Fred's Hunting Blog, A Bow Hunter's Adventures in Montana

Sept 13th Out for elk again

2009-09-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning found biking into my elk hunting location under a blanket of stars. Biking and hunting solo, I kept wondering if I wasn't cougar bait. Luckily I didn't seen any of these creatures. Not so luckily I didn't see or hear a peep out of any elk on Sunday morning. With the warm temps arriving early, and school work on my mind I hunted until 10:00 and started heading for home. Considering I got to the trail head at 5:25 it still felt like I had been out there a while.

It was nice to see a splash of color on the hills. The ninebark is especially nice right now.

This fawn didn't fair so well. I found this while hiking out. Not sure what took it down. My guess was of course a cat.

2009 Montana Elk Archery Opener Sept. 5,6,&7

2009-09-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekends opener for elk in Montana proved to be a very nice Labor Day Weekend. We rode our bikes in to a camp about a mile and half behind a gate. After setting up camp we scouted a bit. We were pleased to find some tracks that looks somewhat recent.

With the full moon out and this meadow pictured above not to far from our camp, we were able to do some night time glassing. Around 11:30pm we heard a spike making some noise in this meadow. And was joined later in the night by a bugling bull and some cows. At one point we could see the bull trashing a tree in the meadow.

Saturday proved to be a warm day. We managed to jump the spike on a ridge top( spikes are not legal in this district). He winded us before we reached the ridge. By afternoon a thunderstorm rolled in a cool things down. This got the elk moving and we managed bump into four cows in three separate groups after the storm moved through. We never managed to get set up in time for a shot on these cows but it was encouraging nonetheless to be into elk.

Sunday proved slow with the exception of Sunday evening we bumped into the same spike with 20 minutes of shooting light left. After hearing us cow call he was eager to find us long after we stopped calling. It was all we could do to get to camp with out him busting us.

Finally on Monday with a nice cool morning, we managed to get a bull bugling. We did our best to figure out where he was. Several draws and ridges later we were on top of his location, but by then he was no longer responding to our bugles. It was a bit of a wild goose chase, but we ended up in some country we had not hunted in this area before.

The B.O.B trailers make for a pleasant pack out of camp. Even if our trailers weren't loaded down with meat.

August 15th Montana's Antelope Archery Opener

2009-08-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Montana's antelope archery season opened on Saturday, and I was fortunate enough to draw one of the 5600 either sex archery tags. This is my first year antelope hunting. A new species and terrain, the learning curve turned out to be very steep. I headed out on Friday the 14th to scout out a few area for the opener on Saturday.

I left my corner of western Montana and headed across the divide. I'm lucky enough to have the

Front Range a few hours drive away.

As you can see in the photos we have been experiencing an unusually wet August this year. Record breaking in fact. Which meant that sitting on water was not going to be an option. While I don't think that the terrain I was hunting is overrun with antelope, as say some of Montana's further east regions, the terrain here is an advantage for the spot and stalk hunter. I hunted all state lands during this hunt. This areas has numerous block management opportunities. But they are not available for hunting until Sept. 1st.

Once across the divide I drove and scouted a few areas before sunset. The first three antelope that I saw were some dandy bucks. Of course they were all on private land, but I was encouraged none the less.

I was hoping to fill my massive new cooler.

I glassed hard that evening from my camp.

As dawn broke I headed out.

I preceded to spend the next five hours getting busted from miles to hundreds of yards away by antelope. I think the closest that I got was about two hundred yards from 4 antelope.

I used this gully to sneak up on them as they were bedded. And then waited for them to rise and hopefully head my way. My plan worked for a while but was eventually busted by the wind. I did get to see a badger on my stalk. And I watched these 4 antelope chase of a coyote.

Harsh country.

In the afternoon I blew a potentially great stalk by not knowing which landmark I was going to. A lesson I will not be forgetting soon.

Haystack Butte a landmark that dominates the area.

While I was only able to hunt the opener on Saturday I had a blast. This hunt helped me get things dialed in before elk season starts. Hopefully I will make it out for at least a few more days this season.

FWP Drawing results, coming soon.

