2013 hunting guide

2013 A publication of The Livingston Enterprise and The Big Timber PioneerHUNTING GUIDE

Hunting with handmade bows and stone points .......................3Hunting eastern Montana .......5The elk rut .................................7Break A Clay event..............11

Wild game recipe ................. 11Big bruin bagged ................. 13March elk hunt ..................... 14Hunting Quiz ...................15-23

Thursday, October 10, 2013 HUNTING GUIDE 2013

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Fifteen yards or closer – that’s what it takes

Alt holds some of the stone points he has made. He claims that if the edges of the stone points have good serration, they will cause as much hemorrhaging as metal points manufactured for modern compound bows that have four blades.

Above: Fletching, or feathers, help the arrow to fly straight. Alt prefers goose feathers (middle) because they repel water better, but he also uses turkey (top) and other game bird feathers, such as those from mountain grouse.

“I enjoy hunting with all modern and primitive weapons that range from modern rifles to the modern compound bow, to the traditional bows and self (handmade) bows,” notes Livingston hunter Ray Alt.

That makes Ray Alt a versatile hunt-er. He’s taken big game animals with a rifle but prefers to use a bow. Depend-ing on what the terrain and the game animal’s behavior dictate, he may use a compound bow or a long bow he has made himself with his own handmade arrows.

Experience has made him restrict his range to 15 yards maximum when he’s hunting with a long bow. Compound bows allow the hunter to stretch the range to 25 to 30 yards for most hunt-ers, for comparison. Some bowhunters are capable of taking big game animals out to even 60 yards with a compound bow.

Hunting with long bows isn’t for everyone. Alt says only 20 percent of archery hunters use recurve bows, or long bows. He has figured that only 5 percent of that group use self bows.

Alt makes stone points for handmade arrows he hunts with. The process of making stone points is called flint knapping. Alt gave a dem-onstration on that art at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County in September (see Multiple Choice question No. 1 in the Hunting Guide Quiz in this guide for a photo that depicts Alt shaping a projectile point). He is happy to share his knowledge with others, just as his mentor shared it with him.

Chert, jasper and agate are some of his favorite stones from which to make points. He does make stone points with obsidian but has found they break up on impact with bones as small as an antelope rib bone.

Stones must first be heated before they are shaped into stone points or they will crumble instead of flaking.

While his stone points for hunting arrows weigh up to 300 grains, most commercially made metal arrow points weigh 100 to 150 grains.

When Alt makes arrows, he seeks good shaft material available locally that comes from dogwood and rosewood.

He likes osage, mountain maple and chokecherry for bow making.

When he was asked which animal in his trophy room means the most to him, he pointed to a coues deer he shot in Arizona. That subspecies of white-tailed deer is very elusive. It is referred to as “the desert ghost” by many hunt-ers who have pursued it. When a hunter gets close enough to shoot a trophy buck with a bow, it’s a memorable occasion.

Some of his best opportunities to hunt, Alt says, are on pri-vate land. Alt does not hesitate to heap praise on landowners who allow hunting on their property.

“We are blessed with the landowners who do give permis-sion,” he notes.

Young hunters might learn from Alt’s experience. He says he’s learned the hard way to take his time. Because he was over anxious in his younger years, “I used to push game out for everyone else,” he admits. His slower, more cautious ap-proach has resulted in more shot opportunities.

Alt holds part of a leg bone from the mountain lion he shot. The arrow went through the heart/lung area and then hit the leg bone, which caused the stone point to break into pieces. But it did its job. Alt often saves the arrows and stone points he has harvested big game animals with.

Alt holds a display of the arrows he shot bison with as part of an experi-ment that proved to modern archeol-ogists that bison could be killed with fairly large stone points on arrows that were shot with a bow. That end-ed the speculation that stone points that size had to have been attached only to spears or to the large darts used with the atlatl, a device used to throw a small spear at prey animals.

In Alt’s right hand is a modern com-pound bow made out of metal and plastic. In his left hand is a manufac-tured long bow and an arrow he made. Alt is frustrated because primi-tive hunters sometimes regard com-pound bowhunters with disdain, while hunters who use modern equipment may look down their nos-es at bowhunters who use primitive equipment. He would like to see hunters respect other hunters, regardless of their equipment choice.


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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013 HUNTING GUIDE 2013 PAGE 5

If a duck quacks in Montana, does anybody hear it?

Montana is famous for its big game hunting. Hunt-ers come from all over the country for the chance to bag a trophy elk, antelope or mule deer.

When it comes to bird hunting, most will think of upland game birds — pheasants, grouse and other upland birds that proliferate on the prairie.

But relatively few folks would think of Montana as a place to duck hunt.

However, though it’s doubtful the state will ever turn into a duck hunting mecca or that the Robert-son boys from the hit show “Duck Dynasty” will ever bother to visit for a hunt, there is decent duck hunting to be had for those hardy few who are willing to endure the wet and cold that inevitably ac-companies the sport.

Dr. Troy Myers, a Glendive optometrist and co-chairman of the local chapter of Ducks Unlimited, is one of those hardy few. Though a lifelong duck hunter himself, he admits there are few hunters in the area who bother with ducks.

“There’s not a lot of duck hunters,” Myers said of eastern Montana. “Typically, to get the best duck hunting weather, it’s cold and miserable, and a lot of hunters don’t like to be cold and miserable.”

Myers credits his father with introducing him to the joys of calling in a flock of mallards over a spread of decoys. But while mallards are by far the

most common duck to be found in eastern Montana, Myers said part of what keeps him in waders every year is “the search for new ducks and new species of ducks and finding mountable ducks.”

Eastern Montana is in the Central Flyway, which isn’t nearly as prolific in the numbers and variety of duck species flying it as the Mississippi Fly-way. Being smack in the middle of that waterfowl superhighway is what makes states like Arkansas and Louisiana — home of the Robertson clan — such world class duck hunting destinations.

