The Montana General Deer and Elk opener was last Sunday (October 26th). I left home Thursday and headed for a secret basin and draw that leads down to a large river. Its in the heart of Mule Deer country. It was 475 miles each way. Commitment there. Upon my arrival the wind was HOWLING! And it did so for all of Friday and Saturday and throughout both nights! It was just miserable to walk about and try to scout for my quarry - the high plains Mule Deer! Some animals and bird life were seen but the area was quite dry and had been rainless since early June! Oh well I was committed. I actually got an earache from the incessant wind! I had a fitful night Saturday with the earache and the wind rocking my truck. At one point I had to get up and wedge a gallon water bottle between a mudflap and the tire of my truck to keep it from flapping and keeping me awake!
I was just sick of the howling wind and wondered how a person could Hunt in 30 to 40 MPH winds!
Lo and behold at 1 hour before legal shooting time Sunday morning as I was humping over the hills to my chosen overlook the wind quit! I mean it stopped completely. An amazing purple sunrise was forming at my back as I closed in on my basin and multiple draw overlook! The first "noise" I heard and recognized other than the recent winds was a howling Coyote from deep in one of my draws. I got in front of an old dead tree that had blown over and sat down. I was fully camoflaged except for my mandatory orange vest. It was still prior to sunrise when I heard an Elk bugle down near the river. I was very surprised at this "noise" as it was October 26th and usually its somewhat rare to hear Bulls give all out full bugles with grunts this late. The bugling would continue though at a rate of one bugle per minute for over two hours! Now over the edge of the closest draw comes a clucking strutting "noisy" group of Sage Grouse. They pecked and fed and clucked til I was on the verge of laughing! That Coyote will hear them I thought and have feathers in his chops real soon! The next "noise" to ring out was a large flock of Canada Geese from down on the river. As the sun began to light the day they took off upstream and really made a noisy ruckus as they formed a V. My quarry the mostly silent Mule Deer wasn't long in appearing. As I thought, this remote draw complex and basin soon began to fill with Mule Deer returning from the river to feed and bed after watering.
Like every where else the night of the 25th had been moonless and very dark. The Mulies were everywhere and busy feeding. At one time I had 28 in view. Several small 4x4's but no really good ones so far. Now I hear a "noise" I can't place - at first I think it is Snow Geese with a mini honking that like I said I did not recognize! It turns out to be a small flock of Trumpeter Swans and they fly directly over me. I get my 12x50 Nikons on them quickly and watch them for several moments until I can hear there cronking noise no longer. Things are looking up now as the Bull Elk I have been hearing now comes into view and chases a cow Elk in a cricle and brings her back to the main herd of 30 animals. This is no ordinary Bull Elk he is a whopper! I am sure his long thick curvy ivory tipped points will make the 350 mark - easily! I wonder why he is so rut intent at this time of year! But I relish watching him in between glassing the trailways leading from water towards me. The Bull is about 800 yards away and just mad with rut activity. His lower stomach (loin area) is slender as compared to the other Elk in the herd.
He had better lay off the testosterone and eat something I thought! More "noise" now but its the kind of noise I like. I here the crush crush crush of bounding Mule Deer as two nice Bucks come racing over a gravelly ridge line and continue racing all the way across "my basin". I look them over with a racing heart and decide to pass on both of these Bucks for this year. I wonder if the calm air currents have finally given them my scent and they are bounding away blindly? More "noise" now as the bounding bucks flush a flock of 20 Hungarian Partridge and their buzzing fluttering flight sends them right in front of me as they turned from powered flight to gliding and landing about 200 yards away. I am beginning to realize how much better these sounds are than the maddening noise of the wind I had been hearing for the last two and a half days!
Next up on the "noise" roster was a Rooster Pheasant crowing from the willows along the river. I look for him but cannot see him. Just at 9:00 AM I hear two shots in rapid succession from the east of me. The only folks I know of in that area are 4 Hunters from Kalispell - one of which has a coveted Bull Elk tag for that area. I would find out later that he had killed his first Elk with those two shots! It was a splendid 7X7 Bull that I would guess scored 340 B&C! This Hunters fall had just gotten better! You see Ben the Elk Hunter had just come from a succesful Antelope Hunt! Two weeks prior he had harvested another coveted Montana tropy - a 49" Bull Moose in the Cabinet Mountains! It gets better for Ben, his son had also been drawn for Moose and had taken a 50" Bull in NW Montana also!
Now Ben was not the kind of guy to brag but on Friday I asked about the huge Whitetail he had embossed on the front of his T-shirt. Oh he replied that is a 201 5/8ths Buck he had shot in Missouri! The embossed photo was the cover shot off of Whitetail Magazine from 1995 when the Buck was featured there as the Missouri Record for the year or forever - I forget! Good for Ben!
Back to my "noisy" basin! I am startled by the blowing snort of an Antelope behind me. As I turn to look two nice 13" Bucks spin around and flee. I am sure they were going down to the only water in the area and drink. It is going to be a warm day! I feel sorry that I spooked the Antelope and made them run on this warm windless morning.
I am keeping track now of everything that makes a noise to help me be patient. Swooshing sounds are next as a Golden Eagle rides the ridge current and speeds by at 30 yards. The Nikon camera is safely in the daypack! Drat that!
I look to the south and try and figure out what the rumbling noise is in that direction. This is a roadless wilderness area! It turns out to be 50 Elk making a Bee line toward me! They must have been spooked by the shooting. I get the binos on them as they near. Their tongues are out and they are trotting over the ridges. I immediately see the racks of 4 mature Bulls in the group along with several smaller Bulls. The noise in the still air is making me excited again and I am trying to figure out how close they will be when they cross my ridge. It turns out they pass within 200 yards and I do not take my eyes off the Monster Bull at the rear of this herd! He IS Mr. Big! I am awestruck at his horn length, thickness and the basket width of the rack! Width of rack in this area is sometimes lacking even in very mature bulls. Nothing lacking on this guy. He might be the biggest Bull I have seen outside Yellowstone park! Wow! What a thrill!
My heart was still racing when a Magpie swooshs into my deadfall and startles me again. His nosiy clucking as he sprints out of the tree deserves mention on my noise report! The poor guy actually flew sideways when he saw me. I hear a flock of SandHill Cranes squawking and clucking as they ride a thermal up for altitude about a mile north of me. They cluck and glide over me heading south for the Platte River. There were 300 or so in this flock. Cool I think - I wish I could fly. I know I could find that big Mulie if I could just fly!
Is there any thing else to make noise in my basin? I am packing up at 11:00 AM and finished my muffin and orange juice when I realize that the rutting Bull at the bottom of my draw has finally quieted down. Ahh yes quiet. Rewarding in itself for a former city boy.
I am cresting the ridge I have been sitting in front of when I hear one of the favorite "noises" for me of all time. Its the shrill shrieking warning chirp of a Prairie Dog! Sure enough a new satelite town (new from last year anyway) of Prairie Dogs has started up on the flat of the ridge. I see about 10 of the little guys scurrying and chirping as I walk through their new town.
3 miles to the truck and I am hungry for a sandwich so I hump up a sweat. I get there just in time to drop my pack and get the Nikon camera out as Ben and his partners are returning afoot to camp with the 7X7 rack and the first load of Elk meat. I offer them pop and water as they unload and we share congratulations with Ben.
Those Hunters first retrieve a Bible and give thanks for their Hunt! I am impressed. Good for them. Maybe Ben is not just "lucky"!
Rain soon followed the opener and my continued efforts to find a trophy Mulie turns to concern for gumbo muck roads and impassability. I head home late Monday night with fond memories and some good pictures and a new appreciation for quiet and "Montanas special noises".
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