2009-07-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry for slacking on the blog. But it is turning out to be a very busy summer. Trying to shoot as much as I can, and I need to pour it on in terms of fitness, here in the next couple of weeks.

I thought I would let folks know that some of the Montana special drawing results are available to view online. fwp.mt.gov

I managed to draw and extra either sex whitetail tag. Still waiting to hear back on archery antelope.

Good Luck

Fred

June 15th: Review of the 2008 G5 Outdoors Optix XR Sight

2009-06-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

For the 2009-2010 season I decided to put a new sight on my bow. After putting a new Trophy Taker Rest, and Winners choice string on last year, and the G5 Optix XR sight this year I'm about out of upgrades, without purchasing a new bow.

First let me say that this is only the second sight that I have ever used, and while this sight is new, it is a 2008 model.
I went with the 2008 model because it was instock at my local shop and the 2009 model was coming at an undetermined time, I addition the 2008 model was a little less expensive and added bonus for me. I did a little bit of research before purchasing the the 2008 model and felt comfortable that the upgrades to the 2009 model would not be enough to make me regret the purchase of the 2008 model. Additionally I went with the .019 pin diameter.

Having the sight on my bow for the last month or so, I have to say that I like the sight. I had a few problems at first that were more attributed to user error than the actual product. Once I got the sight pretty dialed I noticed that I was shooting better.

PROS
I'm not saying anything new here, but the ability to have three fixed pins and a floating pin are really a great option. I have had a little time to mess with the floater and it works great. The reduced clutter in the sight housing of 4 pins and the ability to shoot at longer distances with only 4 pins makes this a very versatile sight. The 2009 XR with a single fixed pin, and floating pin will add even more options for hunters looking for flexibility in their sight.

I like the sight level on this bow, the blue color stands out well, and the bubble moves easy within its housing. I haven't had time to adjust it yet but the sight has third axis levelling as well.

The large sight housing with white ring. I find that the relatively large and hooded sight housing and the white ring embossed on the front of the sight make it easily to align and center with my peep when at full draw.

Micro adjustable gang adjustment for vertical and horizontal windage. These adjustments are very sensitive and allowed me to really dial in the sight.
Cons
I did not like the micro adjustability of the individual pins. First a hex screw is loosened a quarter of a turn and then the pin is moved up or down with a hex screw on the side of the sight housing. Once the pin is in the appropriate place the first hex screw that was loosened is re-tightened. I found this method to be a bit nebulous and I did not think that it provided the level of precision that the rest of the sight offers. I haven't had a chance to examine the 2009 models but I hope they will change the pin adjustment in the future.

There was a small piece of rubber with the sights name on it that as far as I can tell served no purpose. It immediately began to peel off of the sight and get grass caught in it. I have since peeled it off.

Conclusions
I think it is pretty hard to go wrong with this sight. The floating pins brings plenty of options to the table, while still keep within bounds of what many bowhunters are used to in a sight. When mounting the bow I had problems getting it high enough the L bracket that attaches the sight to the mounting arm can be flipped to accommodate high or low high needs. And when I called G5 about this they answered my questions in less than five minutes. I need to get the bow out at last light to see how the .019 pins look. I can not use a light on here in Montana, and the length of the fiber optic cables seem a bit short. I going to a great 3D shoot this weekend and that floating pin will come in handy.

Managing Elk in The Great Yellowstone Ecosystem

2009-05-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Saw this article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/05/20/news/000brucellosis.txt

Some interesting words here from USFWS Head, Tom Roffe.
Feed grounds will continue to be a contentious issue in the management of elk. And unfortunately I don't see a resolution to the problem in the near future.

May 18th: Scouting for Montana's Elk Season

2009-05-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year that I find my self pouring over maps and spending too much time with Google Earth. And now that I'm done with school for the semester I have managed to find some time to put into preparing for hunting season. I started the weekend shed hunting, attended a 3d shoot on Sunday, and Monday I selected as a day to get out and stretch the legs.

Right out of the car I encountered a hillside overflowing with Heartleaf Arnica.

I have a post about bowhunting for elk in this area that you can read here. I covered about seven miles with about five of them being off trail. Monday was our first real day of warm temps here in Montana. The morning started off rather muggy and temps climbed quickly. Finn and I were not used to the heat, and spent the morning sweating as we gained elevation. Aside from the warm temps the bush-whacking had us covered in ticks. I spent many moments through out the day pulling them off of us.

