Schmalts hunts Elk near Gardiner

[The Hedgehog]

Schmalts and greenhorn hunt Elk near Gardiner

This is where you put the details in on the good times had on Deckard Flats. Come on.. From the view of a Wisconsin dude - it should be hilarious.

 

[schmalts]

aw sheeet... you don't stop. What makes you think they will find it any more interesting than we did?? O.K., if it will shut you up. First off, I changed to title to Greenhorn and schmalts hunt elk... you were there as well.
O.K. I hear the stories, the myths, the legends, so why not check it out. I packed a deer out in one load a few miles earlier before and needed a break and was feeling lazy as I am a flat lander. So decker seems like an easy hike and I heard the stories. So i get in there waaaay fricking early one morning (deckard flats)since i couldn't sleep. There i stand in the dark in about 10 degree temps with only Lowas on my feet about 1 1/2 hours before daylight, feet going numb so i run in place behind a huge rock so the couple hundred elk above me don't see me. As it starts getting light i can start to glass and see nothing but cows. Now the outfitters and douches on horses start showing up around me. as it nears shooting time another 30-40 elk come in from the other way to meet up with the couple hundred cows and what happened next I described to Greenhorn as disturbing, yet entertaining in a weird way. This smaller group of elk had a raghorn 4X something in it and the cowboys take off down into the flats like they are going to rob a fricking train or something. Really, there was like 10 guys on horses and probably 4 guys like me on foot (found out the next day it was a slow day because it was Thanksgiving). Anyway, they all spread out down in this maybe 200 acre flat and start herding this little group of elk up and cutting them off so their douche clients can make a hard earned kill. The elk walk about 400 yard below me and i just cant help but think how funny it would be if i sniped the thing just to piss off these horse clowns and screw them out of their huge tip from their client, but no way i am shooting a 4X.
Anyway, they get the elk moving around as i watch the show and when they get about 600 yards out, and directly in between me and some client now off his horse, on his knees with shooting sticks i hear the guide yell "shoot him"! I duck behind a big rock for safety and just pop my head up to watch the mayhem unfold (sheer bravery I tell you). The douche misses a standing bull twice at 100 yards and they all take off running. The cowboys tear off on horses and herd them back past the client again who shoots again and hits it from about 50 yards. A bunch horses surround the dead bull and I cant see what is going on, I assume a circle jerk or something with lots of high 5's.
I start heading back up to my truck to go someplace to glass for the rest of the day and run into a couple old farts and talk with them a bit. They tell me about all the huge bulls they have killed in this area, the fights over elk, ect, kind of entertaining to talk with them.
Later when I get back to my truck I call Kurt, who i think was finally pulling out of someone or another and leave a message on his voice mail about what i saw go down.
I get a call later from him around 9pm, drunk and full of turkey saying he will be headed my way to flop in my Motel for the night and i better not be sleeping and ready to hit the bars. Now his curiosity is peaked from my story as i don't think he believes me. I said i may hunt down in that area someplace again as with the cold temps something may start moving around and I need to keep my pack out to a minimum as I need to be realistic on how much i can do before i fly out in a couple days, the shitty part of flying and elk hunting.
He said he wants to see it for himself.... I tell him what the hell, we will only lose the first 1/2 hour of daylight and have the rest of the day to hike in someplace reasonable for an afternoon hunt.
So, we head to the Blue goose?? or something and start drinking and playing pool. Ugly chicks in that town i tell ya.. unless you live in Havre you think so at least. This one hag was 10 years younger than me and we both guessed her older than me. Just a bar rag. She was there already when i stopped in there right after i ate some dinner and got a beer before Kurt called, and now was still there 6 hours later when Kurt drags me back out. Some guys that look like Festus from gunsmoke were there as well. We drink and be merry, have some fun and stay out waaaay to long.
Next morning is the big adventure.... I wake up to piss around 4:30 AM and cant fall asleep. I look at kurt's bed and he is lying there with his ass sticking up in the air, he must be dreaming about his new girlfriend with the anus fetish or something...... scary sight. I tell Kurt lets go and get out there and get a good spot to watch and hope that maybe some big cheeto eating bulls show up. We sneak in early again, first ones there and with the moon see elk high up the bald hillside, but far less than the day before. Wasn't long before MOBS of hunters and horses show up ( I guess a lot of guys have off that Friday)and I said "lets get lower and closer to the migration trail" so we walk down a little further and Kurt says "were gonna piss off those guys on horses for making the elk scared"
My reply was... "fugg them, wait till you see what they are gonna do!"
We drop down 50 yards more and just like the day before some smaller groups of elk come in from the north and with one dinker raghorn. Just like the day before the horses charge down to cut them off and round them up. At this point i knew it was a waste as there was no fabled huge herd of big giant bulls, just this one dink for the horse tards to fight over. Then 10 minutes before legal time shots ring out over the hill out of sight, and the whole herd starts moving down. Long story short, i think the little bull got lucky and got back into the buffer zone before legal time so there was no climax to the show, just a bunch a herding to try and keep him in the flats until legal time but he escaped as far as we know.
Kurt seen what he came to see, we left, went back and got some B-fest and made a gameplan for later and hiked up into a spot i checked out the day before but didn't have enough time to get deep into.
This is the big story.. not sure why he wanted it told so bad unless he plans to make up some details of what never happened..... Have at it

 

[noharleyyet]

"it should be hilarious."

