Elk Hunting in North Dakota

Here are several pics worth looking at. There are more pics on the following pages.

There is a magnificent bull elk in this pic. Click on it for a better view

We saw this beautiful bull on Oct 18. Dave was less than 100 yards from him. Leigh and I jumped 4 bulls - we crept over the ridge and they were only about 50 yards below us. Pics of them in week 2.

mountain lion track - click on the pic for a better view

The first day of hunting on the Killdeer Mountain Wildlife Management Area Leigh saw a mountain lion. I never saw it but he said it was less than 50 yards from me. The second weekend we were walking through the bottom of a deep canyon when we came upon fresh cougar tracks. It must have been right in front of us - the track is fresh and you can see the claws.

Once in a Lifetime North Dakota Elk Hunt

Also known as finding a needle in a haystack.

by Leroy Jacobs

My son, Leigh, and I were fortunate (thank you God!) enough to each draw a once-in-a-lifetime elk tag in North Dakota for the fall of 2009. North Dakota boasts a sizeable elk herd and residents can get but one tag in their lifetime. Competition for the tags is fierce so getting a tag is almost a miracle. For both of us to get drawn for the same year makes me think it was an act of God. Apparently the competition for "cow only" tags in not nearly as stiff as the competition for "any elk" tags. For 2009 there were 575 tags issued and we got two of them! Is that a God-thing or what? Approximately 14,000 people applied for those 575 tags.

Our hunt really began back in the spring when we submitted our applications. After some discussion we decided to apply for cows. Our thinking was that the probability of getting an “any elk” tag was almost zero and we would probably spend the rest of our lives never getting drawn. We had already applied for about 10 years and had never been drawn. Since a cow tag is better than no tag we chose to submit applications for “cow only” tags.

The hunt began in earnest in June when we received letters from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department that we had been drawn. We were very surprised to both get drawn. Suddenly we had work to do. Leigh is left-handed and his deer rifle is a .25-06 – a bit small for elk. Since this needed to be a low-budget hunt we began looking for used left-hand rifles. We found a .270 that we purchased from a private party for a reasonable price. However, when we went to the range to sight it in we found that the scope was bad. Back to the store to buy a new scope. Suddenly the price of a used rifle was almost the same as a new one. So much for the low-budget hunt.

Since we had never hunted elk before we were short of equipment. We needed ammo that would suffice for elk. For the .280 we settled on some 150 grain Nosler partitions; for the .270 we purchased some 150 grain Winchester XP3. I also purchased a Wyoming saw and a GPS. Since we would be hunting country we had never seen before I figured a GPS would be a necessity. $400 later we left the store.

Then we started scouting. In all we made 5 trips into the Killdeer – Watford City areas. We met some wonderful landowners who were very willing to allow us to hunt. Several of them even called us after season started to let us know they had seen elk. If possible, I wanted to hunt private land for several reasons. One is that we were scouting on public land during archery season and there were lots of bow hunters afield. I figured they might have the elk spooked off the public land. Also, I assumed there would be plenty of hunters on the public land who would spook the elk to the private land. The other reason for private land is because most of the landowners I talked to gave permission to drive onto their property to retrieve the elk (one cannot leave the roads with a vehicle on public land). Several even offered to use their horses/4-wheelers/tractors to assist. One even said he would come and retrieve it for us if we got one. All the landowners who gave permission to hunt also told us where we would most likely find elk on their property. I cannot stress how cooperative the landowners were.

As a side note though, elk are very destructive animals. They compete with domestic livestock for forage. They will run through fences; they get into hay; in the late summer and fall they ravage corn crops. Elk love corn. Farmers hate to see elk in their corn.

One weekend while scouting we climbed to the Medicine Hole in the Killdeer Mountains. Wow, what a view. It is well worth the hike just for the beauty of the view (click here for pics of the mountain). We talked to several landowners who were anxious to have us harvest elk in the area. We didn’t see any elk but did see some tracks. Several landowners in the area have corn – elk love corn.

Another weekend we were southeast of Watford City in the area where Cherry Creek flows into the Little Missouri River. Awesome scenery (click here for pics). We saw lots of elk droppings in this area but no actual elk.

The season started on Friday, October 2. On October 1 a landowner called to let me know that he had spotted 18 cows/calves and 5 bulls – one huge herd bull and 4 satellite bulls. The rut was just getting over. We could not hunt opening weekend because Leigh had to work. Monday evening another landowner called to let me know that he had spotted 3 elk on his property – one was an 8x8 bull. The other two were a cow and calf. When he spooked them the cow and calf jumped the fence; the bull ran through it breaking the top two strands of barbed wire (one of the reasons landowners like to thin the herd).

Much time was spent making a list of all the stuff I had to bring (rope, ice, licenses, etc). I don’t know how many times I checked and rechecked the list; and then checked to ensure I had everything on the list.

Finally. October 10 we left Bismarck about 5:00 AM so we would arrive at the Killdeer Mountain Wildlife Management Area about sunup. We had permission to hunt private land but it had been raining and snowing for several days. I did not want to make big ruts in his property. Therefore we decided to hunt public land. As it turned out the ground was frozen so I could have hunted the private land.

Click here for the events of the first weekend of hunting.

Click here for the second weekend of hunting.

Success - the end of the hunt.

Thanks.