The last time Luke Boswell and Doug heard the muffled crunch of the frost-covered grasses was late last fall. It’s a sound they welcome almost as much as the adrenaline-inducing whoosh of flushed birds taking to the air. It is not a stretch to say Luke enjoys almost every single thing about hunting birds in eastern Montana. It is not an exaggeration to say Doug, his German wirehaired pointer, enjoys every single thing 10 times as much. At least that’s how Luke puts it. “When I got into bird hunting, I thought it was all about the hunting. In reality, it's equally as much about a partnership with an animal, you know, your best friend, really.”
Luke lives in Bozeman and designs outdoor gear for a living. The rest of the time, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find him in Missouri River Country chasing birds.
“I put 20,000 miles a year on my truck just driving to eastern Montana to hunt birds. It's just that feeling, especially this time of year, of being out in the open and exploring the vastness and openness. There’s nothing like it.”
Originally from Idaho, Luke has lived all around the world. Working his way back to Montana felt like the fit he was looking for. Discovering the eastern part of the state opened a whole new world. “The prairie is one of my favorite things about Montana — the juxtaposition between the mountains we have and the prairie out here is extraordinary. The main reason I like bird hunting is it allows me to explore eastern Montana in particular.”
Talk to anyone who has fallen for the open rangeland of eastern Montana and you hear some common themes — mostly the sense that all it took was a little time to get to know something others have simply bypassed. “I recommend that people spend time here. It's such a beautiful, quiet, powerful place. The topography here is quite a bit more varied than you would expect when you scratch the surface. If you're going to pass through I-90, it might look like it's flat, but once you get out in the terrain, you're going to find that this is a really diverse landscape, not only geographically, but also just in terms of the plant biome, in terms of the wildlife species.” Luke feels it’s a lot to take in.
“Hearing the meadowlarks chirp in the spring or in the fall — I mean, it's a really powerful thing.”
No doubt, Missouri River Country is a vast and varied land with so many opportunities to experience it. What starts as a deeper connection to the land can take a turn and become a deeper connection to the people who call it home. “In this part of Montana, the people couldn't be lovelier. It’s so often that you go to sign into a Block Management Area and get invited into someone's kitchen to have a cup of coffee and talk to them about what their story is and when they grew up and what it was like here when they grew up. I've created a lot of friendships with local ranchers just through bird hunting alone and especially the Block Management Program.
I definitely try to take the extra time to go seek out those Type IIs [Block Management Areas] and knock on the door and have a chat. And I usually find that people are so open and so willing to bring you into their story and their home and offer you places to stay. And I can't tell you how many times through the Block Management Program people have offered me places to stay and sleep at night. And it's just a wonderful thing and it's just such a generous community of people.”
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You’d think living in such extreme bounty would be enough — to just absorb it or even be overwhelmed by it. Then again, maybe it inspires people to be more than you’d expect — like eastern Montana. Maybe it simply offers a license to pursue a variety of passions. Take Luke: He’s a hunter, an outdoor enthusiast — and a banjo player. Like many who have come to Montana and found just what they were looking for, there is an embrace of individual renaissance. “Everything that I do in some way has evolved in time because of where I live. And it’s also allowed me to do new things and to get into new activities that I otherwise wouldn’t do in another place,” Luke says. “Montana affects everything that I do, whether it’s working on a project or doing things on my own, learning how to do new things individually. I think Montana’s a very self-reliant place and teaches you to be self-reliant in a lot of the things that you do.”
Through it all, the birds keep calling and the dog keeps looking at the door, waiting for the sound of the key turning in the ignition of Luke’s truck. And on cool, frosty mornings, you’ll find Luke and Doug in their happy place.
“Seeing the dog really work and do what it was meant to do and the passion that he brings to bird hunting. Seeing him get excited on bird, seeing him get excited getting out of the truck — it's phenomenal.”
