devon deer
Well-known member
We arrived (my English friend Stephen travelled with me) in Bozeman after making the long journey from the UK, this being my third time hunting in Big Sky country, it was Stephen’s first experience, I had talked it up for quite a while, but arriving late on the 20th October he just couldn’t see the mountains from the plane, so had no idea of his stunning surroundings.
Up early on Friday, quick breakfast with a Montanan friend, a little chat, and then we dropped by to meet Big Fin, who very kindly loaned us some equipment that we couldn’t bring over from the UK, by the way, after 6 days we still had ice in the Orion coolers!
I had been planning this for a while, but you just can’t rely on the weather can you? It was so warm, not ideal for hunting was it? But you have to work with what nature throws at you, at least Stephen got to see what I was telling him about for so long, the rivers, mountains and friendly like minded hunters.
We drove to a rifle range at Dillon to assemble our rifles and check zero before the drive to our Elk hunt, but this is where it could have gone badly wrong, on arrival there were 2 groups of people, we happened to join in with a local group and members of the rifle club, the other group were a mix that included a Canadian. I asked a member what the procedure was, he said when everyone has fired and cleared their gun’s we all approach, fix our targets, and when ALL are back in the safety zone he gives the all clear to commence firing. I was a little longer attaching my target as I only had tape and not a staple gun, as I stood up to return I heard a rifle boom, I was not unduly concerned as there was another target at right angles so I assumed that was the target, how wrong was I!
I noticed a little excitement and was informed that the Canadian had fired at the 50 yard target, I was in front of the 100 yard target! The member checked me over as he was convinced I had been shot, at this point I realised just how lucky I had been, in fact my hand’s started to actually tremble! For some strange reason the Canadian wouldn’t come to explain his actions or apologize, his friend did so on his behalf, and then they hastily left, only to be stopped on the outskirts of Dillon by a deputy sheriff, who had been phoned by the club member, when the deputy arrived at the range he stated the Canadian’s excuse was that I was behind the target and he couldn’t see me, I hope he learned a lesson over this, ringing in my ears was what my wife said when I left home, beware of the bears, how was I to know the danger was to come from a fellow hunter!
Sorry for the digression but this part had to be told, here is a photo of the range, thankfully the targets are offset; otherwise I think I would have been dead.
We arrived at the trail head later than planned after this event, but were up and hiking early into the dark hills, a little puffed out with adjusting to the altitude we finally made it to where I hoped we would get a bull, and after 20 minutes of legal light we heard the first boom, I scanned the valley and found around 10 Elk, all heading our way, but all cow’s and spikes, darn it!
Click for video
By this time Stephen was tuned into what an Elk actually looked like, and diverted my attention to another group, damn it, all cow’s and spikes, only around 150 yards away, we could have taken a cow where we were but no way, this was the first 2 hours of a 2 week stay!
Long story short we hung around here for 3 days, hoping after the outfitters left the Elk would return, but after 10 hours per day and lots of walking we decided to head back to Dillon and try our luck there. By the way, I now officially hate camping in little ‘pup’ tents, it sucks!
Dillon was a challenge, thank god for the ONXMAPS! We lost count how many deer we saw on private lands, but on public they were a rare sight indeed, it soon became apparent, this was going to be even harder than the previous few days. We were waiting on the first evening for the deer to emerge from the willows, Stephen intently watching in one direction, but my attention was drawn to the mountains. I remember what everybody had said about Elk, think of the steepest nastiest most inaccessible terrain and you will find Elk. So I trained my bino’s on a small patch of open timber way up a mountain, must have been at least 2 miles away, and a light coloured boulder moved position, my 56 year old eyes must be deceiving me! Nope, using Stephens’s scope on 25x mag I could see a really nice Bull, a plan was quickly formulated for the next morning!
Stephen kindly said it’s my bull, go get it, easier said than done with private land in the way, but I set off, bumped some Mule deer, and an easy shot on a small buck, but I was focused on the bull. Well after 3 hours hiking I came across an obstacle, it was called a cliff! To get around it would have meant at least another 3 hour hike to circumvent the private, not an option, so I returned the next day via another route, but no sign of the bull, but I could smell the Elk!
Click for video of cliff!
However, we have no complaints, I’m sure you all appreciate where you live, but to me it so beautiful it takes your breath away, I wasn’t concerned about grassing an Elk or deer, I just love the experience, but I wanted Stephen to get an animal, so that is part one finished, sorry it took so long with no result so far, and was such a long winded story…part 2 to follow.
