Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

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Dan
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#16 Post by Dan »

Beautiful views

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Elkman
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#17 Post by Elkman »

The hunt - Day 1 part 2.

Okay, now we are one ridge away from where my friend thinks we may run into elk. Still no talking. If there are Elk in the area, we haven't seen or heard any sign of them.
We continue up this ridge towards some more meadows and a saddle where we can ease over to the next ridge.
Taking it real easy. We hear noise. What is that? We ease over to the rocky edge and look down. Nice, very nice! 2 Bulls knocking heads. 😎
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What? That's not we're after.😞
Hey, but what a sight none the less. 2 Bull Moose butting heads. There ended up being a couple cow Moose there also. They did a little whining and had the 2 Bulls a bit wound up. Their rut doesn't start for a few weeks. We watched them for maybe 10 minutes and then started up the ridge again.
I am finding it hard to hunt when there are awesome views all around.
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We are now at the meadows, where my friend was thinking the real hunt will begin. If only I was in better shape for this. We could have been hear sooner.
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Still no fresh sign of elk.
Just think? If I was 25 lbs lighter, I'd weigh the same as I do now without the pack.
Now we're moving down along these meadows towards the saddle. There has to be elk here somewhere?
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To be continued.
Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

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Graps
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#18 Post by Graps »

So cool to see those moose.😎
"Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much." ~ Joni Eareckson Tada

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Greg Felty
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#19 Post by Greg Felty »

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I am loving the views. Good luck.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Carpdaddy
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#20 Post by Carpdaddy »

Awesome views, thanks for taking us along, the Moose pictures was a great bonus!

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Dan
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#21 Post by Dan »

Wow. Thanks for sharing your hunt.

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Elkman
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#22 Post by Elkman »

The hunt - Day 1 part 3.

We are now approaching late morning. We have went down to a little Aspen groove looking for sign. We find some that looks to be no more than 3 days old. We ease through the saddle and start up yet another ridge kinda side hilling into a little pocket. Now we have fresh tracks. They are from a single elk and look to be Bull tracks. That's a good sign! We follow them a ways and then catch the unmistakable smell of elk.
Time to setup again and do some cow calling. My friend has one of those Cow Elk decoys from Montana decoys. He sets it up about 40 yards or so behind me. He pulls out is video camera and gets ready. I set myself up with the wind in my favor. Not much cover but I am in the shadows and I am about 15 yards from a small trail that the elk tracks where on.
After about a 20 min calling session we deside to take a break before moving on up the ridge. Heck, I was ready for a knap!
After our break we press on through the little draw and on up the ridge further. After awhile we come across a game trail and follow it up the ridge. Oh, there's that smell of elk again. So we setup again and do another calling session. Nothing! We press on.
After awhile, maybe another 1/4 mile, the terrain started to look more elk like. Over the years I have came to recognize what could be an area that the elk may be hanging out in. I told my friend that we better not go much further and should setup the decoy and do some more cow calling. I look ahead and see some shadows near the edge of a steeper drop off to our left. That is where I will setup. My friend goes back and sets up the decoy. He then moves back even more and begins calling. When we setup we would both do the cow talking. He had 3 calls ready to use and I had 2. That way we would sound like many animals instead of 1. With one of my calls I would add in some soft calf mews and an occasional hyper calf or lost calf call.
Okay another 20 min session and nothing. I look back to my friend and he begins to pack up to move on. As I am looking back at him I thought I saw some movement up the hill above him so I start calling again as a sign to my friend to hold on a bit. He then starts calling again. After a few more minutes I hear noise over to my left where I was originally expecting the elk to come from. I see movement. Okay here comes something. I am ready and hoping that the animal is an elk. I knew it would most likely move to my right because of the steep edge and brush to the left. Then all the sudden out steps a nice 5 point Bull. 10 points for you guys back east. Nice! He's not the biggest in the woods, but if I can get a shot with my longbow, I will take it. He comes out from behind a tree and has this lonely mopey look on his face. He is walking from my left to my right. This is it. 5 more steps. I might actually get a shot. Then he sees the decoy. I will never forget the look on that Bulls face. He stops and stretched his neck out, his eyes and face almost looked like he was smiling. He was in love! That decoy sure got his attention! The problem is he quit walking and now was quartering to me very hard. I had to freeze. I have no idea what my friend was seeing. I knew that just a bit ago he was starting to pack up and move on. I hear noise behind me. The love struck look on the Bulls face leaves and the oh crap! look kicks in and he instantly hits third gear as he runs back to where he came from. The Bull had gotten to 20 yards of me and my friend didn't know it. He was so upset. It was all fun and part of the game. It is just awesome to have had one finally let us know he was even there.
We went up the ride a bit further hoping there were more. Nothing! We ate lunch and deside to cut over the ridge to some wallows on our way down and back down to the truck.
The wallow has been used. Not to long ago from the looks of it.
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We have a long walk back and don't really want to be up here when it gets dark. We are in grizzly country.

View of the crazy mountains on our way down.
The Crazies
The Crazies
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We make it back to the truck and get a couple more cool encounters with more animals.
This young bear didn't want to get off the road.
Black Bear
Black Bear
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A bunch of Muledeer.
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Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

stumper
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#23 Post by stumper »

What a hunt already and it’s only day one.
Nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow.

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Elkman
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#24 Post by Elkman »

Yeah, I was pleased about how it was going at this point.

One more thing I forgot to mention about our hunt on day 1. We had an elevation change from the truck to where we ate lunch of about 1200 ft. I wanted to get to the base of the rocky stuff and get a picture from there. We just ran out of time.
Now I'm not going to lie. At times I was having a hard time. It was a lot warmer than normal. I hate getting all heated up when I hunt. The right knee that I injured while in the Navy was acting up here and there. My day pack was about 25 lbs and that sure added to the difficulty. Normally I am not doing day hunts like these and just have a fanny pack on. My friends pack was at least 5 to 10 lbs heavier than mine.

Oh! Dale I also had that knife you made with me. My friend thought it was a pretty cool knife.
Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

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Graps
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Re: Elk hunt to Livingston Mt

#25 Post by Graps »

I hope you get that knife christened.
"Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much." ~ Joni Eareckson Tada

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