But the fact that eastern Montana doesn’t have that advantage makes the chase for other duck species besides mallards that much more special, according to Myers.

“Trying to get the non-common ducks out there that aren’t readily available in eastern Montana is kind of fun,” Myers said.

And he has had success at doing so. Among Myers’ more exotic bags — for eastern Montana at least — are a redhead, bufflehead and a canvasback.

Being successful in finding ducks other than mal-lards is a matter of timing, Myers said. The impor-tant thing to know is that as soon as the ponds freeze over, every duck that’s not a greenhead is going to hightail it south for warmer waters.

“Late season, it’s all mallards,” Myers said.When it comes to finding ducks in eastern Mon-

tana, hunters have two choices — they can hunt along the Yellowstone River or find a private land-owner willing to allow you to hunt on their ponds. Myers prefers the latter.

“For the most part, most of your best duck hunting is not done on the river — it’s out on ponds,” Myers said.

But Myers added the exception is early in the season.

“Early season, you rarely see (ducks) on ponds,” he said.

That means hunting along the river and its back channels and sloughs. To do that, Myers said there’s one piece of equipment you absolutely need to make sure your downed ducks don’t end up taking a long float trip to the Gulf of Mexico.

“Basically you have to have a good water dog,” Myers said. “That’s the most important thing prob-ably along the Yellowstone.”

Myers also recommends using a small spread of decoys when hunting in eastern Montana, no more than a dozen. When hunting on the river, he said generally the best places to set up are points and places where tributary creeks enter the river.

As for public hunting opportunities, Myers recom-mends Seven Sisters and Elk Island Wildlife Man-agement Areas in neighboring Richland County as good spots for duck hunting. However, he did say that while historically duck hunting pressure in eastern Montana is low, it is on the rise.

“There’s a lot of pressure from hunters on pub-lic lands,” Myers said. “More so now with the oil boom.”

———Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.

com.

In eastern Montana, more than 75 percent of the land is locked up in private ownership, so opportunities for public hunting access may seem limited at first glance. But the fact is there are actually plenty of places open to public access for those who look.

The list of obvious public hunting spots in this region of Montana begins with the only two-state Wildlife Man-agement Areas in the immediate area — Seven Sisters WMA and Elk Island WMA. These two parcels of public land lie along the Yellowstone River in Richland County, separated by only a few miles.

“The reason those WMAs are such gems for the public is when you look up and down the Yellowstone River, most of that land is private,” said Me-lissa Foster, wildlife biologist for Mon-tana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 7.

Foster said the best game oppor-tunities available on the two WMAs are pheasants and white-tailed deer, though opportunities for other game — especially waterfowl — do exist.

Hunting for white-tails can be very good on the WMAs, Foster said, adding that hunters are just as likely to bag a deer there as on any private land along the Yellowstone.

“We survey (white-tail numbers) every year, and there’s no difference in deer density on the WMAs versus off the WMAs,” Foster said.

While the WMAs do get pressure from hunters — more so now with the regional oil boom — Foster said there is still plenty of room and opportunity for hunters at both Seven Sisters and Elk Island.

“They receive a fair bit of pressure, but I would say there’s a fair amount of opportunities for quality hunting expe-riences out there,” Foster said.

After the two WMAs, the only other publicly owned lands open to public hunting access are Bureau of Land Management land and state school trust lands.

BLM land is fairly sparse in the area, but is open to public hunting as long as it can be accessed from a public road or waterway.

More prevalent in this region are state school trust lands. These state-owned lands are typically open for public walk-in access — as long as they can be legally accessed — unless they have been leased and posted. Foster added that the main rule to remember on state school trust lands is that they are almost always accessible only by foot.

“If in doubt, I wouldn’t drive,” Foster said of hunting on school trust lands.

As for how to identify where BLM or state school trust lands are, Foster said the key is to have a good map. For that, she recommends hunters pick up either a DeLorme Montana Atlas and Gazetteer or a BLM quad map.

The last type of public hunting access available is that provided by private landowners through a couple of FWP cooperative programs.

One of those programs is the Open Fields for Game Bird Hunters pro-gram. Landowners enrolled in the program provide open walk-in access to upland game bird hunters. The only legwork required of bird hunters is that they properly identify the enrolled sections on a map, which is available on the FWP website.

“You don’t have to talk to the land-owner — you can just go out to that section and hunt,” Foster said of lands enrolled in Open Fields. “It’s a great deal. It provides more opportunities and more access to game bird hunters.”

The other FWP program allowing hunters access to private land is the Block Management Program. Foster said the first thing hunters wishing to access a Block Management Area need to be aware of is that there are two types of BMAs.

Type I BMAs only require the hunter sign in at the sign-in station provided at the BMA. Type II BMAs, on the other

hand, typically require landowner per-mission before hunting. The landowner contact information for a Type II BMA can be obtained from the FWP Region 7 field office in Miles City.

It is imperative that hunters properly identify which type of BMA they wish to hunt before going, Foster said, since failing to do so is an all too common mistake.

“We have issues every year with our wardens ticketing folks on those (Type II) BMAs,” Foster said. “They see that BMA sign and think they can just go out there.”

For 2013, there are 288 BMAs in Re-gion 7 encompassing some 2.5 million acres of land.

And to make sure that opportunity for public access doesn’t go away, Fos-ter stressed that the most important thing for hunters to do is to be respect-ful of the private landowner’s property, since even one bad experience with a hunter can cause them to withdraw their land from the Block Management Program.

“(Hunters) should treat public land well, too, but they need to be especially cognizant when they’re on that private land,” Foster said. “This is a voluntary program, and (landowners) can pull out of that program at any time.”

Reach Jason Stuart at [email protected].