...it was.

 

[Dinkshooter]

That was a really funny story

You can't fault the cowboys working hard for tips. THey are trying to get enough money to dazzle/bed the skank at the blue goose.

 

[Spitz]

I get out of kurt's bed and he is lying there with his ass sticking up in the air

You two friggin homos need to get separate rooms next time. hump

As for the hunting, sounds like fun times on Deckard Flats. As for Gardiner, you need to hit it during the summertime, they bring in bunches of European college chicks to work the shops for the Park goers and the fishermen.

 

[sreekers]

That is a good story. Funny that there were so many hunters there.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I question the Wisconsin guy who wanted to go back for a second day of that. I had heard stories, but never witnessed it first hand. There was literally 30+ guys on horses in a elk corralling fest. Groups of 3-7 guys on horses racing other groups of 3-7 guys on horses, galloping past hunters on foot (maybe 20 or so in total) - keep in mind this is a small area, maybe 500 acres of open country. I couldn't get back to my truck fast enough - on the drive back there was bumper to bumper truckloads of hunters in rigs parked along the road between Gardiner to Jardine. It was UNREAL.

Then we went to town and ate a nasty meal in a gross cafe with shitty service. The Blue Goose Saloon was full of gross toothless barhags the night before. The dudes were pretty cool - entertaining in a Cousin Eddie kind of way. The bartender could shoot pool - wow.

Gardiner - been there, done that. No thanks.

Schmalts, what's up with all your ass/poop talk? You need therapy. I think you were hoping one of those cowboys would ride up, hop off, and cornhole you. That's why you went back. Fess up.

 

[schmalts]

you know, i think greenhorn regrets telling us about his new girlfriends little move she made on him, dont you guys??

 

[Spitz]

I think the crowds going crazy after immature animals reminded Schmalts of home and that's why he couldn't get enough of it.

 

[Oak]

I think you're both homos....

 

[schmalts]

I think the crowds going crazy after immature animals reminded Schmalts of home and that's why he couldn't get enough of it.

I almost said it.. it was like lots of wisconsin on the opener. 750,000 guys in one state all at one time.. you wonder why i go to MT during our rifle season?? the only reason i spend the first day here is to check for tresspassers on my land.
Probably why Greenhorn found it all more unreal than i did... been there, done that in WI

 

[shoots-straight]

That is a good story. Funny that there were so many hunters there.

That's what our beloved FWP's have done for hunting in Montana. Why anybody from out of state would come here (other than the only place they got drew for) is beyond me. They don't enforce the laws that keep that type of thing from happening, and they just keep issuing tags and open type's of season's.. Until the populous gets pissed off and get involved it will surely get worse. I don't think lots of hunters chasing elk with horses so their clients can kill is funny, nor the fact that hunting has turned into such a circus.

It's turned into a chess game to outwit the other hunters not the game.

Smhalts I urge you to send a letter to the Dept. of FWP's in Helena and let them know what you saw and how pitiful the hunt has turned into. Being from out of state may give more clout seens how most of the budget comes from customers like yourself.

 

[schmalts]

Smhalts I urge you to send a letter to the Dept. of FWP's in Helena and let them know what you saw and how pitiful the hunt has turned into. Being from out of state may give more clout seens how most of the budget comes from customers like yourself.

yea....I will get right on that.. after i get them to get rid of half the hunters in WI. This is the reason i love our archery season and hate our rifle season. The archery season a guy can hunt without having deer running from being chased out of every 40 in the state.

 

[schmalts]

I think you're both homos....

i guess the brokeback adventures that you and buzz have are a lot more exciting than ours. At least Buzz stays in the closet most of the time, but that picture of him with his trapped furs, and that womans hat was a dead givaway

 

[The Hedgehog]

shoots-straight. This is nothting new. I heard about the legendary Deckard Flats circus first when I started school at MSU 20 years ago, and it wasn't new then either. The regs say FWP can close the area on a 24hr notice if it gets out of hand. I wonder how that looks, when a closure is necessary. It was a sad sight, not the FWP's fault - it's the hunters who participate.

 

[schmalts]

but if they closed the flats, it would just happen in the next canyon to the north more than likely. They would have to close a huge area to make it so everyone would have to walk more than a couple miles to get there, and not allow horses.

 

[shoots-straight]

I don't think that closing the area would be the answer but rather add horses to the term with motorized vehicles in the illegal chasing part of the regulations.

 

[ELKCHSR]

This is almost like Jackson hole during the same time frame...

Great story though...

 

[BuzzH]

Yeah Cheese, almost the same...without some half-baked lunatic from Anaconda laying naked on a dead cow elk.

Other than that, nearly identical.

 

[ELKCHSR]

Ah!!!

And one of my fans is following me around the board again...

I would feel so honored if it actually meant some thing and it wasn’t so often any more...