Montana, Elk Game Damage Hunt: First Two Days

So Saturday the 7th was the first day of my game damage hunt. I had been out a few mornings and evenings before the hunt, and did some glassing from the road, and was pleased to find elk on both of the properties that I could hunt on during the game damage hunt. After a restless night of sleep I woke up and headed out for what I hoped would be a great morning of hunting.




















When I awoke it was lightly snowing outside and I took this as a good sign. Unfortunately when I got to my hunting grounds I was greeted by a ground hugging fog. The property that I was hunting was mostly open ground so I didn't have to many trees for reference. These are vertigo inducing conditions and made it virtually impossible to hunt. And my rangefinder was not liking these conditions as well.



















For reference the first picture is of the ground in front of me. This second picture is of the sky.




















This gives you and idea of what I was up against. Needless to I decided to head home until this fog lifted. I never cut a track in the fresh snow while I was in the fog, and once the fog lifted I didn't glass up any elk on the properties that I could hunt.
























So I returned for an evening hunt. I setup in an ambush position near a well beaten elk path. I spent the remainder of the evening heavily glassing for elk heading my way. And watches a heard of elk across the valley from me on property that I was not allowed to hunt.



















And while I never managed to see any elk on the property I was hunting. I was able to watch a beautiful Montana winter evening unfold before my eyes.

Sunday morning I was again greeted with ground hugging fog so I waited for the evening hunt. Once again I didn't see any elk, but was treated to one of mother nature's s beautiful light shows!