Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 2023 in Montana

I got an itch to try the "Heritage Season" here in December. Of course I didn't have a traditional muzzleloader, nor did I have any idea how to use one. I've hunted in MN and KY with a modern inline, but they are a whole different ball game. I started with a pawn shop find, TC Hawken in beautiful shape for $150. I scrubbed the bore really well and started buying some of the needed gear. From here at the fire, I got the necessary advice to get moving on a load for it. Settled on 90 grains of fffg behind a 385 grain Great Plains bullet. I could get about a 3" group at 100 yards, which was good enough, considering that I had minimal time to mess with it. I had a lead on a herd of elk hanging in the general zone not far from here, so I called a couple of landowners and got permission to take a look. I didn't have time to hunt until the last weekend so my first morning was spent on a tall hill glassing a forested ridge to my south. After about 20 minutes of glassing, I spotted a group of 3 bulls working their way to the end of the 2 mile long ridge. They were out in the broken prairie and were probably a couple of miles away from me at this point. I checked OnX and could see that there was a trail that ran near their location, so I packed up and headed to my pickup for a quick jaunt in that direction. It probably took me 20-30 minutes to get to my pickup and drive over there. When I got there, I got lucky and saw some elk moving up a dry creek to the junipers and rocks at the head. This country is totally wide open below the junipers. No sage to speak of and it has been grazed. I decided to work my way down a side creek to the main creek that they were in and hopefully be able to close the distance in the 6-8' deep dry wash. When I reached the main creek I couldn't see any elk at all, so I crawled to the top of a little hill next to the creek and started glassing. After a few minutes glassing, I spotted the main herd bedded on a rocky knob at about 1000 yards, but didn't see any bulls. All of the ground between us was bare, with the exception of 8-10 small junipers. The creek bottom was wide open and faced the whole herd, so that was out of the question. I decided that my only option was to crawl through the area with intermittent junipers, moving extremely slow, and try to spot the bulls as I did so. So off I went! I started belly crawling at about 9am, moving a few feet at a time and glassing as I went. There was no hurry, as I was the only person that could be in there and the elk were mostly bedded and totally relaxed. When I got to about 600 yards, I spotted antlers sticking out of a small juniper and then a few more antlers. The little group of bulls had bedded on the other side of a draw, about 200 yards closer than the main herd. Now I was in business! I adjusted my angle on them a little and started my slow crawl again. It was a gorgeous day with maybe a 5mph wind and was around 50 degrees, an uncommon day in Montana in December. When I got within 100 yards, I started trying to figure out how I was going to make this work. The bigger of the 3 bulls was about 30-40 yards away from the other two and was bedded just below the lip of a slight hill. Only his antlers and back of his head were visible. I decided at 80 yards on the dot, that I was close enough. It was 12:15pm. I got into a sitting position, eared back the hammer, set the trigger and placed my sight right were I thought he would be if he stood up. A quiet little cow mew put the smaller bulls on their feet and they were staring holes through me. What felt like hours was maybe 5-10 minutes of this stand off. The larger of the two smaller bulls was a 6 point, but really spindly. It was temping to move shoot him as he stood there broadside though. They eventually decided that I was no danger and the 5 point bedded again. The 6 point decided to walk down into the creek. About that time, the largest bull stood up and stretched. I placed my sight behind his front leg and let that Hawken eat. The huge cloud of smoke obscured everything, but there was a resounding "thwack" and all hell broke loose. There were elk everywhere! All of the herds seen and unseen came busting out of every piece of cover around and joined into one big herd, before streaming over the hill and into the trees. I was glassing and didn't see any bulls that resembled the one I shot and then, just over the rise in front of me, I herd him groaning. By the time I got to him, he was laying there dead. What a day! One of my favorite hunts, to be sure.




After this hunt, the remainder of the winter has been spent running my trapline. I have had a good year and have picked up a bunch of cats, coyotes, and a few coons and red fox. Big fur sale in Livingston tomorrow - we'll see how I do! Here are some highlights of the trapline.