State not a duck hunting mecca, but rewards are there for the determined

If you know where to look, there are plenty of public access spots to hunt

Hunting in eastern Montana


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e arrived at the trailhead before dawn Saturday and met a fellow hunter preparing to slog up the mountain.

The hunter sport-ed 40 plates on his pickup and what appeared to be a .44-caliber pistol on his hip.

“Lots of bears in this area?” I asked after making introductions.

“They say there’s a big griz that wanders through this whole area,” the man said, motioning in the dark-ness toward the drainage extending beyond us with its snow-capped mountains and their gnarly peaks.

The man adjusted the release attached to his wrist and fiddled with his bow as I sipped coffee from my thermos lid in the half-light.

The 40-plater said he hunted here the week before, but the elk weren’t talking.

I heard similar reports from other Montana hunters during the first weeks of the bow season, which kicked off Sept. 7 and ends Oct. 20.

My hunting partner on Saturday, former Livingston resident and cur-rent Helena attorney Jon King, recently bow hunted south of Dillon where he and a friend called in two small bulls in the first 10 minutes of their hunt near Lima.

The elk were quiet and unrespon-sive the rest of the day, however.

We had a similar experience Saturday, when we smelled elk shortly after entering the wil-derness and found fresh sign on the ground shortly after legal shooting light. A deer huffed nearby as we moved up the mountainside.

I bugled. Jon cow called. We waited.

Soon we noticed a herd of elk on a far ridge — too far to reach before lunch — but heard some-thing bugle a few minutes later.

The rest of the day, we heard little but wind whipping through the timber and crashing of trees being knocked down by forceful gusts.

A biologist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said she is hearing mixed reports about this year’s season, with some hunters reporting high amounts of elk bugling and cow talk and others reporting very limited activity.

“The word that I’ve heard is that it’s variable,” Julie Cunningham said. “Some places they are calling and some places they seem to be calling less.”

Cunningham says she’s heard a half dozen reasons why some people are reporting limited elk talk this year.

These reasons range from too many humans bugling to elk on public land, warm weather and predators.

“The one I put the most weight behind is if there are too many people out there calling, the elk are going to

be quieting down,” Cunningham said.Cunningham studied 40 years of elk

data in the Greater Yellowstone Area and says the last week in September — plus or minus a few days — is when most breeding occurs during the rut.

She pointed out that hunters could find an uptick in elk activity later in the season with a second estrus.

Because the agency doesn’t operate check stations during the archery season, Cunningham said harvest data won’t be available for this sea-son until hunter surveys are complet-ed this winter.

Gabe Roffe, owner of Big Sky Archery in Bozeman, is poised to report a successful season this year after killing a six-point bull near Lewistown.

Yet Roffe said he’s heard a vari-ety of reports from the field at his shop.

“The weird thing about this year is it has been from one end of the spectrum to another,” he said. “At the start of the snowstorm Thurs-day I was talking to guys who said they heard nothing, to they were screaming their heads off.”

During a recent discussion in his shop, Roffe says a number of experienced bowhunters debated the issue of aggressive calling vs. very limited calling in the field.

Roffe, who has killed an elk 15 of the last 16 years during either rifle or bow season, said he pre-fers limited bugling to locate elk. He works to anticipate elk move-ment and set up for his shot.

“I’m getting into 200 yards and going silent,” he said.

He shot this year’s bull at 40 yards. Last year, he killed a bull at 18 yards. The year before, Roffe shot his elk at 8 yards.

The Wisconsin transplant admits that the first four or five years hunt-ing elk he had little success. But he improved in the field by learning from his mistakes and understanding elk movement.

“It’s not like I’m hunting different areas — I just hunt them differently,” Roffe said.

Hunting the Elk Rut

WHalfway through this year’s elk bow season, Montana hunters have mixed reports

Photo courtesy of Gabe RoffeGabe Roffe, owner of Big Sky Archery in Boze-man, shot this six-point bull elk while bow hunting on Sept. 12 near Lewistown.

Enterprise photo by Justin PostFormer Livingston resident and current Helena attorney Jon King scoops up a handful of water to wash his face after spending the morning elk hunting near Livingston.

Enterprise photo by Justin PostA snowstorm moves into the mountains as King stands in front of a stand of fire-scorched timber listening for a response after cow calling during a recent bow hunt.


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Break A Clay event: Shotgunners converge on Park County Rod and Gun Club

Below: Dean Peterson, of Livingston, breaks a clay pigeon, which bursts into a blaze of orange powder as an empty shotgun shell is ejected from his shotgun, June 29. The powder made it appear almost as if the prairie grass was on fire.

Left: Kaden Hawkins, 13, of Livingston, “powders” one of the special clay pigeons.

Photos by Jim DurfeyOne of the participants readies his shotgun to shoot at a clay pigeon while a mule deer doe feeds unconcerned in the draw below at right. According to Lou Goosey, a volunteer with the Rod and Gun Club, a mule deer family feeds in the draw on a regular basis, regardless of the amount of shooting that goes on above the draw.

The Break a Clay event is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Shooters had a chance to win prizes if they broke one of the special clay pigeons that burst into col-orful powder when they were hit.

“Every good hunter knows that the key to a tasty meal of wild game starts in the field.”

Delicious and nutritious, cooking and eating game meat is often the crowning glory of the hunt.

Cooking wild game is not the same as preparing chicken or beef and can be a little tricky, but with a few tips and tricks, you, too, can be an expert.

Whether it’s the tender breast of a grouse, or an elk back strap, every good hunter knows that the key to a tasty meal of wild game starts in the field.

According to experts, the overall quality and taste of game meat is greatly affected by proper field dressing, and should be done immediately after the animal is harvested to prevent bacteria from grow-ing on the meat.

After field dressing, the meat is cured and cut, and according to The Lazy Homesteader website, this is an important step.

Venison, elk and antelope steaks have only a frac-tion of the fat that farm-raised meat has and should be cut thicker to preserve moisture.