Here are a couple shots of Highwood peak. On the way to the summit of Mcleod Mountain, I found this hillside covered with Glacier Lilies.

The brown foliage in the bottom of this picture is last years Yarrow bloom. I can only imagine what it looks like in full bloom.

Here are some nice shooting stars. This ridge line is a good example of why I found elk here last year. These south facing slopes can be feed on at night and then it is and easy escape (for an elk) to the safety of steep north facing slopes.

And finally I had to put this in here. Driving around this morning doing some more scouting ( I was foiled by a road that the Subaru couldn't handle) I found these toms with a few hens, two days after the season and of course in a district where turkey hunting is not allowed.

May 15th: Shed hunting on Montana's Wildlife Managment Areas

2009-05-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

April brings easter egg hunts, but here in Montana May 1st & 15th are the days for a differenct kind of hunt for hidden treasures. These dates are when many of Montana's FWP managed Game Management Areas open to the public. These WMAs provide crucial winter range to many elk and deer through out the state. Given all of the wintering elk and deer, the shed hunting can be rather productive, so its no suprise to find many adults traipsing through these areas come their opening morning with and ear to ear grin found on a seven year old on Easter Sunday Morning.

It wasn't a productive day for me shed hunting, but wildlife, flowers and beauty abound. As I drove to the WMA, I encountered thick bank of fog. The fog started to lift soon after I started shed hunting. Not 20 minutes into hiking did I bump into these elk. I encountered three herds through out the day.

As usual I had Finn with me.

I took these shots to give folks a sense of the amazing winter range that has been set aside for wildlife.

This time of year grouse are in their mating mode. I spotted this male Blue Grouse and he put on a little show for me.

I didn't see as many wildflowers as I was expecting but found this nice Ballhead Waterleaf flower.

Me and Finn on a nice bench.

Some lovely bluebells

Great view from up high of the game range below.

Pasque flowers and elk poop. These are a few of my favorite things.

Finn cooling down.

Bowhunting Western Montana: 2009 Turkey Season, finally a day in the field

2009-04-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday the 26th found me out in the field for an afternoon of turkey hunting. I have to say this is my first day turkey hunting ever. I wasn't able to make it out for the morning but snuck out for a few hours during the day.

It was a beautiful Spring day here in western Montana. The grass is greening up nicely and I couldn't resist snapping a few wildflower pics.

A nice bunch of arrow leaf balsam roots.

I managed to see a turkey strutting in someones backyard while driving into the area that I would be hunting. I setup as close as I could to the property where I saw the turkey. Like I said I don't have much turkey hunting experience but this bird was going nuts gobbling every few minutes at the very least. He seemed some what receptive to my calling, and came closer to my setup but never seemed to get close enough for me to see him. I pretty sure this is a back yard bird and is probably called to frequently so he knows not to cross the road and barb wire fence that separated us that afternoon.

A lovely example of a larkspur.

Some really great looking property to hunt. I think it gets hammered by other hunters but I'm trying not to let this deter me. After not having any luck with the gobbling backyard bird I scouted out the rest of the property, while I didn't see much sign or here any gobbles I'm pretty sure that plenty of birds are in the area and I just need to get down there and make things happen.

Prep Time: Bowhunting Turkeys in Montana 2009

2009-04-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

Having every intention of wanting to hunt the opening weekend of turkey season, I found myself on the archery range on the second day of the season instead of in the field. A stomach bug and the crushing weight of school had not left much time for extra activities, including this blog. So needless to say I was using time that could be spent hunting, dialing in my setup. Luckily we have a long turkey season here in Montana so I weekend squandered wasn't the end of the world.

My bow was shooting good, and the shooter behind the bow was coming along as well. It was good to set up my recently acquired ground blind and shoot from inside it.

I like the blind but I'm concerned that driving it's stakes into the ground will require very soft dirt. Not always an option when hunting and setting up on the fly.

Wind appears to be a potential factor and the blind will have to be well staked out if it is the least bit windy and I hope to fool some birds.
With the school semester coming to a close I'm not certain how many days I will have to get into the field and after turkeys.

