Keith Stockard - Photo Contest 2008 - Mule Deer (1)
Mule Deer Buck taken near Sula, after 12 trips to the Bitterroot Mountains. ”My legs covered well over a hundred miles of which half of these were with my son Kenny. On the 12th trip, he was there at my side to share in this hunting adventure as we scaled to the top in record time to harvest this trophy Mule Deer.”
Diehard bird hunters can still hit the pheasant patches, turkey season is still open in eastern Montana. Waterfowlers are welcome to shiver away in their damp blinds and spread their decoys, but for the average big-game guy, hunting is finished until fall, 2009. Some still smile with the remembrance of magical days afield with family or might yet pump an enthusiastic fist when retelling the tale of killing a trophy bull. But most just file their guns back in the cabinet, repack gear in the garage and glumly wait for next year.
However, no matter how the season unfolded, there are things that can be accomplished in December to assure a better hunting season next autumn. Right now is the best time to evaluate the whats, whys and wheres of this year’s hunting episodes to improve them for the future. Here are some things to consider in preparation for the coming season:
1) Gear alert – You’re in a better position to sort through your gear and decide what’s needed for the coming year and what might be donated to charity now than you will be in nine months. Make a list of needed items in the following areas: guns and shooting equipment, camping gear, optics, clothing and footwear, and vehicle accessories. Once you’ve decided what’s required for next season, you can shop at a relaxed pace throughout the year
and pick up necessary items at bargain prices instead of parting with a large outlay of cash just before hunting season.
Regarding guns and shooting equipment, if you have new hunters coming into the ranks in your family, now is the time to start shopping for a great buy on a rifle. Watch for ammunition sales as well. Adding a bipod or range-finder to one’s cache of shooting gear is a great investment and these items are sure to please any hunter at Christmas.
Camping in elk country is one of the greatest delights of my life. On the list of necessary items for our elk camp are a new lantern and stove jack for one of the tents. I’m also in the market for another cot and a sleeping pad. For solo hunts, erecting my 12’x14’ wall tent alone is getting tedious, so if I locate a smaller,
lighter tent at a reasonable price, I’ll probably make that investment as well.
Quality optics are one of the niceties of hunting that can really pay dividends under low-light conditions. If you’re considering upgrading your rifle-scope or binoculars, why not put them on the list with a budgeted price to purchase before next season if the opportunity arises?
Kids grow (too quickly), boot soles wear and jackets get ripped on barbwire. After-season sales are optimal times to purchase clothing and footwear — as long as you’ve inventoried what you’ll need for next season.
Items required for your hunting vehicle should be evaluated as well. About the only time I routinely use tire chains is during hunting season. Before next year I need to replace a broken cross-link. Behind the seat I have a portable jump-starting unit, but it’s getting along in years and is on the low end for power. Replacing it is on my list of vehicle-related projects.
2) Pondering Places – We didn’t find many elk in the normal places in our hunting area this season. That seems to be somewhat of a trend, as the traditional hotspots were lukewarm last year as well, even though my son and I both killed bulls. For next season, we need to think about trying some slightly different areas. Although gas prices have moderated, I’m still looking for some spots close to home to hunt deer. We found a few worthy destinations this season, but before next year I’d like to scout out some more.
Just after the season is the best time to evaluate the locations that you hunted. Making some brief notes in a hunting journal about the location and numbers of animals encountered is a smart way to plan for next season. It’s easy to think you’ll remember, but nearly a year’s passage will certainly fog your gray matter in September as you try to recall the specifics of this year’s hunt.
Along with pondering the merits of previously hunted areas, now is an excellent time to sit down with maps to locate some new ones. It’s also the ideal time to figure out how to scout them once they’re identified. One of my perennial downfalls is pinpointing potentially productive hunting destinations on a map, then failing to scout them before the season opens. When that happens I tend to just throw up my hands and return to the same old places, some of which offered excellent hunting a decade ago, but have declined since.
Summer hiking, fishing and camping trips are ideal ways to scout a new location. Last summer I made an enjoyable backpacking trip to twin high country lakes near an area that looked like a possible hunting destination based on my research with a map. As it turned out, the lakes gave up a number of husky cutthroat trout, but the area didn’t turn out to be quite the type of wildlife habitat that I expected. But the outing was a success from the standpoint of fishing, physical fitness and eliminating a destination from the year’s hunting itinerary.
3) Setting a Schedule – Although Montanans enjoy one of the longest big-game hunting seasons of any state in the nation, it seems that the weeks fade much too quickly, with other responsibilities perniciously occupying days that could be better spent in the field. With the memory of this season in mind, it’s worth a few hours’ time to evaluate what got in the way of hunting. For me, it was writing articles, some of which could have been completed before the season opened, leaving more time for hunting. Readying my dwelling for winter also took some time, another job that I could have finished before the antelope opener.
Although work and other responsibilities shouldn’t be neglected, a little advanced planning can do wonders to clear the calendar for hunting. Jotting some reminders of tasks to conquer before hunting season starts (and then doing them) is one way to scavenge some extra days in the field — and I’ll take all of them I can get.
Jack Ballard, author and photographer, publishes magazine articles and photos pertaining to camping, cross-country skiing, canoeing, hiking, hunting, fishing, children’s conservation education and the natural history of wildlife. In the past ten years his articles and/or photos have appeared in over 25 different regional and national magazines, including: Sports Afield, Paddler Magazine, Deer & Deer Hunting, Northwest Fly Fishing, Montana Magazine, Women in the Outdoors, VFW Magazine, WildBird Magazine, Colorado Outdoors, Birds & Blooms, and others.
