Montana 09 Archery Hunt

[BillyG]

Another Archery hunt comes and goes. We started our season on opening day looking for a new spot to Elk hunt do to the Rat creek fire that wiped out our favorite hunting area. We scouted the Big Hole clear to Dillion and just didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling. The wolves were visible sunning themselves on the sage ridges. This is why you no longer see Elk in sage country these days. We finally settled near the Snowcrest Mt's. On September 10th we spotted 10 nice bulls in one drainage. Everything was looking up and we made a plan for the following day. As we broke the ridge top looking down into the drainage we noticed two 6X6 bulls sparing. A few minutes later a huge herd bull made his way up to the sparing bulls and chased them off. With the herd bull insight we made our way to with in 100 yards down wind of the herd. The two satellite bulls came back out of the timber line pushing the herd bull and his cows cross hill from our position. As soon as they were out of sight we crossed the open sage hill and followed close behind the screaming herd  bull for three hours. At this point we had made our way back into the herd and the herd bull was insight again. The plan was to do some cow calling and just blend in when needed. One cow call latter I had a spike run up to within 10 yards looking for me, I hid from the spike until he figured something was wrong and ran back to the herd bull. You can guess what happened next! Yep!  The gig was up and the Elk took off. We figured the herd bull would go 350 plus. This was only a scouting trip so we made a plan to return for a two week stay starting the 19th of Sept. Durring the two weeks we only heard one bull bugle in a different drainage but saw several herds in the general area. It was almost like hunting rifle season with a bow. We bow hunters count on the sound of the elk and when they go silent we really loose the little advantage we have. Durring our stay we talked with an outfitter who said that bull was taken the week we returned home and green scored 386. I really thought this was going to be the year!

[Hornseeker]

Sorry to hear that Billy, I live over here and have hunted all over the state... I go about 1 elk every other year and thats living here! you guys that come over for a week or two and have success have really got your act together!

Dont sweat it, there will be a next time. Wolves haven't eaten them all and we have a wolf season now...so... WooohoooO!

Good Luck Next Time!

Ernie

[firedog]

Love the Snowcrest range, we go over there every other year on average. Hunt both the Snowcrests and Gravelly range. Sounds like a good trip even without a kill, that is great country to be in. Any wolves over in the snowcrests? Were you hunting the east side or west side of the range?

[huntnphool]

Its not over Billy, get back over there.