Elk Management in Montana

2009-04-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Slammed with school, I haven't had time to update my blog, nor have I been able to have any adventures worth blogging about.

If your interested if found this to be a very interesting article from the local paper in Helena.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/04/26/top/55st_090426_elk.txt

More Turkey Scouting

2009-03-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon found me out on the hunt for many things. Being spring I was hoping to find some sheds, turkeys, glass up some elk, and maybe some of springs first flowers.

I had returned to a ridge to which I had seen some turkeys last year, and had some luck glassing up some elk here last spring as well. I was pretty much skunked on all accounts of my scouting. No, elk, sheds, or turkeys.

Finn and the first buttercups of spring.

Montana Big Game Regulations Posting Online Soon!

2009-03-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

For those looking to get a jump on the 2009 big game season here in Montana, the Montana the FWP will be posting its big game regulations online hopefully tomorrow, or sometime this upcoming week. http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/regulations.html. Look for the booklet version of the regulations to be available in early April.

Neal Ranch Land Acquistion

2009-03-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

I was pleased to find an email from the Montana FWP in my in box on Friday.

http://fwp.mt.gov/news/article_7850.aspx

It appears that after the environmental assessment, and public comment period, the FWP will move forward with the purchase of the Neal Ranch property, pending available funds.

This is good news for the Rocky Mountain Front, its wildlife, communities and hunters. The property will be spared from the potential of development. This will effectively increase the size of the Sun River Game Range, and potentially will mean less elk grazing on private property, and the depredation of crops. An increase in winter range for the game range's elk heard, means more surviving elk, and more opportunity for hunters during those few magical months in the Fall.

Turkey Scouting the Woods of Western Montana

2009-03-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

First off, I have to say that I have never turkey hunted before and I have never scouted for them before, so I wasn't too sure what to look for. But a few weeks ago I spotted a flock of turkeys on private land, but near some public land that I frequent, so I figured this would be a good starting point for turkey scouting. I was able to head back to this area on Thursday, and do some scouting. I somehow managed to stumble upon what I believe is a roost, right on the border of public and private land.

A few years of fly tying has led me to believe that the feather pictured belongs to a turkey along with these droppings.

The area that I scouted is in a permit only area so if I draw tag here I definitely plan on hunting this area, but I need to scout some over the counter tag areas, just in case my tag drawing doesn't pan out. Just three weeks to till the opener of turkey season!

Review: Camofire.com

2009-03-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would do a review for camofire.com. I first heard about camofire from the community over at Bowcast. After checking out the website I quickly added their RSS feed to my iGoogle page. Every day a new deal of the day related to hunting gear is posted, and let me tell you the prices can't be beat, and I have almost pulled the trigger several times, on items listed. Well finally last Friday I saw that they had two Primos stake out blinds and a turkey hunting DVD for an excellnet price so I decided to make the purchase. Now some of you may be wondering what qualifies me to write this review. Aside from being someone who enjoys getting hunting gear at a great price, I have worked for many years in retail and specifically in an internet based store where I perfomed the shipping for all orders.

Ordering

This was a breeze the shopping cart was easy to navigate, and I never had any hang ups while placing the order.

Confirmation

I received a confirmation email that my order had been recieved, on the day I placed the order.

Shipping

I placed the order on Friday, the order was shipped on Monday, and being only to UPS days away recieved the order on Wednesday. I received a delivery confirmation email with the UPS tracking number, the day that the order shipped.

Product

The product arrived to my house as adverstised, in a timely fashion. What more could you ask for.

I hope to take out the blind and shoot from inside it soon, and then use and abuse it during turkey season. Be on the lookout for a review of the ground blind in the future.

A New Season Begins, Training for Archery Season

2009-03-06T12:36:00.000-08:00

Here in my chunk of Montana the weather and the calendar are battling to decide what season it should be. Even though we are still a few days away from Spring, the weather as of late has been Spring like with temps tipping the 50 degree mark. Except for this morning when I was greeted to an inch of snow and temps in the mid 20s. Admist this change in seasons I started mine. Sunday March 1st marked the beggining of archery season for me.

