Heres the LONG..... I wrote this up for my own personal records....really enjoy recording my hunts, especially successful ones!
Well, this has been a hell of an elk season. For those that dont know, in Montana we are lucky enough to be able to hunt elk for about 10 weeks! The first 5 are archery only, then the last is any weapon. I really like to kill elk and I LOVE to bowhunt, but when it comes down to it, I pick up the 06' and give it hell.
I spent 20 days elk hunting this year. About 10 archery and 10 rifle...archery season was great. Had quite a few very close calls with big and little bulls, but could not connect. Normal for me. So, Rifle season came and me and my hunting partner, Dusty had a hell of a time. We saw a few elk early in the season, but could not get into elk after that. Last weekend Dusty went with another bud and he killed a beautiful 320 bull. I stayed home and put some deer meat in the freezer. Then..this last weekend comes up. My wife had had just about enough of me being gone for 3-4 days in a row every week or other week anyhow...and well...she layed down the law and said I'll give ya one more day!
Montana has had some seriously cold and snowy late November weather, and that means the high mountains get snowed out and those elk have to move down a bit. Dont get me wrong, they will still sit at 8-9 K, But it'll at least be on the edge of the mountain range, not 15 miles from the truck. So, I did some checking with some buddies that are serious elk slayers....guys that kill big giant bulls every year.... one guy I hunt with and a good friend sent me an email that said this:
"Ernie if you wanna good bull you gotta get up Johnson Creek. Even if you dont go up 4 miles, just go up a ways and take either side of the drainage. That is THE spot for big bulls in these conditions."
I said "screw, I'm going for it. I have one day to make this happen. I am going to bust my ass and if I dont kill one I'll KNOW I at least gave it hell".
The alarm went off at 2:30 Friday morning. I was up well before it. Could barely sleep. The conditions were ripe to find a big old bull that had migrated out of the wilderness or nearby Jellystone. I hit the road at 2:50 and drove through a ground blizzard for 2 1/2 hours. The trailhead was empty. MONEY!! There were 20 inches of snow in the parking lot and I about got stuck just trying to get my truck into a good spot. I left the truck at 5:45, 1 hour and 15 minutes before shooting light. My goal was to get a couple miles up this drainage, then, in the early light, I could get a look at the land. I'd never laid eyes on it before, but good old Google Earth did prepare me!
After 45 minutes of hiking up the broke trail, the hills started to light up with the first hints of dawn, it was about then I cut off the trail and started breaking 20+ inches of snow up a steep slope that was going to give me a good vantage point at first light. I reached the top of a little knob at shooting light. A small muley buck and some does watched me from a couple hundred yards, but the 55-60 elk about 1000 yards UP the mountain had my full attention. I stood in the 14 degree air trying to hold my binos steady enough to see if there were any bulls. I couldn't pick out...then I heard a gun shot up that way! I looked around and found 2 guys on horses that were pretty much in the middle of the herd! (the herd was scattered across about 600 yards of treeline). The elk didn't run or even act alarmed. It was wierd!
Anyhow, I could not find a bull in there and didn't want to deal with crowds, so I started climbing and sidehilling around this mountain to head further back into the drainage. After about 45 minutes of busting through crotch deep drifts and slogging through a solid 20+ inches of snow, I got to a patch of young firs on the edge of the forest. Right about then, a good mulie buck, a couple forkies and a couple does stepped out from behind some other trees and pretty much just looked at me. About 40 yards away. They were not the least bit excited about me being there and just sorta walked off. That old buck looked like he was PLUM tuckered out. Probably been chasing small bucks, fighting, rubbing trees and doing the other, more important business, for the last 2+ weeks. Then mix this cold weather in and he basically said screw it... shoot me if you want, Id be better off dead.
I didn't of course. But what was really cool was about then I noticed some elk about 200 yards off on the other side of a nice little snowy park. When I raised the glasses to get a look them I saw more in the trees and I saw a nice main beam moving through the trees. They didn't know I was there and I didn't even get excited. I just figured, heck, I'll work below them in this quiet snow and get on him. About then this spike bull walks out and stands about 5 yards from this nice muley buck and he also just looks at me like I was no more than a tree. I didn't want to alarm any of these guys, so I just played it cool till they moved off, then I slipped into some better timber cover and started working towards where that bull was.
