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Eric Schmautz and his father, Wayne Schmautz, share a number of hunting memories, but a recent hunt in which they each harvested their first archery elk, one within shouting distance of the other, has risen to the top of that list.

The two Mandan men hunted Montana public land in September, having secured tags in a limited-draw area. They’d been on waterfowl hunts, trapped together and been on other hunting trips for deer, antelope and moose. Eric started applying for the elk tags when Wayne told him he had another hunt in mind.

“I told him if there’s anything I want to do in my lifetime, it’s go shoot an elk with my bow,” Wayne said.

Getting the tags was the easy part. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks numbers for 2018 show 29,082 archery hunters harvested 3,948 elk -- a success rate of about 13.5%.

Eric, 32, put in some hunting time midmonth in what he called “badland-ish” country but was unsuccessful in filling his tag. On Sept. 18, he and his father went back together and had the same lack of luck for several days. Their plan on Sept. 24 was to come home that night, elk or no elk. A friend gave them some options for locations that might produce elk.

“We just decided we’re going to go to this one spot and we’ll see what happens,” Eric said.