After not shooting my bow for two months I have picked it back up and begun shooting blank bale in my basement. While I strongly agree with the mindset of year round practice, I felt I needed to take a break from constant shooting. And I hoped to start strength training and up my poundage this year. While I started off strong on the strength training, I have slacked off for the last month due to the burden of school.

I'm lucky enough to have a basement in which I can shoot and it happens to be just about 10 yrds long. Aside from blank bale shooting I can step back a bit and target shoot. This setup is perfect when I'm pressed for time or it is too dark to shoot outside at my local range or the proshop is closed.

Here are a few shots of my practice space. As you can see I manage to squeeze in 10 yrd shots. You can also see my crudely fashion paper tuner. It gets the job done, however, for a good paper tuner check out this Bowcast Blog, by Matthew Burrows.

Last Day of my Montana Game Damage Hunt for Elk

2009-02-14T17:08:00.000-08:00

Well after an unsucsesfull weekend of hunting last weekend, and a pummelling in school that did not allow me to hunt at all during the week, I was excited to head out and try and hunt some elk on the last afternoon of my game damage hunt.

As I stated before I was allowed to hunt on three pieces of property and I could glass them from various roads around the area. So I headed out to look for elk on these properties.

I was dismayed, after some driving and glassing I couldn't find any elk on the property that I was allowed to hunt. I was even further dismayed when I found about 75 elk on piece of property conveniently located between the three pieces of property that I could hunt.

These elk were a ways from the property that I could hunt and would not be heading that way before dark.
This kind of put a damper on the hunt, so I glassed up these elk for a while and headed home.

I took these photos through a pair of binoculars with my handheld camera. The process is called digiscoping and I first heard about it on Bowcast on the this podcast.

Well that is it. That puts and end to my big game hunting season for 2008-2009. Now all I can say is bring on turkey season.

Montana, Elk Game Damage Hunt: First Two Days

2009-02-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

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!

Game Damage Hunt Preperation; Lead Sled

2009-01-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

My game damage elk hunt is a just a few weeks away. Since I didn't rifle hunt this Fall I figured I better get some practice in. So I borrowed a buddies lead sled and headed out the range. My .270 was shooting good at 100 yrds, and I took a few shots off the bench with out the sled, once I had it dialed in.

Next week I plan on dialing the rifle in at 200 yrds. Given the open nature of the area I will be hunting I'm thinking that I will be taking a shot longer than I'm used to while hunting the forests of Western Montana. However, the hunting area is in close proximity to a few subdivisions so single lethal shot is of utmost importance, and I will need to have my shooting skill it top form and make sure that I execute a good shot.

Venison Breakfast Sausage

2009-01-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

Now that the regular hunting season has ended a great way to savor the hunt is to do some game processing. I didn't have much time to grind and process my deer while butchering this Fall, so last night I decided to grind up some venison for breakfast sausage. I also decided to try out the meat grinding attachment that is available for Kitchen Aid mixers. While I do own a grinder from Northern Tool, I was given this Kitchen Aid attachment and had never used it.

I selected a recipe from "The Venison Sausage Cookbook", put out by Lyons Press. I picked this book up a few years ago and I think it is great. It is loaded with great sausage recipes, as well as step by step directions, and recipes for your already made sausage. I had four pounds of venison and added a little less than two pounds of pork, add to that a nice assortment of spices and your ready to grind.

The first grind looked pretty good.

The Kitchen Aid mixer did pretty good. I wouldn't want to have this as my primary grinder, but I think it would suffice for someone who wanted to make small batches of burger or sausage every now and then. I don't think that it would handle the rigors of grinding 20 pounds of venison into burger or sausage, in one shot. Clean up was pretty easy, but I did feel the plastic parts didn't clean up as easily as the metal parts on my other grinder.

The second grind is when things started coming together.

The real moment of truth came this morning when it came time to throw a few patties in the frying pan.

It turns out that I will be savoring this hunting for many mornings to come.

