Back from Montana

[Ghost]

Just sat down in the hotel in OH after 28 plus hours in the truck. Had a great hunt, saw 7 elk, 3 spikes, 2 of which we could of had shooting at, 2 UEOs, a cow and a calf and a moose cow and calf. Joe put us on the elk. It was however a totally different hunt than I was used to. The elk were holed up tight, in fact we ended up still hunting them much like you would whitetails, creeping along 2-3 steps at a time. I was really surprised at how specific the elk were as to what type of habitat they were in. It wasent enough to be thick, it had to be noisy to walk thru as well, that along with a certain type of plant they were feeding on (Ill post a pic of it later). While we did see elk tracks outside the thick cover, it became apparent that the elk were only using that at night. All in all it was a great trip, we sure did learn alot about montana elk.

[ElkNut1]

Yes, elk hunting can be tough, it's great see you have a positive attitude about the hunt, good luck to you in future hunts!

ElkNut1

[Indian Summer]

Talking to you on the phone mid hunt it sounded like the snow was limiting how much ground you were able to cover. Did you ever make it to that west cloverleaf ridge? I know it was a way back there but we can't seem to run the bulls out of that spot.

[Ghost]

No we never did, according to my gps it was almost 5 miles from the road, we ended up hunting right around the one trail head, the elk were in there thick. That snow the first 5 days really put a damper on how far we could travel, anything farther than 3 miles was at the end of our limit. One thing we weren't prepared was the number blow downs we had to cross, 1.5 miles of stepping over and or going around them beat us down. Next year, walking through the woods with packs and not only on trails will be required for training

[elk.addict]

Blow downs tend to wear you out, that's for sure. One year in Idaho, after my buddy killed his bull, I picked a "shortcut" down to the rig (according to my topo). We probably went through 3 miles of blowdowns (big ones too). It sucked.