![]() “It was wild, especially since it was what traditionally is not the elk rut,” said Burtness. In time, a second band of elk with another herd bull showed, and the two herd bulls got into the most vicious elk battle Burtness ever witnessed. My two pals Rick Froehlich and Jack Lengyel decided to leave for town, eat lunch, then come back and deer hunt.”īurtness hiked to a high spot and checked on the herd of about 20 elk that included several bulls, including a sizable herd bull. I stopped and glassed them and decided to hike near where they were and see if there were any good bulls. “We decided to drive to town for a bite of lunch in our two vehicles, and on the way I spotted a small elk herd. “We saw no elk, and some nice deer, but about mid-day we decided to hike out, warm up in our vehicles, and watch the weather,” says Burtness. There were several inches of snow already on the ground and it was beginning to blow. They started hiking and glassing for game in the cold, windy weather. Burtness met a pair of friends who had reservation deer tags. 19, 2020, was the first heavy snow to blast North Dakota that fall. Most of the time he hunted solo, though occasionally friends tagged along. Other days he left at noon and hunted until the end of legal shooting light. His daily hunts all started from his home in Bismarck, sometimes leaving his house at 3 a.m., returning about mid-day. 28, and hunted 22 consecutive days before finally pulling the trigger. He started rifle hunting the reservation Sept. This made Burtness more dedicated to tagging a trophy bull. When he returned to hunt the reservation, a few bulls already had been taken by other lottery hunters. 300 Weatherby, necked down to 7mm, shooting 160-grain Spitzer bullets.īut Burtness missed the rifle opener because he was out of town on business. Burtness had been in elk during bow season, so he thought his chances were good to find another shooter bull. ![]() I would have been happy with a 350-inch bull with my bow, but it just didn’t happen.”Įlk gun season opened Sept. “I missed some good elk opportunities with my bow, and saw one huge bull, but just couldn’t get a good shot. ![]() “I bowhunted the reservation four times and located several nice bulls,” he said. 1, 2020, he had a good idea of where the bulls where and how to hunt them. When the reservation archery elk season opened Sept. He also networked with other experienced reservation hunters, ranchers, and landowners. Jason Burtness photoīurtness spent the summer scouting hard. Elk Season Begins Jason Burtness with his 440-inch North Dakota non-typical bull. The hunters are also not allowed to hike onto private property. Lottery hunters must use a mapping application on their phone to confirm animals are located in places they are allowed to hunt. Unlike some reservations, Standing Rock has private land interspersed throughout much of it. From a high spot hunters can glass for miles. The reservation is made up of rolling hills and rocky ridges-it’s tough prairie country. The reservation’s elk herd is small in number (only three Trophy Bull Lottery Tags were made available for the 2021 season), but it has several quality bulls on it, as well as other game, such as deer and antelope, hunters can enter a lottery for. He lives two hours from the reservation, so he could dedicate the long hours of scouting and hunting needed to take a bull from the small elk population on the sprawling and rugged Standing Rock. hunter had been trying for years to score an elk tag, and he was excited about the opportunity to chase one of the giant bulls known to roam the well-managed reservation.īurtness is a native of North Dakota and lifelong hunter, who owns the Rocky Mountain Antler Company with wife, Jorja. Jason Burtness, 51, knew how lucky he was in the spring of 2020 when he drew a non-resident non-member elk tag to hunt North Dakota’s Standing Rock Reservation, which straddles the North and South Dakota state line.
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