following another game trail that paralleled the one we were on. She and about 20 more cows and calves passed within 5 yards of my brother. The rag-horn was the last elk following. My brother shot twice - the first was around 10 yards while the elk was running. It was close enough that he had problems finding the elk in the scope. The bull stopped at 5 yards and was directly above my brother. My brother shot again and this time did not use the scope, just looked down the barrel and pulled the trigger. The bull dropped in his tracks and started to roll down the hill. My brother had to jump out of the way as the bull rolled and got hung up on the tree my brother was standing next to.
Here's one picture where we placed my brother's pack (circled in red) of where the elk was when my brother shot it. He was standing right where the elk is, laying on the trail.
After he shot this bull, he had good shots at 2 bigger bulls. The biggest one stood broadside for about 3 minutes. In hindsight, it's a good thing I hadn't caught up yet - packing out 2 elk would have really worn me out.
We spent the rest of the morning boning the elk out. It is a very tasty elk, young and plenty of fat on him. Sections of the backstrap are even marbled.
The pack out really sucked (as usual with elk). We only had to go 3 miles, but decided that we could do it all in 1 trip. So loaded to the gills we started down the mountain. My brother made it to the truck with his full load, but I had to drop off a 40 lb bag about a mile from the truck. I have a guess on how much my pack weighed - and even though it's only been a couple of days the estimate keeps getting bigger. But we were back to the rig by 4:30 PM, and even had time to run over to the nearest creek and wash up.
Sunday was then spent butchering and packaging the elk. We split this one. I don't know if I'll have time to chase elk again this year - but it was definitely a fun day in the field.
Here are a couple of final photos to wrap up the story:
Well, the week before rifle opening - my Brother called to mention that his opening weekend had opened up. One of his wife's college friends was coming into town - and it was OK if he went hunting. I talked it over with my wife - and she had been assuming that I would be going over opening weekend anyway. So with the weekend cleared, we started to focus on getting an elk.
Both of our freezer's were low on elk meat - so top priority was getting one down. Neither of us had had any time to do any scouting this year (except for a bow-hunt weekend in a different part of the state in September). So we immediately went with an old standby area in Southwest Montana, which for the last few years has been Brow-Tine only on the OTC tag. Our original plan was to pack in 5 miles or so - and keep a light, mobile camp (bivy's, limited food). This way we could cover ground and figure out where the elk were on Saturday, and hope to have one down early Sunday so we could make it to work Monday. We both knocked off early Friday so we could get to the trailhead at a decent time Friday night.
Since we made it with a little bit of light left on Friday, we glassed 'The Face' a bit. There wasn't much snow, so I wasn't putting much stock in finding any elk down low. But with only 10 minutes of glassing we turned up 2 different groups of elk. This changed our plans. We decided to make a go at these elk in the morning, and if things went bad - we could change areas to camp out Saturday night. The biggest issue in chasing elk on 'The Face' in this area is the number of hunters. In our experience, if the elk show themselves at all - then it's crawling with hunters in the morning. In anticipation of this, we decided to get above the elk in the dark and hopefully intercept them when they were pushed up to us.
With a general plan laid out, we ran back into town for food supplies and hit a quick dinner at one of the local bars. After dinner we ran back out to the trailhead, got our packs ready for the morning and slept in the parking lot.
Trucks started to come by us at 3:15 in the morning. We were surprised that folks were getting going this early. We had planned for a 4 AM start, but quickly got ready and on the trail. All of the trucks in the morning were headed to another parking lot, so it seemed like our group of elk would be un-molested.
There was no cloud cover that night and the moon was bright (even though it was a half-moon). So we walked up without using headlamps. As we moved up the mountain, we would see trucks coming up the valley floor. When they got near our parking lot, we'd stop and watch to see if they would stop - all of the trucks that morning continued on. We were very surprised that no-one had thought to come up the ridge and hunt the group we spotted Friday night.
At about 5 AM, we had managed to get within 500 yards or where we had spotted the elk the night before. As we glassed the face, we found that the elk had not moved since we last spotted them. This was good and bad - we knew where they were, but could no longer get above them (normally they work a little lower on the face, which would have given us a chance to move above them). So we sat in the 'moon-shade' of a tree and listened to the bulls bugle. This gave us a little rest to take care of some needed business (I had eaten a little too much for dinner the night before) and to watch trucks go by our parking lot.
