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70 YEARS AGO • OCTOBER 30, 1950

HUNTING NEWS

Official returns from the two checking stations, maintained by the Montana Fish and Game Commission, located at Little Thompson River and on the Cherry Creek road, reveal the following number of big game animals killed to date.

In the Thompson River doe area 146 does, 25 bucks and 3 bear were checked through the station up to and including Saturday, October 21, the last day that this area was open legally to the hunting of antlerless deer. In the Cherry Creek Game Preserve up to October 24 a total of 36 elk, 13 mule deer and 3 bear were taken by a total of 629 hunters checking into the area. The elk count includes a few that were gotten in the cow area south of Plains.

Many hunters are finding that getting their elk on the preserve is not the cinch they thought it to be. The animals are now well scattered due to the heavy hunting pressure. It is a rare occasion that you will find one out in the open, most of them are in the brushiest of thickets and will not come out unless stumbled upon and forced to do so.

50 YEARS AGO • NOVEMBER 5, 1970

Sanders County has produced through the years, 16 big game animals recorded in the state’s trophy records to 1969. The largest elk recorded was a bull taken by Albert Sales and Vic Stobie in 1931 on Richard’s Peak, with a score of 378 inches. Sales and his brother, Gordon, were early ranchers in the upper Thompson River country, as was Stobie. The big elk head now is hung at the Paradise camp on Highway 2.

47 YEARS AGO • NOVEMBER 15, 1973

ELK KILL HEAVY FOLLOWING STORM

Last week’s snowstorm caused elk to move into the valleys and hunters have lost no time in capitalizing on the advantage given them by the deep snow.

A large number of kills, although no exact totals are known, resulted. Game Warden Gene Sara reported Monday night that hunting success for elk has been extremely good in the Demont Creek area, much of the Prospect Creek drainage and the Dry Creek area.

One camp on Demont Creek (up by Thompson Pass) had six elk kills. Some reports had the camp connecting on as many as 18 kills. A camp of Plains hunters on Little Thompson River bagged about a dozen deer, including seven “nice whitetail bucks,” according to Sara.

The deep snow arriving last week while the either sex elk season was still on, caused the elk to move out of the high country to lower elevations. This concentrated them. In addition, the snow aided tracking by hunters.

A traffic jam resulting from the snow on the Dry Creek road last week proved to be a happy one for Bob Clark and Mrs. Marguerite Rogers. They were driving up the Dry Creek road when they reached another pair of hunters struck in the snow with their vehicle blocking traffic. While the stuck hunters were installing chains, Clark spotted a band of six elk high on the mountain side.

The four hunters each connected with the two parties getting three cows and a calf.

The big game general hunting season continues through Sunday, Nov. 25. However, only bulls are legal game in Sanders County now.

Deer hunting success, according to most reports has been higher this fall than in several years.

Hunters reported seeing elk in bunches. One group of about 20 animals was seen in the Dry Creek area and another of 17 below Mt. Silcox.

One hunter Thursday shot 19 times at a cow and calf and ran out of ammunition before the animals started running.

Some sportsmen expressed concern for the heavy kill, while others did not.