Opening Weekend Success for Youngsters: Captain’s Column 10.27.16
By angelamontana

Posted: October 27, 2016

bull15The opening of the general rifle season in Montana for deer and elk took place last weekend. There was plenty of game harvested by hunters all across Montana last Saturday but two post on montanaoutdoor.com caught my eye as young hunters were successful opening day. The first story was about a 13 year-old Josie Kolstad from Glasgow. She bagged her first elk Saturday and it was a bull. Shooting a bull elk is always special for any hunter but when it is accomplished by a 13 year old hunter it is even more impressive. Josie was helped by her brother Jake and her dad Jon. Jake who is going to school at Montana State traveled from Bozeman to Glasgow on Friday and arrived home at 11:30pm. From there the trio took off and traveled by boat on Fort Peck Reservoir and arrived at their hunting camp at 2:30 in the morning. After a short night sleep they were up at 5 so they could start what ended up being a 2 mile hike where they found elk. After Josie filled her tag they packed the elk out and got back home by midnight.

mouaThen there is 13 year old Dimarcus Moua from Frenchtown who was with his dad Leng and family friend Mike Violette. Dimarcus ended up shooting his 6×6 bull elk by 8am on opening day. Here is how Violette described the hunting experience, “We rode up on horses and got off. Pretty dark so we sat around for a few minutes and I look across to the ridge a couple hundred yards and think hmm that looks elky. Pull up the binos and sure enough there they are. Way to dark to see antlers so we keep watching. They work up the ridge and we watch them cross and we still can’t see antlers. So we run about 400 yards to get to where we want to set up. Dimarcus and I wait in a saddle where we can see the herd of elk real good. All of a sudden here they come I let out a cow call and the bull stops and stands broadside at 100 yards and I tell Dimarcus to give it to him and Boom! After the shot the elk move so we run over the side of the hill and here comes the cows followed by the bull. I start cow calling again and the bull stops and Dimarcus shoots two him more times. Leng knew the bull was down and went to get the horses. Dimarcus and I made our way over to where we thought the bull might be and found him dead. It was an Awesome feeling”.

Violette, who has a great time helping friends and kids hunt by calling and packing out animals, couldn’t have summed up the hunting experience any better for the young hunter. It truly is awesome when young hunters experience their first successful hunt. Even though harvesting an animal is the goal the most important thing that parents and friends like Violette give to the young hunters is the thrill and rush they get leading up to the first shot. There truly isn’t anything quite like a hunting trip, from when you leave home to packing the animal out. You may view the two bull elk harvested by these young hunters on montanaoutdoor.com.

(Written by the Captain – aka Mark Ward) 

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