1st Archery Bull... Montana

[wildmanoutdoors]

Great story and pics! What an awesome hunt so far!

[mulehunter]

  

Good Write.   

[Netminder01]

Great post & pics!

Congrats!!!!

[FSTaxidermy]

congrats!!! thanks for the great story 

[Hornseeker]

Sunday morning was cool and crisp…and clear. I knew it was going to be “ok” for about 2-4 hours… then the elk were going to hole up. The weather went from Cold to warm Tuesday-Friday… and now it was starting to get hot. I’ve never seen this result in good activity. Plus, we were a little early for the bulls to really be getting fired up (Sept 12-15).

The morning ended up pretty quiet. We had one bull half heartedly answer a couple times, then shut up. He sounded like a herd bull and he was in thick timber. I knew as crunchy as it was, we’d have a slim chance at getting in on him with a bunch of cows looking in the direction of every twig snap… so we headed north across the main creek and into some country that I’ve gotten into elk quite a bit in the past. Well…it was a real pretty walk… with our bows… hehehe…






The most exciting part of the morning was putting a couple Judos on and shooting at mole hills, rotten stumps and clumps of grass. Becky was hammering everything from 10-30 yards. We took some time to enjoy the sights, explore, appreciate the diversity of the area… I broke out the camera for some macro work…

Wild Dandelion… Agoceris I believe..


SubAlpine Fir


Buckwheat


Lichen and Mathews


After I was done staring at the ground, I looked up to see Lady Luck doing some work on a tree…


She done good…


While poking around looking for Judo targets… we stumbled on this little wallow… First one she’d seen.


And down the trail we went… to go have a snack and get ready for the last evening hunt….

[jackelope]

More......

[boneaddict]

I'm not sure where you got your bull, but the rest of that country looks all familiar, especially that mudhole.   I found a couple (one that looks like that) and an insane giant one there.    I think I sat in that same clearing by that same spot as your tree.   God forbid I find it, I might have to Dr it a bit.     Glad to hear the wolves haven't laid waste to the elk in there.   If you remember right I called one in with a cow call while I was working a bull.   Awesome hunt E!

[Hornseeker]

The last night. I had high hopes for a spot up above camp. We’d heard bugles up there every evening we’d been there. I knew where some thick dark timber/bedding area broke into some nice parks with some water… figured we’d get setup about 1 ½ hours before dark and I’d just do some real quiet and sparse cow calling.



Becky was in a perfect place between two alleys…


We did not hear a single elk that night… saw a few mule deer… but it was suppressingly quiet… our last night. We wanted to hunt for a couple hours the next morning, but after considering the work we had to do (packing out all the meat), the drive we had home… getting everything squared away and getting to bed and to work Tuesday morning… we thought better of hunting Monday morn… so, we built a fire Monday night and shared a bottle of wine… and enjoyed eachothers company. Becky was tickled with the hunt… I was on cloud nine…


We woke before light and broke down camp. Got packed up and started down the trail!




Above pics are after we went by the meat stash… Becky loaded the backstrap bag on her pack full of camp gear and I grabbed the head/horns… Neither of us had light loads…

We crossed the creek and headed up the hill… and a roaring bugle came from the other side of the saddle from us. It was the first bull we’d heard yet that was really fired up. I told Becky we should get up the hill about 200 yards, drop our stuff, then try and move in on him or call him in. We got up there, dropped our packs and gave a couple cow calls. He Roared back, but seemed quite a ways away. I wanted to head back down the hill and get near this saddle where I figured he’d bring a herd across to shade up for the day. It was silent for a bit, then I gave out some cow calls and he answered. He didn’t sound far this time. I hurried Lady Luck along the ridgeline and told her to get ready… as she was moving up 75 yards ahead of me he roared out a bugle that made me smile. I LOVE those big, loud, challenging bugles… damn! Anyhow, I thought he was going to come walking right through the saddle… and Becky was set up right on it… he didn’t. The prob was… as many of you know, a saddle in the mountains, at 8000 feet… at 8:30 in the morning… is a fickle winded SOB… the wind pretty much blows in every direction at once… I should have thought of that. We shoulda pulled way out of there and tried to call him in away from the saddle… The next time we heard him bugle.. .it was a good one and he was 300+ yards away…

The real kick in the nutz… was when we got back to our packs… and the elk skull… there were fresh elk tracks basically on top of the packs! That bull, or a satellite… went RIGHT up to where I initially cow called from!!

We hiked out to the truck with a smile on our faces. What a great trip.




We emptied our packs and headed back in… I wanted to make 2 more trips. We’d each pack about 45# each load.
This pretty girl of mine says, “I don’t want to come back again, lets just pack heavy loads and get it over with!” I was really reluctant. Ive done it a ton of times and hated every one of them… but..well… you know… when a girl… scratch that… Lady… tells you “lets just pack a heavy load” you cant exactly tell her “No, its too hard”… So off we went. The loads were not nice. My hips ached in the first minute. We had 1.5 miles to go. 1 mile of it uphill. After three sit downs on logs… we made it. I got home and weighed the meat bags and our packs. Her’s was 77# total. 5’3” hundred and something pound Lucky Lady packed 77# out… It was impressive! Mine was 104#. It sucked.

That… was that! Me and my bull one more time…

[brianmtsinc]

Awesome story!  Congrats!  Cant wait to get off this plane so I can look at all of the pics!   

Really great write up!  What an amazing trip!

Congrats,
Brian

[boneaddict]

Good for her!  That's a beast of a packload for someone that size.  That last mile sucks exposed in the sun too.   NICE

[pianoman9701]

That's a hell of a hunting partner, Seeker. You'd better tag her quickly.

[Woodchuck]

Great write up. Congrats on an awesome sounding hunt. 

[Hornseeker]

You do remember that area dont ya! hehehe...

Yes Pianoman... I wont be letting go of her... I want to get her an elk and or deer in the worst way this year!!

Oh...and I sorta left a little out:

The broadhead I found in his front leg... leg bone shot, not scap... stainless snuffer I believe. screw in. No shaft, it screwed off... pretty cool! I presume the elk was a spike when he got that broadhead lodged in him... definitely was not this year!

[Bronson]

Awesome write up and pics, really enjoyed it!  Thanks for sharing.  And congrats on that bull!

[buckhorn2]

Way to get it done Ernie that was another great hunt to follow along on you sure have those elk dialed in. I drew another snowy mountain rifle tag hope to maybe see you on the way over to Miles City.