Help Protect Montana's Rocky Mountain Front

2009-01-18T09:29:00.000-08:00

I saw this article on the Montana FWP's website and thought that I would post it here for others to read. The FWP is seeking comment on the proposed purchase of land along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. I'm in favor of the FWP acquiring this land. The property abuts the "Sun River Wildlife Management Area", which provides winter range for one of the Nation's largest migratory elk herds. Montana's Rocky Mountain Front is a variable Serengeti, when it comes to wildlife, and is threatened by subdivision development and oil and gas leasing. Large blocks of undeveloped land along the Front provide excellent habitat, and important corridors for wild species, and help to improve the genetic diversity in one of the lower 48's last intact ecosystems.

Let the FWP know what you think.

Elk and brucellosis management in Montana

2009-01-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

I just saw this article on the FWP's website. Recently that spotlight has been pointed towards elk in regards to brucellosis transmission in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Sportsmen and women must watch this management closely. Elk must be managed as a wild population, and brucellosis management applied to bison in the Park, could not and should not be applied to elk. With that being said it think that it is important to support the ranching communities effected by this issue. Ranching has a rich tradition in the West, and aside from being good stewards of the land, working ranches keep valuable property from being subdivided, or turned into amenity ranches which carry a whole different set of problems when it comes to managing wild elk populations.

Resolving this issue will not be easy and will take some time. Until then I think it is important to monitor the management of elk, by state and federal agencies.

Lessons learned from a season chasing elk in Western Montana

2009-01-11T11:59:00.001-08:00

I thought that I would list of a few things that I learned this season while chasing elk with the bow. Bow hunting for elk is to say this least difficult and the learning curve is steep. I was fortunate this season to see and hear animals almost every time that I went out. And some day I hope to actually harvest an elk with my bow.

1. You can't be in too good of shape for elk hunting. This is 100 percent true. Glassing up animals and the sounds of the bugles will have you traipsing all over the country. And elk live for the most part in a steep rugged world. Expect to hear bugling elk on an opposite ridge, loose and gain large amounts of elevation getting to there, only to hear elk bugling the direction you just came from. Being able to keep pace all day long will greatly increase you enjoyment in the field.

2. Eat a good breakfast. This seems really common sense, but for some reason I can't always live by it. Whether it's the lack of appetite early in the morning or the need to get a move on, I don't always make time or enough time for breakfast. Once you get onto elk you may not be able to stop and eat for a while, so fueling up in the morning will help when you are on to animals, and will help you go strong all day long. Next season I plan on packing along some energy gels in the field. Something that I can access easily and not have to stop and eat. I found several times that after I got on elk it was for some time, and stopping to eat was not an option. However, after a while physical and mental fatigue set in. Once this season, I set my bow down and didn't realize it until a few vertical feet and minutes later. I spent some time and effort finding my bow, instead of hunting.

3. Try and get a good setup. I'm still learning about this one, and years in the field will only help this out. Still there is much to learn about this and there is more to it than just playing the wind, and be a good bugler and cow caller. For a good resource check out this podcast on Bowcast about this subject.

Remember these are just my thoughts and opinions. I have yet to harvest an elk with my bow and I am by know means and expert. Nonetheless, it is helpful to reflect on things that did or didn't help you out in the field, and these are things I will be changing in the future.

Help FWP nab poachers and get paid

2009-01-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

I saw this on the FWP website today and thought I would post it for any one interested.
http://fwp.mt.gov/news/article_7581.aspx
It is a shame that stuff like this still happens, I can only hope that somehow they manage to catch these guys or guy.

New Year's Eve Venison Pasties

2009-01-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

For New Year's Eve I decided to test out a recipe I found in a copy of the my local Rod and Gun Club's, newsletter. Pasty are of Irish, Cornish and Welsh decent ( don't quote me on that). They are popular throughout Western Montana, especially in Butte. Recently in the local paper there has been some heated debate about the traditional filling for these and whether they should be topped with gravy. I view gravy, like bacon, why not add some to anything you are eating. The filling is a mix of venison potatoes and onions and a little salt and pepper. This recipe is more like pasties found currently for sale around Montana, and I slathered

them in gravy.

They turned out pretty aside from the goof in the crust recipe thanks to me. I will be making them again in the future.

Montana Game Damage Hunt

2009-01-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

Woo Hoo! On Wednesday the letter came in the mail that I had been waiting for. I received notification from the Montana FWP, that I had been selected to participate in an elk game damage hunt. I had been watching the FWP website for the last several weeks and had been seeing hunts continually listed and finally my district came up, on Tuesday. The hunt takes place on two ranches within the area. These hunts are designed to stop depredation of resources on private land owners property, and while this benefits the land owner, it is still very gracious of these private land owners to allow hunters on to their property. The hunt is a rifle hunt for antlerless elk, and I have been selected to hunt from Februrary 7th-13th. This is the last hunt period for the hunt, so I hope that animals are still present during my hunt, and haven't been completely run off by other hunters. While I had good success with the bow this season, and I would gladly call my season a complete at this point, it would be really nice to put an elk in the freezer. I will be in school during this period but, you can be sure I will be doing my best to go out and hunt as much as I can during my period.

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

2008-12-27T09:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-24T16:26:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-22T16:10:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-18T18:47:00.000-08:00

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.

Montana's Opening Weekend for Archery, Sept 5th 6th &7th

2008-09-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Opening weekend featured cooler temps and rainy weather. This kept some elk up on their feet through out the day, unfortunately the day was on Friday when we couldn't hunt them. We loaded up our bikes and bike trailers for what we thought would be a five mile bike ride. 15 Minutes up the road we encountered a herd of elk with a bugling bull who we could hear, but could not see in the timber. So we backed down the road a bit and set up camp. Not far enough though. About 1:30am that night we had elk plowing through our camp. I thought Saturday would be great. We didn't see or hear an elk all day, and we hunted pretty hard. Our luck was a little better on Sunday. That morning we decided to head up the road to where we had origanlly intended to camp and hunt. About 3 miles up the road we spotted an elk crossing the road. We couldn't make out the sex at the time. We geared up, headed into the timber and started calling. We called in two spike bulls who were still in velvet and their spikes looked like baseball bats. Unfotunately we couldn't shoot spikes in the district that we were hunting.

After this happened I thought we would get into more elk so we headed further up the road. We hunted hard until late morning rains sent us packing. Aside from the spikes we didn't hear or see any other elk on Sunday.

About to load up the bob trailers.

Some great country to glass.

August 2nd More Scouting

2008-09-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Early August found me on the lookout for more elk country. It looks like I found it. However the steep and rugged nature of this country may keep me out of here and the elk safe for now. The top of this mountain appears to have plenty of good country that I don't think elk would hold in for very long. Subsequently you could end up loosing and gaining lots of elevation over the course of day. This can make things difficult in a hurry.

My trusty field scout Finn.

Finn is thinking the same thing I'm thinking, great looking country but it looks like a long ways down there.

Yes I was really there.

A great summer day in Montana!

Summer Scouting

2008-07-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

The 12&13th of July found me out doing some summer scouting for and area that I plan to hunt for elk in the fall. It was a beautiful weekend. The bugs were still a bit pesky but the Mountains had plenty of green grass and many abundant wildflowers. One of the coolest flowers I saw was a yellow monkey flower which for some reason I neglected to take photos of. Hopefully this scout trip will help me out in the Fall and at least keep me from gettting to turned around during the heat of the battle. Because Sunday was the 13th that proved to be my unlucky day. I ran into some car trouble and had to get my car towed and repaired in Philipsburg a small town about twenty miles from the scouting area. I finally was able to retreive my vehicle this weekend.

Finn my trusty field scout.

This drainage has and old mining claim in it. Aside from this old blaze there was much evidence of the previous activity that once happened here.

Finn in front of an old cabin.

This looks like a pretty lonesome place to live.

I am taking this old Schmidt beer can as a good omen! You can't see it too well, but there is big old elk on the this can.

Sticky Geranium.

A nic patch of Bluebells.

It turned out to be a gorgeous night.

And a beautiful Morning.

Finn heading into a field of Buckwheat, Lupine and Sage.

Ted's Success

2008-01-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

While I didn't fair that well this season, my friend Ted managed to harvest this nice buck.

Ted's arrow after a complete pass through.

Ted is in his treestand and I am standing in the area where he shot the buck. The buck went about 60 yards after being hit, a nice shot by Ted!

The game cart makes things a bit easier.

River Bottom Hunting

2008-01-02T05:20:00.000-08:00

Living in Montana, I am very fortunate to have a hunting area only a few minutes drive from my house. While this area is convenient, it does have its drawbacks. Being close to an urban area, dog walkers and kids playing in the woods are not uncommon sights after settling in to my treestand. My friend Ted took these pictures. Thats Ted's tree stand and his target/decoy. After a morning of seeing a few dog walkers that managed to scare away a few nice bucks and a doe, I headed over to Ted's stand and we both did some target practice.

If you look hard you can see me up in Ted's tree stand in the background.

This is me in Ted's tree stand. My stand is about

150 yards away from this one.

The target is approximately 20 yards away from me.

Ted showed me this scrape that he found not too far from his tree stand. This well used scrape is on a line of scrapes within the area.

An exciting scrape close-up.

Return to Spanish Ravine

2008-01-02T04:46:00.001-08:00

The September 23rd trip to " Spanish Ravine" was foiled by fowl weather. While we saw some Elk sign we ended up not seeing or really hearing anything. So I returned a week later. I was accompanied for a day and half by may friend Mark, and the second day by my friend Ted. Unfortunately shortly after Ted showed up the weather again turned fowl and didn't help out our hunting opportunities. While Ted and I did manage to call in a bull elk, he never revealed himself to us.

Near the Summit of North Point

Even if you don't get an Elk, late September is a great time of year to be out in the woods.

Cold and Lonesome!

Adding a Layer.

Ready for action.

Sept 23rd

2007-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

When is elk hunting not that fun? Not that we didn't have fun, but at times it didn't feel like it. Especially on the bike ride out when our hands got very cold. Sometimes a hunter is better off staying bed in the morning and not going hunting, considering what time in the morning that we got up to get to here, we should have stayed in bed on this day.

Here is that picture again.

Ted is smiling because we have only be riding about 3 minutes. Our smiles soon faded. If they only made camo spandex.

Sept 16

2007-10-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Waller and I had a blustery morning and a day of no Elk! You can see in some of the photos there is still smoke in ther air on September 16th, one of the last smokey days.

Where's Waller.

Smokey

An Elk didn't think to highly of this tree.

Burned in 2003

Sept 15th

2007-10-03T20:48:00.001-07:00

What I thought was going to be a great day was foiled by a rig pulling ahead of us on a dirt road and getting to our trailhead before us. Ted and I made the best of it and we still had a good day. The weather was pretty hot and we ended up not really seeing or hearing anything.

Ted about to gain some elevation.
Steep Country!

Get used to this picture until my hunting buddies start bringing their cameras.

Spetember 8th & 9th

2007-09-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well the camera batteries were dead on Saturday so I didn't get a photos.
Was still a nice morning and I went to an area that I had never been so that was good.

Sunday was a great morning and day. I went out with my friend Ted. We started hiking in the dark, and took in a great sunrise. We finally ended up bugling back and forth with and Elk in an area where I didn't really expect it. Maybe we will get him next time.

More great looking Elk Country.
Ted glassing for the Big one.

Ridge top sunrise!!

Some of the thick stuff that Elk love.

First Day Out

2007-09-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Opening day was September 1st. I mangaged to get out with my friend Mark on the 2nd. Fire closures and restrictions detered us but didn't stop us from getting out and stretching the legs.

The handy work of some previous campers with too much time on their hands.

Marks new tactic. Hide in the ground and wait for the Elk!

Sending out a bugle

7:30AM and already shedding Layers

Getting our poop in a group

August 8 2007

2007-08-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

So much to do, so much practicing still to do.

It's early August and Elk archery season is less than a month a way. I'm shooting my bow as much as possible. I still need to paper tune my broadheads, and really get my bow dialed in. I'm starting to feel pretty comfortable at 30 yards but have I still have a few bad days. Luckily my friend Ted's neighboor is a big bowhunter and has targets set up in his backyard, he has let go over and shoot there a little bit. It's really cool because he has it set up to shoot from his roof, to simulate shooting out of a tree stand. We drug Ted's 3d target over to his neighboors yard, here are a few picks

Getting there
One of my tightest groupings of the day just not the best location

Ted Pulling back on the 3d at approx 30yrds