Will hunt for food

Shit talking begins at 6 am on Blaire Ridge, as war on elk is declared.

I went home to Montana for a few weeks of hunting on an early-season cow elk tag.  Naturally, I saw nothing but bulls. This is Murphy-esque because while bulls are more difficult to get shots on, I was only allowed to shoot a cow. Many hunters would have shat their pants not being able to shoot those bulls, but I didn’t care.

Bull-happy hunters, for reasons distantly related to to their balls, would prefer to shoot a majestic bull with an impressive rack, but I’d take a bald-headed cow any day. While I won’t venture any comparisons in the flavor department – that goes animal by animal – cow elk meat is juicy, like beef, but still lean like elk. Cow elk meat is tender, while bull meat works your jaw muscles.

Thus, my current claim that I’d pass on an opportunity to shoot a bull, ’cause I’m holding out for a cow. Since I couldn’t have legally shot the bulls I recently saw, it remains to be seen if I’ll make good on my “no bull” claim if, during general season in November, a legal bull presents itself. No, I’m not going to melt at the sight of glorious antlers, or the prospect of impressing my friends, if I have a shot on a bull.  But elk are hard to find, and I’d be a fool to pass up any legal opportunity on an elk. So more than likely, if it’s brown, it’s down.

Putting in my time to make sure that if it's brown, it's down.

Of course, if I do have the balls to hold off on a bull and then shoot my cow, in my book that would make me the man.

But the man of the hour right now is… no, not the new Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, but Missoula’s “AK,” a member of my hunting party who shot the elusive “cow/calf combo” (CCC).  It turns out these early season permits we were hunting on actually allow you to shoot two antlerless elk. AK was in the right place when a herd came his way. Two shots later, he had a lot of meat, and work, on his hands. But hey, he had Ari and Matty, who not only brought him to our hunting stash, but helped him carve up his CCC, haul it back to camp, and sweet talk some horse packers to pack his CCC ALL THE WAY BACK to the car. Uh, don’t guides charge lots of money for this shit? Squirrelly Shirley, also in our hunting party, got a yummy cow too, and also got the Matty and Ari guide service treatment.

A few days after Shirley and AK’s big day, I happened by the remains of his CCC, and saw a big black bear feeding on it, so I shot this video.

Hear all those ravens in the background?

*note: this raven photo was not from my recent hunting trip

So while my first hunting trip didn’t yield me any meat, it was nonetheless action-packed, and a splendid time to be in the mountains.

smoke from forest fires in the Bitterroot Valley

Blaire Ridge in the foreground

A few days later the temp dropped and the snow started flying. The temp hovered around 25-30, which means it didn’t rain but the snow on bushes and on the ground would melt when it got on you. The wind, the meanest of all nature spirits, blew hard at times, and it was a struggle to stay warm and dry. If you stopped moving, you pretty much had to start a fire. But it made for good hunting, and was beautiful.

Grey Wolf before the snow....

...After

Spending that time in the mountains recharged me in ways that filling my belly doesn’t, and while I didn’t get any meat I got nourished in other ways. Anyway, I’ve still got meat in the freezer from last year.

Hunting is about more than getting meat. It’s about earning the right to eat meat with your frozen feet and sore shoulders.  Mission accomplished. Then I rounded out my visit in the valley licking my wounds and doing some higher-percentage freezer gathering, like freezing leeks and drying peaches. Those dried peaches will taste good on my next hunt.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.