Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Montana Youth Hunt 2023 - Backpacking Trip

Every year I try to take my kids that are eligible out for Montana’s two-day “Youth Hunt”. The hunt gives 10-15 year olds a chance to hunt deer before the general season opener. This year I had two kids interested in the hunt, my two youngest. Addie, my 10 year old, and Trevin, my 12 year old. I try to see what they want to do when planning the hunt. When I asked Addie, she quickly suggested a backpack hunt. I had just the spot in an area where I have done a fair amount of elk hunting. We could hunt deer for two days and then look for deer and elk once the general season opened…

Day One- Pack in And Scouting
There are a lot of great ways to start a multi-day backpack hunt. “Hey dad, I forgot my heavy coat” blurted from your 12-year-olds mouth while making last minute preparations at the trailhead is not one of them. We were much too far from home and my buddy, Travis, that was helping us pack in to set up camp- was on a tight schedule.

Luckily the forecast was mild, I had packed enough layers for myself that I could spare one, and we had a stove for our tent so, even if someone got chilled, we could warm them up.



The hike in was not far, about 3 miles, but there is some significant elevation gain so it took a while.



On the pack in we ran across a very unlucky grouse that failed to realize, with malice aforethought, I had packed my Ruger Single-six along especially for this very occasion.





Mountain grouse are living proof that God lives and he loves hunters. As game birds go, they are second to none for table fair and often just about two points higher than modeling clay in the IQ department. I do believe I could eat grouse daily without complaint.

Travis had recently bought a nice tepee with a packable stove. At ten pounds all-up for the tent and stove it is an amazing setup. I have owned vehicles that cost less but it seems to be worth the money. It didn’t take long for the kids to find their burrows after a brief lesson on the finer points of building a pine bow mattress.




Addie helped process the grouse and we stockpiled a little firewood.




With camp set, Travis headed home to take care of some things as he was in the middle of moving houses. We headed uphill to hopefully locate a buck to hunt the next day. The target glassing knob was a prominent point that would give us a panoramic view of multiple drainages. In a straight line it is less than a mile away. The distance was no problem. The 1000’ gain in elevation sucked a little (lot) bit. I was grateful that I could pretend I was taking breaks for the kid’s benefit. In actuality I was feeling every poor dietary choice I had made in the past 40 something years.

We bumped a couple does and their fawns on the way up and had a close encounter with a juvenile moose at 18 yards that gave the ol’ sphincter muscle a test drive – still working!

We were walking the edge of the timber along a grassy, south facing slope. I just happened to look to my left and saw dark ears pointing up and staring at me from eye level. It took a minute to process that they were not attached to Ursus Horribilus and all was well.



Yes, there is a moose calf in those shadows. I promise.

With a little coaxing, the intrepid explorers in my consign made it to the top and we were blessed with a spectacular view. Unless you count Broadview, Montana doesn’t have a lot of ugly places. Being able to see a bunch of non-ugly ones from 360 degrees made the hike worth it to me- the kids…not so much.




The glassing was slow and I quickly realized that this would be a little too big of a hunt if I expected them to hike up here again. With them, mutiny is always an option.



Plan B was put in effect and the decision was made to hunt a lower ridge system closer to camp where I had seen deer and we had killed elk in the past.

We, which in this scenario means “I”, glassed our way back to camp without turning up a single critter. I quickly realized this was a fully guided hunt and my clients would not be of much assistance in the glassing department. Fine by me. I won’t fire them as clients.

Teepee…sweet teepee.



And grouse to add some protein to the Ramen.



Full bellies and glowing stove helped some kids, now back to giggling, end a tough hike and a long day on a high note….



To be continued...

Day Two - Success!
There are a lot of great ways to start day 2 of a hunt, especially since day 2 was the opener. “Hey Dad, deer! Right there!” is a pretty tough one to beat.

We weren’t more than a quarter mile from camp. We had been on a logging road at first light, hoping to glass the south facing slopes in front of us and still-hunt between glassing points on the north slope we were crossing.

We were between our second and third glassing point when Trevin spotted the deer. It was a buck, plenty big enough for Addie and standing broadside within fifty yards of the road uphill. I had walked right past it but Trevin noticed. “Addie, it’s a buck. You can shoot it” Trevin has a fair amount of game under his belt for a 12 year old but hearing him sincerely want his younger sister to have the first deer of the trip makes a Dad happy.

We got the bog deployed and Addie setup as quick as possible.



He only gave her a basketball sized window through the deadfall but she made the most of it.

At the shot, the buck ran hard to the west and I heard some timber crashing…and then some more…then silence! While waiting to move to where I expected him to be, we saw another flash of white further above Addie’s buck and then some does down below us near the creek. We had certainly found the deer zone- light to heavy timber about ¾ of the way up the mountain.

We didn’t have to walk far down the road and we could see grey hair and antler just above the road.





Addie’s shot had been true and an 85 TSX from her little .243 had made meat once again just like it had for her older siblings. The buck was better than I thought. Good mass and Trevin counted six points on one side and five on the other (thanks to eye guards and a little cheater at the base of one antler) which got them excited.



We took our time and completely boned everything before stashing it in a tree on the shady side of the hill. Addie isn’t afraid to jump right in and wanted to do some of the butchering.

We left the carcass for predator bait and took off for a high point for the evening glassing session.

We found another buck along the way, a heavy 3-point but he never gave us a shot. He wasn’t overly concerned and I had some confidence we might get another chance at him in the next couple days.

A break for lunch and nap was called for. Bellies full of last years deer delivered via homemade snack sticks, a notched deer tag, a fine buck boned out and hanging in the shade…I am sure the Sun on my face while I napped has felt as good, but it has most certainly never felt better. It must have been pretty good because the sound of my own snoring woke me up…

We were going to climb a prominent knob but about ¼ of the way up I smelled elk. Not heavy, just a whiff…but enough to make the decision for us to backtrack to camp and hunt the north faces Addie’s buck has been on from across the drainage.

The sun was warming things up pretty good and I began to be concerned about the meat. Since we would be hunting back toward the trailhead in the evening we loaded it up and took it about a mile closer to the truck and, more importantly, down a significant elevation drop that would save us some work the next day should we need to make more then one meat run.



We had stashed the meet in a shady area and were working back up to the level we were camped on when Trevin spotted another deer. There was two small bucks just leaving some regen not 200 yards across the drainage and barely over 100 yards from where we had just stashed their older cousin.



They were unaware of us and it was an easy shot for Trevin but he passed. I don’t like to tell them what to shoot -- their tag, their choice. Trevin already had killed a couple deer bigger than these and I knew he wouldn’t be happy with them. Life would have been pretty easy if he had. Two quick meat runs on a mostly level trail and we would have both the deer out in a few hours the next morning.

I am glad he passed. Easy doesn’t make for great memories. Trevin had passed up easy a couple weeks prior and ended up with a fine antelope to show for it. I wrote about that here...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...023-montana-antelope-opener#Post18838028

We glassed and still-hunted back to camp. We turned up another little buck and a small group of does, likely the group we saw near Addie’s buck in the morning.

We got to camp at dark and pulled the food back down.



Dinner was a hearty affair with fresh tenderloins on the menu. I had forgot my garlic salt, pepper and oil that I prefer but being somewhat of a wilderness gourmet (*sarcasm*) I used the next best thing…a beef flavor packet from some Ramen. Mixed with a freeze dried beef marinara meal it was pretty darn tasty.



The wind howled so I didn’t want to light the stove. It didn’t cool off much and I started to get nervous about the meat…

Day 3 - Meat Run

There are a lot of great ways to start day 3 of a hunt. Having a nagging feeling that you should get your meat off the mountain is not one of them. We repeated our hunt in reverse from last night and found the same group of does and the solitary 2-point but never found the pair and never turned up another.





We had a team meeting and they voted for a meat run to our house to put the deer in our cooler. With the meat down at lower elevation it was a pretty simple packout although the mules were tired when we got to the trailhead




Their only request was we stop somewhere along the way for gas station pizza. There are no such gas stations between the trailhead and our house so they settled for calling in an order to Mom’s kitchen for a frozen pizza.

Travis would be coming to camp in the evening or the next day so Addie decided to stay home and leave her camping stuff for Travis. She had worked her tail off, shot straight, brought a lot of fun to the camp and even packed part of her deer home. If pride is a sin I may go to hell for how I feel about that little 10 year old.

Trevin and I made it back to the trailhead and were resting in camp within an hour and a half…about 30 minutes before we needed to get serious for the evening hunt.

Thinking we might have an uphill shot we played with the bog to get the right height. It didn’t take long before we saw a deer butt and got to practice our tripod deployment strategy.



There is an African PH somewhere smiling knowing that Americans are working on their techniques. I like the system but not quite ready to trade my Kennetrek’s and long johns for Courtney’s and khaki shorts.

It was just a small two point we had already glassed up a couple times. He was still safe and we pressed on to where we had bumped the heavy 3-point yesterday. Rather than approach from the road we went high, hoping to get above him and see him before he saw us. It worked…well except for the seeing him first part. He got up from his regen/deadfall bedding area and stotted off without so much as a look back.

We ran to a saddle I thought he might cross and waited a while but no luck.

We still-hunted back to camp and again found two small bucks that could have been taken easily from the sticks but Trev held fire.



Too bad, they could have been rolled to within 100 yards of camp

Travis couldn’t make it in so it was Trevin, some dehydrated meals, a little pre-downloaded Meateater on Netflix and dreams of big dear and brow-tined bulls as the general season opens tomorrow!

Day 4 - Restraint

Our general season strategy was much different than the deer hunt. We wanted to get on a high knob and let the hordes push elk around till we figured what was going on. Travis made it to camp early and we hit our favorite glassing knob right at daylight.



It didn't take long to find a few deer, a few other hunters and eventually a small herd of elk feeding uphill close to 1000 yards away. We could make out about 5 or 6 critters with at least one brow tined bull in the herd. Hoping they would keep moving uphill and bed in an area we were familiar with we were focused on them pretty intently.

"Boom" a shot rang out and the heard bunched up. "Boom" a second shot cracked and the whole mob, now at least fifteen strong took of post haste in the wrong direction.

Damn.

We kept glassing and kept listening to periodic shots throughout the morning. Trevin counted close to 15 before I happened to look 3 miles to the north and spotted a herd, about 50 strong, moving through some meadows on some private land. They were spread out and moving uphill into some regen timber. We studied our maps and it didn't take us long to figure out that most of the herd was preparing to bed in a thick ravine on public ground. Better yet, we could get to within a mile of them from out vehicles if we packed out and headed that way. We watched till they all moved into the timber and out of site and headed back to break camp.



To get to camp we had to pass Addie's deer carcass. When we got close there was a pretty red fox getting some breakfast. Predator hunting was probably my first love and I am a fur guy at heart. Knowing what the 140 accubond would do to the pelt had me hesitant to give the green light even though I could tell Trevin wanted him badly. I relented and told him if he could wait for a full broadside and stay off the shoulders he could take it.



It did and he did. He was a pretty happy predator hunter.



The damage was significant but was contained closer to the belly. I have a fair amount of experience with needle and thread and sewn properly will make a great wallhanger after tanning.  



We broke camp quickly and beat feet out of the hills.




We made it to where we believed the elk would be drifting back through for the evening and began a couple hour wait till the "Magic Hour". Young hunters whittle, fidget and castigate their fathers for forgetting snacks in the truck.



Old elk hunters nap while their buddies keep glassing



Before long we had an elk come over a ridge about 425 yards away but on the private side. It was a lone cow and seemed to be simply shifting beds. We waited some more and eventually chose different spots to watch to up our odds. The regen timber we could see elk in from 3 miles away was very difficult to see into from 200 yards away due to the lack of elevation advantage. We had enough small openings that we figured at least one of the fifty would make a mistake. Trevin could shoot cows or brow-tined bulls. Travis and I were limited to brow-tined bulls. Muleys and whitetails were both fair game. The only thing safe on the mountain was spike elk.

