My 2010 Montana Elk Hunt

[petey]

That afternoon Ryan told me of a spot where he was riding horse and the bulls were bugling last Friday. I said, “yeah right” but I was game for anything. He told me it would be an honest 2 hr hike to get into elk, but what the heck. I’d already covered 40 or so miles on public by now. By now the thermometer is reading 75 degrees and it’s noon! I didn’t think to bring my bugle tube, heck it’s November man, so I borrowed his power bugle, grabbed my cow call, packed up my day pack with extra clothes and started out on a hike in my t-shirt! It was up the whole way of course, half of which was mostly spots of juniper bushes, small pine and mostly sage. The higher I got, the heavier the timber got and the fresher the sign got and the colder it got. Things were looking good, and I had now put on my final layer of clothing. I hit an old access road and ran into a small herd of muledeer doe. 5 mins of glassing them here comes two gorgeous bucks, one that went all of 180”. As I walked higher I came to a posted sign almost at the top of the mountain and saw two smaller signs with their back to me. As I looked at those signs it said “You are not entering the National Forest”. Whoops, I had just walked the length of the forest, so I headed back down past the big bucks, which were still there and left out a bugle. I figured, what the heck, it’s worth a try. Five minutes later I left out another bugle and got an answer about 300 yards from me. I’m thinking “is that what I think it is?” I bugle again and get an immediate response back from a growler. I start heading down the hill towards him, the only problem…of which I had not mentioned to this point, the bull is just inside Yellowstone Park boundary. I get to a nice open area and the bull is bugling and coming. Now this isn’t like my experiences in archery, he’s bugling, but not rutting bugling. He’s just letting me know where he is and that’s mighty fine by me, b/c he’s heading my way. Cows are calling all around me, it’s getting towards the final shooting light and out he pops. A beautiful 6x6 about 340’s range and I put my crosshairs on him and say “boom” to myself. For not only was the bull in my crosshairs, but so was the Yellowstone boundary line marker, 10 yards in front of him. Here I am, 40 yards from a bugling bull in November, with a rifle and this sucker hangs up just on the other side of the boundary line. Some cows cross over the line down wind of me and the woods come unglued. I did not hear a bark but it sounded like about 30 elk in that herd. My bull ran another 200 yards inside the park and let out a farewell bugle. I now have a 2 hr hike out of the timber to the trailhead in the dark with a minimag that doesn’t have the strongest of batteries in it! Oh, I only saw two sets of grizzly tracks on my way up, but I was not worried of bears or cats…..my only concern, a pack of wolves of course. I can handle one critter at a time trying to eat me, but not 4 or 5 or 10. What an awesome hunt that day though! A bugling bull called to 40 yards, scoped, but couldn’t take a shot. It was well worth the 4 hr round trip hike.

[petey]

That evening I saw a wolf on the way back to Bill’s place. The 3rd of which I saw that week. Great stories were told that evening and another great meal provided by Peggy was well received after that long walk. I asked Bill if he had those bulls trained, and he said, that wasn’t the first time an elk has hung up just inside the park and they are well aware of where that boundary is. With only two days left to the 7 day hunt, I was still very optimistic, especially after the encounters I had that day on our property and on the public land. That evening the Florida Fish and Game fellow killed a good mule deer buck.

The next morning hunt I personally watched two bulls get shot from my binoculars on a piece of public land adjacent to our property. The bulls were making a run for it from another section of private land and only had another 1500 yards to clear to make it to our property. I was happy for the lucky hunters but was praying that they would make it to give the other two hunters an opportunity at an elk. With very little time left and very uncooperative weather the elk activity was looking pretty low for my hunting partners that had to stay on the 10000 acres b/c of their outfitter sponsored tags. Spotting 5 other bulls, I just knew it was only a matter of time before they came over to our property, but hoped it would be before we ran out of time.

That afternoon, I could not let my little bugling buddy go, so I packed up in the 70 degree weather again and headed out for my 2 hr hike. By the time I arrived to the spot I had my encounter the day before, it was 4:00. I backed off the park line about 150 yards and waited. At 4:30 I heard my first bugle, so I responded back. It was the same growling bugle from the night before and he was about 300 yards in the park. After 30 minutes of back and forth I had 5 different bulls screaming. It was so awesome. I had about 10 minutes to last shooting light and I made the decision that my bull wasn’t going to make it in time, that he would probably wait until dark again to cross over the boundary. There was another bull about ½ mile down the mountain that sounded darn close to the property line to me, so I took off on a sprint. I got to a spot where the woods opened up a bit and the boundary was on a small bench. I let out a bugle and got an immediate answer not more than 80 yards from me! I backed off as far as I could from the line and still have a clear shot then broke out my cow call. As I mewed, I could hear the cows coming and the bull was screaming and coming. With the way the boundary line was, as soon as I could see him, he would only have about 5 yards to clear to be in legal territory. My plan was to dump him with a neck shot as soon as he was past the line, so I wouldn’t have to lose an animal that made it back into it’s safe zone after the shot. Here he comes and I can see horns, another beautiful 6x6. He made it to less than a yard inside the park and stopped and waited until it was too dark to see or legally shoot. What another awesome night! Man I love this bugling bull stuff with a rifle in my hand, but they sure make it frustrating hanging up right at the boundary line.

[petey]

The final day was another scorcher and we all did the morning hunt and then headed to Livingston to do a little shopping and eat some lunch. I needed a little rest, so I decided not to make the hike again as I’d figure I would encounter the same fate as the previous two nights. Besides I told the other two hunters I would cut up those deer, so that’s what we did. We got back to Bill’s before supper, I started cutting deer and we told stories. Ryan was checking the zero on one of his guns on a rock at 580 yards. I handed him my 300 RUM and said, put the 4th dot on the rock. He center punched the 12” rock and I said, see, that elk at 539 was toast!

All I can say is those boys worked their rear off trying to make sure everyone was having a great time and trying their darndest to get us elk that just weren’t there on our property. Leave it up to me to pick a week that would ruin their 100% opportunity on this property, lol. As most of you know that were elk hunting this year, the weather was just plain horrible for hunting. 60-75 degrees is not optimal hunting weather, when those animals should be moving, they just have no reason to come down out of the high country. Even though I didn’t have to, I choose to put on about 50 or so miles of foot and horse hunting outside of how they were hunting them. In the end, I came home without an animal, but I wouldn’t call it empty handed. I had the time of my life in one of my most favorite areas in all of the US. I came home with new friends, tons of stories and just one heck of a memory. Bill Hoppe of North Yellowstone Outfitters runs one of the best operations that I’ve had the opportunity to partake in! If you’re looking for an awesome hunt, big elk and especially trophy mule deer, give him a call and tell him I sent ya! Oh yeah, I have to get back out there in archery season!

http://www.northyellowstoneoutfitters.com/

Sorry it was such a long story, but it was such a great hunt and I still missed quite a few details. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the story and the photos….this guy is top notch in my book