Marinating game meat for 20 to 30 minutes before cooking can add much needed moisture, as well as great flavor.

Perhaps the most important rule for cooking game is to not overcook the meat. In order to prevent wild

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Venison MedallionsIngredients:4 small, or 2 large medallions of venison1 Tbsp olive oil2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced1 cup sliced mushrooms! cup brandy" cup port wine1 cup game stock or beef broth1 " Tbsp Dijon mustard2 Tbsp currant jelly" tsp ground thyme" cup sour cream (optional) or use arrowroot or

cornstarch to thicken (optional)Preparation:Heat skillet over medium heat and brown medal-

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Lower heat in skillet and sauté garlic and mush-rooms in remaining oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Add bran-dy, scraping up any browned bits. Add the rest of ingredients except sour cream and cornstarch. Stir occasionally while simmering over low heat for

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It didn’t make sense. The bowhunters knew that wapi-

ti frequented one area of the ranch they were hunting. But nary an elk could they see.

“I knew something was up,” said Dr. Bill Mealer, of Bozeman. “Either wolves or a big bear had caused the elk to leave the area.”

Mealer’s suspicions were con-firmed when he and his hunting companion later saw a big black bear at about 150 yards.

Mealer’s profession is plastic surgery. His passion is hunting. He has arrowed many kinds of big game animals, includ-ing elk, bear, Russian boar, antelope, white-tailed deer and mule deer. Although he had harvested a big black bear four years before the 2012 hunt, he had never seen a black bear as big as the one he and his friend from Pennsylvania found on that hunt in late September in the Wilsall area.

“That’s a good bear,” Mealer said to his companion. “I’m going to shoot that bear.”

He watched the bruin for a while. It acted as if it wanted to take a nap.

When the bear lay down, Mealer stalked it. He was only 40 yards away when he realized the bear was huge.

“It was so big I thought it might be a black col-ored grizzly,” Mealer noted.

He couldn’t see any distinguishing features to determine the species of the bear at first. But after 15 or 20 minutes, the bear lifted its left leg and rested it against an aspen tree. It was then that Mealer could see its claws. They weren’t the long claws of a grizzly, so Mealer was then sure it was a black bear.

He crept closer until his range finder told him he was 30 yards from the bear, which was facing away from him.

He drew his bow and let the arrow fly. The arrow found its mark.

The bear jumped up and ran downhill out of sight.

His hunting partner had been watching the stalk and saw the arrow enter the bear. He gave Mealer the thumbs up sign.

But Mealer didn’t know if the bear was down or exactly where it had run. He and his hunting partner waited 15 minutes before they attempt-ed to locate the bear.

Mealer was relieved when they found it dead only 20 yards from where it was shot.

The arrow did its job. It sliced through the entrails, the diaphragm, severed lung tissue and then went through the center of the bear’s heart.

Getting the bear into the back of a pickup truck proved to be quite a challenge. It was too big, the hunters discovered, to be loaded in the conventional fashion.

After the head, hide and paws were removed from the bear, Mealer took it to a game meat

processor. The scale indicated the car-cass weighed 370 pounds. FWP personnel estimated it weighed 550 to 600 pounds when it was alive.

The bear was definitely enormous for a Montana black bear. But its trophy status is judged solely on the size of its skull. Mealer has yet to have the skull mea-sured by an official measurer.

Mealer claims meat from the bear made the best sausage he’s ever eaten. He is sometimes amused when people who tried the hot Italian sausage found out it was bear meat. They refused to believe him. Common sense told them anything that good couldn’t possibly be made from the meat of a bear.

He also had hams made from the hind quarters.

Mealer advises people to cook bear meat similar to how pork meat is cooked. Bears and pigs are closely related, he points out.

When he was asked if he would shoot another bear, Mealer’s response was an emphatic yes.

“I’d shoot one just to get the sausage,” he said.The hunter may have solved a problem for

Pearl Dwarf of Wilsall.Dwarf had a visitor one September night last

year. It wasn’t the kind of visitor she was happy to see, though. The huge black bear seemed to be intent on entering her house. She was con-cerned because it was the biggest black bear she had ever seen. It would no doubt be power-ful enough to break down a door if it tried to. After the bear left, she was hoping it wouldn’t return.

It never did.

Bozeman man bags big bruinDr. Bill Mealer shot the black bear of a lifetime in Wilsall area

Photos courtesy of Bill MealerDr. Bill Mealer of Bozeman is pictured in these two photo-graphs after killing a big black bear in the Wilsall area.


Melville, Montana

“What are you doing shooting an elk this time of the year?”

That was a question a county highway worker asked Mike Miller, of Livingston, as he and his brother-in-law were driving on the East River Road March 22 with a cow elk in the back of their pickup.

When Miller explained that the elk was taken with a damage hunt permit, the worker then said, “You guys weren’t acting nervous at all, so you must either be legal or nuts.”

Miller had applied for an elk damage hunt permit in August 2012. He was notified on March 20, 2013, that he would be allowed to hunt on four adjoining ranches in Paradise Valley. Because he didn’t use his elk tag during the regular 2012 rifle hunting sea-son, he was allowed to use it on his March hunt.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks referred to the area as the “Mill Creek Elk Brucellosis Risk Dispersal Hunt Area.” Brucellosis is a disease that some elk have that can spread to cattle. It can cause infected animals to abort their fetuses. If several brucellosis infections are found in the cattle herds in one state, it can trigger sanc-tions that hamper livestock exports from that state.

Miller hunted that area for the first time on March 21. He could see a large herd of elk in an FWP-designated safe zone on the other side of a fence, where the elk were separate from cattle. Hunters in the damage hunt were not allowed to cross the fence to stalk the elk but could shoot from

the fence and then go in to retrieve their game.Miller knew then what he had to do.At daybreak the following morning, he was at that

fence. He saw some elk 350 yards away. After he had a solid rest for his .30-06 rifle, he squeezed off a shot.

The 165-grain bullet from the hand-loaded car-

tridge found its mark, and the elk went down.A rifleman who has had some experience shooting

at distant targets, Miller explained that the distance wasn’t intimidating. He has learned that many hunt-ers aim too high when big game animals must be shot from 300 yards and beyond. He said he aimed only two or three inches high when he shot the cow.

His custom loads are fairly “hot” because he puts in about one grain of powder less than the maximum that’s listed in his reloading book.

“She didn’t have much fat on her,” Miller said of the elk. She did not have a fetus, either.

Miller took the usual precautions to make sure the carcass was cooled as quickly as possible. He emphasized that the quality of the meat depends on how well it is cared for before the animal is butch-ered.

Miller had to convince one more skeptic that he shot the cow legally. When he called to ask a person at a wild game processing plant if they would take the elk, there was an awkward silence on the other end of the line. But after Miller explained that the cow was harvested with a damage hunt permit, the people at the processing plant were happy to take it.

Elk hunting in March:Mike Miller is pictured with the elk he bagged with his damage hunt permit on March 21 of this year. He said the meat from the cow was equally as good as meat from an elk shot during the fall rifle hunting season. He would know. He’s har-vested many elk over the years.Photo courtesy of Mike Miller

You’ve got to be kidding, right?


Fine dining the easy wayMany world renowned song

writers have written lyrics that have proven to be prophetic. The Ringling 5 (or 6 or 7) is a great example. The group, based in the Shields Valley, has entertained many local folks at various venues in Gallatin, Park and Sweet Grass coun-ties. Their song about eating meat from road-killed animals was prescient. The lyrics of the song go something like this: “We’ll have road kill for breakfast, we’ll have road kill for lunch. And every Sunday morning we’ll have road kill for brunch.”

Now that Montanans may legally harvest meat from road-killed deer and elk (careful, though, there are restrictions), it will change the way we live.

There will no doubt be a website where road kill connoisseurs can find the places most likely to find a mem-ber of the deer family that has had an unfortunate encounter with a vehicle. The site will also list many recipes for the meat of such critters.

And area wild game processors may now list their skills at butchering and cutting up creatures that people find dead along area roads.

You’ll find a question concerning road kill in this Quiz, along with other very relevant questions. As always, the Hunting Guide Quiz is on top of recent trends in hunting and matters that have to do with wildlife.

The Quiz comes with the usual warn-ings. Be prepared for blatant edito-rializing and sneaky, underhanded questions.

Special thanks to the brave people who have allowed their names to be used in the Quiz, even though anyone associated with the Quiz is bound to have his or her reputation sullied.

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

2.) Duck numbers in the U.S. were at historic highs during the 2012 water-fowl hunting season.

3.) The advantage of copper bullets,compared to lead bullets, is that cop-per projectiles don’t fragment on im-

pact nearly as readily as lead bullets.

4.) When it comes to pure accuracy, boat-tail bullets are inherently more accurate than flat-base bullets.

5.) If a bull elk breaks a tine after the tines have hardened, his rack will grow back normally the next year.

6.) In order to be properly called a carbine, a rifle must have a barrel length of 20 inches or less.

7.) The antelope population in Re-gion 7 is recovering from the disas-trous winter of 2009-2010.

8.) It is legal in Montana to use dogs to locate or recover wounded big game animals.

9.) Legislation to approve the use of silencers, or suppressors, for hunting rifles was introduced in the 2013 Mon-tana Legislature. The proposal passed.

10.) Civil charges may be filed fol-lowing the shooting death of a human that occurred during a hunt.

11.) Thanks to very light weight construction and small but powerful batteries, electronic calling devices are being used by more Montana elk hunters and guides every year.

12.) There are no rifle caliber restrictions for hunting big game in Montana, regardless of the type of firearm.

13.) Although bulls are usually light-er in hue than cows, elk are nearly identical in color all across the West.

14.) Rifle scopes that shine a very small red dot on a big game animal are illegal to use while hunting in Mon-tana.

15.) Porcupines may not be legally

shot by hunters. However, people who are lost in the forest are permitted to use them as an emergency food source. Since the animals don’t run very fast, they may hunt them down and kill them with a stout tree branch.

16.) It is legal to trap swift fox and wolverines in Montana, as long as the trapper has a valid trapper’s license.

17.) Hunters who wish to pursue mountain goats in Park County can’t complain. That’s because more goat hunting permits are available in Park County than in the rest of the state combined.

18.) Montana’s gray wolf population declined in 2012.

19.) Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks employs two full-time pilots.

20.) Big, healthy buck deer and bull elk should thank their fathers for be-ing prime specimens of their species.

21.) An aerial survey conducted this past winter indicated that The North-ern Yellowstone elk herd population was lower during the winter of 2013 than it was during the winter of 2012.

22.) Elk can become drug addicts.

23.) Synthetic rifle stocks need to be sighted in only once because synthetic materials don’t absorb moisture. The point of impact is always maintained as a result.

24.) It is legal to feed deer if they are inside city limits.

25.) Golden eagles are too intelligent to be caught in snares.

26.) Rep. Ted Washburn of Bozeman introduced a bill in the 2013 Legisla-ture that would have allowed the trap-ping of mountain lions.

27.) Cell phones have made it easier for two hunters who are far apart to keep in touch regarding movements of big game animals. Cell phones have improved a legal hunter’s chances of harvesting a big game animal.

28.) As long as the animal had died from natural causes, it is legal to possess the head and/or horns of a big-horn sheep that was found in the wild.

29.) You are required to return to the kill site if requested to do so by an FWP game warden.

30.) A hunter may legally shoot a trapped animal to end its discomfort even if he or she doesn’t possess a valid trapper’s license.

31.) Montana has more female hunt-ers, percentage wise, than most states in the U.S.

32.) Dogs are susceptible to heat stroke, which can be fatal. One of the signs of overheating is a cupped tongue that occurs when there is a “cup shape” at the end of the canine’s tongue.

33.) Hunters who try to sneak through the forest or prairie while attempting to get close enough for a shot at a big game animal may be frus-trated by some of the smallest forest creatures.

34.) Montana has more large carni-vores today than at any time since the 19th century.

35.) There were four cases of chron-ic wasting disease detected in elk that were taken by Montana hunters near Yellowstone National Park last hunt-ing season.

Enterprise photo by Jim Durfey

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See Answers, Page 16


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Enterprise photo by Jim DurfeyThis Gordon setter followed the scent of three dusky (blue) grouse for 200 yards as they fed along the forest floor in the Tom Miner Basin area on opening day of the upland bird hunting season. The dog and her master finally found the birds in a small meadow.

True/False answers1.) False. The building in the photo-

graph is the Region 3 Headquarters for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It’s located on South 19th Avenue in Boze-man. Hunters may go there to get infor-mation about hunting opportunities and lots of information.

2.) True. Waterfowl numbers were at historic highs last fall. The duck popula-tion was 43 percent above the long-term average dating back to 1955. Mallards were up 39 percent, redheads were up 89 percent and blue-winged teal were up 94 percent over the long-term aver-age. Bluebills (scaup) had the lowest increase — only 4 percent. With that many ducks in the air, a hunter’s decoys had an excellent chance of attracting waterfowl that were winging by.

3.) True. Copper is harder than lead, so bullets made of copper are more likely to remain intact than ones made of lead. This information was gleaned from the 2012 October/November issue of the New York State Conservationist, which is similar to Montana Outdoors.

4.) False. Flat-base bullets are inher-ently more accurate than boat-tails because it’s easier to make the base of a flat-base bullet perfectly square with

the sides of the bullet than it is to make boat-tails perfectly concentric. Your quiz concocter had believed just the opposite was true until he came across an article about this very subject in the January/February issue of Safari magazine, a publication of Safari Club International.

5.) True. If a bull elk breaks a tine after his rack has hardened, it will grow back normally the following year. But if an antler tine is damaged while it is covered in velvet, that tine will prob-ably grow abnormally — it may fork or sprout sticker points — for the remain-der of the bull’s life.

6.) False. Winchester’s 1886 carbine had a 22-inch barrel, and a carbine used by the Confederates in the Civil War — the .58 caliber Richmond — had a 25-inch barrel. In the 1840s, a rifle with a barrel length of 33 inches was consid-ered to be short.

7.) True. Although antelope numbers are increasing in Region 7, they are 50 percent below the long-term average. The herds are still recovering from the harsh winter of 2009-10, which had a devastating effect on the antelope popu-lation.

See True/False Answers, Page 18


Enterprise photo by Jim DurfeyAttendee David Guimond, right, of Roundup, talks with exhibitor Larry Michaelson as Michaela Bigham, 16, of Emigrant, pets one of Michaelson’s three dogs at the Bozeman Gun Show, held at the Gallatin County Fair-grounds on March 10. Michaelson said the three dogs often attract people to his tables. He said people he sees again and again as he travels the “gun show circuit” remember his dogs’ names but not necessarily his. He’s holding a lhasa apso, named Monkey, while Shadow, a gray lhasa apso/Shih tzu cross, and Radar, a Chihuahua/papillon cross stand on the glass tabletop. Bigham is a family friend who has earned the title “the official dog walker.”

8.) True. Dogs may not be used to hunt big game animals in Montana, other than mountain lions. But dogs may be used to recover or locate wounded big game animals. This information was taken from Page 14 of FWP’s 2013 deer, elk and antelope regulations.

9.) False. Although legislation was introduced to approve the use of sup-pressors — or silencers — in Montana, the bill was defeated. The 2013 FWP regulations state, “The possession of firearms with silencers while afield is illegal.”

10.) True. A 16-year-old boy was killed by a hunting companion in October of 2010. The parents of the victim have filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against both of his hunting companions.

11.) False. The use of recorded or electrically amplified game calls is il-legal while hunting in Montana.

12.) False. A muzzleloader must be a minimum of .45 caliber in Weapons Restriction Areas.

13.) False. Elk vary in color from al-most chocolate to lemony white. Their coloration depends to a large degree on their environment.

14.) True. Scope makers have come

up with battery and/or solar powered scopes that shine a small red dot on a target. These scopes are legal in some areas. But FWP regulations state, “It is illegal for anyone to take or attempt to take any game animal or game bird with the aid of projected artificial light.”

15.) False. A porcupine is consid-ered to be a non-game species in Mon-tana. All non-game species may be hunted year-round without a hunting license by both residents and non-res-idents. So if you have a friend in Idaho who hunts with beagles, you could invite him to Montana for a cottontail rabbit hunt. Neither one of you would have to purchase a hunting license to hunt cottontails.

16.) True. Montana is one of the few states where trapping wolverines is still possible in limited areas.

17.) True. If one counts the total number of mountain goat hunting per-mits that are available outside Park County in the 2013 FWP moose, goat and sheep regulations, the number is 139. Park County boasts 153 permits, although some of the hunting districts do include parts of other counties. Hunting District 313 in the Crazy Mountains, for example, incudes Park and Sweet Grass counties.

See True/False answers, Page 19

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Answers from Page 18

18.) True. Montana’s wolf popula-tion declined 4 percent last year after hunting opportunities were expanded following the legalization of wolf trap-ping. Wolves always bring controver-sy with them, however. Many people objected to the trapping of wolves. Trapping opponents got fodder for their cause when several dogs in Park County and elsewhere got caught in wolf traps.

