Montana Woods N Water November 2016 Print Edition | Seite 4

HUNTING

A Good Ole Day By Mike Maxwell
Mannie Troyer of Plains Mt finally drew a coveted rifle/bull tag for the 700
unit. At age 63 he viewed this as probably a once in his lifetime hunt for a
big bull elk. His goal was to shoot at least a 300 inch bull. Lord willing,
much bigger than 300. Mannie asked me if I would accompany him on his
hunt and I jumped at the opportunity. As it turned out, Caleb Wengerd
had the week off and loves to hunt anything so he agreed to go along also.
After two days of scouting and talking to people, we had our opening
morning spot picked out. Man did we see elk on opening day! The elk were
everywhere. No shooter bulls until just minutes before dark. About a mile
and a half away, Mannie spotted two cows and a good bull. We only saw
him long enough to see he was definitely worth a look the next day if we
could find him. With the hunting pressure, we decided to start in the same
spot the next morning hoping the bull would move our way.
The next morning started with action as soon as we could see; elk chirping
and bugling all around us. Mannie and Caleb went one way and I went the
other. I peeked over the edge of the hill and to my surprise, there was the
big bull! He was still about 900 yards away. I ran back to Mannie and Caleb
and urgently waved them over telling them what was over the hill. We
agreed on a plan and the stalk was on.
When we reached the end of the ridge we wanted to shoot from, the elk
had started moving across the valley. Cows and smaller bulls were filing
across in front of us in the trees. We couldn't see or shoot until they came
out at about 375 yards. We were frantically looking for the big bull before
he got out of range. At last he came out in the rear. Mannie took one look
at him and that was it, he had found his bull! Mannie connected with Mr.
Bull twice as the herd filed out of range. Continued on page 5.
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