Montana Madness!!!
Posted: October 9th, 2013, 11:04 am
Been so dang busy at work since I got back from Montana trip that I have not had much time to fill Yall in!! Left Tville at 4:30 AM on 9/20 headed to Billings, Mt and all went well considering all my baggage made it which is very important to a bow hunter!!! Picked up my rental car and had some time to kill as my buddy was flyin in around 4:30, not to mention I was real hungery! Went and found a local restaurant that looked busy and proceeded to fill up on a rather large hamburger, fries, and a few cold adult beverages. Picked up my Buddy at the airport around 5:00 with luggage in hand and we headed to somewhere in the Montana wilderness around Grass Range, Mt to chase Elk with a bow!! Arrived at the ranch house around dark to a great dinner of elk tenderloin with all the fixings, more adult beverages, and talk of 2 great bulls (355 & 378) that were shot 2/3 days before we arrived. Needless to say we were pumped as all reports had the BULLS SCREAMING there heads off!! Why else hunt any other time, Right?? 
After some discussion the night before it was decided that we would start out first thing at good water hole as it had been hot in Monthana (highs in the low 80's) the past few days and with all the chasing going on the bulls would be thirsty and this would be a great place to kill a big bull! Got in the blind with my guide Billy and it felt kind of cramp with two guys over 200lbs but we stuck it out anyway. Needless to say we stayed in that blind about an hour with elk bugling all around us with "NO" water action!!
Time to Bail!! 
Got out of the blilnd and it took us about 30min to find the elk and it was hot and heavy for 2 more hours trying to keep up with them on there way to there bedding area!! Finally got on a very good bull (350+) 6x6 at 72 yds and I passed since I had not shot my bow since we landed in Montana!! Hate wounding such a majestic animal and 60 yards is usually my limit but GOD the bodies on these bulls was massive (1000lbs easy) vs the smaller Colorado public land bulls I have been chasing the past 8 years. With things quieting down we bailed off the MTN and went back to the cabin and ate lunch. After lunch I was able to shoot my bow and she was dead on just like I let her, which was a first for me!! I now felt confident out to 70yds!!
While eating lunch, talk naturally went to how UN-naturally HOT it was going to be again today (low 80's) and did anyone want to sit the water hole near where the elk were bedded!! I was up for the challange as we saw where 200+ head of elk were bedded and this water hole was within 500yds of them!! I dived off the MTN down into a bowl lookin area that had a brown plastic looking blind with 5 windows over looking a man made water whole made out of two big tractor tires. In some way it looked out of place in the beautiful magistic country but it had elk sign was all over it!! Got inside and opened only one window (as I was told) facing the water hole and moved everything clear so I could shoot off my knees on the plywood floor. Fast foward and it got "HOT as HELL" in that blind and I was out of most of my clothes on my upper half and down to just a black short sleeve shirt within 30 minutes. Opened two more windows to get some air movment and that helped greatly.
After an hour went by with NO action while sittin on my BUTT-OCK I was getting really, really, tired as I was suffering from lack of sleep over the past two days!! So what does this gray haired 54 year old do, grab sleep when you can get it man!! I guess I had been snoozin
for about 30-40 min oblivious to any elk action when I sware I heard an elk bugle close!! EEEhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Am I dreamin?? 
It happened again!! EEEhhhhhhhhhh! Oh my god, I just got a very big raspy soundin bugle 40-50 yds behind my blind and now he is screaming his head off and I cannot see HIM (no windows)!! Grabed my PSE bow and got on my knees and ready if the shot presented itself. Let's just say after 15 minutes on my knees on that hard plywood floor, I was toast, and I had to sit down due to the pain!! As you guessed it, as soon as I sat down the bull walked by an open window in the blind at a whopping 25yds screaming his head off and I was caught flat footed!!
Here's is what it looked like with no bull!
The big heavy massed 6X6 walked away slowly, bugling every other step, with NO shots opportunities of course!
So I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures as he walked away!! Wow what a sight!! If you look hard you can see the bull in the center of the photo!
Well after slowin my heart rate down, I realized that bull had been around my blind for over 30min without going to water, maybe he would come back in the future!!
40min later I had three cows fed in close to my blind!! How close?? Less than 10yds as I could hear them chompin down on the browse they were eating around the bilnd not to mention I could see there dang shadows up against the walls of the blind. They stay around me for bout 30min, eating and talking, but they never went to water. Wow, great decoys rite?? But where were the bulls?? AS it got closer to dark the cows fed off and I was staring to hear some bugles off in the distance, when I heard it! The big bull from earler sounded off 300yds up the MTN as he had a very distinctive bugle. I grabbed my cow calls and stuck my head out the blind facing away from the bull and hit it three times!! Grabbed my other cow call and hit it twice facing toward him. Waited for 5-6 min and nothing!! EEEEEhhhhhhhhhhhh! Wow he had cut the distance in half and was closing fast! Hit the cow call two more times and shut up!! Down the hill he came and right to the water hole he went!! I ranged him at 72 yds broadside but chose to pass up the shot, as it was just the first day of my hunt!! He drank, drank, and drank some more, then started walking up hill toward my blind. This time I was ready on fresh knees with my bow locked and loaded. The last time I ranged him was at 36yds, he was facing me (frontal shot) which is not a high percentage shot, so I passed!! Lucky, he turned perfectly broadside and let out a massive buggle!! EEEhhhhhhhhhhh! I drew my bow and things just kinda went into auto-pilot. Last thing I remember was watching my arrow center punch him in the boiler room getting a complete pass through!! The Big Bull actually hopped and ran bout 50 yds before slowing down to slow 15-20 yd walk, then stopped. I watched through my bino's as his head began to lower, lower, then lower some more. Then he laid down and it did not take long after that for his head to pitch over and he expired!! Walked down to the majestic bull and was just amazed at his massvie body size and big neck!! Grabbed his heavy massive antles with care and then said a prayer to the man above for such a great animal!! It was my best bull ever with a bow!!
To say I was happy was an understatement! The only down side to all this, I was done elk huntin in one day!!
Make a long story short, my buddy shot his very first elk/bull (7x5) the next afternoon. The bull had very heavy mass, bigger body than my bull, and our luck was just totally unbelievable!! See, bowhunter success rate accross the board is around 19-21% on elk with a bow & arrow and we just went 100%%!! Headed out on Monday afternoon after dropping off the meat to be processer & the heads/capes to the Tax man as the planned. Drove 4 hours to Bozeman, Mt as the planed where we were going fishing near Enis, Mt on Tuesday!! The fishing sucked but the scenery was great!! A bowhunt to remember!!
After some discussion the night before it was decided that we would start out first thing at good water hole as it had been hot in Monthana (highs in the low 80's) the past few days and with all the chasing going on the bulls would be thirsty and this would be a great place to kill a big bull! Got in the blind with my guide Billy and it felt kind of cramp with two guys over 200lbs but we stuck it out anyway. Needless to say we stayed in that blind about an hour with elk bugling all around us with "NO" water action!!
Time to Bail!! Got out of the blilnd and it took us about 30min to find the elk and it was hot and heavy for 2 more hours trying to keep up with them on there way to there bedding area!! Finally got on a very good bull (350+) 6x6 at 72 yds and I passed since I had not shot my bow since we landed in Montana!! Hate wounding such a majestic animal and 60 yards is usually my limit but GOD the bodies on these bulls was massive (1000lbs easy) vs the smaller Colorado public land bulls I have been chasing the past 8 years. With things quieting down we bailed off the MTN and went back to the cabin and ate lunch. After lunch I was able to shoot my bow and she was dead on just like I let her, which was a first for me!! I now felt confident out to 70yds!! 
While eating lunch, talk naturally went to how UN-naturally HOT it was going to be again today (low 80's) and did anyone want to sit the water hole near where the elk were bedded!! I was up for the challange as we saw where 200+ head of elk were bedded and this water hole was within 500yds of them!! I dived off the MTN down into a bowl lookin area that had a brown plastic looking blind with 5 windows over looking a man made water whole made out of two big tractor tires. In some way it looked out of place in the beautiful magistic country but it had elk sign was all over it!! Got inside and opened only one window (as I was told) facing the water hole and moved everything clear so I could shoot off my knees on the plywood floor. Fast foward and it got "HOT as HELL" in that blind and I was out of most of my clothes on my upper half and down to just a black short sleeve shirt within 30 minutes. Opened two more windows to get some air movment and that helped greatly.
