Most of all, thank you to my wife for being the companion she is. Hiking 3 kids in 6 miles, washing in the creek, and eating freeze dried for nearly a week while loving every minute of it is truly awesome.
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And thank you to my kids for being such troopers on this entire trip.
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Our family adventure lasted over 7 weeks. It took us to 7 national parks and monuments and was focused on Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. I was able to squeeze in an elk hunt in Montana for 7 days of the trip in early September.
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Last spring I posted a question here. I had 7 days to kill an elk. No time to scout. I've been on one other elk hunt in my life. How do I get it done. Bowsite came through for sure. I had several Bowsiters weight in to try to help me/ us on our adventure. A few members offered their honey holes with the condition that I not share the info with others. That was extremely refreshing. I did not end up going to any of those spots, but I am still grateful for the information passed along. To those that gave that information to me, please know that I deleted the PMs and never shared any of that with anyone else. Thank you.
Ultimately, I ended up using Mule Power's consulting service (Headin' West Hunt Consulting). It was the right decision for our situation for sure.
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Using this intel, our family set out on our adventure.
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Sep. 15th — Leave Yellowstone and arrive where we plan to leave the camper for the week about 10:00 PM. Check our camper into the campground. Wife and I agree that kids were tired, we were tired, and packing in to the next day was not a good idea. The plan would be for me to pack all of our food (7 days of freeze dried x 5 people + Bow+Kill Kit+ water filter/ GPS/ etc. = about 80 lb pack.) while my wife took our old lab to board for the week. I would ride my bike in with pack on the next day, drop food, and try to hunt a little while. All is well, we get camper set up, kids are in bed, and we are getting the 14 year old geriatric lab fed and put to bed. I put him on his bed (he can barely walk and cannot get up from a laying position) ,walk inside to do something, and walk out and the damn dog is gone. We look for about 3 hours…in the fish pond, in the river, all over the area basically. I finally find him about 2:00 AM just past the end of a trail lying curled up in the ditch. Apparently, he mustered a burst of energy and decided to go hiking; I carry him back to my wife that is a hysterical tearful wreck. We go to bed.
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Sep. 16th — We woke up late this morning due to the theatrics last night. We feed the kids, and my wife gets in the driver’s seat to take me up to the trail to get started. She dropped me off about 11:00 AM. After flipping head over heals with my pack, bow, and bike, I walked my bike most of the way because my pack was too heavy to ride safely on the trail. I arrived at the campsite about 4:30, unload all of our food, and head back to try to get back to the the trailhead where my wife would pick me up. I am making good time on my bike until I have flat about 3 miles from the trailhead. Back on foot, I made it back to trailhead in about 3 HRs total.
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Sep. 17th — Everyone is still tired (we have been on the road for over a month now since we left TN on Aug. 15th). We all slept in and had breakfast at the store. Man that is a good breakfast. I talked with a local for a while while the kids ate. After breakfast, I packed my pack up and helped my wife pack her pack for the next day. We went into town to eat lunch, and afterwards, I dropped my wife and kids off at the campground so the kids play at the campground and take naps and rest up for the hike in. I went back to trail head and hiked up to the first draw for an afternoon hunt. I left the trailhead at 3:00 and made it to the feed area about 5:00 that afternoon. I came out to an open burn, and then back into some timber. As I was easing down the trail in the timber, I heard a stick break, and to my right I could see antlers. A 5 point was just under the hill at 30 yards moving in the opposite direction of me. He was good enough for me to shoot, but I could only see from his shoulder blades up, and I never could get a shot on him. I continued to hunt to the northeast, and I was just side hilling. About dusk, I made my way back up to the trail, and I rounded the corner on my way back, look to my right, and there is a 6 point and 4 cows standing and looking at me. Arrow is already knocked, so I ranged him at 60, dialed my sight to 60, attached my release, draw,… and he ran about 15 steps away and looked back. I did not want to push them, so I let them ease over the ridge. Lots of action for the first afternoon.
Sep. 18th — Family gets up, has breakfast again at the store, and we head to the trailhead. We make the 6 mile hike as a family in about 7 hours. My pack is heavier than the first trip with the food. We got to camp about 1 hour before dark, so I decided to hang there and rest up. Kids made the hike great. We had been hiking a lot in the parks, so we knew they would do well. There was a little gnashing of teeth, but it was minimal.
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Sep 19th — I was up before daylight and up the mountain about 7:00 AM. We were camping at the bottom to make sure the family had plenty of water. I hunted west down the ridge and found a lot of sign, and then I made a circle back around the ridge. I kept going and made it to a spring where I filled my water. That is some of the best water I have ever tasted. I got my wife and I a Delorme InReach, so I could keep in contact with them. That afternoon, I could receive texts from her, but she could not get my reply. She kept trying to check on me, but she could not get my reply that I was ok. I decided to go back to camp a little early to check on the family. On my way back, I heard a bull bugle back to the north. I decided I would be there in the morning to hunt him, and headed back down the mountain. Back at the home front, the family was having a great time.