After 15 minutes of this I bumped into another group of elk, they were well below where the couple cows and bull had been. They didn't know I was there either, so they held me up pretty good cause I couldn't just walk through them, they'd blow out and spook the whole dam mountain! I was glassing through the timber, picking elk apart, looking for bone on one of their noggins, when I caught something red in my peripheral. This pretty little red fox was curled up sleeping about 12 yards from me! She finally heard me and scurried off and the elk fed out of site. I adjusted my route so as not to intercept them, and kept moving. Well, this is getting long and over the next 2 hours I am in and out of cow/spike herds. 30-70 yards from elk the whole time it seemed like. I finally bumped a group on a little finger ridge and that was the last of them.
From there, I decided to side hill this steep, timbered slope and continue up the drainage. I knew there had to be a herd of bulls in here somewhere, or at least one bull. Thats all I needed right? By noon I was starting to get discouraged. I'd worked out of the elk sign and was only seeing deer sign. That really ok, because I knew the mature bulls weren't going to be pal-ing around with those girls anyhow. But, I did get tired of sidehilling and made the decision to drop off the mountain, cross the drainage and head up the other side. I glassed it early in the morning and could see elk and elk trails going all over it in the deep snow.
I worked off the hill and down near the bottom it started to bench out pretty good. I did start picking up some new elk sign and my spirits were starting to pick up. Nothing too fresh, but at least elk were using it. I should also mention, that about 11 am my hams and groin were trying to cramp on me. I guess a thermos of coffee on the drive over wasn't the best idea when I had a marathon ahead of me. Lifting your dang legs up to drive through 15-20" of snow with each step is a dirty bugger!
I came out of some thicker timber into a bit of a clearing and noticed a LOT of elk sign, but it was all snowed in, at least 24 hours old. I said, I think maybe out loud..."well, there were elk here, but they aren't here now"... then I took about 4 steps and saw tan down the hill about 100 yards. I pulled up the binos and saw it was a bull. He was bedded and from the looks of it may have been clean asleep. The snow and topography did not allow for me to sit and get a good rest on my knees (what is that position called anyways???)so... there was a big fir tree about 10 yards in front of me, directly between us. I side stepped and shuffled quietly through the snow to the tree...it was then I had the agonizing second to find out if he had used it famous 6th sense and bailed while I was behind the tree, or if he was still there.
Yep, he was still there and appeared to be sawing some serious logs. I hope he was having a good dream, because he basically never woke up from it! Leaned my rifle hard into the tree to get a steady rest, put the crosshairs about where a guy should, and squeezed. He raised his head and looked like he was trying get his feet so I put another one in the boiler room, he kicked his front feet a couple times, then laid his head down, and that was that.
I knew he was a decent bull, I knew he had a long fourth, but didn't spend much time judging him. Hell, I just wanted a "good" bull. I started walking up (80 yards) and about 1/2 way I noticed the 4th was longer than I thought. I raised the binos and my heart missed a couple beats. I finished my walk up, noticing a muley doe standing about 30 yards away watching. I then laid my rifle against a tree, patted the old boy on the noggin and thanked him for his life. Then I looked at his rack some more. Then I looked at his humongous body.....then I looked at his rack some more... then....maybe just a little more! Then I got the camera out and took some pics. WOW.
I collected some dry wood and started a fire (stupid me, put it just upwind so I had to breathe smoke while I cut him up). Ran my knife across the diamond steel and dug in. I pulled the trigger at 1:30. By 4 O'clock had a 70# pack with backstraps, loins and some neck meat and headed down the trail. The 4 quarters, his rack and cape buried in the snow about 100 yards from his carcass. There was only 1 wolf track on the trail in the 4 miles back to the truck. I got there at 5:45. 12 hours from when I left the truck that morning. My legs were cramping, my hips were killing me, my shoulders were numb....and I had a BIG ASS SMILE on my face! That right there is what its all about! I have worked that hard MANY MANY times and not had it pay in meat or horns... this has been a LONG time coming.
My good friend and hunting buddy, Dusty, met me at the hotel last night and we got up early this morning and hiked in with empty packs and a sled. By 11:30 am we were back at the truck with BIG ASS SMILES on our faces. We worked our butts off this year and it paid off, a 320 bull for Dust and Im coming up with 377 gross for my once in a lifetime 6X6!!!! Looks like he has about 5 inches of deductions and most likely will miss the book by just a few inches! OH WELL....He's #1 in my book!
Here's a few shots, I'll post a few more later!
