Up here in Canuckistan us hunters seem to be a dying breed. The government sure doesn't want us to have guns .... hunters are few and far between in many places - where I work there are only 2 in about 40!!! Doesn't seem to be the case in Montana where I try to hunt every year for some kind of varmint....It is autumn. People go hunting. Won't be around Thursday 'cause they are hunting elk/ducks/antelope whatever. Radio station in Great Falls devotes programs to hunting and fishing... I love it!!! Americans (customs) at the border are hunters it appears to me, also... This year I was down by a prairie lake called ... Lake Francis. And when I say 'down' - I mean down! My 4x4 Silverado had a flat tire and the very expensive truck has a mechanism (it has been recalled) to lower the spare tire from its hiding place under the truck box. Wouldn't work and that was that!!! I tried everything and that included profanity!!! Even talked to GM of the U.S. The lady said that I was doing everything right and since it wasn't working she would send me a tow truck. Not having time for a tow truck to drive from Detroit to Northern Montana (I told her to complete silence on her end of the phone), I decided to walk to a farmhouse off in the distance .. Figured I could get a ride with my flat to a town to get it repaired.. Half way into the stroll I looked behind me and noticed a white SUV had arrived at my truck from another direction. So I turned around and started walking back. I was eventually picked up by a young lady and her hubby who had just come back from elk hunting and they drove me to the Silverado. Arriving back I met a young woman busily trying to lower my spare tire. She was wearing a blaze orange vest and turned out that she had been hunting all day. There was a mulie buck that she had been trying to get and so far it had eluded her. She did have company. Her four month old baby girl was with her... She had left her hubby who doesn't hunt much and her 7 & 9 year old at home. If she got the buck she said that she would phone her hubby to come clean it for her... But meanwhile she was hunting - after first helping us out!!! All personality .... it was love at first sight. I was going to suggest to my wife that we adopt the young lady. I can always use a hunting partner like that!!! I rarely can say this - but I am glad that I got that flat .... got a chance to meet a special person ... Epilogue: Farmer eventually came along with power wrenches - took off the flat ... we went to his farm and he repaired it too!!! He had been hunting too ....

Neat story Richard!
Did you get anything other than a wonderful time?
When I was in Montana Elk hunting several years ago, the guide and I went to town for breakfast the morning we were heading out. He parked the truck and got out leaving the keys in the ignition!
Now you just DON'T do that where I live!!!!
Just amazing!

Used to be that way here, not anymore sadly. Great story Richard. - Dan

There are a lot of keys in Montana that have only infrequently been out of the truck, and some very independent women. They don't export many of the women; they keep the good ones.

Montana's the best.

Actually trying to bag a tundra swan.... I found the water to be extremely hard, though. With Free Trade - we sent some cold air down earlier in the week... Will try again on Sunday/Monday. First off must chase a few Alberta whitetails ....

I am currently dating a woman from Georgia who used to work summers on a Montana Ranch and currently works part-time on a place here in AZ.
She just got back from hunting with her brothers in Texas.
Man, women like this are few and far betwen!!!

Regards,

JohnTheGreek

I appeciate this place more and more as I visit other places. The Califonians and Floridans can have their beaches and sun (and over population, crowds, traffic, crime, smog, pollution...). I'll take my mountains and fresh air. Montana is the place for me. Only other place I would even consider living is Alaska.

Yep, Montana is the last best place.

PS. Actually, it sucks here so you really don't want to move here

FarRight, my favorite t-shirt says Montana is the last best place! Hope to get out there next fall and chase some Mulies with my son.

Having a wife that hunts is NOT allway a good thing. Why do I say that? Because I have to work tommorrow and my (hunting) wife is taking off elk hunting without me. The gall of that lady! Leaving me at home to work while she chases the elk. It's just not fair or right for her to do that! Hummmmm I am going to go figure out how to call in sick to work tommorrow so I can go to.

I'd like Montana a whole lot better if I'd drawn my tags this year!

It is one of the few states in the Lesser, oop, Lower 48 I even visit.

Thank you for the story Richard.

You actually reminded me of the many, many (many) times my buddies and I would head down to Whitefish MT on a Friday night in search of Montana Ski Bunnies. And, also the times Montana girls would come up here looking for a good "Valley Boy". Ahh, good times.

Thanks again,

Canuck

WHY I LOVE MONTANA
by Russell E. Taylor

I was prairie dogging around Malta, Montana, in 1995. It was something of an organized event, with a few gun writers and other "gun" celebrities on hand, among the rest of us "little people."