19.) True. FWP employs two full-time and three part-time pilots. Most of their flight time involves wildlife population surveys.

20.) False. The health of mother deer and elk, along with the condi-tion of their habitat, are what make healthy fawns and calves, which grow up to be big bucks and bulls.

21.) True. A group that calls itself The Northern Yellowstone Coopera-tive Wildlife Working Group counted 6 percent fewer elk this past winter than it did during the winter of 2012. Three airplanes were used in the survey. Staff members of FWP and the National Park Service conducted the survey.

22.) True. When habitat conditions are poor, elk may eat plants that are bad for them. White locoweed is one of these. It contains an addictive chemical. Elk that eat locoweed may become clumsy, lethargic and even blind. Some elk may die from eating the plant.

23.) False. Although synthetic rifle stock material doesn’t absorb mois-ture, it does move with changes in temperature, which can affect a bul-let’s point of impact.

24.) False. Park County game war-den Drew Scott had to give warnings to four Park County residents this past spring who were feeding deer. Deer that are fed by humans may stop relying on their normal food source. Young deer may not learn how to forage for their own food if they get regular handouts from humans.

25.) False. Two golden eagles got caught in snares in Sweet Grass Coun-ty in February. Another was caught in a snare near Ringling. Eagles are frequently injured when entrapped by snares. Two of the birds that were caught in snares died, but one is un-dergoing rehabilitation at the Montana Raptor Conservation Center.

See Answers, Page 20


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True/False Answers, from Page 18

26.) True. The legislator’s bill to allow trapping of mountain lions in Montana prompted 20 houndsmen from Ravalli County to show up in Helena to protest the bill. Hounds-men harvest most of the mountain lions in Montana, so they weren’t very happy with Washburn’s moun-tain lion trapping bill. The bill did not pass a House vote.

27.) False. It is illegal to use any type of two-way communi-cation device to hunt big game animals in Montana, including cell phones.

28.) False. It is illegal to possess a bighorn sheep head or bighorn sheep horns picked up in the wild.

29.) True. You must show the kill site if requested to do so by an FWP game warden.

30.) False. Hunters may not legally shoot trapped animals.

31.) True. The percentage of Montana hunters who are female is 14, while the U.S. average is 9.

32.) True. Dogs are most likely to suffer heat stroke, which can be fatal, if they hunt in hot tem-peratures, they are overweight, and they are not conditioned or acclimated to their surround-ings — to a high elevation, for example.

33.) True. Red squirrels, lazuli buntings and even prairie dogs are adept at giving warning signals that alert big game animals to the approach of a predator.

34.) True. Mountain lion popula-tions in the state are healthy. There are about 13,000 black bears in Montana, and grizzly bears are more abundant than at any time in the last century. There are at least 625 wolves in Montana, as well. This information was taken from the September/October 2013 issue of Montana Outdoors.

35.) False. Chronic wasting disease has never been detected in free-ranging deer, elk or moose in Montana.

See Multiple Choice questions, Page 21


Ritt Bradshaw, of Huntley, left, and his friend Broc Tefertiller, of Hardin, share a laugh as they admire a rifle Bradshaw bought at the Livingston Gun Show on Feb. 3 at the Park County Fairgrounds. The rifle is a Winchester 1890 .22 WRF pump model with an octagon barrel that looks similar to the .22 rifles that were popular in shooting galleries years ago. A gun collector, Bradshaw estimated the firearm was manufactured around 1906.



Multiple choice question No. 1.) This man is making a projectile point from a piece of obsidian with a method called: A. Rock flaking B. Stone chipping C. Arrowhead flaking D. Flint knapping E. Arrowhead chipping.

Multiple Choice questionsTo begin the Multiple Choice portion

of the Quiz, please refer to the caption under the photograph on this page:

2.) The percentage of Montana elk hunters who take a six point or bigger bull is:

A. 4 percentB. 9 percentC. 12 percentD. 17 percentE. Zero percent because all the big

bulls have moved to North Dakota to get away from the wolves

3.) The length of a mature wolf’s paw is:

A. 3.5 inchesB. 4.5 inchesC. 6 inchesD. 7.5 inchesE. Can’t be measured because a wolf

can expand and contract its paws

4.) The largest wild feline in the U.S. may be referred to as:

A. Puma, mountain lion, cougarB. Puma, mountain lion, cougar,

painter, panther, catamountC. Mountain lion, cougarD. A deer’s best friendE. A human’s best friend

5.) The amount of land the state of Montana currently has in conservation easements is:

A. 200,000 square acres

B. 750,000 square acresC. 1 million square acresD. 1.5 million square acresE. 2.11 million square acres

6.) Of these five, the big game ani-mal that has migrated the farthest in Montana is:

A. Mule deerB. MooseC. Pronghorn antelopeD. ElkE. Big Horn Sheep

7.) The most important factor in elk calf survival is:

A. Birth weightB. Quality of its hiding place when it

is first bornC. Vigorousness of its fatherD. Its survival instinctE. The number of cow elk in its

herd, which provide protection from predators

8.) Hunters must not waste the meat of the following big game animals:

A. Deer and elkB. Deer, elk and antelopeC. Deer, elk, antelope, goat, sheep

and mooseD. Deer, elk, antelope, goat, sheep,

moose and bearE. Deer, elk, antelope, goat, sheep,

moose, bear and mountain lion

See Multiple Choice questions, Page 22

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Multiple Choice questions, from Page 21

10.) Poachers in Montana must pay restitution for illegally taken wildlife. The following is the restitution for an illegally taken bighorn sheep:

A. $15,000B. $20,000C. $25,000D. $30,000E. $1 million

11.) It is unlawful to transport any part of the spinal column or the whole head from a deer, elk or moose to the following states and/or prov-inces from Montana:

A. Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota and Alberta

B. Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alberta and Saskatchewan

C. Wyoming, Idaho and WashingtonD. Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and

AlbertaE. Wyoming, Idaho and all Canadian

provinces

12.) The following bills were intro-duced into the 2013 Montana Legis-lature:

A. A bill to allow hunters to pur-chase up to three wolf licenses

B. A bill to allow people to harvest road-killed animals

C. A bill to allow landowners to do a number of things to remove wild bison from their property, including shooting them

D. A bill that would allow children as young as 9 years old to hunt big game

E. All of the above

13.) Every year the Wild Sheep Federation auctions off a Montana bighorn sheep hunting tag. This year the tag brought:

A. $250,000B. $300,000C. $400,000D. $480,000E. $1 million

14.) The main reason people stop hunting for good is:

A. The loss of access, real and per-ceived

B. Old ageC. Financial hardshipD. Loss of a hunting partnerE. The ability of TV viewers to

watch every NFL game

15.) The following creatures helped cause the decline of the elk population in Yellowstone National Park:

A. WolverinesB. BobcatsC. Civet catsD. CoyotesE. Lake trout

See Multiple Choice answers below

1.) D. In the photo, Ray Alt of Liv-ingston is using a stone to remove pieces of obsidian to shape a projec-tile point. The process is called flint knapping. Alt gave a demonstration in September at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County.

2.) A. If you know anyone who thinks that taking a six-point or big-ger bull elk is easy, you can disabuse him or her of that notion by showing him or her this statistic. It’s not easy to harvest an elk every year, let alone a big bull. Elk hunters who have pur-sued the critters for years know that any elk is a good elk, though.

3.) B. The length of a Labrador retriever’s paw is 3 inches, for com-parison. If you picked E, you’ve been letting your imagination run wild when it comes to the gray wolf. They are efficient predators but they aren’t magical.

4.) B. If you picked D you haven’t spent much time in the wild. A young friend of mine and I were looking for scavenger hunt items on Wineglass Mountain south of Livingston one summer when we came across a mule deer doe that had been killed

moments before by a mountain lion. The cat had eaten only a small part of the deer’s shoulder and lower neck. I took the child’s hand and we backed away from the kill site slowly, after she tried to run from it. I explained that that behavior might trigger an attack response if the cougar was still nearby.

5.) E. The more acres there are in conservation easements in Montana, the happier hunters should be. They are an effective way to preserve wildlife habitat. They typically limit certain kinds of development on the property involved in exchange for a cash payment and a tax break.

6.) C. Antelope have been known to travel 350 miles during a winter migration. Most antelope don’t have to migrate, however. They can find adequate food by simply moving about in their home territory.

7.) A. A calf elk’s birth weight is the most important factor for its surviv-al. That is essentially a reflection of how well nourished the calf’s mother was before and during her pregnancy. Elk calves are vulnerable to preda-tion by grizzly bears, black bears,

mountain lions, wolves and coyotes.

8.) D. While it’s not illegal to waste the meat of a mountain lion that’s legally taken by a hunter, that is iron-ic. People who have sampled moun-tain lion meat often say it’s some of the best wild game meat they’ve ever tasted. The human brain can’t fathom that, for some reason. But your quiz author was given some cougar meat by the publisher of the Meagher County News many years ago. It was fabulous.

9.) E. This question is proof that the person who made up this quiz will stoop so low that ants look down on him. Believe it or not, this informa-tion was taken from Page 15 of the 2013 FWP deer, elk and antelope hunt-ing regulations. Predators may be hunted 12 months out of the year. No license is required. This tidbit might open up hunting opportunities for some people. If a person may legally hunt predators all year long, many people who take this quiz will proba-bly start hunting for striped skunks and spotted skunks since they also can be hunted year-round and a per-son doesn’t need a hunting license to pursue them. It’s safe to assume that

head shots are desirable when har-vesting skunks.

10.) D. There are various fines for different types of trophy big game animals in Montana. Bighorn sheep, moose and mountain goat — any size and either sex — is subject to the res-titution regulation. But elk, antelope, mule deer and white-tailed deer only qualify if they meet certain trophy standards.

11.) B. In spite of the fact that chronic wasting disease has never been detected in any free-ranging deer, elk or moose in Montana, there are 17 states and two Canadian prov-inces that prohibit bringing certain parts of a deer, elk or moose’s carcass from Montana across their borders. Idaho is not one of them, though.

12.) E. The bill to allow hunters to purchase three wolf tags passed, as did the road kill bill. It won’t be long before a recipe book devoted exclu-sively to preparing road-killed meat will make its debut.

See Multiple Choice answers Page 23

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Multiple Choice answers, from Page 18

13.) D. If you read last year’s Hunting Guide, you might recall that a man featured in a sheep hunting article told The Enterprise that the “Breaks” was the place to hunt bighorn rams. “It’s literally the best area in the world today,” Kris Killorn said. That might explain why a hunt-er was willing to pay $480,000 for a tag. It might also be an indication that some people have too much money for their own good.

14.) A. According to an article in the July/August 2013 issue of Bugle, the magazine of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the loss of ac-cess for hunters is the main reason for declining hunter participation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a survey that found out a disturbing fact: 23 percent of American hunters had lost access to places they had hunted just the year before.

15.) E. Lake trout helped cause a change in the diet of Yellowstone Park’s grizzly bears that adversely affected elk numbers. Lake trout dev-astated the population of native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake. There are no longer “runs” of huge numbers of spawning cutthroat trout in the streams that enter Yellowstone Lake. Instead of feasting on spawning cutthroats each spring, bears started feeding more heavily on newborn elk calves. If you guessed the answer to this question was civet cat, you must be new to this area. They don’t live here.

If one of these bulls disappears in the forest after you wound it severely, is it legal to use a dog to find it? For the answer, refer to the true or false portion of the Hunting Guide Quiz, which begins on Page 15.


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