Montana bull
Oct 18, 2011 7:53:48 GMT -5
Post by spaniel on Oct 18, 2011 7:53:48 GMT -5
After a couple years of poor elk numbers during rifle season south of Glacier NP, we decided to apply for a Missouri Breaks archery tag this year. My incredible luck drawing NR tags in Montana continued and we drew our first choice unit.
The winter was hard on the elk and numbers were WAY down. We saw a lot of winter kill skeletons. The hunters, however, were not down and (at least by Montana standards) the pressure was high and the elk nocturnal. They would come up onto the ridges at night, and then within 30 minutes of first light bury themselves back in the deep timber for the day.
We saw elk daily -- a nice change -- but spent days unable to get into bow range. Due to the pressure, they would not respond to calling. We saw a couple bulls fighting and lured one to within about 100 yds of my buddy, but then the other came and attacked it again and they left to continue sparring and we could not convert on the opportunity.
On the next to last day, we ran into a group of 5 (!!!) other hunters in the same area as us in the morning...one got a shot at the 360-class 6X6 we were stalking. For the evening, we talked with them to make sure we didn't conflict with each other. They were sending two guys around the left of the drainage and two around to the right, and the fifth on the other side of the ridge, to converge back at their boat at the bottom of the drainage. We decided to go set ourselves up at the bottom of a point of trees in the middle of their "pincer movement", figuring that if they scared elk across the drainage they may funnel through there as they had to come up at least to those trees to avoid running through a wide open area.
I was immediately pinned down by a couple muley does feeding 100 yards away. It made for a very uncomfortable and painful 2 hours, but at least gave me something to pay attention to.
About 5 minutes before I was going to call it on account of darkness, there was a crash and suddenly I had a nice 5X6 trotting out of the brush straight at me. He stopped at 30 yards and slowly turned broadside, evidently uncomfortable at being out in the open and trying to decide which way to go. I risked being seen and drew as it was then or never. I had a hard time differentiating between the nest of pins in the growing darkness, but I thought I had it, aimed, and fired.
I wish I could say it was a perfect shot but I did pick the wrong pin and spined him. I figured this out immediately when he rolled but could not get his back legs up, so I nocked another arrow and quickly made the second shot count, passing through both lungs completely.
I've taken one other elk, but it was with a rifle. It was such a rush getting this close for my first archery elk.
The winter was hard on the elk and numbers were WAY down. We saw a lot of winter kill skeletons. The hunters, however, were not down and (at least by Montana standards) the pressure was high and the elk nocturnal. They would come up onto the ridges at night, and then within 30 minutes of first light bury themselves back in the deep timber for the day.
We saw elk daily -- a nice change -- but spent days unable to get into bow range. Due to the pressure, they would not respond to calling. We saw a couple bulls fighting and lured one to within about 100 yds of my buddy, but then the other came and attacked it again and they left to continue sparring and we could not convert on the opportunity.
On the next to last day, we ran into a group of 5 (!!!) other hunters in the same area as us in the morning...one got a shot at the 360-class 6X6 we were stalking. For the evening, we talked with them to make sure we didn't conflict with each other. They were sending two guys around the left of the drainage and two around to the right, and the fifth on the other side of the ridge, to converge back at their boat at the bottom of the drainage. We decided to go set ourselves up at the bottom of a point of trees in the middle of their "pincer movement", figuring that if they scared elk across the drainage they may funnel through there as they had to come up at least to those trees to avoid running through a wide open area.
I was immediately pinned down by a couple muley does feeding 100 yards away. It made for a very uncomfortable and painful 2 hours, but at least gave me something to pay attention to.
About 5 minutes before I was going to call it on account of darkness, there was a crash and suddenly I had a nice 5X6 trotting out of the brush straight at me. He stopped at 30 yards and slowly turned broadside, evidently uncomfortable at being out in the open and trying to decide which way to go. I risked being seen and drew as it was then or never. I had a hard time differentiating between the nest of pins in the growing darkness, but I thought I had it, aimed, and fired.
I wish I could say it was a perfect shot but I did pick the wrong pin and spined him. I figured this out immediately when he rolled but could not get his back legs up, so I nocked another arrow and quickly made the second shot count, passing through both lungs completely.
I've taken one other elk, but it was with a rifle. It was such a rush getting this close for my first archery elk.
