RESERVATION ELK HUNT

Here are a couple of pictures from this morning’s hunt. The second picture is of my son (Greg) and my nephew (Mike). We were scoping-out a small herd of elk we’d spotted after walking a few miles, just below Looking Glass. Greg had a 338 Winchester and Mike had a 300, both Magnums. The elk were approximately three-fourths of a mile to the South-East of us. I took some pictures of them but in the finished product, they aren’t distinguishable from their surroundings – I forgot that I had zoom.

The first picture is of me posing with my baby, the 7mm Remington Magnum (Browning Bar), after the elk had skunked us. How do you like the tennis shoes -- INDIAN STYLE!

It was extremely exciting. After we’d gotten to the area where we’d last seen them, we followed the elk’s tracks-in-the-snow. They led us to about one mile West of the original location, right to a steep side hill, all covered with Pines, snow and patches of willows, very thick stuff. We watched the area for about thirty minutes and decided that they’d bedded down. We made a plan to split-up and make a sweep from the bottom. I thought I knew about where they’d chosen to bed, toward the middle, right where things were thickest. Mike’s pretty smart and had the same idea. He said he’d take the middle and told Greg and I that if he took the middle the elk would spook and run into one of us, attempting to make being positioned on either side more desirable than being in the middle. I knew what he was up to, and used my age and great wisdom to get the position for myself! I told them that I wanted the middle so that I could keep an eye on both of them. They didn’t like it but they went along.

Halfway up the hill, and putting more energy into picking a route than watching for elk, I surprised the elk and myself. All I saw and heard were white flashes and thumping hooves for about ten seconds! Subsequently, all I had time to do was holler, “Here they come!” That’s all I saw, they were gone in a flash! Greg and Mike didn’t see anything but both said they’d heard the meat running through the trees and up the hill…

The end, except for one thing: I can tell you that there are some very lucky elk in Montana, right now, and a lot of “What if’s” streaming from the mouths of my two hunting companions!

Many Thanks,

Calvin Tatsey