But a kid’s first deer hunt, walking the woods with Dad (or Mom, of course), resting his rifle on a log and squeezing off that shaky first shot-that’s pretty special, too. “Git yer elk?” may be the most common phrase uttered in western Montana between Labor Day and Christmas-assent means a full freezer and a proud, happy hunter, and is usually followed by an animated narration of the chase. A cabernet-colored elk backstrap the size of your arm grilled over an open fire? Nothing compares. Elk meat, on the other hand, has converted more vegetarians than bacon. But mule-deer meat is unforgiving, with the slightest mistake leading to a gamey taste that can turn a person off forever. Plus, you get the satisfaction of securing your own sustenance, binding you to the land and to the ancient dynamic of predator and prey. It’s also just as healthy and eco-friendly as any overpriced free-range, organic, all-natural, cellophane-wrapped hunk of beef you’d pick up, with a side of pretense, at the Co-op. When properly handled, from field to table, deer and elk meat is clean, lean, and delicious. But the massive expanse of a six-point bull’s antlers-this indelible icon of Montana touches something primal and impresses all who behold it. Which makes sense, as it’s not the size of the rack, it’s how you use it. A big muley rack is impressive indeed, and if you’re using antlers to decorate your yard or make home-wares, the smaller, rounder whitetail racks are the way to go. No, not that rack, you perv, but the rack of antlers that will adorn your living room, man cave, or fencepost. But the bleats, grunts, and groans of a rutting deer sound like flatulence compared to the haunting bugle of a bull elk. There’s something undeniably special about hearing the calls of a sexed-up deer or elk. So is sitting on a bluff with a friend or family member, scanning distant hillsides for mule deer, plotting your approach over cowboy coffee and dutch-oven biscuits. But creeping ninja-like through a cottonwood forest in search of whitetail, scanning for the slightest movement: a tail-twitch here, an ear-flick there-that’s pretty cool, too. With a shrill cry, half-ton frame, and massive rack-we’re talking about bull elk here, not your mother-in-law-nothing else approaches the intensity of the elk-hunting experience. We’ll take the entirety of Montana over a single piece. Timeless vistas extend in all directions, harkening to the days of Charlie Russell and Teddy “the Bear” Roosevelt. In the other two-thirds of Montana, among the coulees and eroded draws of the open prairie, a hunter can stalk to his heart’s delight and take home as many deer as he has tags. But this selfsame high country holds mule deer, and the river-bottoms below it teem with whitetail. Rugged mountains, picturesque alpine meadows, endless forests-this is the wild and beautiful domain of the wapiti. But what species reigns supreme? Of the two most commonly hunted-deer and elk-which is the worthier? Let’s find out. Come fall, those hunters’ dreams become reality. Hunters take it a step further, fantasizing about the hunt, the kill, the quartering, the cooking, and-perhaps best of all-the amazing wild country in which these animals live. We scour the hillsides for them while hiking, dodge them on the roads, and sometimes just stop and stare as a herd moves across the land. Here in Montana, majestic ungulates occupy our imaginations-not to mention our freezers-year-round.
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