Cheers
Richard
Up early on Friday, quick breakfast with a Montanan friend, a little chat, and then we dropped by to meet Big Fin, who very kindly loaned us some equipment that we couldn’t bring over from the UK, by the way, after 6 days we still had ice in the Orion coolers!
I had been planning this for a while, but you just can’t rely on the weather can you? It was so warm, not ideal for hunting was it? But you have to work with what nature throws at you, at least Stephen got to see what I was telling him about for so long, the rivers, mountains and friendly like minded hunters.
We drove to a rifle range at Dillon to assemble our rifles and check zero before the drive to our Elk hunt, but this is where it could have gone badly wrong, on arrival there were 2 groups of people, we happened to join in with a local group and members of the rifle club, the other group were a mix that included a Canadian. I asked a member what the procedure was, he said when everyone has fired and cleared their gun’s we all approach, fix our targets, and when ALL are back in the safety zone he gives the all clear to commence firing. I was a little longer attaching my target as I only had tape and not a staple gun, as I stood up to return I heard a rifle boom, I was not unduly concerned as there was another target at right angles so I assumed that was the target, how wrong was I!
I noticed a little excitement and was informed that the Canadian had fired at the 50 yard target, I was in front of the 100 yard target! The member checked me over as he was convinced I had been shot, at this point I realised just how lucky I had been, in fact my hand’s started to actually tremble! For some strange reason the Canadian wouldn’t come to explain his actions or apologize, his friend did so on his behalf, and then they hastily left, only to be stopped on the outskirts of Dillon by a deputy sheriff, who had been phoned by the club member, when the deputy arrived at the range he stated the Canadian’s excuse was that I was behind the target and he couldn’t see me, I hope he learned a lesson over this, ringing in my ears was what my wife said when I left home, beware of the bears, how was I to know the danger was to come from a fellow hunter!
Sorry for the digression but this part had to be told, here is a photo of the range, thankfully the targets are offset; otherwise I think I would have been dead.
We arrived at the trail head later than planned after this event, but were up and hiking early into the dark hills, a little puffed out with adjusting to the altitude we finally made it to where I hoped we would get a bull, and after 20 minutes of legal light we heard the first boom, I scanned the valley and found around 10 Elk, all heading our way, but all cow’s and spikes, darn it!
Click for video
By this time Stephen was tuned into what an Elk actually looked like, and diverted my attention to another group, damn it, all cow’s and spikes, only around 150 yards away, we could have taken a cow where we were but no way, this was the first 2 hours of a 2 week stay!
Long story short we hung around here for 3 days, hoping after the outfitters left the Elk would return, but after 10 hours per day and lots of walking we decided to head back to Dillon and try our luck there. By the way, I now officially hate camping in little ‘pup’ tents, it sucks!
Dillon was a challenge, thank god for the ONXMAPS! We lost count how many deer we saw on private lands, but on public they were a rare sight indeed, it soon became apparent, this was going to be even harder than the previous few days. We were waiting on the first evening for the deer to emerge from the willows, Stephen intently watching in one direction, but my attention was drawn to the mountains. I remember what everybody had said about Elk, think of the steepest nastiest most inaccessible terrain and you will find Elk. So I trained my bino’s on a small patch of open timber way up a mountain, must have been at least 2 miles away, and a light coloured boulder moved position, my 56 year old eyes must be deceiving me! Nope, using Stephens’s scope on 25x mag I could see a really nice Bull, a plan was quickly formulated for the next morning!
Stephen kindly said it’s my bull, go get it, easier said than done with private land in the way, but I set off, bumped some Mule deer, and an easy shot on a small buck, but I was focused on the bull. Well after 3 hours hiking I came across an obstacle, it was called a cliff! To get around it would have meant at least another 3 hour hike to circumvent the private, not an option, so I returned the next day via another route, but no sign of the bull, but I could smell the Elk!
Click for video of cliff!
However, we have no complaints, I’m sure you all appreciate where you live, but to me it so beautiful it takes your breath away, I wasn’t concerned about grassing an Elk or deer, I just love the experience, but I wanted Stephen to get an animal, so that is part one finished, sorry it took so long with no result so far, and was such a long winded story…part 2 to follow.
Cheers
Richard
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Glad you made it home without getting shot! Saw a photo on facebook, so I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the story.
