Here is a pic of the bull I killed last Nov in Montana whilst hunting on public lands. It was my first hunt in the U.S and I was very pleased to get quite a nice one first try.

Nice elk then the work begin. Did you have to pack him up or down Hill?

Very nice bull - congrats!!

Excellent, will you be back again?

Well done! Right, let's hear the story then...

I've been in Montana 14 years and haven't shot a bull that nice yet! Congrads on a job well done.

Another angle of the bull which had 56 inch main beams, 20 inch lower tines and scored 372 BC. It snapped a back tine off by falling off a cliff after I shot it, luckily we were able to glue it back on.

Kamo Gari, the day we shot that elk started off the same as the previous eight. Up at 3.30am brushing and putting saddles on horses, a quick bite to eat then off hunting. The day before we had ridden and walked for 11 hours and covered some 30 miles. So far on the hunt I had passed over 6 bulls the best being around the 310 mark. It was the morning of the ninth day when we found the tracks of a big bull that was travelling across some flat open country and up into the steeper stuff. Now being very mild last Nov meant that there was very little snow on the ground which made tracking it a slow process. An hour after legal shooting time
we rode up to a steep rocky ridge when up stands the bull at 70 yards. He looked big front on with a antler spread of over 50 inches, unfortunately his chest was covered by a tree stump and he only presented a head shot which I was reluctant to take off hand. Seconds later the bull wheeled around and was gone! So started a pursuit that went on all day, travelling over 12 miles through nearly 4 valleys.I wont bore you with all the details but most of the time was spent dragging horses where they did not want to go like down near vertical hill faces through a jungle of fallen timber. He knew we were on his tail and he made it real hard for us.

Finally we caught a glimpse of him again at about 3pm. He was picking his way up through a high pass heading into yet another valley, the range was about 1500 yards. This was my first good look at the bull and he looked enormous walking side on through the timber and rock faces. He also looked as though he was starting to tire which lifted our hopes considerably. We arrived at the pass on very tired horses and we gave them a well needed rest. These horses were really fit but we didn't know how much more we could push them. We glassed this new valley and after a while spotted the bull making his way toward yet another pass on the opposite side to us. We had riden through this area 2 days before and thought we new exactly where he would travel. We had to catch him before he went over the other side so down hill we went on another mad dash dragging horses behind. It was that steep that any slip would have the horse stepping all over you.Finally we hit the valley floor and got back on the horses for a final sprint. The bull had laid down for a rest just short of the pass when a 300 yard shot sent him rolling down over a small cliff. When the tape measure was going past 56 inches I was confident we had a good one.

We cut him in half and put him on the horses then started walking out. It was about 4 miles to the nearest road and two very weary Aussie hunters got out an hour or so after dark which concluded as good a days hunting anyone could ask for!

I'm going back in 2010 to try my luck again.

crickey!

Hi,
very nice bull.
Could you explain to me how hunting is organised there? Is it possible to hunt unguided for an alien?

Best regards

dennis

You suck.I been hunting there forn 40 years and never saw one like that on public land!!!

Awesome trophy and great story, thanks! Who's the outfitter?

quote:

Originally posted by Caracal:
Hi,
very nice bull.
Could you explain to me how hunting is organised there? Is it possible to hunt unguided for an alien?

Best regards

dennis

Most public lands hunts do not require aliens to have a guide. The exceptions would be hunts that require any non-resident or resident to have a guide. For instance, Alaska requires a certified guide for any non-resident (non-Alaskan)for brown/grizzly bear, Dall sheep or mountain goat. All other species can be hunted un-guided. The only issue will be if you have a hunter education course recognized by the state in which you wish to hunt. If not, you'll have to take a qualifying course.

tiggergate:
Not quite. Alaska game laws require a non-resident ALIEN to be guided by a licensed guide for ALL big game. A U.S. citizen requires a licensed guide for sheep, goats & the large bears.


Hope this clears the issue up.
Bear in Fairbanks


BTW, a hearty congrats on your elk, Australia. Lottsa hard work deserves a trophy like that. Best of luck on your next one.
B.I.F.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
The only issue will be if you have a hunter education course recognized by the state in which you wish to hunt. If not, you'll have to take a qualifying course.

However, if you can prove equivalent European (or other) hunter's education, this is normally accepted. I always submit my German license as proof of passed safety instruction, no problems thus far... I'm pretty sure a UK DSC1 (assuming Caracal is from the UK?) would also do the trick.

Compared to many European hunting qualifications, the curriculum in a US safety instruction is not all that stringent.

- mike

The transport

Heading out

Bear at 40 yards.

quote:

Originally posted by Bear in Fairbanks:
tiggergate:
Not quite. Alaska game laws require a non-resident ALIEN to be guided by a licensed guide for ALL big game. A U.S. citizen requires a licensed guide for sheep, goats & the large bears.


Hope this clears the issue up.
Bear in Fairbanks


BTW, a hearty congrats on your elk, Australia. Lottsa hard work deserves a trophy like that. Best of luck on your next one.
B.I.F.

