After
hunting elk about seven times on a "Do it yourself hunt",
I was fortunate to kill my first bull elk in the Ruby River area
of southwest Montana with Upper Canyon Outfitters on a guided
hunt. It was probably the overall best western hunting adventure
of my life. Most of my previous trips were bow hunts, but
this time, I chose to use a rifle.
My lead guide, Brian from Upper Canyon Outfitters worked very
hard to put for me onto an elk and pulled me all over a 20,000
acre private ranch in the area. We saw plenty of mule deer
each day and viewed elk three days of the five day hunt.
On the fourth day the outfitter sent a secret weapon along with
us, an eighteen year old young lady who was serving on her first
professional guided hunt. She was the daughter of the ranch
manager, killed her first elk when she was twelve, hunted each
year with her dad and rode all over the ranch for the cattle operation
during the summer. She spotted a group of four elk on the
second to last day of the hunt, helped get us within range and
I ended up passing the shot at one of the cows in the bunch.
The only bull was a spike that was not legal.
On the last day we were moving along and glassing the area where
we spotted the elk the day before. We stopped on a hillside
at about 5pm to glass for our last chance. All three of
us scanned the area for any sign of elk. The end of shooting
time was about 7pm. At about 6pm, I began messing with my
GPS and thinking about how I was going to pack my gear in the
morning. Seriously, I was about to walk over to the 2 guides
and say, "Well, it's 4 th and long with about 2 minutes left.
It's not looking real good guys." Then Brian motioned
for me to move over to them. I eased over and Brian told
me that Maranda had spotted an elk on the opposing hillside.
I said, "Are you serious? What is it a cow?"
Brian replied that Maranda said it was a decent bull. Maranda
was only 8 yards to our right but we could not see the elk in
our line of sight through the pinion juniper. I asked Brian
to range him for me and he slid over by Maranda and whispered
that the bull was bedded facing away from us at 240 yards.
After practicing at the range several times back home, I felt
confident that I could make that shot.
I eased to my right and clearly saw the elk bedded across the
ravine on the opposite hillside. I looked for a rifle rest
and had to step down next to a boulder on uneven footing and used
a juniper branch as a rest. It was a little awkward but
I had the crosshairs of my Leupold scope on him. The guide
said that if I was uncomfortable with the shot that we could move
up a little. At this point, I was leaning toward taking
the shot. As I turned back to the elk, he rose and started
walking off to his evening feeding area. I thought, oh no.
I tried to pick him up in a clearing between trees without luck.
He dropped down into a ravine and started to climb up a snow covered
hillside. I saw a gap in the trees coming up and thought
that this was going to be my chance. Just as the elk entered
the gap, the guide let out a sharp cow chirp and he stopped in
his tracks and turned to me broadside.
Before the guide could say a word the Savage Weather Warrior roared
and I thought I saw him jump but I was busy jacking another shell
into the chamber. The guide said, "You hit him!"
I could not pick the bull up in my scope and asked where he was.
Brian said he was behind a juniper. Then he stepped back
into that clearing almost on all knees, back hunched and mouth
open. Again, before the guide could say a word, I fired
and the elk fell over rolling 360 degrees over three times into
the bottom of the small ravine below. All you could see
were antlers and legs rolling down the hill. Things got
quiet and I peered over my shoulder back at the two guides with
big wide eyes. I said, "You have got to be kidding
me, I can't believe that just happened." Little Maranda
said her hands were shaking so badly, she could not keep her binoculars
on the elk. There were high fives all around. We ranged
the shot at 280 yards.
When we got to the elk for photos, I noticed that the shot center
punched the heart. I have to chalk part of that up to luck
because I was not in the center ring with every shot back home
at the range. Nevertheless, the shot hit its mark when it
counted and I was very happy with the performance of the rifle.
As we were taking photos, it began to snow heavily. By the
time we finished skinning, quartering the animal and hanging all
the meat in a tree, it was about 10pm and there was an inch of
snow that covered my coat that I had taken off before we started.
We finally returned to the lodge by about 11:30pm that evening.
The next morning we packed all the meat out for the trip back
home.
It was a very respectable five point bull, but not what most hunters
would call a trophy bull. However, I could not be happier
with the hunt and the elk. The guides and staff of Upper
Canyon Outfitters were great. It is a first class operation.
If you are interested in booking a hunt, please contact Donna
or Jake McDonald at:
Upper Canyon Outfitters - Donna & Jake McDonald
PO Box 109
Alder, Montana 59710
Tel: 1-800-735-3973 (toll free – USA)
By
Norm Fogt |