Montana Wilderness Elk Hunting (photo heavy)

[kevshell]

We just returned from our wilderness backcountry elk trip. It's another great trip in the books. We had another fantastic week. And I'm sure like many of you putting something on the ground is only the cherry on top and not the primary reason for even going hunting. That's what it is for us. Some of our best days we've not even seen an animal. And that's okay. This country is wild and does not have many of the conveniences that people are used to. Which is another reason why I love going. It's like rolling back the clock and going old school. The area we hunt has tremendous history ranging all the way back to when this region was settled, trapping, mining, and just surviving. This area was inhabited by settlers, minors, Indians, etc. And there are remnants of all of them if you keep your eyes open.

The pictures below are from our trip into camp. I do not have many pictures of the trip in primarily because my hands were full. I was riding my horse as well as leading someone else's horse into camp. That meant one hand was on my reins and the other was on the lead rope for another guide horse. We've become very good friends with the rancher and guides therefore we jump in and take on some responsibilities. It had been raining for 2 days prior to going in and fortunate for us it stopped - for a while. We got to the trailhead with our horses and pack mules then proceeded on for a 14 mi ride into camp. We made it about 70% of the way with minimal precipitation. But then things changed. We rode through rain, snow and sleet. The sleet was fun because it felt like little kids with BB guns shooting at your ears. My wife and I knew this was a possibility and we wore our rain gear. We were arrived in camp mostly dry except for our head and hands.

You'll also see a few pictures of camp. This is elk hunting headquarters for the week. There's a picture of two tents and that is the cook tent and the one across from it is the kitchen tent. Then the picture of the 3 tents is three or four tents that are in camp for the hunters. We had eight elk hunters and one goat hunter. And those wood stoves are mighty helpful when the temperatures are dipping well below freezing.

Several more posts are coming to show what you really want to see.

[Big Bore]

Very nice!

[bigbrowndog]

Looks like the beginnings of a great time

Trapr

[kevshell]

I mentioned in my first post that hunting has a why behind it for me. My father-in-law was all about how many animals he could kill per year. For me it's not about that. Taking an animal is the cherry on top but also bittersweet and sometimes because the hunt is over. Some of these pictures are why elk hunting is so big on my list. You get to see so many things you would not see in your normal routines. Not to mention there's so much that has to happen for you to be sitting above 9,000 ft watching the sunrise. We have to get up at 3:00 a.m., be in the kitchen tent at 3:30 in the morning and be ready to jump on horses shortly thereafter. We do all of that so we can be in the hunting ground at the legal hunting time. The side benefit is you get to see some gorgeous country as the sun rises. The camp sits at about 7200 ft and as you see in some of the photos we were pushing 10,000 ft in some of the locations. We went everywhere in between. You could dress comfortably at 7200 ft but the weather is drastically different at 10,000 ft. Temperatures could be easily 20° cooler and windy. But that's part of what made it. The country is rugged and unforgiving. That's part of the beauty.

[bigbrowndog]

Purdey country, but 3am geez……..I had to get up a couple of times that early on my Sweden hunt but it sux and nap time comes early and sometimes often!!!

Trapr

[giblett]

Beautiful country. Got to enjoy one of those sun rises on my mule deer hunt a few years ago. Ain't much air up that high.

[kings6]

You hunting with Hells A Roarin' again this year? Beautiful country of my dreams. With the move I assume you were able to ride your own personal animals or does Warren not allow that? Keep those pictures coming!

[bushog]

I’m jelly…..

[sixshot]

Hard to beat elk hunting with the horses in the fall. And a good camp will make or break your trip, those tents with good wood stoves in them are wonderful when you wake up & find out it's been snowing all night. Great photo's!

Dick

[kevshell]

Without these fantastic horses hunting in this territory would be extremely limited or even impossible. There's no way you can hike into this country, cover territory, recover an animal and pack it out on foot. These horses are mountain bread and mountain raised. The first picture is the horse I rode. His name was Alan. I had requested another horse Cody that you may have seen in other posts because Cody's switch is always on. He's always ready to go. I was a little disappointed when I got Alan however after the ride in I was very impressed. He is an extremely sure-footed horse and very easy to navigate. That made the trip that much more enjoyable. The second picture gives you a little idea of some of the downed timber that we crossed routinely. The horses walk right up to it and walk over it. There are places where we have down in timber that is crisscrossed yet they navigated and we get through.

King6, to your question, originally the answer was no. I wasn't sure if we would bring them or not. They were not brought back. However if you look at the fourth picture you'll see the rancher and my wife shaking hands. They made a horse trade on a ride back to camp one day. He noticed how comfortable and confident my wife was on this horse. She always requests this horse because she feels a good connection and she respects the horse. So he made her an offer to trade one of the horses we want recently and she was thrilled! I think it was a win-win for both parties. So ultimately in the end, yes my wife did ride one of her own horses.

And if you think the last picture is a mistake or screw up, it is not. That is purely to show you what it is like to ride out of camp at 3:30 a.m. It is dark. We ride through open meadows and through the timber. Sometimes you can see a little bit in front of you when you're in the meadow. But when you get in the timber you cannot see anything. Thank God for their trail maintenance. Without it you don't know whether you're going to have your head knocked off by a branch or not. You have to stay right on the next horse in front of you or you'll just end up lost in the middle of nowhere. My wife's horse has a white rump and most times that's all I could see. When the ground is dry the other way to see where you're going is to watch for the Sparks coming off the horseshoes from the horse in front of you when they cross rocks. Riding out in the dark is a real trust exercise. It's amazing what these horses can do.

