hunting guide - the enterprise...hunting guide 2015 elk & deer numbers, page 3 game call maker,...

HUNTING GUIDE 2015

Elk & deer numbers, Page 3Game call maker, Page 5 Women hunters, Page 7Waterfowl hunting, Page 9Weird deer, 1Hunting quiz, Pages 15-22

A publication of The Livingston Enterprise & The Big Timber Pioneer

Thursday, October 8, 2015 HUNTING GUIDE 2015

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Elk numbers looking good, deer numbers downBy Samantha Cheney

Yellowstone Newspapers

In this hunting season, while searching for elk could be beneficial for hunters, reduced deer pop-ulations could prove to be more difficult.

Park County has hunting districts from the Cra-zy Mountains, Clyde Park, Gardiner, Wilsall and towards West Yellowstone. The districts are listed from 313 to 317 and 393.

Most of the elk populations have gone up or remained the from last year which puts the dis-tricts within the county, at or above objectives, which is where Fish, Wildlife and Parks want the animals to be at, said Park County FWP Spokes-woman Andrea Jones.

Other areas such as, district 393 east of the Bridger Mountains, has a population over-exceed-ing population objectives, which makes for more liberal regulations and could result in some extended hunting seasons, according to Karen Loveless, the Park County FWP Biologist. The hunting season could last into next year, ending on Feb. 15.

Loveless said the overabundance of elk in that

area is a combination of private land ownership and land that is difficult to access by hunters.

She said that FWP is working with landowners to reduce the populations by allowing hunters on their land but it is entirely up to the landowners’ discretion.

Mule deer populations are on the other side of the spectrum, seeing some decline around Park County. Loveless did two surveys, one by Gardiner and one by Clyde Park, to estimate the amount of deer in the county. Gardiner populations have ris-en but are still under the long-time average while Clyde Park

Loveless said the population decrease could be

from having less access to lands and could be low-er for a long time. The encroaching human popula-tions into their territory has caused them to stay farther away from the area, she said. There is also the opinion that with the growing elk populations around the county and other districts, there is too much competition for resources and the mule deer are unable to flourish.

White tail deer populations did not go through any kinds of population fluctuations but white tails did not fall within the survey zone, so the group does not have exact population counts for the ani-mal. Loveless said, however, that from what she noticed, there were no changes in the population sizes and they are on par with long-term averages.

While it is good to know what the populations might look like in the upcoming hunting season, Jones recommends that people check the FWP website for help with their hunt. People can look at a map of the districts, find the restrictions for each hunting area and see what hunters where able to get last year.

“It is the hunter’s responsibility to know the rules and where they need to be,” said Jones.

To get more information, visit www.fwp.mt.gov/.

Yellowstone Newspapers photo by Hunter D’Antuono

A large herd of elk settles in a field on the West Creek Ranch in the Paradise Valley south of Livingston, Thursday afternoon. Elk numbers in the region have increased or remained steady when compared with previous years, wildlife officials said.

“It is the hunter’s responsibility to know the rules and where they need to be.”

— Andrea Jones, FWP spokeswoman

Cover Image: A bull elk bugles near Gardiner, Montana just inside the Yellowstone National Park boundary on Oct. 1. (Yellowstone Newspapers photo by Hunter D’Antuono)


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Jackson Bradenberg from Livingston and his five point bull.

Mark Ketchem, left, and Kevin Dodd, from Big Timber, pose with Kevin’s five point bull.

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By Thomas Watson Yellowstone Newspapers

GARDINER — This year E.L.K., Inc. will celebrate its 30th anniversary,

and the Gardiner-based com-pany has come a long way since Don Laubach first started making elk calls in his basement after work.

Laubach owned several businesses in Gardiner, and his son Ryan Laubach — now one of the owners — remem-bers his dad getting the business started.

“He (worked) during the day, then after dinner he would head to the basement, and that is where he mold-

ed by hand all of the original cow talk calls,” said Ryan. “He molded the first 10,000 by hand, and I remember him doing that during the evenings. Then during the day, the rest of the family would get them packaged, and we would ship out about 200 every day.”

But after a few years, the operation grew, and they moved it to a manufac-turing center in town. Then, 17 or 18 years ago, the company opened a store front, also in Gardiner.

Opening the store front has allowed E.L.K., Inc. more customer interac-tion.

“We had the location, so we took advantage of that,” Ryan said. “We have several people every year — and it is kind of funny, but they tell us they came to Gardiner to visit E.L.K., Inc. and figured (they would) stop by the park while (they’re) here. We get that every year. People come to Gardiner

just to stop in to say hi.”Shortly after making the cow talk

calls, Don designed a bull elk call. And as big as the company has grown over the last 30 years, one thing remains the same: It designs all of the products it sells.

“We had those two products, and we kept adding from there,” Ryan said. “Now our product line is over 100 dif-ferent products.”

In addition to elk, the company’s lineup includes prey calls for deer and antelope, as well as predator calls for

coyotes and wolves.“Our philosophy is we will not put

out a product unless it is top-notch,” Ryan added. “We really value the cus-tomer service end of things. When people call us from all over the word, they’re talking to the people who actu-ally build the calls and invented the calls, which is important to us.”

With 30 years of experience, the own-ers of E.L.K., Inc. know that new prod-ucts are how they will stay relevant.

Several of the company’s calls have been used by hunters to win world championships.

“Calling contests are quite extrava-gant,” Ryan explained. “There are a lot of different types of calling that they have to do, but we don’t do the contests ourselves. We let our custom-ers do that, which speaks volumes.”

E.L.K., Inc. is a family owned busi-ness, and everyone who works at the store is a part owner.

Company has 30 years of animal calling experience

ABOVE: Ryan Laubach of E.L.K., Inc., demonstrates the company’s “Power Bugle” elk call outside of the company’s warehouse in Livingston, Wednesday afternoon.

LEFT: E.L.K., Inc.’s lineup of elk, deer, coyote, antelope and wolf calls are pictured in the company’s Livingston warehouse.

Yellowstone Newspapers photos by HuntER D’Antuono

“He molded the first 10,000 by hand, and I remember him doing

that during the evenings. Then during the day, the rest of the family would

get them packaged, and we would ship out about 200 every day.”

– Ryan Laubach, on his father Don Laubach’s early days in the business


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By Lindsey Erin Kroskob Yellowstone Newspapers

Pat Grimes is a petite woman. With dark brown hair, a friend-ly smile and a hearty Tennessee accent, talking to her feels like

a friendly chat with a neighbor.But beneath her soft, gentle appear-

ance is something a little bit wild.This Southern lady packs a punch —

and two 10-point bucks to boot.“I started out when I was very

young, when it was really not very vogue for women to hunt,” Grimes said.

Now as an adult, Grimes said she has an insatiable passion for the out-doors and is a true sportswoman to her core.

Grimes gets excited when the weather turns colder and hunting sea-son looms. During the warmer months, Grimes is at home hip deep in the Boulder River casting her fly over rippling trout holes.

“It’s just the most gorgeous place in the whole world,” she said of Sweet Grass County. “It allows me to be out-side doing the things I enjoy, which are hunting and fishing.”

Grimes said her passion for the out-doors started in her teens.

She raised two boys who loved exploring the wilderness, and spent a number of hours in the woods herself, scouting the perfect tree stand.

“I guess I was a tomboy with them,” the former model said. “I had my tree stand and my husband had his. I think I hunted more by myself in those years.”

Traveling through the airport years ago, people would rarely ask if the meat she flew home belonged to her.

“They just assumed your husband got it,” she said. “It’s so different now. They ask and I say, ‘Yes, it’s mine. Want to see pictures?’”

While years ago Grimes was one of only a few sportswomen, she said she has definitely noticed a shift.

“Women have gotten a little more liberated, and they want to do these things, too,” she said. “It’s not just for men.”

And, she added, you don’t have to be manly to hunt, either.

“You can still be feminine,” she said. “I like the girly stuff, but I also like to put my boots on, no makeup, and get in the tree stand.”

Hunting numbers are holding steady nationwide, with the only growth seg-ment coming from women and girls, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Bozeman-based spokes-woman Andrea Jones.

Between 2000 and 2015, the number

of women and girls in the hunter edu-cation program grew significantly — from 1,677 to more than 3,000 this year.

“For males, if you did a chart, you could probably draw a flat line,” Jones said, adding that their numbers were steadily in the 4,800 range for hunter education. “You can really see where the numbers are starting to equalize in that. Males are a little more static, versus the females that could keep climbing.”

Hunter education instructors are reporting gender ratios closer to the 50/50 mark in their classrooms, she said, adding that next year’s figures could be skewed based on new legisla-tion implementing a mentorship pro-gram for young hunters.

But mentorship isn’t just for the

young, Jones said. While women gen-erally try their hand at hunting at the encouragement of a significant other or male family member, they continue on their own after developing confi-dence in their solo skills.

Female mentors are key to retaining female hunters, Jones said. The myths related to the capabilities of women in the field are falling away as people realize the high level of eye/hand coor-dination in the fairer sex. Often, all it takes is watching a woman hunt on her own for another to realize she’s also capable of the feat.

Jones encouraged women who are interested in learning to hunt to get in touch with their local hunter educa-tion county chief or consider partici-pating in FWP’s Becoming an Outdoor-swoman program. Hunting-specific

programs, like Women on Target, are also aimed at giving females the skills and confidence to go into the field on their own.

Grimes takes this idea to heart, encouraging young women to get out-side as much as they can, whether it means grabbing a rifle and going out for a hunt or trying their hand with a fishing pole.

She was the first to take her grand-daughter out hunting, although the girl was concerned about killing an animal. Grimes assured her that, as a rule of thumb, their family doesn’t kill anything they don’t intend to eat.

“If you don’t enjoy the taste of it, then you don’t kill it,” she said.

Big Timber locals Shona Weiting and her daughter Samantha are a prime example of this group of women hunt-ers, filling their freezer each winter with every kind of wild game meat they can get.

“We live on our wild game,” Shona explained. “If I have to go to the store and buy meat, it just drives me crazy.”

Samantha, a Sweet Grass County High School sophomore, took home her first cow elk two years ago. She’s been hunting with her family since she was 10 months old.

“It’s a family tradition,” she said. “If Mom hunts and Dad hunts, I go with them.”

Shona said there is nothing more thrilling than having your children go out and shoot, let alone get an animal.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I don’t know how else to explain it.”

And for the Weitings, hunting is tru-ly a family experience.

Samantha said her family, including her father and grandmother, started out her first true hunting excursion early, waking up at 4 a.m. to pack lunches for the day. Shona got a two-point buck in the morning and then they went in search of an elk.

“We were driving along when I spot-ted the elk,” Shona recalled. “Dad came to a screeching halt and we grabbed rifles and jumped out.”

The area allowed only youth to kill cow elk, Shona said, so it was Saman-tha’s time to shine.

“I was so excited,” Samantha said. “I didn’t really feel the kick of the gun. I didn’t hear the shot because of the adrenaline.”

She said her grandmother’s legs were shaking from excitement after the elk dropped.

Samantha said she was thrilled to be a part of her family’s long-standing hobby.

“It’s not just male dominated,” she said. “I guess it’s cool to prove them all wrong.”

‘It’s not just for men’Montana women love hunting and filling the freezer

ABOVE: Pat Grimes poses with the 10-point mule deer buck she shot in 2012. Grimes is an avid sports-woman who started her passion for hunting in her teens.Photo courtesy of Pat Grimes

LEFT: Sweet Grass County High School sophomore Samantha Weiting pre-pares for her first bow hunt of the 2015 season.Photo courtesy of shona Weiting


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Good old days are now for waterfowl huntersBy Yellowstone Newspapers

Montana waterfowl hunters are in store for yet another year of some of the best duck and goose hunting in the Northwest.

“For Montana waterfowl hunters, this is the return of the good old days,” said Jim Hansen, Central Flyway coor-dinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Billings in a recent FWP news release. “Waterfowl conservation efforts over the past 20 years in Cana-da and the U.S. ‘prairie pothole region’ are providing quality habitat, and ducks — also aided by a series of wet years — have responded.”

The annual spring population survey in the traditional survey areas con-ducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found record-high populations of total breeding ducks at 49.5 million — 43 percent above the 1955-2014 average, the release said. Mallards were 51 percent above the long-term average, and Canada goose populations continue their high-population trends.

Montana’s migratory bird — or waterfowl — hunting seasons are set to fit within USFWS frameworks. Under these guidelines, 105 days are available for general waterfowl hunt-ing in the Pacific Flyway — generally the western half of Montana — while the eastern portion of Montana within the Central Flyway has 97 days of hunting available for ducks and coots, and 105 days for geese.

This year, FWP commissioners approved a zoned split season for the Central Flyway similar to last year, with different zone boundaries for duck hunting and goose hunting.

“The zones offer more late-season days in several counties for Central Flyway goose hunters,” Hansen stated.

Counties in Zone 2 include Big Horn, Treasure, Rosebud, Custer and Prairie. The commission added Carbon and Yellowstone counties to Zone 2 for

goose hunting only. Zone 1 is the remainder of the Central Flyway por-tion of the state.

“Federal frameworks allow changes in duck zone boundaries every five years, with the next opportunity for change in 2016, but goose zones are not

so constrained,” Hansen stated.The duck and coot season dates for

Zone 1 in the Central Flyway are: Oct. 3-Jan. 7, 2016, while in Zone 2 they are Oct. 3-11 and Oct. 24-Jan. 19, 2016. The 12-day closed period in Zone 2 is a week earlier than last year so that

hunting will be allowed during late October, which is often a significant migration period for several species of ducks. The tundra swan season in all of the Central Flyway will run from Oct. 3 through Jan. 7.

Goose hunting dates for Zone N are: Oct. 3-Jan. 10, 2016, and Jan. 16-20, 2016. In Zone S, the proposed dates are: Oct. 3-11 and Oct. 24-Jan. 27, 2016.

Pacific Flyway dates for ducks and geese are similar to last year, with a split near the end to provide an addi-tional weekend of hunting. For both ducks and geese in the Pacific Flyway the dates are: Oct. 3-Jan. 10, 2016, and Jan. 16-20, 2016. Swan hunting will run Oct. 10-Dec. 1.

The basic daily bag limit for the Cen-tral Flyway is six and for the Pacific Flyway it is seven. For each flyway, there are some species and sex restric-tions within the basic bag limit, according to the release.

A “bonus teal” bag in the Central Flyway will allow two additional blue-winged teal in the daily bag for the first nine days of the season, Oct. 3-11.

Goose bag limits are the same as last year for both flyways. Possession lim-its are three times the daily bag limit for both ducks and geese.

The two-day Youth Waterfowl Sea-son will be Sept. 26-27.

Hansen cautions that seasonal water conditions are variable around the state, so scouting of favorite hunting spots will be important. As always, hunting success will depend a lot on local habitat conditions and weather.

To view Montana’s 2015-16 migrato-ry bird regulations online, visit FWP’s website at fwp.mt.gov and click on “Hunting.”

Migratory bird regulations are avail-able at FWP offices and most license providers by mid-September.

For online information on the federal duck and wetland report, visit flyways.us.

AP photo

Chad and Tanner Tatum hold up a pair of Canada Geese taken last fall. Water-fowl populations are in good shape heading into the hunting season.”

By Thomas Watson Yellowstone Newspapers

Cooking wild game can be tricky. With a number of different tips and tricks to cook-

ing game out there, one Livingston chef recently pro-vided a few of his favorite pointers to help guide the way.

Brendan Murphy has been a chef for the last 12 years, and over the last six he has been in Livings-ton off and on.

“Growing up, I worked with a lot of chefs, and a lot of them were classically trained,” Murphy said. “They inspired me to go that route, so I ended up going to Le Cordon Bleu. I did that program and graduated magna cum laude.

“I went through that program, then I did an externship with a classically trained Italian chef. I did that for about four years, then I went back to the

French world (of cooking) in Portland, Oregon.”In addition to Portland, Murphy has worked in

Vermont, Alaska, New Hampshire and Washington state.

Always one for a challenge, Murphy has always enjoyed cooking wild game for the chance to change people’s minds.

“I love using wild game because so many people do so much of the wrong thing with it,” he said. “They mask the flavor, whereas I believe with wild game you should be enhancing the natural flavors.”

Murphy said his stance on preparing wild game is “simple is better.”

“With venison rack, I french the bones, which is just taking all the skin and membrane off of the bone all way down to the loin,” said Murphy. “Then I’ll take what I call hard herbs — parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme — and I mince those up and add panko bread crumbs. Then I’ll rub the venison rack

in a stone-ground mustard, then with the panko and herb mix I’ll pack that (on top). Then I sear it in a pan and finish it in the oven. I serve it medium rare, and I think the herbs and the mustard bring out all the natural flavors of the meat, and serving it medi-um rare you get the full flavor and the tenderness of the meat.”

Murphy said that braising and searing are his pre-ferred methods of cooking.

Murphy’s final tip is to tenderize the meat before cooking it.

“Most wild game is extremely tender, depending on what you use, but if you want to do a big roast that isn’t the most tender piece, you could brine it or tenderize it,” he said. “By brining or tenderizing, it will help eliminate some of that. Also, slow, low tem-peratures help.”

Murphy said his favorite brines are simple, with just water, sugar and whatever spices you prefer.

Livingston chef Brendan Murphy takes simple approach


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Weird deer — weird huntStory and photo by Jim Durfey

Enterprise Staff Writer

Ever been charged by a deer? It happened to me while I was hunt-ing mule deer last November in Paradise Valley. That was just

one strange thing that happened on the weirdest hunt I can remember being involved with. The mule deer were in a stand of aspens when I first located them with the help of binoculars. They were out of range, which meant I had to get closer. There wasn’t any cover, so I decided to bend over, put my mittens in the snow as I walked along and try to appear to be a four-legged critter as I ap-proached the aspens. When I was about 100 yards from the deer, I could see a mature buck with a very large body. Since I’m a meat hunter, it was the one I wanted to harvest.When I was in the process of extending my shooting stick, I took my eyes off the buck. When I looked up again to see if he had stayed put, he definitely had not. He was charging me. The buck came about 30 yards closer but then stopped. I had been bent over until I was adjusting the shooting stick. The semi-upright position I had assumed might have confused him. Or was it a bluff charge? The buck walked 20 yards to my left, paused and then charged again.

By that time I had rested the rifle on the shooting stick and was ready to fire. I was even more upright than I had been when he first charged. That new position I was in confused him again, evidently, because he stopped after he’d come an-other 30 yards. Or was it another bluff charge? He started to walk down the hill we were on and was evidently going to get below me so he could get downwind and catch my scent, which would allow him to figure out just exactly what I was. When I bleated twice, he stopped. That’s when I shot him. The first thing a big game hunter must do in Montana is to put notches on the license, or tag, that indicate which day and month the animal was taken. I cut out the appropriate day and month on the tag and then took the electrical tape out of my daypack to secure it to the carcass. But Nov. 15 was the coldest Saturday in Novem-ber. It was 7 below zero at our house. It had to have been colder at the elevation I was at, which was nearly 2,000 feet higher than Livingston. The elec-trical tape was frozen. I couldn’t remove it from the roll.

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Coral Horn, 10, of Livingston, holds the mounted antlers of the buck. Horn was one of the students in a fifth grade class at East Side School in Livings-ton who were read an edited version of this story by the author in March. Judging by the expression

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See Deer, Page 13


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Electrical tape has been the ideal thing to se-cure tags to the big game animals I’ve harvested. It is very sturdy. I’m sure a hunter could drag a deer over every sage brush bush in Park County and the tag wouldn’t budge. But frozen electrical tape was worthless. I didn’t have any string or other tape that would serve the purpose. I made the decision to put the tag in a crook of the antlers and put the tape between my legs to thaw it out. I slipped it inside my pants and brought my legs together to hold the tape between them. That fro-zen tape was resting against my bare skin. I man-aged to keep it there as I field dressed the deer. After 12 or 15 minutes, the tape had thawed out and I was able to secure the tag to the antlers.But I was freezing cold. A breeze had helped to make it difficult to stay warm. Having the frozen roll of tape between my legs made that an impos-sibility. As I field dressed the buck, I noticed his ant-lers were the weirdest looking “rack” I’d ever seen. They didn’t split like a typical mule deer’s antlers should. They just kept going up past the deer’s ears. A jumble of antler points protruded from the ends of the main beams. The buck was not exactly a taxidermist’s dream. I couldn’t wait to start dragging the deer back to my vehicle. That would finally get me warmed up since some of the dragging would be uphill. That worked well. But another odd thing happened after I loaded

the deer in the car. An acquaintance drove up, took a look at the drag marks in the snow and asked me if I had eviscerated the animal. He could see there wasn’t a drop of blood anywhere in or along the drag trail in the fresh snow. I discovered later that all the bodily fluids in the chest cavity had frozen solid. They didn’t thaw out until I was half way home and the inside of the car had warmed up. My father was a meat cutter. He taught me how to wield a butcher’s knife. That’s one reason I like to butcher the big game animals I harvest. After lunch, I skinned the buck and cut up the front half of the deer. But I wouldn’t be able to cut up the hindquarters until the following morn-ing. They would freeze solid if they were left on the meat pole overnight. So I had to bring them inside the house. When we put an addition on the house years ago, I failed to include a walk-in cooler in the plans, unfortunately. We don’t heat what used to be my son’s bed-room because he moved out of the house a long time ago. The bedroom door is solid wood, so the room stays very cool. We keep winter squash and potatoes from the garden in that room. It would be the perfect place to put the hind-quarters that night. The two Gordon setters that rule the Durfey roost were more than curious about the deer parts being in the house, though. It was neces-sary for the dogs to spend the night with my wife while I slept with the hindquarters. The strangeness extended into the “aprés hunt.” Can’t say that I’m acquainted with anyone else who has slept with deer parts.

How strange were the antlers from the buck? I found out when I took the head to Wildlife Art-istry taxidermy to have the antlers mounted on a plaque. When I took the head of the deer into the shop and put it on the floor, the owner, Rich Bradber-ry, took one look at the antlers and said, “That’s a weird deer.” The former owner of the business, Dan Quil-len, who helped out at the shop, and an employee, Drew Miers, were outside assisting another cus-tomer when I first arrived. When Quillen came inside and looked at the head of the deer, he said, “That’s one weird deer.” Would Miers also voice an opinion about the strange antler growth of the buck? You bet. When he came inside, he looked at the head of the buck and said, “Boy ... that’s a weird deer.” An acquaintance asked if I had had the antlers measured by a Boone and Crockett scorer. That would determine its status as a trophy mule deer buck. I explained that I wouldn’t ever consider doing that because the antlers are so weird that it might be the only time in the history of Boone and Crockett scoring that a buck’s rack had been given a minus score. At a New Year’s Eve party, I told the tale of my being charged by the buck to a group of friends. One person wanted to know why the buck would do such a thing. I told him my guess was it was because the buck was trying to guard his does and considered me to be a competitor. I explained that I’m so virile that I’m a threat to the males of all species. I think my friends have stopped laughing by now.

Deer, from Page 11


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True or false question No. 1: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks refers to the antler tines directly above a bull elk’s eyes as eye guards in the hunting regula-tions. These points can be seen on the bull elk mount in this photo. The shoulder mount of this bull can be seen at Yellowstone Gifts and Sports in Livingston.

By Jim Durfey Enterprise Staff Writer

Many people associate quizzes with pain and suffering. It stems from having to take quizzes and tests in grade school, high school and even in college. You wouldn’t touch this quiz with a 10 foot pole, ordinarily. Due to the sneaky, underhanded questions and blatant editorializing, this quiz has been known to cause frustration and heartburn in past years. And who needs that? Well, you do. Why? Because it has one redeeming value. If you take the quiz, you’ll become more knowledge-able than your hunting partners. That means you’ll be able to one up them which is worth practically any amount of pain and suffering.So grab a pen and get ready to learn things that will impress your hunting partners.

1.) To begin the Quiz, please refer to the caption under the photograph on this page.

2.) Children 10 to 17 years of age may legally hunt in Montana without having to take a hunter education course.

3.) Elk sweat.

4.) Most modern firearms fire bullets that travel faster than the speed of sound.

5.) Due to the very dry spring, duck numbers are well below the long-term average.

6.) Cougars and bears have steered clear of areas inhabited by humans this fall in Gallatin, Park and Sweet Grass counties.

7.) The name given to elk was originally a misno-mer.

8.) An animal overpass on a two lane highway can cost $4-5 million. The cost is often justified.

9.) The world record bighorn sheep was killed by a hunter during the 2014 hunting season in the Missouri Breaks in Montana.

10.) The combined archery and rifle hunting sea-son in Montana is one of the shortest in the U.S.

See True/False questions, Page 16


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Photo courtesy of Greg RicciTodd Quisel of Livingston holds the head of a monster mule deer buck he har-vested during the 2014 hunting season in Paradise Valley. The antlers of the buck scored 222 net points and made the Boone and Crockett record book, according to Quisel.

11.) The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is not meeting elk population objective numbers in many hunting districts in Montana.

12.) In 2016, hunters and fishermen and women in Montana will pay more for hunting and fishing licenses.

13.) A fundraiser called The Hunters Rendezvous Auction, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, was held in Tucson, Arizona in 2015. Out of eight states that offered a bull elk tag for the auction, the Montana tag sold for the least amount of money.

14.) Cow elk never grow antlers.

15.) Livingston Montana House Rep. Debra Lamm introduced a bill in the legislature in January that would allow a bowhunter to shoot a deer anywhere inside Livingston’s city limits.

16.) A bill was introduced in the 2015 Legislature to make it a crime to use a drone to photograph or film someone engaged in hunting.

17.) An elk’s winter coat consists of two layers — a woolly undercoat and guard hairs.

18.) Elk are grazers that eat grass. They never eat browse such as the ends and buds of trees and shrubs.

19.) Elk eat dirt.

20.) Throughout the month of November in 2014, rivers and creeks were free of ice, which meant waterfowl hunting was productive throughout the entire month on the Yellowstone River.

21.) Bears are attracted to deodorants.

22.) A Montana citizen’s group has taken steps to encourage hunters to use good ethical behavior while in the field.

23.) Trappers were living the good life in 2014 because prices for beaver, muskrat and mink pelts were 50 percent higher than 2013 prices.

24.) A Gallatin County hunter shot a bull last year that had eight points on each side and was rumored to score 444 Boone and Crockett points.

25.) Doe deer never grow antlers.See True/False questions, Page 17


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26.) In Montana, the largest beaver ever weighed was 55 pounds.

27.) White-tailed deer hunters concentrated their efforts on Sweet Grass County last year because the population had ballooned to near record levels.

28.) A black bear that was killed near Ballantine last October is the new num-ber one Montana Boone and Crockett black bear because it weighed 660 pounds. That is 155 pounds more than the previous Montana record holder.

29.) In weapons restrictions areas in Montana, muzzleloaders that can be loaded from the breech are legal firearms.

30.) Sabot loads are legal in weapons restriction areas.

31.) It is legal in Montana to use “trail cameras” or electronic devices to scout the location of game animals prior to the hunting season opener.

32.) It is legal to use a handgun capable of firing a .243 cartridge in a weapons restriction area for traditional handguns.

33.) Food plots are legal to use for attracting big game animals for hunting in Montana.

34.) Silencers may not legally be used for hunting in Montana.

35.) If you have permission to hunt on private land, you may assume that includes permission to drive off established roads or trails.

True/False answers1.) False. FWP refers to the antler tines above a bull elk’s eyes as brow-tines.

In some hunting districts in Montana, only brow-tine bulls may be harvested. These tines are also referred to as eye guards but it is a less common term and it’s not one that’s used by FWP in the regulations.

2.) True. These young hunters who haven’t taken a hunter education course must be accompanied by someone at least 21 years of age. Many other restric-tions apply.

Colton Gavne, of Livings-ton, shot this five-point bull elk in the Missouri River Breaks. He arrowed the bull on Sept. 7.

Photo courtesy ofMelissa Gavne

3.) True. It’s the elk’s ability to sweat that makes it so adaptable to many dif-ferent environments. This tidbit was taken from Bugle magazine, a publication of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

4.) True. Even not-so-modern cartridges (.250-3000, for example) were de-signed to make a bullet travel at 3,000 feet per second. The speed of sound is 1,126 feet per second.

5.) False. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s annual bird count this year, in-dicated duck numbers are at an all-time high since the agency started counting waterfowl in 1955.

6.) False. A cougar was sighted near the “M Trail” north of Bozeman in the summer. A black bear that had become habituated to humans on Livingston’s south side had to be trapped and relocated in August.

See True/False answers, Page 18


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7.) True. Elk is the common name in Europe for the subspecies of moose. Early American settlers named the animal “elk” because they seemed to resemble the moose of Europe’s northern tier.

8.) True. Wildlife crossings in the West have reduced vehicle/animal collisions by 70 to 90 percent according to university studies.

9.) False. The world record bighorn ram was killed by a motor vehicle near Calgary, Alberta, last year.

10.) False. The two part big game hunting season in Montana is made up of the six-week archery hunting season and the five-week rifle hunting season. It is one of the longest in the nation.

11.) True. As of 2014, more than 80 hunting districts, or portions of hunting districts, were over elk objective numbers.

12.) True. Starting in March of 2016, a resident fishing license will increase $3 in price. Hunters will be required to purchase a “basic hunting license” for $8. Non-residents who are successful in drawing a bison, goat, moose or sheep tag will be charged $500 more than they would be charged this year.

13.) True. The highest bid for the Montana bull elk tag was $28,500. That com-pares to Arizona’s special bull elk tag that garnered $140,000.

14.) False. Cow elk occasionally sport spikes that are perpetually in velvet. That condition is rare, though.

15.) False. Can you imagine what would happen if bowhunters were allowed to shoot a deer anywhere in Livingston? If the deer was arrowed by a day care center, what would the children’s reaction be? And if deer were shot by busy city streets, that would cause many of them to run out into traffic. Yikes!

16.) True. The bill that was introduced in the Legislature to make it illegal to use a drone to film or photograph a hunter was tabled. It is now dead.

17.) True. The woolly undercoat and the guard hairs (each of them has thou-sands of tiny air pockets that make it waterproof and that provide insulation) help to keep an elk warm in frigid weather. Your Quiz author is brewing a potion

in his lab that will make an elk-like growth cover his skin. He figures he’ll save lots of money on insulated clothing and footwear. So far, the only thing the po-tion has done is to make his nose hairs longer, unfortunately.

18.) False. Elk are very adaptable. Although they are primarily grazers, they can switch to browse if necessary.

19.) True. Grazing and browsing don’t provide all the nutrition an elk’s body requires. Elk sometimes eat dirt that’s rich in minerals to get the nutrients they need.

20.) False. Subzero temperatures visited Montana in mid-November last year. Many access sites on the Yellowstone River, including Mallard’s Rest in Para-dise Valley, were closed due to flooding and ice jams.

21.) True. In addition to deodorants, bears are attracted to soaps and lotions. So if you’re camping in the back country, it’s OK to be grubby and smell dis-gusting.

22.) True. The initiative to encourage hunters to use ethical behavior came about after some hunters surrounded elk herds and shot into them. Supporters of the movement found that it wasn’t “slob hunters” that were involved in the questionable behavior. Wardens theorize that 80 percent of hunters who get involved in “flock shooting” are good people who get caught up in the moment.

23.) False. The year 2014 was a disappointing year for trappers because prices of pelts of beaver, muskrat and mink were down 30 to 40 percent com-pared to the past few years.

24.) True. Jim Schwalbe of Big Sky shot the monster bull with only 15 minutes left in the hunting season on Nov. 30 last year. News of the bull spread on the Internet like wildfire.

25.) False. A woman in Arkansas shot a nine-point doe during the 2014 hunt-ing season. Most does who have antlers grow gnarly ones that aren’t impres-sive. But the doe shot by the Arkansas woman sported a fairly impressive set of antlers.

See True/False answers, Page 19


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26.) False. A beaver trapped on the Yellowstone River near Columbus last No-vember weighed 65 pounds. Beavers are the second largest rodent in the world.

27.) False. Epizoitic Hemorrhagic Disease took its toll on the white-tailed deer of Sweet Grass County. Biologists reported that the disease did not completely eradicate deer herds. In one area the white-tailed deer would virtually disap-pear while a nearby area didn’t seem to be affected by the disease.

28.) False. Boone and Crockett scoring involves only the size of the bear’s skull. The weight of the Ballantine bear, which is irrelevant, was impressive none the less.

29.) False. The muzzleloader in a weapons restriction area must not be ca-pable of being loaded from the breech.

30.) False. A sabot is a range-enhancing load that is not legal in a weapons restriction area designed for muzzleloaders.

31.) True. Trail cameras may be used prior to the opening of hunting season, but their use is not legal after the season opens.

32.) False. Only straight-wall cartridges may be used in a weapons restric-tion area for handguns.

33.) False. Baiting is illegal for attracting big game animals that will be hunted in Montana. To quote the regulations, “Baiting shall mean the placing, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of food sources or salt as to constitute a lure or attraction.”

34.) True. Silencers, or suppressors, are not legal to use for hunting in Mon-tana.

35.) False. A hunter must obtain permission to drive off-road or trails on pri-vate land from the landowner.

See Multiple Choice questions in next column

Multiple Choice questionsTo begin the Multiple Choice portion of the Quiz, please refer to the caption

under the photograph on this page:

See Multiple Choice questions, Page 20

Multiple choice question No. 1: The tool the boy is holding is used to throw darts. It is called: A. A bow B. An atlatl C. A dart launcher D. A spear thrower E. None of the above.


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Multiple Choice questions continued from Page 19

2.) Montana has an official state animal. It is:A. The elkB. The black bearC. The grizzly bearD. The bighorn sheepE. The polecat

3.) A reality show featured on the Outdoor Channel caused controversy this past hunting season when a hunter in the Shields Valley area was ticketed for failing to tag an elk immediately after shooting it. The name of the show is:

A. Game wardensB. Game protectorsC. Outdoors in MontanaD. WardensE. Big Brother is Watching You

4.) The .17 Remington caliber is often referred to as the .17 Remington IMR. IMR are initials for:

A. International Magnum RifleB. IMR powderC. Interarms Modern RifleD. Invincible Magnum RoundE. Incredible Meat Rounder-upper

5.) Trailcraft is:A. The art of interpreting the signs of animalsB. The ability to weave through the forest on a four-wheelerC. The knowledge it takes to build a four-wheeler trailD. The science of tracking off-road vehiclesE. The art of tracking raccoons at night

6.) The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks goes through a pro-cess of setting hunting seasons and making changes to hunting regulations:

A. Every yearB. Every two yearsC. Every five yearsD. Every 10 yearsE. They don’t mess with something that’s perfect

7.) During the general rifle hunting season, the following equipment is legal for harvesting big game animals in Montana:

A. RiflesB. Rifles and shotgunsC. Rifles, shotguns and muzzleloadersD. Rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders and crossbowsE. Rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, crossbows and archery equipment

8.) If a deer has splotches of white where the color should be brown and nor-mal coloration elsewhere, its condition is called:

A. Semi-albinoB. PiebaldC. BicoloredD. White patchedE. Skewbald

9.) A group of elk is properly referred to as a:A. GangB. HerdC. TribeD. WaddleE. Pride

10.) Which big game animal permit requires an application deadline of August 31:

A. Grizzly bearB. MooseC. BisonD. Mountain lionE. Sasquatch

11.) In the 2015 Deer, Elk and Antelope Hunting Regulations, the sage grouse hunting season is listed as:

A. Sept. 1 through Sept. 30B. Sept. 1 through Sept. 15C. Not open at allD. Sept. 1 through Sept. 30 only in Region 5E. TBA

See Multiple Choice questions, Page 21


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13.) In order to be considered a trophy elk, according to FWP, a bull’s ant-lers must achieve a gross/green Boone and Crockett score of at least:

A. 170 pointsB. 250 pointsC. 300 pointsD. 320 pointsE. 400 points

14.) The following scents may be used, legally, to attract game animals in Montana:

A. Natural glandular scentsB. Artificial glandular scentsC. Natural and artificial glandular scentsD. Automatic scent releasing devicesE. All scents other than glandular

15.) In order to be considered a trophy mule deer, according to FWP, a buck’s antlers must achieve a gross/green Boone and Crockett score of at least:

A. 170 pointsB. 200 pointsC. 230D. 250 pointsE. 270 points

Multiple Choice answers1.) B. In the photo, Finn Harrison, 6, of Livingston, gets instruction from Don

Stafford, of Hot Springs, on how to use an atlatl on the lawn of the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County last June. Stafford participates in atlatl throwing competitions. The tool has been used for 20,000 years according to Stafford.

2.) C. Montanans appreciate grizzly bears because they help us with survival of the fittest and smartest. When a grizzly bear charges two people who try to flee, it will catch and eat the slower runner. Grizzlies will also weed out back country campers who are stupid enough to bring food into their tents at night.

3.) D. The ticket that was issued for failing to tag the elk immediately after it was shot, caused a stir. It was finally determined that the hunter in question committed no offense. The issue made some people wonder if being in front of the TV cameras caused wardens to “perform” for those cameras.

4.) B. The .17 caliber rifle is favored by many coyote hunters because the tiny hole it makes in the hide helps to preserve the quality of the pelt. That trans-lates to a higher price paid by the furrier.

5.) A. Anyone who feeds wild song birds knows it’s not necessary to track rac-coons at night. They will beat a path to your feeders and raid them when it’s dark. Feeding song birds is a 60/40 proposition with birds getting 40 percent of the seed and 60 percent of the seed ending up in raccoons’ stomachs

6.) B. FWP invites input from the public when new hunting seasons are being determined. They use the input to help make decisions on hunting season lengths in various areas.

7.) E. All hunters must wear at least 400 square inches of blaze orange if they hunt during the general firearm season, even if they hunt with a longbow.

8.) E. This question proves your Quiz author isn’t afraid to reach a new low in his attempt to make Quiz questions ridiculously difficult. This information was gleaned from a recent issue of The Conservationist, a publication of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that’s similar to Mon-tana Outdoors.

9.) A or B. Gang is an archaic term for a herd of elk. A tribe is a group of ante-lope and a bunch of penguins is a waddle. An assemblage of lions is called a pride. A group of three North Dakota hunters is called The Three Stooges, by the way.

10.) D. Grizzly bear hunting is not allowed in Montana. There hasn’t been a verified sasquatch sighting in Montana. But if guessed the correct answer was E. (sasquatch), what part of California are you from?

See Multiple Choice answers, Page 22


Multiple Choice answers, from Page 21

11.) E. The sage grouse is a species of special concern because its population has crashed all across the West. Montana still has huntable numbers of the birds, though. To find out the specifics on bird hunting seasons, hunters should pick up a special publication that deals strictly with bird hunting. They are available at establishments that sell hunting licenses.

12.) D. Not many hunters are familiar with the term “quadricycle.” According to Wayne Ford, owner of Alpine Yamaha in Livingston, his customers refer to them as ATVs or quads. He’s never heard them referred to as “quadricycles.”

13.) D. Under Montana law, the illegal taking of a trophy elk comes with an $8000 “restitution” fine. A bull elk is considered to be trophy status if it scores at least 320 green/gross Boone and Crockett points or if it has at least six points on one antler, a main beam length on each antler of at least 43 inches and an inside spread of at least 36 inches.

14.) C. Your Quiz concocter isn’t sure what glandular scents are, but one scent he’s familiar with is the odor from human sweat glands. When he was splitting firewood in 96° temperatures this past July , he would have repelled critters, not attracted them with this particular “glandular scent.”

15.) A. If a trophy class mule deer is shot illegally, the restitution fee is $8000. Another way a mule deer buck’s antlers are considered to be trophy size is if there are at least four points on one antler, the main bean length on each side is at least 21 inches and the greatest inside spread across the main beams is at least 20 inches.

By Jim Durfey Yellowstone Newspapers

“I thought I was going to shoot some-thing smaller.” That’s what TJ Weimer said about the buck he harvested on his first deer hunt when he was 12 years old. The hunt took place in the Crazies on Oct. 16, which was the first day of the special youth hunt in 2014.

He, his father, Jay, and his grandfather Dave Pfohl made up the hunting party. Pfohl saw the buck silhouetted on a ridge top as the sun was rising. The deer was with a small group of other bucks.

The hunters needed to close the distance, so they started crawling toward the deer. But the bucks sensed danger and ran off. After they stalked the band of bucks for 20 min-utes, the hunters jumped them again. One buck lagged behind, however. That proved to be a fatal mistake. The deer was 280 yards away when TJ aimed his .220 Swift caliber rifle, squeezed off a shot and killed his first big game animal. Weimer not only shot the animal but field dressed it as well. The buck was a trophy that had a spread of 26 inches. Not many hunters harvest a trophy animal the first time they pursue that species. But it seems to be the norm with the Pfohl/Weimer clan. TJ’s mother, Robin, shot a Boone and Crockett antelope buck on her first antelope hunt when she was 12 years old. When TJ was asked what he was going to do to top the feat during the 2015 big game hunting season, he said, “I don’t know ... maybe get a big elk.” Pfohl still had a general deer license to fill on November 12th when he and TJ Weimer hunted together in Paradise Valley. It was their third day of hunting for a buck. They saw a small herd of deer on the other side of a canyon. A buck in that herd was chasing does. The deer were moving gradually toward the hunters. They couldn’t see how large the deer’s antlers were but Pfohl and Weimer decided to stay put and see if the deer would come close enough for a shot. The hunters waited for several hours. Although he had several marginal opportunities to take the buck, Pfohl elected to wait until he had a shot that would just about guarantee a quick kill.“I wanted to set a good example for my grandson,” he explained. Although they could catch glimpses of the buck from time to time, the background and the shade made it impossible to tell how big its antlers were. They found out later that the buck’s antlers were very dark which helped them blend into the back-ground. But that might have improved the hunters’ chances. “Usually, you see the big buck and it gets away.

We didn’t even know it was that big of a buck,” Pfohl said. So the added excitement of harvesting an excep-tional trophy didn’t affect his nerves. Although the does the buck was with went over a hill and out of sight, the buck elected to get a drink at a creek 120 yards from the hunters. Pfohl steadied his .220 Swift caliber rifle and fired. When he and Weimer walked up to the buck, they were not expecting to find a trophy with such large antlers. “It was very much a surprise when we walked over there,” Pfohl recalled. The antlers of his buck were even more impres-sive than the ones that had adorned the head of Weimer’s buck. Pfohl said getting the buck to a vehicle became a family affair. There was no snow to make dragging feasible so it was quite a chore to move the deer close to a road. With the help of a game cart, Pfohl and various family members accomplished the task. Both deer are at the taxidermy studio and will be made into shoulder mounts.

TJ Weimer poses with the first deer he harvested. The buck’s antlers had a spread of 26 inches.

TJ Weimer holds up the head of the mule deer buck his grandfather, Dave Pfohl, shot. The antlers scored 200 points.

TALE OF TWO BUCKS


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