Mike Bailly - Photo Contest 2008 - Buck (1)
“I shot this buck near Helena at 200 yards on November 1, 2008. He green scored at 168-1/8. He was pretty sneaky, as I tried to het him while archery hunting, but he kept letting me crawl to almost within bow range before he escaped. Between the Prickly Pear and rocks he must have enjoyed my pain enough to let me get that close. I finally outsmarted him with a 7mm Mag. on the first week of the season. I still had to stalk and crawl to within range and he must of thought that I was still carrying my arrows. He was a great animal and there are still chances to take large animals on public land.”
Keith Stockard - Photo Contest 2008 - Turkey
Keith Stockard with Merriam Spring Gobbler.
Kenny - Photo Contest 2008 - Turkey (2)
Kenny with an unusual DoubleBearded Spring Merriam Gobbler taken near Superior by Keith Stockard.
Kenny - Photo Contest 2008 - Turkey (1)
Kenny with an unusual Double-Bearded Spring Merriam Gobbler taken near Superior.
This season I had a reminder of why I hunt the backcountry almost
exclusively. A good friend, who married into a large land holding family in the Big Hole, invited me on an opening day hunt in a limited access area. Being friends with all the people invited, I figured I might as well give it a go. I dusted off my lonely old wall tent, went through the laborious chore of packing a whole camp onto my trailer and headed south.
Normally I am strongly against just showing up in an area and hunting. Since my buddy had done a good bit of the homework for me I felt somewhat okay arriving Friday and lightly scouting on Saturday. He had ideas on where he wanted to hunt opening day but after studying the area on Google Earth, I had my own ideas. In the wee hours of Saturday morning I headed out with my maps and spotting scope to be at a good vantage by dawn. I arrived at what seemed from my maps to be a good viewing spot about a half an hour before the light of day and got set up. As the brightness of morning grew I was rewarded with the view of two different groups of elk on finger ridges within 800 yards of my location. I watched them as they slowly fed back into the trees then I exited with stealth being mindful of the wind.
We all converged from our perspective scouting trips back at camp. Counting both the groups of elk that I had seen as one, we had found two locations that were holding elk. We split up into two groups of three for the next morning then began planning our hunt. One of my seasoned comrades would take the drainage in the direction where the bigger group of elk had fed into the trees. I would pair up with the rookie of the group and we made a pact. He got to shoot at any elk we encountered and since I was already tagged out for wapiti, I would get the shot if we saw a mule deer buck. We would head up the finger ridge below where those elk had been and be in position before first light.
The next morning came cold and early. We were heading out the door of the tent when we saw other rigs heading towards our spot. So much for exclusive land use. Frantic, we headed out hoping that these folks were not heading where we were. We passed them on the creek bottom trail and staggered our way to the finger ridge without our headlamps. As my partner and I started up the ridge, my buddy continued up his desired drainage. We were in position a full half hour before first light and the wind was perfect. As the dark gave way to gray, we could barely make out some elk milling along the tree line. About ten minutes before legal shooting the light from our rival’s headlamps could be seen about 300 yards up wind of the elk we were watching. At five minutes before
game time the lead cow turned to face the wind, smelled those guys and led the whole group away in a flash. My buddy in the drainage got to see a quick flash of a cow as they exited the ridge exactly where we thought they would.
I’ve related this story to point out a few important facts. First and I believe foremost, situations like this almost never happen in the backcountry. When you put the effort into getting to a remote place, you are almost sure to have the whole show to yourself. Further, the elk in the backcountry are typically less wary and will hang out in the open a bit longer. Second, no matter where you are hunting, you have to constantly pay attention to the wind. All of the odor eliminating products and clothing in the world will never make you 100% scent free. Of course you should always do all you can to reduce your scent but you must play the wind to win the game. And finally, do your homework. If I had known that this section of the ranch was a part of the general block management instead of limited entry, I would have looked elsewhere for animals. I tried to cram for the exam by doing some light scouting the day before the season opened and we ended up failing the test.
I went through all the work of packing and setting up a full camp and no one brought home any meat. I drove my truck (which broke down) and trailer two hours each way and put nothing in my freezer. If I had packed my backpack and drove a much shorter distance to hunt, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time and money and I would have had better odds of getting an animal. These are just a few of the reasons why hunting the backcountry is so rewarding.
As December sets in most of the hunting in Montana has come to an end. The last thing on the mind of most people is getting ready for the following hunting season, but now is a great time to make the personal commitment to hunting the backcountry next year. You will have a whole year for preparation and maybe Santa will bring you some of the gear you may not have.
I would like to end this month by congratulating a few fellow backcountry enthusiasts. Vince, Brad and my close friend Sparky all managed to harvest animals in the backwoods. Each of them has put a ton of effort into finding remote places and hunting them alone. Their reward, beside the experience, was three elk to grace their freezers. These three guys and everyone else who has busted their tail in the backcountry should be proud, whether an animal was harvested or not. I’d like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and I’d like to remind folks that time off from work can be spent watching wintering critters and testing new gear.
Mitch Rasmussen - Photo Contest 2008 - Goat Hunt
