First day of the hunt

Editor’s note: This is the third part in a series of first-person stories by Daily Inter Lake outdoors reporter Scott Shindledecker which detail his 10-day hunt in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Traveling and resting were over, it was time to hunt!

Our guides asked us if we were excited and we all said we were. But our enthusiasm may have been dulled by the hour of the day or the fact that Bob was a young 74, Butch was a very young 72 and I was an old 51.

I still get excited for the chase, but the enthusiasm which existed in my youth has faded a bit. Many years of working nights afforded me the chance to spend more days in the woods than many.

A trip to Quebec in 2007 for walleye with very good friends was a real treat. Eating those fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner couldn’t be beat!

Tuesday, Oct. 15 was the first day of the hunt. I went with Mickey and we were into elk within an hour after riding partway up the mountain. He saw a small group of elk several hundred yards away through the burned timber. Some calls brought a brief chuckle from a bull.

But he wasn’t running in with those cows he had with him, so we backed up, tied up the horses, and moved away from the elk to establish a more advantageous spot for calling.

Rhett had joined us in the meantime and we had a good setup. Mickey was to my right and slightly behind me while Rhett was directly behind me. Some cow calling and bugling eventually brought two cows within 150 yards of where I sat, rifle rested across a big log.

Those cows came in and stood broadside long enough to get shot. But this hunt was bulls-only and they slowly left.

The temperature rose quickly and the elk were quiet.

We moved along the side of the mountain away from the elk, paying attention to a draw below us. Wildfire smoke made glassing distant ridges and draws very difficult, so we moved to a spot above where we hoped the elk still were.

We stayed there the rest of the day, but the elk never cooperated. It was in the 80s and they aren’t very active in the heat. But when you get that close to ‘em, you stick with ‘em!

Wednesday ended with no meat on the pole, but it turned out to be an action-packed day.

Tyler took me up a ridge on the other side of the drainage and his calling brought a bit of a bugle below us. We set up and he kept calling. The bull never answered again, but Tyler’s calls brought in a curious gray wolf. He asked in a whisper if I had a wolf tag and I did. I had to lean back to see around a tree halfway between us and the wolf.

The big canine intently looked in our direction. It’s white-gray coat seemed to glow in the gloomy woods. I leaned back and shot, but all I saw was it loping away.

Wow, what a sight! Seeing wolves isn’t a frequent occurrence and I hope it’s not the last time I see one.

Later we heard Butch had missed a 5x6 bull at about 20 yards. It was in the brush and he thinks his bullet may have deflected off a branch.

In the meantime, Tyler and I headed back to camp. I slept for a bit before we headed out for an evening hunt in a large meadow across the South Fork from camp.

Our discoveries included the skull of a small 2x2 buck, wolf tracks and a nice-looking 5x5 elk antler.

Next week: More heat, but meat on the pole!