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