Here's a couple of short videos to go along with the pictures.

youtu.be/0TO2pSOLHmY?si=HZ5EOIWOIR62PtKh

youtu.be/CLbXtyDr4qI?si=2DJmUMS_2UglKdRI

[kevshell]

Sept 28, 2023 20:51:14 GMT -5 kings6 said:

You hunting with Hells A Roarin' again this year? Beautiful country of my dreams. With the move I assume you were able to ride your own personal animals or does Warren not allow that? Keep those pictures coming!

Yes sir. Hunting with them again. And I answered your question in my post above. And I do believe they are fine with people bringing their own stock as long as they are capable. Some hunters and some horses show up and they're just not up for it.

[kevshell]

I'm sure you've been wondering whether I got one or not. This will answer your question. As with every My wife and I have taken, it has been a Chinese fire drill. Everything happens super fast and to be honest I don't even remember some of the details that happened in the moment. The guide was bugling and we did not get any responses. So we started to move across a small meadow and out pops a small bull. Being the first morning I was not interested in shooting a smaller bull. And both slipped over a small rise and then suddenly this bull popped out in front of us and started to run. I had to jump off my horse and get the rifle out of the scabbard. Fired a few shots and thought I was missing the bull. I didn't see him flinch or anything. My first two bulls dropped with one shot. I put in lots of range time before this hunt so to miss and me really confused. He went up the mountain and appeared and disappeared repeatedly going up through the timber. He finally got to the rest of the mountain and stood on some craggy rock. It looked like the old mutual of Omaha commercial. I sat down Indian style so I had a better rest as I was out in the open with no trees to rest on. He paused for a brief moment there on the ridge and I knew I would likely had one shot at it before he slipped away. I steadied myself and focused on the crosshairs and my squeeze. When the rifle went off he tipped his head back and tumbled down the mountain. I ran to where I can see where he fell and they were the zero movement. Bull down. Ultimately this turned out to be the best one taken during the early backcountry hunt.

You'll see one picture that looks like a bit of a panorama. That's looking up the hill from where I was shooting to the craggy cliff where he stood. There's another picture standing where the final shot got him and there's some blood in the snow where he was hit.

As I mentioned I was thrown off when I was taking shots and the bull didn't seem to flinch. When we started processing the elk I found three bullet holes. I use a 300 win mag and 180 grain Accubonds. I've seen them perform wonderfully on other elk for myself, my wife and my friends. I have confidence in this setup. But when they weren't delivering I was wondering what was going on. Evidently this bull was so filled with testosterone and adrenaline that he just soaked it up. But the third one that connected turned the lights out.

Without these mules I could not imagine packing all this back into camp on foot. It is several miles uphill and then back downhill to get back to camp. I just don't see how an individual could pack all that back before dark. And secondly to do so in grizzly country. You'll see more in another post. These mules are invaluable getting supplies into camp but also packing your animal back into camp and ultimately out to the road where it can be taken to the processor.

And finally that's the skull sitting on the garage floor waiting to head off to the taxidermist with the beetle colony. This one will be a Euro amount.

[kevshell]

In camp I was reading another bear book. This one details grizzly bear attacks in the Yellowstone region. What else should I read in an area like this? Technically the book is good and has good details but it is difficult to follow in my opinion. It's like listening to three people talking at the same time.

We saw grizzly bear tracks everyday. A few of the pictures below are from where we were seeing the grizzly bear tracks in the 9000 to 10,000 ft elevations. But we saw them all the way down to 7000 ft. It's just the higher elevations had snow to see their tracks better. Most of the tracks that we saw were sows with cubs. The most dangerous thing in the wilderness. The long that looks like it's been shredded is just that. That's where the bears are opening up the logs to get the insects out. I saw a tremendous number of logs that had been clawed open by bears.

On one morning the guy's horse stopped and its tracks and stared in a direction on our way out to hunt. It was still bitch black. It was a grizzly bear somewhere in the path. Ultimately it ran off. Later that day we ran into a sow with two cubs. They ran over to the next ridge and then the sow peaked over the ridge to see what we were doing. 2 minutes later we saw another sow with two cubs feeding. That is the picture that you see below. All of the bears were fat and had heavy coats already.

Because of all the bear activity I don't go anywhere without a sidearm. We carry them in camp, going to the latrine, standing over your elk, etc. I think a person would be a fool not to be carrying in this country.

And here is a short little video of a fox that wandered up upon us while we were glassing for elk. This was the day after I killed my elk. We were standing just to the left of where the elk was on a craggy cliff. I put my binoculars down and looked over to my right and there's the fox. It was eating some of the bloody snow and then marked it. He was a funny little thing with no care in the world for us.

youtu.be/C2H8A5yxZ9s?si=XyziwAfIUqLFgmRx

[kevshell]

Sept 28, 2023 20:05:18 GMT -5 bigbrowndog said:

Purdey country, but 3am geez……..I had to get up a couple of times that early on my Sweden hunt but it sux and nap time comes early and sometimes often!!!

Trapr

Getting up that early is really about the only way to be in the prime hunting areas by sunrise. Because this is so remote you really don't want to hunt in the evening. You put yourself and the guide at risk with grizzly bears in the evening. Or you risk the animal turning into a buffet for everything that walks overnight. But ultimately all you're doing is really shifting your waking hours. And naps upon returning to camp are routine.

[45MAN]

KEVSHELL:

WHEN I WAS ON A BROWN BEAR HUNT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE IN ALASKA I RECALLED THE WORDS: does a wild bear shit in the woods, DARN SURE THEY DO SO MY LINEBAUGH 45 COLT REDHAWK WAS ALWAYS WITH ME, PEEING, DUMPING, GLASSING, NO MATTER WHAT, I WAS ALWAYS ARMED.