[ 10-29-2003, 22:08: Message edited by: VarmintGuy ]

Great post. - Dan

A well written account of your experience. What a memory to carry through life.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

[ 10-29-2003, 22:59: Message edited by: Scrollcutter ]

Enjoyed your post very much. Nicely written. I have the same sorts of experience in the SC woods, different animals for sure, but experiencing the dawning day from a favorite tree stand or place in the woods is a seasonal treat.

Well written VarmintGuy, almost felt like I was there!
Most hunters, being focussed with the task at hand, afford themselves the oppertunity to take in their surroundings and all that Mother Nature has to offer.

Like not seeing the forest for the trees.

Or sometimes the deafning silence of the forest.

Great post VarmintGuy! Sounds like some place you have there!
- mike

Thanks for the comments guys!
The wind is back! I am here in SW Montana now and it blew all night at 25+ MPH! I just got back from the sport shop in town and a travelling sportsman had just called his destination in Wyoming for an update and the outfitter told him the temperature was 17 degrees and the wind was gusting to 70 MPH! Yikes. Bring your long flannels! Winter is coming - quickly now it seems.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Great post. Really well done description of what makes hunting so much more than just filling a tag. Having spent some time in the badlands of Eastern Montana I can relate to your description of the wind. Makes you think about the early settlers on the plains. I can't imagine holing up for the winter with that constant howling. There are many accounts of people going crazy because of it.

Jeff

THAT'S why I love Montana!!!!!!!!!!

Great post Varmintguy! I'm glad you had a such a great hunt. Things didn't fair so well down the river, as I went in search of a bull elk, and saw absolutely nothing, but did have a great day with family and friends hiking out in the hills. I think this weather might help me out, and I hope to see something on Sunday. Is it as cold in Dillon as it is here in Bozeman? Man, I thought my hands were going to fall off last night as I was delivering a gun safe to a house here in town...Sheesh!

Hope the rest of your season goes as well as the first day!

PS, my name is Ben too, so I was particularly pleased with that part in your post, what a banner year for him!

Skibum: I often think of the settlers in their covered wagons when I am out of the vast high plains! What an undertaking! It scares me to just imagine myself dealing with the poor water and the heat, dust, wind, snakes, mosquitoes, lack of toilet paper and all the uncertainties the settlers dealt with. Determined folks those!

The444shooter: Ben yes it is quite cold here! Last night it got down to 2 degrees and the high yesterday was 19. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow to the more normal 38 high and 18 low. Our closest neighbors just moved here from Florida a month ago and it was like 78 degrees many days since. Then this cold snap! Now yesterday I had to laugh when I saw her out in the driveway - she looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy or the Michelin Lady! She was puffed up in all her heavy clothes like a helium balloon. That has to be culture shock! Miami, Florida to Dillon, Montana. Nice people though.
Keep after em! I almost got a dandy Whitetail Thursday! I will try for him again Monday. Let him settle down a little.
More later
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy