I Have Filled My Share of Tags

Montana’s general big game hunting season opened last weekend and I didn’t go.

I rarely hunt deer and elk anymore, preferring to chase the dogs all fall in pursuit of grouse, pheasants and ducks. They’re easier to pack out.

I certainly filled my share of tags. While I can’t recall how many deer or antelope I killed over the years, I kept track of the elk – 10 bulls and 10 cows.

Where and when I killed each cow is a bit foggy, but the bulls, because of their headgear, are easier to remember.

My first bull was a raghorn that appeared at the edge of a clearcut on Eagle Creek above Gardiner. I was headed back to the truck after a day of hunting and turned around for one last look when I saw him.

My next two bulls – a big six and a smaller five-point -- also came from Eagle Creek.

The biggest bull I shot came from Sphinx Creek. I spotted him standing behind a small pine tree, his head hidden by branches, but his wide-spread antlers sticking out on both sides of the tree.

His rack is the only set I don’t still have. It was stolen out of my garage in Livingston years ago.

The rest of my bulls were small, a spike and a five-point from the Wineglass, three raghorns from Rock Creek, and my last bull, another small five-point I killed up Beattie Gulch just outside Yellowstone Park.

I’m sure I’ve repressed the memories of packing out all those elk, but most took multiple days to retrieve from the mountains.

Only the last bull was packed out on horseback, the rest were on my back.

Maybe that’s why I gave it up. Hunting elk on foot is a young man’s sport and I reveled in it until I was no longer a young man.

I have no interest in becoming that old guy who gets taken on a special hunting trip for one last bull. I think I already shot my last bull.

It was a wonderful run, hunting such magnificent creatures in spectacular country for more than half my life. Now I prefer flatter land with less snow, and smaller critters to pack.

But come mid-October every fall I still think about it, and for the five weeks of the general big game season, it will never be far from my thoughts.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]