Fall Days Afield 19/20

[Conundrum]

Yeah M! Congrats.

[yeahman]

Wow good job!

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Nice bull!!!

[Phall]

Boom! Nice work!


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[The Reverend Floater]

Well, pressure off. I drew a pretty rare tag (only 20 in an entire unit). I had two weeks to get my first bull elk and I was 6 days deep in combing the woods to no avail. I had seen elk every day while out, but could never get close enough to even pull my rifle out.

Luckily I got a tip of a herd that was moving up and down a draw not too far from town. Left work at 4, hiking by 4:30 and by 5:30 we spotted the heard about a mile and a half out way high up on a ridge. I figured there was no way they'd be down from there by shooting hours, but we decided to cut the distance, set up on a hillside and hoped they followed their pattern from the day before. Sure enough, about 10 minutes of getting settled the first cows starting filtering out of the trees about 800 yards up and away from us. Another 10 minutes and the first cows were at about 250 yards. About this time a bull starting bugling pretty heavy. Then another joined in. Pretty soon it was every 20-30 seconds. Finally a bull showed himself but was constantly covered by cows, or behind a tree. After a good 15-20 minutes of dodging my view, he finally slipped left of the trees and clear of his ladies. He was a bit farther than I hoped to shoot this season, but I figured this could be it. I squeezed the trigger. I was pretty darn sure I had taken a nice shot, however when I look back through my scope... nothing. Just two cows looking around and starting to walk calmly away. Turns out a double lung shot dropped him right back off a 2 foot ledge and he tumbled down out of our view. I thought I was going to have a full blown heart attack while we walked across the draw to see if I had connected. But, there he was crumpled in a pile, right where I shot him.

I had to scratch out my stupid grin in the photo. I was over the fucking hill.

Attachment 297033

Dope, dude! Glad you made that happen!

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Hoping the recent snowfall + cold tomorrow = some elk moving around. Been quiet as hell the last two times I was out before this storm rolled though.

[MiddleOfNight]

Hoping the recent snowfall + cold tomorrow = some elk moving around

best of luck man. last nights snow got stuff happening!

[MiddleOfNight]

I was over the fucking hill.

Good story. Congrats!

[G. Gordon Liddy]

Thanks guys. I think I was still shaking when I wrote this up... And yes, I'm over the hill, but I'm pretty sure that should read "over the moon".

[Phall]

Had a pretty amazing experience down on a cow hunt in the Bookcliffs in Utah. Hunted hard for 3 days, a bull bison was killed by one guy in our camp, and we had some close calls on some cows. Bulls were screaming all weekend. It’s truly a special place down there. On to ducks!


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[Whiteroom_Guardian]

^^^Nice Phall!

Skunked again today. Lots of tracks in the snow and found 10+ beds but they looked to be from yesterday and they moved back onto private probably super early this AM before sun up. Damn.

[MakersTeleMark]

DO IT PHISHY. DO IT. NOW IS THE TIME. Thinking about you. Get after it.

[2FUNKY]

Idaho opener for waterfowl in the Panhandle.
Lacy girl on the watch.


Good girl...

[yeahman]

^^Cool man, nice shooting.

[2FUNKY]

^^Cool man, nice shooting.

Thanks man. We landed a couple flocks of geese and didn’t shoot. They were working soooo good today. Calling and watching a flock of 10-20 geese maple leaf into your spread and land is truly a sight to behold. My dog didn’t understand and gave us the “ wtf, shoot” look.

[lifelinksplit]

What do you do with geese? Had it quite a few ways but not once has it tasted remotely good. Curious how others prepare it? Man I really need to get the new dog out for ditch chickens as well as take out the old mans 20ga.

[zion zig zag]

Some hiking around at last light with my kid trying to fill his elk tag.

[Kopi_Red]

Idaho opener for waterfowl in the Panhandle.
Lacy girl on the watch.


Good girl...

Damn dude. Nice job!

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Um, so when did "bow hunter's safety certification" become a thing? I took a general hunters safety course almost 25 years ago in NJ. I am 35 years old. Just now becoming aware of this in Montana. Um......

[MiddleOfNight]

Um, so when did "bow hunter's safety certification" become a thing? I took a general hunters safety course almost 25 years ago in NJ. I am 35 years old. Just now becoming aware of this in Montana. Um......

I think CO had (has?) something like this. By memory .. abbreviated HunterEd course, and the cert only allowed the holder to pull archery tags.
But of course, archery is also included in the 'full/regular' HunterEd course.

If that helps.

[The Reverend Floater]

Um, so when did "bow hunter's safety certification" become a thing? I took a general hunters safety course almost 25 years ago in NJ. I am 35 years old. Just now becoming aware of this in Montana. Um......

Many states have it. Well worth the time.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

^^^ thanks. I'm an idiot and didn't realize there was a "bow and arrow" license separate from the general license in MT. Doh! Good thing I haven't shot anything during archery!

Anyone have a hot tip on places to shoot rifles within an hour from Bzn? Somewhere out to 400 yds? Used to go to two state sections near the Madison that are now off limits to target shooting. Can only join at the range at Logan in person one day a month and thats not until Nov. 10th.

Copper City? Seems weird now that it's so popular for MTB.

[yeahman]

^^^ thanks. I'm an idiot and didn't realize there was a "bow and arrow" license separate from the general license in MT. Doh! Good thing I haven't shot anything during archery!

Anyone have a hot tip on places to shoot rifles within an hour from Bzn? Somewhere out to 400 yds? Used to go to two state sections near the Madison that are now off limits to target shooting. Can only join at the range at Logan in person one day a month and thats not until Nov. 10th.

Copper City? Seems weird now that it's so popular for MTB.

There is a free FWP range near Big Sky. Past the Corral restaurant on the right. Not sure about 400 yards, never actually been there.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

There is a free FWP range near Big Sky. Past the Corral restaurant on the right. Not sure about 400 yards, never actually been there.

Unfortunately that place maxes out at 100yds. Might go up to Copper City in the AM and see whats what. Would like to get more comfortable on some long shots. That's kind the whole point of a rifle.

[The Reverend Floater]

^^^ thanks. I'm an idiot and didn't realize there was a "bow and arrow" license separate from the general license in MT. Doh! Good thing I haven't shot anything during archery!.

Yeah, F&G loves to throw the book at folks who don't have the permit, even though they'll sell you an archery tag independently. Seems like entrapment to me but the class is actually really valuable.