Well that was a fun morning. First bowhunt from the saddle. Felt good. Need to make some adjustments but overall not a bad first experience. Sent from my SM-G950U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
After a long drive to MT, we hunted a the Castle mountains. Found some nice country and one of the guys from camp spotted a small framed bull the first evening. While hiking out the second evening we had a very close bugle, got setup, and had a small herd of cows / calves headed toward us at 30 yds. Lead cow saw something she didn't like and started veering away. I took a shot at a cow, clipped a branch and missed. The need buggered down the mountain. I left my pack and bow where the cow stood to look for my arrow...mistake. Aparently the herd was split with more animals behind...which got spooked with a guy looking for his arrow. In total we saw at least 13 elk, 2 were spikes... Never saw the herd bull. We stuck around 1 more night with a couple other elk spotted, but no plays. We moved camp to the Little Belts, another mountain range nearby. We spent a couple days trying to find animals and fresh sign. The hot temps making it tough to find fresh scat. We found a nice valley and Thursday evening were treated to a bugle-palooza with 3 or 4 elk bugling around us, but none close enough to easily target. This valley was nestled in between 3 or 4 blowdown covered ridges stretching 1000-2000 feet up from a meadow... Friday morning we still had bulls bugling, but just couldn't get them to respond after about 7:30am. All in all, a great week of elk camp. Montana mountains are no joke. The 4-5 fires burning within 100 miles, has no effect on the animals, but high temps and sparse water did. Lots of grouse and mule deer. I think we were just a week or two too early for elk.
We’ll after not seeing anything dad and I got down at 10:30 did a little scouting and went to move my tactacam that was at the other end of the property that hasn’t had anything on camera for almost a month… get to the camera and two bucks jumped up from 5ft behind it bedded. One got its head stuck in a grape vine for a little and I got a look at home when I was going over thinking I was going to have to cut him out.. found 3 more beds, I know where I will be next weekend
Haha thanks. Good eye. I did a bit of reading and research to at least start out with a decent setup. Figured if I was going to give it a try I didn't want to get some low quality gear. Also sporting the Cruzr Archon. Was definitely different but I am sure I will come to enjoy it the better I get at using one.
Obligatory first saddle hunt picture. Goodluck to anyone else still out there today. I'm home and have a ducks unlimited banquet tonight. Hopefully win some goodies. Sent from my SM-G950U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I'm up! I'm about 100 yards from were I hunted last night, far end of swamp. There are multiple ridge fingers coming down to the swamp. I'm setup I think in the spot I saw the bucks last night, not sure. It's so hard to navigate when it's so thick and green. Yesterday I saw a few acorns on the ground and the deer were suckling them up. Today there are thousands down. I jumped 3 off the flat when I walked in. Acorn flat is to my back and hoping the bucks come down these fingers to head to flat just before dark. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Drove 17 hours to Colorado on Thursday. Drove the last 2 hours Friday morning then 2 trips over the far mountain in the pic. One trip was hauling just gear and the second was a pack full of water. 31,465 steps and were hunting at 9000 feet. This morning we went out and didn't hear anything working our way to what looked like a meadow and got there 2 minutes to late. We saw a huge bull within 50 yards just didn't have a shot. We're hunting public land in Colorado.
Just spotted first deer. About 80 yards away up the ridge I saw a flicker. Looked thru binos and it's a deers ear. Can't see the deer, but looks to be a doe. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
be out of pocket for most of the evening, but good luck Holt, Slugger, and anyone else out there today.
In about 20 days, we won't be able to keep up with this thread. Sent from my SM-G781V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
That's it's for me. Had the same doe and fawn come back by about a hour later and that's was it. The night just felt different then last night. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
