Lessons learned from a season chasing elk in Western Montana

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

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

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

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

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.