Bitterroot Bulls

[slowreflexes]

My Dad and I were both able to take a bull in the Bitterroot National Forest this week. I got mine on the first day and he got his on the 5th day. We used Rick Wemple outfitting and had a great experience.

[wadu1]

Way to go,  More photos and a story to go with it.

[3boys]

 

Way to go,  More photos and a story to go with it.

[slowreflexes]

Thanks!

This was the first time elk hunting for both of us. Neither of us know much about elk hunting since we both grew up hunting in the southeast, so we decided to get a guide.

On the first day we pulled into the national forest before sunlight and saw two monster mule deer bucks fighting! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a tag for mule deer in the unit so we watched them duke it out until the smaller one limped away. We parked down the road a bit to start our hike up to a glassing point. We saw a big whitetail buck come over the hill and I tried to get a good angle on him. I walked up the opposite ridge with our guide and my dad stayed low on the logging road. The buck crossed the road in front of my dad and he let it pass thinking it would walk into a shooting lane for us, but he vanished and we never saw him again. So we hiked up to a glassing point and spent some time glassing everywhere only seeing mule deer and the occasional white tail doe. No elk yet, but man was I excited to see so much activity in the first few hours of hunting. We walked back to the truck and drove to another three glassing points from the road. We saw mule deer everywhere but nothing else.

Then the guide said he wanted to drive to another spot about half an hour away. So we drove back down the road, stopping briefly at the spots we had glassed. On the way down we spot a legal bull from 620 yards away! We drove down to the lowest point we could get and walked up the mountain to where we thought we could see the bull. The bull was feeding behind some small trees but we couldn’t see or hear anything. So we waited for a while and then the guide decided to try to bump the elk out of the thick patch to give us a shot. While that was happening a mule deer buck came within 15 feet very curious about what we were up to. The guide came back and said he saw the bull but he wasn’t moving from his spot so I hiked over to that vantage point and was able to spot him from 200 yards away. He was slightly quartered away and I got a good shot that landed behind his shoulder and out of his neck. He instantly dropped and I couldn’t believe it. We watched him for a few minutes but he was belly up. First bull on the first day! Talk about luck! As we were field dressing the elk we noticed his right antler was grazed by a bullet. He also had a bullet wound on his right ankle and an archery wound in the same shoulder. Several hours later we were back at the truck with meat and the head (I’m planning to do a euro style mount myself).

On the way out we saw a mule deer with 6 white tail doe. He was nose to tail on those 
doe and one of the does was limping… We probably saw 200 mule deer that day and one elk.

Second, third, and fourth day we did more of the same: driving, hiking, and glassing different areas but only saw a handful of deer and some spike bulls and cows. We did see a heard of 200 elk on private land and got to watch the ranchers commit crimes by driving their trucks in front of the heard keeping them on the private land.

We were tired and decided to call it early on the fourth day just before sunset. As we drove down the road we see a big bodied white tail buck about 50 yards away from the truck on the drivers side. My dad snuck out of the truck and this white tail walked uphill towards the truck! Never seen that before. My dad shot him from 25 yards through his chest and out his rear missing the hind quarters. When he hit the deer with his 7mm rem it did a complete backflip, broke one of his tines, and was dead before he landed. No meat was harmed in the making of this shot and the pack out was much easier than my elk.

On the 5th day we went back to the spot near where we saw the big heard. We got there about an hour before daylight and hiked down a few miles to a creek bed that elk travel through. We saw some bulls about 1000 yards away but couldn’t make out if they were legal or not. Our guide went down into the trees behind the creek drainage to try to bump something our direction. My dad and I setup on a ridge behind some Christmas trees and dad heard a loud snap then saw a nice bull coming down the creek drainage walking towards the direction of our guide. Dad took a shot at 150 yards and hit the elk through the lungs and heart and he kept walking! He took another shot and broke its shoulder and out the chest and he dropped. We got to the elk at 9:30 am and got back to the truck with the meat and cape at 6:30 pm about an hour after sunset.

Our guide was such a beast and a really great hunter. We wouldn’t have been likely to get the bulls without him.

This was an amazing trip that my dad and I will never forget.

[slowreflexes]

Here are some more photos

[slowreflexes]

Last one

[pianoman9701]

Nice bulls. The neck on that buck looks like John Cena.

[Skyvalhunter]

Nice Bulls, is that a permit draw?

[slowreflexes]

Yes, we drew 270-45, but I believe there are unlimited permits for this unit.

[finnman]

Congrats on the bulls and buck! Sounds like a very productive 5 day hunt!
Thanks for sharing!

[MADMAX]

Love the valley
Hope to move there
Great critters
Congrats to you and dad

[22shtur]

Did you strictly hunt public land, or some private land also?

[slowreflexes]

Did you strictly hunt public land, or some private land also?

100% public land. We spent four days or so in the Bitterroot National Forest and the other time in Sula State Forest.

[kball4]

How much was it for nonresident elk and deer tag?

[slowreflexes]

How much was it for nonresident elk and deer tag?

I paid ~$1,200 for the Big Game Combination- General License. Then another ~$10 for an Elk Permit for unit 270.

Here is a page explaining the process for non-residents:https://going4brokeoutdoors.com/montana-deer-and-elk-application-a-simple-step-by-step-guide-for-first-time-non-resident-applicants/

[boneaddict]

I’ve been contemplating going there on a photo safari.   Very limited tags in that unit for deer so there are some good ones.  I’m glad you had a good trip.

[slowreflexes]

I’ve been contemplating going there on a photo safari.   Very limited tags in that unit for deer so there are some good ones.  I’m glad you had a good trip.

I would love to see your photos if you do make a trip out there. You won't have to work too hard to find some nice mule deer.

[22shtur]

slowreflexes, thanks for the reply. Congratulations on your first elk. That's a great elk for anyone, especially for someone's first elk.