December 26th, Bow Hunting Elk On Public Land in Western Montana

The morning after Christmas I headed out with my friend Ted, to do some late season bow hunting for elk. This particular district in Montana is open until Jan. 1st. We were going to be hunting on a FWP, block management area, and some adjacent US Fish Wildlife Service land.

I can't say enough good things about the FWP's block management program. The amount of access this allows hunters is phenominal and many areas only require that the hunter merely sign in before hunting the area. So if you are new to an area you can hit the ground running without having to orchestrate permission. That being said please check the regulations for each area that you plan to hunt before heading out.

The country that we hunted was a cool mix of sparse forest, glacial moraines, and wetlands intermixed with sage flats. The temps were in the teens and there was about 8-14 inches of snow on the ground. As we hiked through the country our noses were often filled with the pungent smell of crushed sage.

Let me say that before this hunt I was indifferent to mule deer hunting. But after spying many of the large mule deer out here, my opinion has changed. The open terrain here will make it difficult, but given the timber and moraines, spot and stalk could work out here.

We spent the morning glassing and hiking through the open terrain looking for elk. It took us a while but we finally spotted about four cows in some mixed timber. We put together a plan to move in on these elk. Unfortunately the wind was constantly switching. We finally caught up with two of these cows but they were bedded and we were only able to get within about 150 yards before they spooked. We were not sure their location having them bedded made it difficult to find. Subsequently these elk saw or heard us before we knew that they were there.

I think this can be a productive area, however we should have hunted it a bit earlier in the season.

December 22nd, Bow hunting in Western Montana's riverbottoms

With the temps finally climbing into the teens I decided to head out on Monday for a morning of bowhunting in Western Montana's riverbottoms. Well even with the temps in the teens it still was very chilly and I only managed to stay in my stand for about an hour and a half.

I did plenty of glassing and was not encouraged to stay in the stand. The combo of the cold temps and not seeing any deer I was ready to get moving. After getting out of my stand I did some walking around to see if any deer were moving. I was a bit dismayed to not see many tracks, however I did find a few rubs from this seasons that I had not found before.

Even thought I didn't hunt for very long in the stand it was still nice to get out for a while.

Best not to think about how cold these get up in the tree stand.

December 19th, River Bottom Bow Hunting in Montana

Starting on the 20th, we got into a major cold snap that lasted a good week or more. I was wanting to get out for some late season whitetail hunting but wasn't about to go out on the stand with minus 2o wind chills. Finally on Friday the 20th the temps broke a bit and reached the upper teens so I planned to head out that morning. Here in Montana in the 260 river bottom district you can bow hunt for elk until the 15th of Janurary. I was going to be headed to public land administered by Montana FWP I had heard of place outside of town that folks had seen elk in during various times of year. I figured with the cold temps and recent snowfall that perhaps some elk had wandered in here. I didn't have anything to loose so I headed out.

While I didn't manage to see any elk nor their tracks, I did get in some scouting for next year. This area is a little ways out of town so whitetail hunting down here would require more effort on my part, it potentially looks good. I manged to stumble upon a rub line and took a few shots of the rubs. It is hard to tell in the photos but one of the trees is decent size and a nice buck probably made the rub.

Given the sub zero temps the river has just about frozen over. The little remaining open water is attracting plenty of wildlife. The open water in the picture above was filled with ducks and heron.

December 18th, Venison Scalapini

After a successful hunting season it is nice to savor the fruits of the harvest. I picked this recipe out of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's cook book entitled " The New Elk Hunter's Cookbook and Meat Care Guide" . Not only does it have great recipes but a good section on taking care of your meat.

The finished product, venison scalapini, with a side of broccoli and mashed potatoes with cheese sauce.

Oct 30th and Nov 11th, Bow Hunting Success! Whitetail in Montana's Riverbottoms.

Well after 3 years of bow hunting I finally managed to harvest a big game animal. On October 30th I headed to my tree stand for the first time that season. While I wasn't necessarily expecting to get anything on this day, I had a really good feeling heading into my tree stand. I just felt like I was going to get something. Sometimes forgetting things can help you get other things. At around 6:30 a whitetail doe walked under my stand, I drew back to aim and released the arrow. After the shot the doe jumped forward about 5 yards and then proceeded another 30 yards and went down for good. I waited in my stand for a half hour before getting out of the stand. I had forgot my head lamp and wanted to find my arrow and the blood trail before approaching the deer to make sure she had expired. As far as forgetting things I forgot my camera and headlamp that day. So Laura was kind enough to bring me my headlamp. Shortly after bringing the head lamp we found the deer. I was great to have Laura, Finn, and our Friend Adam to helped me drag out the deer. Its too bad I didn't get a photo, but to say the least harvesting this doe made my confidence grow.

After harvesting the doe in October I hunted as much as I could out of my stand. This probably totaled about 4 0r 5 times before the 11th. I had seen some deer but never had any good shots on animals. On the morning of the 11th I headed into the stand with the hopes of seeing some rutting activity. Well it turned out to be a good morning. I saw three bucks, a few chasing does and shortly I had this buck hanging around the stand. He moved into a shooting lane about 24 yards from the stand. I managed to stay composed long enough to get off a shot. The deer moved off about a 100 yards and was down. Again I forgot my camera so I took this shot with the cell phone which turned out surprisingly well. It was tough getting him out of the woods even with a game cart, but he will fill the freezer nicely!