Sorry, I didn't know there was an alien restriction. I hate to see it; it's got to cost the state a lot of hunting revenue.

quote:

Originally posted by mho:

Compared to many European hunting qualifications, the curriculum in a US safety instruction is not all that stringent.

- mike

That is an understatement! I took a 50-state legal course a few years ago to hunt out of Texas and I think I spent a total of 2 hours going through the process. I was the only participant over 4' tall, in fact. The rest were young children. Some dang fine shooters in the crowd, too!

quote:

Originally posted by Australia:
Bear at 40 yards.

Awesome elk!! Congrats. I'm jealous as I LIVE here and don't have one like that.

Now, you HAVE to tell the story about when you saw the Grizz at 40 yards, how you didn't dirty your drawers, how you had the presence of mind to take a picture and how you shooed it away. Harsh language? What?

Did you use an outfitter? Can you share which one?

You Aussies are freeking crazy. My hat's off to you.

Congrats on the excellent bull and i too want to hear the grizz story

Everyone likes a good grizz story i guess. We saw about 7 bears during the hunt, most of them were hanging around gut piles from deer others had taken. One evening we were riding back from hunting a distant valley and met a bear on the mule trail, it wouldn't budge so we had to back track and ride around it. The 40 yard encounter happened as we hunted our way around a long ridge and the horses saw it before us coming out of a thicket. They started acting up a bit, I don't think they like bears too much. My friend broke off a dry branch and tossed it at the bear which ran back the way it had come. I carry a camera on my belt so was able to take a few pics before it went. They seem to be fairly tame in that area but I'm no bear expert by any means.

I was hunting with an Aussie friend of mine who has access to horses over there.

question australia
what did you, do buy a cape?
in the heading out pic your bull is skull capped with the hair on,and i just saw your trophy room photo of the bull mounted in,i
suppose your home(beautiful mount by the way)
great story on your hunt also,talk about a pursuit,made for a hell of a day i'm sure.
you know you have done well and the gods of hunting were smiling on you when you hear some of the other montana boys moaning that they have lived there x yrs and never seen a bull that good.good on ya

Yes I had to buy a cape; actually 2 capes in the end. You see the bulls cape was ruined buy that mange they get which makes their hair fall out and eventually can kill them. In the first pic you can see the bald patches on its back.

In the taxidermist section of this forum I wrote about what happened next. Basically I called a local MT full time taxidermist who said he had a big tanned elk cape for sale. I brought it and also dropped off a big mule deer cape off a 170 BC buck to be tanned and then sent over here. Well 8 months later I still have not seen the muley cape and all the hair slipped around the face of his cape. The taxidermist wont answer my emails or phone messages. So I brought another tanned cape for another $300.

Australia,

A BIG CONGRATS to you and your mate!

It sounds like a FANTASTIC HUNT and the true trophy indeed!!!!!

Getting that ELK was just the icing on the cake!

Cheers!

It was a top hunt thats for sure but right at the end it nearly went all wrong. During our "final sprint" we rode down a ridge that had plenty of snow on it. I was behind my friend and saw his horse get tangled in some old fencing wire laying under the snow. Before he could slow down the wire pulled tight around his horses back legs and what happened next was like what happenes when a jet lands on an aircraft carrier ! The horse was laying on its back facing down the slope and we could not get any slack out of the wire pulling on the 20 ft or so that was showing out of the snow. I thought what a way to finish after all our efforts during the day. We tried again to release it, this time we dragged the horses head around enough to create just enough slack so I could un-loop the wire. As soon as it could feel itself being freed it started to kick out its legs in an effort to stand up. Not much fun when you were still working down there.

Luckily it was not barbed wire and after a quick inspection it seemed ok and off we went again.

Nice bull! Great photo of the bear. They are quite common these days. We had one bull last year that came out of Sunlight, entire body was mangey.

Thanks for sharing the story and photo's!

Australia, I hope you post the name of that guy that ripped you off. Word of such activity spreads like wildfire on this site. That sucks what he did and you should file a civil suit against him. At least post who he is and his contact info.
LDK

Good heavens!!! A monster bull no doubt, and on public land?!! Spent many years up in that country chasing those boys around and never had an opportunity at one such as that---Congrats to you and your buddy!

So, am I to believe you did this hunt self-guided with no locals, only two Aussies with borrowed horses? Incredible success and obviously fantastic hunting! Way to go

Makes me think I should just hop on a plane and fly down there and whack a monster buffalo

Congrats again and yes, please do tell us the name of the taxi that screwed you. We certainly don't need that kind of crap.

Regards,
Scott

We are blessed in MT with a lot of public land. If someone puts in the hard work and time and maybe just a little luck he can take home a trophy without the expense of a guide. Don't get me wrong guides increase the odds greatly an there are some great guides around but you don't absolutely need one. The best place to start a do it yourself hunt is to contact the MT fish and game they can send you a lot of info.