Hungry Horse news and Columbian. [volume] (Columbia Falls, Mont.) 1946-1948, 1947-10-24
Weather Break Encourages Elk Hunters

Hunters after big game Friday
became more enthusiastic with the
advent of blue skies.
Game may be harder to find, but
the gray and rainy weather of the
past week discouraged men from
venturing far from hunting camps.
Bert Coan and Norm Herbkers-
man, special deputy game ward
ems at the Hungry Horse creek
checking station, Friday at 9 m
reported a total of ITO hunters had
gone up the South Fork after elk.
GA hunters had already come out
with ITO elk including SIS bulls, As
cows and 10 calves. Also shot were
grizzlies, Z black bear and four
mountain goat during the Octob-
er Is to 10 season.
A year ago October had blue skies
at the start of hunting season, and
during the first nine days 1874 elk
were shot up the South Fork with
$50 hunters in the area.
Total elk kill for the South Fork
last year was 1888 with about
half the hunters bringing back
meat. A total of 1885 elk were shot
in the whole FIathead area.
All Get Their Elk
Thursday, a party of four Kalis-
pell men, Henry Kind, B w Snow,
H c and Cary Everhart, came out
of the South Fork with four elk,
three grizzly and one black bear.
They had established camp October
IL at the headwaters of Spotted
Bear river, about SO miles from
roads end.
Three generations of the Roberts
family of Creston and Kalispell
came out Wednesday with an elk
each. They were Grandfather w B.
Henry, Kenneth, Raymond and Or
vile. They found their game near
Pioneer ridge.
Ezra Birky, Columbia Falls, on
opening day of the hunting season,
October Is, encountered 500
pound grizzly on Spotted Bear
mountain. He brought out prime
silvertip pelt and from ear tip to
ear tip the measurement was IA
inches.
Six of the ten moose allotted this
year for shooting up the North
Fork have been reported shot. Joe
Opalka, Columbia Falls, and John
Castles, forest service district ran
ger, found their game near Moran
last Saturday afternoon. Joe shot
two-year-old bull that dressed
out at 800 pounds, and Castles an
old bull. The next day, going after
the meat, Ranger Castles was
freed by another bull moose.
Fast Fly the Rumors az
Rumors have had wounded or
killed hunters up each of the Flat
heads three forks. Virgil "Stub"
Eastman, forest service ranger. is
now recovering in a Missoula hos
pital, after being mistaken for s.
deer last Sunday at $3.50 p m in the
primitive Big Prairie district. Ira
Lee, Missoula, saw something move
in the brush and fired. It was East
man, who received stomach
wound.
Another incident occurred last
Friday near Spotted Bear. A COW
elk was being loaded on one of A
] French's Wilderness Pack Trail
horses. A shot rang out and the
pack horse fell dead. 1t was an elk,
but there happened to be a horse
underneath. The horse slayer was
not apprehended.
Among the men to get their game
early were A L McShane, Robert
Jay Buzzell, all of Cor
I'M, and Tom and Bob Sloan, of
lake Five and Bolton. Each had an
Tx by noon of the opening day,
md found their game between Co.
am and Bolton toward the Emor--.
reek headwaters.
Returning Thursday night to
Columbia Falls from Pentagon
reek up the South Fork were
he last of the Tom and Bill Lee,
on Mansfield, Andy Lawrence,
rancis Everin and P T Smith
Y party. All men got their elk.