After an hour went by with NO action while sittin on my BUTT-OCK I was getting really, really, tired as I was suffering from lack of sleep over the past two days!! So what does this gray haired 54 year old do, grab sleep when you can get it man!! I guess I had been snoozin
for about 30-40 min oblivious to any elk action when I sware I heard an elk bugle close!! EEEhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Am I dreamin?? It happened again!! EEEhhhhhhhhhh! Oh my god, I just got a very big raspy soundin bugle 40-50 yds behind my blind and now he is screaming his head off and I cannot see HIM (no windows)!! Grabed my PSE bow and got on my knees and ready if the shot presented itself. Let's just say after 15 minutes on my knees on that hard plywood floor, I was toast, and I had to sit down due to the pain!! As you guessed it, as soon as I sat down the bull walked by an open window in the blind at a whopping 25yds screaming his head off and I was caught flat footed!! Here's is what it looked like with no bull!
The big heavy massed 6X6 walked away slowly, bugling every other step, with NO shots opportunities of course!
So I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures as he walked away!! Wow what a sight!! If you look hard you can see the bull in the center of the photo!
Well after slowin my heart rate down, I realized that bull had been around my blind for over 30min without going to water, maybe he would come back in the future!!
40min later I had three cows fed in close to my blind!! How close?? Less than 10yds as I could hear them chompin down on the browse they were eating around the bilnd not to mention I could see there dang shadows up against the walls of the blind. They stay around me for bout 30min, eating and talking, but they never went to water. Wow, great decoys rite?? But where were the bulls?? AS it got closer to dark the cows fed off and I was staring to hear some bugles off in the distance, when I heard it! The big bull from earler sounded off 300yds up the MTN as he had a very distinctive bugle. I grabbed my cow calls and stuck my head out the blind facing away from the bull and hit it three times!! Grabbed my other cow call and hit it twice facing toward him. Waited for 5-6 min and nothing!! EEEEEhhhhhhhhhhhh! Wow he had cut the distance in half and was closing fast! Hit the cow call two more times and shut up!! Down the hill he came and right to the water hole he went!! I ranged him at 72 yds broadside but chose to pass up the shot, as it was just the first day of my hunt!! He drank, drank, and drank some more, then started walking up hill toward my blind. This time I was ready on fresh knees with my bow locked and loaded. The last time I ranged him was at 36yds, he was facing me (frontal shot) which is not a high percentage shot, so I passed!! Lucky, he turned perfectly broadside and let out a massive buggle!! EEEhhhhhhhhhhh! I drew my bow and things just kinda went into auto-pilot. Last thing I remember was watching my arrow center punch him in the boiler room getting a complete pass through!! The Big Bull actually hopped and ran bout 50 yds before slowing down to slow 15-20 yd walk, then stopped. I watched through my bino's as his head began to lower, lower, then lower some more. Then he laid down and it did not take long after that for his head to pitch over and he expired!! Walked down to the majestic bull and was just amazed at his massvie body size and big neck!! Grabbed his heavy massive antles with care and then said a prayer to the man above for such a great animal!! It was my best bull ever with a bow!! 
To say I was happy was an understatement! The only down side to all this, I was done elk huntin in one day!!
Make a long story short, my buddy shot his very first elk/bull (7x5) the next afternoon. The bull had very heavy mass, bigger body than my bull, and our luck was just totally unbelievable!! See, bowhunter success rate accross the board is around 19-21% on elk with a bow & arrow and we just went 100%%!! Headed out on Monday afternoon after dropping off the meat to be processer & the heads/capes to the Tax man as the planned. Drove 4 hours to Bozeman, Mt as the planed where we were going fishing near Enis, Mt on Tuesday!! The fishing sucked but the scenery was great!! A bowhunt to remember!!