October 12th, National Wildlife Federation

On October 12th I headed out with my friend Ted. I wasn't going to be hunting this day but trying to help Ted get an elk. We both had secured permission for a special management hunt on land owned by the National Wildlife Federation. The property is considered winter range for elk, however wildlife managers feel that animals are heading on to the property too soon in the season and depleting the grasses, before Winter sets in. The NWF goal for allowing hunters on this property was to push elk off during hunting season and hopefully keep feed intact for when animals need it in the Winter months.The property is very close to town and while bordered by Forest Service on one side the other side is literally next to a subdivision.

During this hunt you are allowed to bring along a person. But the person is not allowed to hunt. I figured that I would head out and help Ted call to these elk or maybe push them into his direction. This was great because aside from helping Ted I would get to get familiar with the area before my schedule hunt time started on the 15th. I had permission to hunt this area for 5 days and I hit it as hard as possible for those five days.

Given the size of this property it was literally loaded with elk. Sunday morning while heading to the sign-in box with Ted,we spotted a few cows skylined on the ridge about 100 yards from us. We hunkered down and listened to a chorus of cow calls, chirps, and bugles. That day Ted and I tried to get closed to a small group of cows with no luck. Over the course of the five days that I hunted this property I tried a variety of different tactics to hunt this property. From ambush, calling and stalking techniques. The third day of my hunt ended up being the most memorable. I tried to put the stalk on a large group of cows. I got within about sixty yards before they started getting on edge. Eventually the herd busted along with their bull. I spent the next four hours staying on top of this herd. I botched a golden opportunity on a cow at twenty yards. I was moving to make sure that I would have a clear shot in some thick underbrush and was spotted by the cow before I reached full draw. I was most surprised by the bulls that were still bugling late in the season on this property. This almost played into my favor a few times as the bull that was with this herd was getting pretty worked up from me bugling and moving his herd around. The property is fairly open and the timber on it was thinned this summer. These conditions made difficult to stalk close to the elk, and the bull hesitant to fully come into my calling.

Neither of us ended up harvesting an elk out of here but what a hunt. I had many mornings of listening to multiple bulls bugling, and the nob in the picture was covered with elk most mornings. At one point I watched 75 head of elk head out single fill after another hunter pushed them off the property. I hope that FWP and NWF continue this hunt, and hunters will get to enjoy the large amount of animals that this property has to offer. After this hunt I will be doing more to help support this organization.

October 11th, Solo Bow Hunting for Elk

This hunt turned out to be one my more memorable hunts of the season. Not because I manged to harvest an elk, but more for the great day it turned out be and the sense of accomplishment I felt after a good solo hunt. The day started off with me leaving the trailhead in the dark. I rode my bike for about two and half miles in the dark before dismounting and starting my hike. The whole time I was biking I was hoping that wasn't going to end up as cougar bait.

After getting off the bike and starting up a ridge I let out a few bugles and cows calls just a legal shooting light was approaching.

With no responses to my calling I stopped halfway up a ridge a began glassing the surounding area. After a few minutes I managed to spot a small herd of elk about a half mile away. I immediatley planned my stalk, which was going to prove difficult. Between me and the elk lay mostly open fairly dry country and a small band of timber. After taking my time and checking the wind religously I managed to get about 75 yards from a cow. I watched her feed for a bit and hope that she or any other elk would head my way.

After a few minutes this elk seemed to get on edge. Shortly after this I saw another elk with this cow that I thought was a bull but I never saw its head. With no other options I decided to call, while I didn't call anything in, I did hear a bugle on the ridge above me. Unfortunately it sounded a bit far off.

I headed out in the direction of this bugle which led me through some great country and to the summit of McLeod Mountain. Unfortunatley I never managed to catch up with these elk, but had a very enjoyable day and saw some country that I will be hunting hard next season.

October 5th, Bow Hunting For Elk on Public Land in Montana

While a lot of time elapsed between opening weekend of archery season post and this post for October 5th I still managed to get out every weekend between the opener and this Sunday. That time included a great trip to Montana's Big Hole Valley. This was a whirl wind trip and aside from the weather being very rainy, the elk had us running and gunning and didn't leave much time for photos. So sorry, not shots from that trip. While the weather that weekend didn't cooperate, the elk were going nuts, I heard plenty of bugles, and at one point we spied two nice 5x5's sparring one ridge away from us. The wind never played into our favor for very long, and I learned plenty about the importance of how much your setup plays into animals coming into to your calling.

These shots are from October 5th. We had received a large amount of rain the two previous days, but this morning we heard a couple of bulls bugling in the area. During this setup I thought for sure that we were gonna get a bull to come in, as one was bulging within what sounded like a few hundred yards from us.



















The essentials for a good set up, a couple of calls, a wind checker and the hopes that an elk is headed your way.