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Sep 20th — I was at the top of the ridge at daybreak. I was slipping up to hit the trail when I saw some deer in front of me. I did not want to scare them to the north, so I circled them to get in front of them or to the north of them. All of a sudden, I heard a bull bugle about what sounded like .25 miles up the ridge. I topped the ridge and hit the trail and started easing up the ridge. The bull continued to bugle and was heading my way. I kept easing up the ridge on the trail until I spotted a cow about 50 yards in front of me feeding my way. Eventually, about 5 cows/ calves had fed into view, and I can hear the bull continuing to come toward me. The bull finally came in. The cows were at 20 and he was at 30. I ranged a tree he was about to walk by and got ready. He continued his walk, I drew, and he stopped behind a tree. I finally let down to see what he was going to do. I could see that he was going to come out at a spot that was behind a sapling that was close to me, so I took a couple quick steps forward. A couple of cows spooked a little, but he was fine. He took two more steps, and I took the shot at 30 yards quartering away. He left the top of ridge in a sprint, and I could see the arrow was still in him. It looked little back, but it should since he was quartering away. I went and found the track he left, and I saw where he broke a couple saplings on his way out. The entire herd left in a hurry, but there were few calves and cows that hung around on the side of the ridge because they were not sure what happened. I sat and had breakfast to give him time to die; I shot him at 8:30. About 10:00, I started moving around looking for blood. There was another bull coming from the head north. He bugled all the way to where I thought the herd had gone.
To make a long, long story short. I never found any blood. I looked the rest of that day, and all of the next day. I used my GPS to track all the places I looked and I made a grid up and down the ridge. I have tracked several whitetails with just specks of blood. He did not bleed any. I gave up the search after 2.5 days of nothing but looking. I packed the family out the 22nd.
On the morning of the 23rd, the family and I got up and ate breakfast at the store. I talked with the local I had met earlier in the week again, and I told him what happened. I was sick to my stomach as you can imagine. He said his son in law and he were going to ride back there in a few days, and they would look for buzzards just in case. My family and I headed out to Grand Teton NP, then went to Wind Cave and Badlands, and started our trek back to TN. The morning of Oct. 2nd I got a call from my new MT friend. He found my bull with my green and white Gold Tip arrow still in the carcass at the head of the drainage about .3 miles from where I shot him. The bull made a complete U- turn, and I just never could see him. My grid search got me close, but I never saw him. He packed the head out for me and took the head to the taxidermist. He guessed it to score about 305.
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It did not work out exactly how I hoped, but our family made some everlasting memories. I am grateful to been able to experience this with them.
Thanks again Bowsite.
Josh
Again congrats!
Sorry you didn’t get to recover the meat, but you put in a diligent effort, and got to have a conclusion to your hunt. Most all of us have been there. (Whether or not some admit it) Thanks for your honesty and telling the story as it happened. That is a stud bull!!!
Great job and thank you again for sharing!
Your new friend from Montana sounds like a great guy.
Lots of greats in that story.
Congrats.
Badlands/ Ace, take those kiddos along; just be prepared to be flexible. You might be surprised. I was.
Forgot to note that my little guy tried out the Delorme SOS button before we got to the trailhead, and we had to turn away the emergency response folks, so we were confident that someone would come get us if we needed them to.
Mark
But as you know I already knew all the details of your hunt so my favorite part of this thread was getting to see the pics of your wife and kids. It was like I finally got to meet everyone which is awesome.
Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us and also for posting the review. And thanks a million for having faith in me. Not everyone sees the value in buying a hunt plan. Especially the rookies. Some do but then their partners scoff at the idea of paying for a "treasure map" with a few Xs on it and a set of instructions on how to get to those Xs and what to do when you get there. Most of my clients are folks who have a few unpunched elk tags for souvenirs and realize the value of my services.
When I read your thread earlier this year I thought... man would I get some satisfaction out of putting this guy on a bull. I just loved the whole trip you had planned for your family and had a gut feeling that you'd be up for the plan I had in mind. Pretty cool place to spend a week huh! Glad you liked the water too. ha ha
Hats off to your wife. She is a truly amazing woman. I'd imagine you're a pretty good catch too. lol What a pair you two make.
If you go back please keep me posted on your future adventures. If you're interested I can probably line up a packer for you too unless you enjoyed the part where you flipped the mountain bike over and would like to try that again. :-)
Take care and please by all means stay in touch! If you ever decide to chase bulls in Wyoming I have some treasure maps for that neck of the woods too.
Great fortune there Chesapeakesam.
The ups greatly outweight the downs; whilst you and your family won't taste the tenderloins from this hunt, certainly the shared memories will last a lifetime...AND Karma/Kismet/Fate saw you lay hands on your trophy in the end.
Good luck and good hunting
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We went from SW MN to Idaho and back and had adventures all along the way. This is something that your kids will remember the rest of their lives. I know I do.
Terry
Hey Mulepower,
I will take you up on that offer. Maybe you can send that steak with the next treasure map when we get the details worked out. Thanks a bunch.