Shooting light was 7:22, so at 6:50 we began our sneak. We both determined that we were 'sneaking' on the elk, even though it was still dark. By 7:05, we were under 200 yards - and the bulls were still bugling and cows talking. We waited until 7:22 and then started to move in to close the deal.
While we worked around a small clearing on a section on the ridge, we heard footsteps moving through the timber. The timber was still a bit dark, but we could see elk walking under 50 yards. The cows were talking a little bit - but we couldn't make out any bulls. The elk didn't have us pegged - the wind was still holding for us. But they were moving away from us. I cow-called - and was able to bring one of the bulls down to 30 yards. But he stayed in the timber and didn't present a solid shot. After the elk crested the ridge - we knew that we had to make a move - and following them on the trail seemed to be the best option at this point.
My brother was in the lead, I was back a hundred yards or so. We were near the head of a large drainage and the trail we were on would lead us to some open benches in half a mile or so. We thought we'd be able to get a clean shot when the timber opened up a little bit.
While we were chasing, shots started to ring out in our drainage. I started counting shots, and didn't have visibility to my brother. The shots were a little farther away than I thought my brother was - but sound can do funny things in the mountains. I picked up my pace trying to get into the action. At this point there had been roughly 5 shots fired.
As I'm moving along the trail - a cow comes busting along - I get a good visual at 30 yards. She spots me right away and moves off the trail. I don't see any legal bulls with her. Then I notice some elk above me, maybe 40 yards through the trees. 2 calves followed by a legal bull. I don't have a clean shot, and was trying to figure out the best way to flank them when I see my brother running up the trail.
"There's a good six-point up here, and he doesn't know which way to go" he told me. So I followed him at a run. While running along, I notice a small raghorn laying dead on our trail. One down I thought.
Just before I got to the last spot my Brother had spotted the bull, I hear a couple of locator bugles from up on the mountain. That bull isn't around anymore I thought, then I spotted 3 hunters about 100 yards away. Gigs up I thought, so I went down to them for a quick chat. They had shot a nice 5-point and had done most of the shooting. Their shooter had scoped himself on the first shot and seemed a bit rattled by it. I had counted a total of 11 shots that morning, but still didn't know how many my brother had taken. After congratulating them, I moved back to our elk for pictures and my brothers side of the story.
When the other hunters started shooting - my brother was about 150 yards ahead of me. The elk had turned around and started running back on the same trail we were on. The lead cow had gotten within 20 yards of my brother before she spotted him. She went up-hill 10 yards or so, then started following another game trail that paralleled the one we were on. She and about 20 more cows and calves passed within 5 yards of my brother. The rag-horn was the last elk following. My brother shot twice - the first was around 10 yards while the elk was running. It was close enough that he had problems finding the elk in the scope. The bull stopped at 5 yards and was directly above my brother. My brother shot again and this time did not use the scope, just looked down the barrel and pulled the trigger. The bull dropped in his tracks and started to roll down the hill. My brother had to jump out of the way as the bull rolled and got hung up on the tree my brother was standing next to.
Here's one picture where we placed my brother's pack (circled in red) of where the elk was when my brother shot it. He was standing right where the elk is, laying on the trail.
After he shot this bull, he had good shots at 2 bigger bulls. The biggest one stood broadside for about 3 minutes. In hindsight, it's a good thing I hadn't caught up yet - packing out 2 elk would have really worn me out.
We spent the rest of the morning boning the elk out. It is a very tasty elk, young and plenty of fat on him. Sections of the backstrap are even marbled.
The pack out really sucked (as usual with elk). We only had to go 3 miles, but decided that we could do it all in 1 trip. So loaded to the gills we started down the mountain. My brother made it to the truck with his full load, but I had to drop off a 40 lb bag about a mile from the truck. I have a guess on how much my pack weighed - and even though it's only been a couple of days the estimate keeps getting bigger. But we were back to the rig by 4:30 PM, and even had time to run over to the nearest creek and wash up.
Sunday was then spent butchering and packaging the elk. We split this one. I don't know if I'll have time to chase elk again this year - but it was definitely a fun day in the field.
Here are a couple of final photos to wrap up the story:
