Extreme Cold, Hot Elk Hunts In Montana
It was early November when the bottom fell out of the thermometer here in Montana, temps dropped to as much as -23° below zero! This is Montana, and cold weather hunts should be expected. But this day was exceptionally cold, we walked out the door and were greeted with a bone chilling -23 degrees below zero to be exact. One of the hunters was from Florida, and truly out of his element, almost 100 degrees below what he is used to back in Florida. The sudden and drastic drop in temperature & snow starting to accumulate on the ground, forced the elk down. And when they came, they came in big numbers!. This was going to be one elk hunt these hunters would never forget, regardless of the outcome.
The two elk hunters and I got out right at day break to see if we could find the elk and put on a stalk. Despite the sub zero temps, we were prepared to stick it out all day if we had to. Shortly after day break we spotted a herd of about 100 elk that had several nice bulls in it. We circled around the herd but the open terrain limited our options so we decided to back out and try circling around from another direction. We headed back to the truck and drove around to the other side of the herd several miles away. We got out and started our hike to see if we could get in front of the herd we spotted earlier, several miles away.
While stalking this herd we saw a different herd of elk off in the distance about a mile away. Montana has a lot of elk, and the private lands we have for elk hunting have been filling up with elk during the hunting season(s). The cold weather was certainly helping matters today. With the rolling terrain we could only see about 40 elk in this particular herd (all cows), but who knows how many or what could be bedded on the other side of the hill in the valley. Now we had to make a decision whether to go after the first herd that we knew had some bulls in it, wondering if they would even still be there when we got over to them...Or, go after this herd and wait them out to see what else was in the herd we couldn't see just over the next rise.
Going off of previous experience guiding elk hunts on this property, I figured there had to be some bulls in this herd and the wind was good to get in close. So we decided to start our stalk on the closer herd. We tried several small draws to get in closer but every route we took, the smaller group of elk were still in view because some were bedded on top of a hill. Our only option was we had to belly crawl in the snow for about 80 yards across this gap in plain view and hope not to spook them. Even though they were still over a half mile away, elk have incredible eye sight and usually don't miss much in these open prairies.
We made it across the gap and continued to make up ground. We dropped down in this small draw and worked straight at them in the only bit of sparse cover we had. We reached a couple trees and a irrigation ditch and were now within 500 yards of the cows bedded on the hill. It was amazing we even got this close without spooking any in how we had to approach this herd and still keep the wind in our favor. It was now around noon and we just needed to wait it out here until the elk on top of the hill decided to get up and move. As much as I wanted to take a drink of my water, it was frozen solid with the high for the day being -4°.
We waited there for about 3 hours in the brutal cold until the cows on the hill started moving to the other side. We then dropped down in the irrigation ditch & crawled about 100 yards to a point where we were pinned down again as a small bull was still visible bedded up on the hill. We sat there for awhile and decided to backtrack through the ditch where we were waiting earlier and back into the small draw to get lower and then move straight in on the hill. We get to the top of the hill and there were some cows within 50 yards and I saw a few bulls out in the valley about 400 yards. They were moving to our left, so we dropped down the back side of the hill and as quickly as we could, moved out along the hillside about another 300 yards. We got to where we wanted to be but before we got to the top of the hill, 2 cows started feeding their way over the hill just off to our right at about 50 yards. The 3 of us now caught in the wide open are now in jeopardy of possibly spooking the whole herd after all day of trying to get into position.
Minutes seemed like hours laying in the freezing temperatures trying to remain unseen in a vastly wide open, and now white landscape. Every time the elk put their heads down to feed we belly crawled and inched our way closer to the top of the hill, which was about 40 yards away. As a few more cows and a small bull worked their way feeding over the hill into view, we could hear the main herd just on the other side of the hill but working towards our left. Another 10 yards and I should be able to see what's on the other side. As I started to inch my way towards the top and peering through the sparse prairie grass, I came to a halt as I could now see some cows glaring right at me through the grass at only 20 yards! We had a stare down for what seemed like an eternity. Laying there on my stomach for quite some time before being able to move again, I slowly started to inch my way back to the hunters right behind me. But not before I had to "Pry" myself from the frozen snow and ground that I had melted from my body heat laying there for so long and had frozen fast again in the sub zero temps!
Now we where literally covered up in elk within view, elk where feeding off to our right about 80 yards and some within 25 yards right in front of us. We had to be careful not to spook the elk we could see before knowing what all was in the main herd and risking not getting a shot at all. With shooting hours dwindling down we had to make a move soon. We decided to belly crawl to our left about 20 yards more and crest the hill to see if we could find 2 bulls to shoot, even though we were in view of the ones feeding off to our right. We made it to where we needed to be as I crested the hill and was amazed at what I saw...about 350 elk feeding at about 150 yards away! I quickly told my 2 hunters to get up and into position to shoot. This was about to become a elk hunting trip in Montana they would never forget!
The first hunter got up on the shooting sticks and dropped a nice 6x6 bull as the rest of the elk took off and herded up over 300 yards away. The second hunter dropped his bull elk with one shot that put an exclamation point on a hunt they will remember for a lifetime! It was the coldest day of the hunting season and one of the most exciting and intense elk hunting stalks of the season as well. The stalk start to finish took the entire day under some extreme conditions, we didn't even know what or how many elk we were getting ourselves into. Persistence paid off as the 2 hunters that traveled to Montana were rewarded with a elk hunt we'll never forget!
By: Steve Miller (Guide/Montana Whitetails)