I eventually spotted a pretty little 4x4 whitetail about 350 yards away on the private side. Within a few minutes his travelling partner appeared and drifted onto the public side. He was a little heavier horned 4x4 but right up against the timber. It was getting dark and Trevin had never shot past 300. He told me he really wanted to shoot those bucks but I told him to hold fire. There were still elk around but mostly I didn't want a rodeo in the dark looking for a deer in steep and unfamiliar country. He understood but still wanted to take the buck.

I stepped to the side to see if I could find a better angle to glass for game. I hadn't left Trevin's side for more than a minute or two when I hear, "Dad! Elk! Right there!!!". Sure enough, 189 yards away and staring straight at us was a big-bodied elk with the darkest mane I had ever seen contrasting against his buckskin body. I threw up my binos and was heart broke when I saw he was a spike. Well, kind of a spike...hang on...he has brow tines!

He was staring straight at us so there was no way to judge the length. Montana requires a 4" tine on at least one side to be legal. He finally turned and I could see his tines and I could not for the life of me get comfortable that they were over 4". Trevin was rock solid on a rest and he had been shooting well last season and this season both. Inside 200 yards I was 100% positive that if I gave the green light he would put a 140 Accubond in the bull's chest. Unfortunately, I was only 92% sure they were about 4". If we pulled up on a dead elk with 3.5" brow tines I would have failed my son. I did not want my 12 years old's first elk to need a call to MT FWP and a trip to turn ourselves in to the nearest game warden. Could we have got away with it if it came up short? Absolutely. Did I want Trevin to have an asterisk by his first bull. Absolutely not.



The bull is visible in the picture above, but you have to kinda know what you are looking at.

We let him walk.

The fact that I had let a "probably" legal elk walk on heavily hunted public land (Trevin counted well over 20 shots total by the end of the day), within 1/2 mile of our pickup (all downhill), in some of the most pleasant weather conditions you could ever ask to take a skinny 12 year old out in- was weighing heavy on me. I was consoled knowing we still had a few minutes of light and there were more elk around. If he passed through the opening, maybe something else would also.

They did not.

We had a debrief with Travis after dark. He had actually seen the same bull before we did but at 70 yards. He was also unsure if it would make 4" but at 70 yards thought it probably would. He had also held fire, not sure on the tine length and not wanting to risk Trevin's chances at an elk. The fact that he was also unsure made me feel we made the right call.

The short hike out brought the hunt to a bittersweet end. I would have loved to have had Trevin kill his first bull but am grateful he got to learn about making tough, but ethical, calls. Our season is long and there will be other chances to fill deer tags and possibly elk tags. Either way, we made some great memories and can't wait to do it again.





Thanks for riding along with us...

Perfect Sunday night reading. Congrats to your daughter and your son. Can’t be a better place for good memories or learn life’s lessons.

👍🏻👍🏻

This is one of the best posts that I have read in a while. Well written, bad ass kids, and a brother who wanted his little sister to kill a deer without hesitation. I was very impressed with that portion of the story. And it turned out to be a much better buck then I expected. Great job as a dad and a mentor to your kids. I have a 10 year old son, and I am trying to raise him like you have done with your kids.

So. Freaking. Awesome.

Always a must-read, and, thanks for sharing.

Way cool👍

Great hunt, thanks for sharing!

I've read some great stories on the fire, but this one is the best ever. Good on Addie!!

You are a blessed man with a blessed family!! Thank you for sharing!

Love it. Was looking forward to your youth posts, best reads on the forum in my opinion. You guys rock

What a great experience and story for everyone involved. Good on you dad!

Outstanding!!!

Great kids, great hunt , great story, and a great dad. Awesome!

As always, great reading.

Thank you for taking the time, to make your kids great hunters, too !!

Outstanding, all round !