Anyway... on Day One, we rallied outside of town at this place near an Indian Reservation, to make sure everyone knew where they were going and with whom, and what time to be back... et cetera. There were a LOT of guys (and a few women) at this place, kind of a rest stop area, with their rifles out, a few long-range pistols, too... cleaning them, passing them around for others to look at, so on and so forth. Guns, guns, guns. Guns EVERYWHERE! One of the local county sheriffs was tooling by, and pulled in to chat with us.

Now, you have to understand. I was born and raised in Illinois.

If this "scene" had been in Illinois, at a rest stop, I can guar-an-tee you there would have been a MASS deployment of every SWAT team, and every city/county/state law enforcement officer in the area. We would have been surrounded and ordered to "surrender" or be terminated with extreme prejudice.

Not in Montana, though. Hell, the cop was talking to us like... well, gosh... "human beings." Amazing.

Further... at a GAS STATION (!!!), one night, one of the shooters was out by one of the pumps, talking to another shooter about a scratch in the barrel of his Christianson Arms rifle. "NO ONE" raised an eyebrow or batted an eye. People came, pumped gas, paid for it, and left... calmly. Here was this "guy with a rifle" in plain view of God and everyone... and we were not beset upon be the BATF Ninja Turtles nor by anyone else. It was just a couple of guys talking about guns, and examining one. Amazing.

Besides being "Big Sky Country," and lots of other things I love about Montana... I sure like how people think and act out there. Beats the shit out of Illinois, where guns and hunting are concerned.

Yup, I love Montana.

(I'm glad you got your tire fixed, too.)

Russ

[ 11-07-2002, 04:25: Message edited by: Russell E. Taylor ]

Hmmm....Canuck. I remeber (barely) visiting Whitefish.

Whitefish sure is a FUN town!

[ 11-07-2002, 09:48: Message edited by: Gatehouse ]

Back when the drinking age was half normal in the States we used to fly across the border to Plentywood for some gambling and beer in CANS !
Or sit in the lounge in Westby for the afternoon sometimes through customs sometimes not. . .

Guys,

As a lifer of MT, I appreciate your comments. This is a special place. A lot of residents still have a thread of common sense. Please email me if you will be in the Flathead Valley. I'll buy you a $1.10 beer at Moose's and watch you blow the horn and win us a free pitcher.

Ski+3

Yep born and raised Montana country boy I am and proud of it. I was born in Missoula, raised till age 13 in a little trailer town called Paradise about 6 miles East of Plains on Hw200 and then moved to Troy where I have resided ever sense...when I am not at MSU-Bozeman attending college that is. I can't see myself hurrying off to anywhere else soon.
I seriously recommend that you people check out Glacier National Park if at all possible. Though we have lived within a couple hours drive of it our whole lives, I visited it for the first time this fall and it is simply amazing.
And yes it is nice to still have a little common sense here. Not unusual for you to see several guys with 44s on their hips in the Town Pump on their way to the hills Opening Day. My brother and I routinely shoot around our area and sometimes are forced to walk home near the Hw...only weird looks we ever get even when we are both packing multiple weapons is from the outta staters just passing through. It is nice to live in a place where a fair amount of trucks still have gun racks in their windows.

I love MT, I really do

[ 11-07-2002, 20:47: Message edited by: FarRight ]

Mmmmm......Moose Drool.....throw your peanut shells on the floor....dark with just the right amount of dank....love that place -- spent many an afternoon there while the girlfriend shops (after I checked out everything in Sportsmans Ski-haus, of course).

My uncle makes the same kind of horn and sells them at farmers markets etc, so I have had one since I was a kid. Love to watch people blow it still. The sounds are impressive!

Canuck

[ 11-07-2002, 20:51: Message edited by: Canuck ]

Got a permit to hunt antelope in the mid 80's in Wyoming. Had a great time driving 1000 miles down there mostly in the dark, dodging deer through Montana. Met the best people in gas stations, resturants etc. You people should be proud and your parents should be too! There are still civil people in this country and they live in Montana and Wyoming. You made an outsider feel very welcome. Thank you!

Had a great hunt but had a better time with great people.

Please do not import any outsiders for more than 2 weeks.

Oh man, I was just in Montana 'lope hunting and had "Moose Drool" for the first time, just delicious!

Ditto on the pretty woman. I killed my 'lopes and told me buddies to stick their tent camp in the ear while I went in to a Best Western for the 2nd half of the hunt.

I hung out at a Gas Station watching them ole ranch girls. Unfortunately Im to old and Ugly to have gotten lucky with any of them. Maybe I'll do better next time if I visit right after the thaw....................