Montana Elk 09 (huntnphool)

[huntnphool]

I will get into detail in a bit, just wanted to get it started with a pic.

[klickriverchromer]

Oh ya, Big Sky country.  Hard to beat that.  Good luck to ya.  Can't iwait for more pics and stories...

[cascademountainhunter]

good pic.......

[actionshooter]

and?       

[ICEMAN]

Must have got in trouble with Mrs. Huntphool being gone so much lately, and now wasting time on the web....   


 

[Bearhunter]

Howd the Kodiak Canvas work for ya, I love mine for a small camp, easy up and down and absolute bomb proof.

[Skyvalhunter]

I don't see anything hanging in the trees!!

[boneaddict]

Must have got in trouble with Mrs. Huntphool being gone so much lately, and now wasting time on the web....   

Thats how it rolls at my house.

[SHANE(WA)]

 

[PA BEN]

He's going to milk this one like his moose kill last year.

[SHANE(WA)]

Looks like he might be in some snow! my buddy is over fishing rock creek, snowing there, 31 deg

[huntnphool]

 Yeah yeah yeah, I'm getting to it.  We rolled into Spokane to spend the evening with Joe and Jodie Saturday and got up with them and their hunting clients at 3:30am We packed away a quick breakfast and hit the road.

 Got into town and stopped at the local sporting goods store to purchase our $10.00 archery endorsement then made out way to camp. On the way in, M-Ray spotted a moose in a small clearing above the road so we stopped and put the scope on him. I have never tried to get pics through my spotter but we were able to get a couple decent ones before continuing down the dirt. (I will post the pic once Mark sends it to me)

 We chose our camp location and set it up (pic at top of page) the waether was warm, about 75 degrees or so, so we set the camp up in the shade of the trees. I woke up in the middle of the first night and the top of my head was frozen, I had to close the top of my sleeping bag the rest of the time we were there with just my face sticking out, it got down to near 20 degrees at night. In fact, the three bags of ice I purchased on the way over were not completely gone a week later when we left, and thats even after it hit the 85 degree mark several days.

 I changed the oil in the truck and replaced the air filter before we left. After driving on the dirt/dust roads all week I had to replace the filter when I got home too, here is a pic. The dirty one looked just like the clean one just 2 weeks ago.

[huntnphool]

 For some reason the bulls have been very quiet the last couple years, this year was no exception. We managed to spot elk but only late in the evening which made it impossible to get on them before dark. By Wednesday we were wondering WTF we were going to do. We headed out from camp and got about a mile away when M-Ray decided to crank up his bugle. It took a minute but 5 bulls responded with bugles all around us. We went after the closest one but he shut right up and moved his cows out under us somehow. We saw a nice big 6 point across the valley and up the other side but by then it was getting to be late in the morning and we didnt want to push them out, knowing they would be moving back down to the creek bottom in the evening, we would try getting on them then. So we headed into town to pick up a few things and as we left camp noticed a truck from Washington parked right where we had got a bull to respond, he must have heard us and went in before we could

 That evening we headed out to the draws we got them to bugle in but there was nothing, they had all been pushed out of the area by those other guys. We tried the same draws the next morning but they were empty of elk. That evening we went up the draw behind camp hoping the elk would have been pushed in to that draw but it too was clear of elk. Right before dark I spotted a decent size heard a couple miles away, as the crow flies, but they were high on the opposite ridge and there was no way to get to them until the next day, we now had a mission...........more to come tonight

[huntnphool]

 Next morning we headed out early and hit one of the hills we had been seeing elk on. After a long hike we hit a clearing and crossed at a diagonal to get to the draw that had a creek/grass/shade etc, nice holding spot for the critters.

 About half way up/across M-Ray noticed a moose come out of the timber below us so we dropped behind some sage and watched him work across the bench toward some cattle, I think he was in love with some of the beef cows

 Since I didn't have my spotter I tried getting a pic through my EL's, (next pic) We ranged him at about 750 yards. Since we hadn't seen any elk I thought it would be fun to play with this guy and see if I could get him to climb the open sage hill up to us. There was only one tree on this hillside and it was about 15 yards uphill behind us. I let out a grunt and the bull turned his head to investigate. Mark asked me what I was doing and I told him I wanted to see how close we could get him to come. Marks face looked just like this

 After a few grunts the bull lost interest in the cows, jumped the fence and came running up the hill. Somewhat under his breath M-Ray said "I hate you" and headed for tree I managed to hear him spout "I'm too old for this *censored*" right before he got to it, I think he was having a mental recall of last year

 The moose kept coming so M-Ray dropped his bow at the base and climbed up the tree, all the while I kept grunting and snapping pics with his point and shoot. I managed to get the small bull to 35 yards before Mark informed me that his point and shoot does video as well. I switched it over after he started to leave, having finally figured out that M-Ray was not going to give him any Here are the pics and I will post the video below them.

[huntnphool]

that first pic was through my EL's, the rest of these were right out of the point and shoot.