Any Success?????

I know a few folks have tagged out but I didn't, had an archery tag. I'm headed out here in a couple of minute for a last ditch effort with a friend. We found some elk late Tuesday night but it was just a little too dark to get a shot and we couldn't make it out last night so hopefully there are still in the same general area.

Well we had 6 tags to fill on the any bull hunt up on cedar mountain. Filled 1 with a nice 6 by 6 and almost another with a decent 6 by 6 but missed. Had a few running away in thick timber and had a close encounter with 4 cows and a calf so guess it wasn't a total loss. 1 out of 6 on an any bull unit will work.

I came home with 2 unfilled tags unfortunately :( Had an elk (not sure if it was a bull or cow) come crashing down the trail right at me just as it was getting light and stopped 30 feet away just behind some light shrub/bushes so all I could see was a basic outline and the color of the hide, looked through the scope trying to figure out how it was positioned so I could get a shot off but before I could make it out it slowly snuck back up the hill. Then the last day I was hiking up this ridge that had lots of fresh sign and once I got towards the top I suddenly got a strong smell of elk odor so I figured someone got one close by since that's where I heard a few shots earlier. So I started walking around looking for a gut pile or any sign of where they shot it. There was a light breeze coming down and every time a breeze would come the smell got stronger so I walked 10 feet off the game trail to a little flat open spot and stood on a pile of dead logs and started looking around still looking for a dead elk or gut pile, then suddenly I hear these loud thuds and branches snapping right below me so I hurry and turn and see 1 nice bull with 3 cows 50-60 yards away running into the thick pines right on the trail I had just stepped off. They must have been bedded down 20 yards away from me where this little group of small pines were. If I didn't get off the trail maybe I would have seen them bedded down or at least got a shot off before they ran into the thick stuff.

I didn't draw a deer tag this year so I was sad and depressed I came home empty handed and my hunting was over with for a whole year so I decided to get on Montana's website to see if they had any late season cow tags left over for non residents and to my surprise their general season starts this weekend and they had non res buck/bull combo tags leftover that you could purchase online so it looks like I'm headed to Montana! Their season is ONLY 36 days long so I better get up there ASAP so I don't run out of time haha