Carson with a Mountail Lion shot in 2014.

Carson Lilja with a whitetail buck shot in 2013 with a 300 win mag.

Here is Adam on opening day in Montana in 2001. He was too young to carry a rifle but we found these antlers while we were out hunting.

Dan shot this raghorn bull with a .300 Winchester magnum at less than 100 yards in 1992 while helping a friend pack out his bull. Now the fun starts.

Sally’s nice 4-point mule deer buck from the 2002 season. She shot it about 100 yards with her 7mm-08 with a 150 grain Ballistic Tip. We spotted this buck about a mile away at daylight from our camper. An out-of-sight sneak through the sage and then down a timbered ridge got us close. Then it was a slow hunt along the ridge until we spotted him feeding up to the crest of the ridge. In five more minutes he would have fed to the top and disappeared into the thick junipers and pines on the north side of the ridge. She dropped him right on the ridge.

Dan’s elk from 1994. He shot this bull about 8:00 in the morning on opening day with a .300 Winchester magnum at 400+ yards. The bull is a 7×7 that scores about 350 B&C.

Dan’s 4-point mule deer buck from 2002. Shot with a 250 grain .338 caliber Sierra Game King at about 400 yards. Adam helps drag him out.

Getting Adam’s first buck out of the coulee the easy way.

Dan with a 6-point bull he shot in 1998. The rifle is a Lilja barreled Remington 700 chambered for an improved 340 Weatherby case shooting a 250 grain Sierra Game King. Killed at about 350 yards.

Dan with a 5-point bull and a 4-point whitetail shot a day apart in 1991. The rifle was a Lilja barreled 300 Winchester Mag loaded with 165 gr. Nosler Partitions.

Sally with a decent 4-point whitetail around 1994. Shot with a Lilja barreled 7mm-08.

Sally with our friends Jerry Simison and Les Swindler with 3 nice New Mexico 6-point bulls in 1996.

The annual Cactus Classic benchrest match held at the Ben Avery range north of Phoenix. A picture of the winners from that year. Dan is 4th from the left in the back row. His placings of merit included 2nd in the Light Varmint 100 yard event, 9th in the Heavy varmint 100 yard, 13th in the Heavy Varmint Grand and 7th in the 2-Gun event. There were about 240 shooters. The two rifles he shot were both Lilja barreled 6 PPC’s.

Dan and Adam in 1995 following a .50 caliber FCSA 1000 yard match at the Palamino Gun Club. Dan fired the small group at 1000 yards in the Light Gun with a 4.937″ group and he also placed 3rd in the aggregate.

Sally and Adam with a tall buck Sally shot at about 600 yards in 1994. She shot a doe antelope on this hunt too at 955 yards with a Lilja barreled 338/416 Rigby on a Geske action.

Sally and Adam with a buck she shot in 1993 with her 7mm – 08 at about 250 yards.

A Montana mule deer Dan shot in 1985 with a .300 Winchester Magnum and the 180 grain Nosler. Not a very good picture but a very nice heavy-horned 4-point buck.

Here is the peninsula bear after he was made into a rug and hanging on wall. For more on this hunt Click Here.

Adam shooting one of Dan’s 6 PPC benchrest rifles after a match at the Helena Montana Prickly Pear Range, probably in the summer of 1999.

Jim Patten, Lee Ford and Dan at the Cactus Classic NBRSA benchrest match in 2001.

Dan shooting his unlimited class benchrest rifle in an NBRSA match in Tacoma, Washington in June of 2000. The 2″ diameter barrel is chambered for a 6PPC cartridge.

Dan Lilja with Dan Montgomery at the FNAWS Show in Reno in 2001. Dan Montgomery runs Alaska Trophy Adventures (907-373-4898) and is an excellent, hard-working sheep, goat and brown bear guide. Dan Lilja has hunted with him three times and taken all of the above animals with Dan. The goat in the display was shot by Dan Lilja.

Here is a 4-point mule deer Dan shot in the 1980’s with a .300 Winchester Magnum.

Here’s another mule deer buck Dan shot in the 1980’s with a 25-06. This one is a 4 x 4 with a few extra points.

Dan with a 2-point bull from 1990. Not a big bull but getting any elk on public land in northwestern Montana is a trophy. The elk hunting is actually better now than 15 years ago. All bulls have to be brow-tined to be legal now, an excellent move on the part of Montana F,W & P. The rifle was a .300 Winchester Magnum and we used our horses to pack him out.

Old Denny looks like he’s ready to go to work packing out this Montana whitetail shot with a .300 Winchester Magnum.

A nice 14″ buck shot with the 25-06 in the 1980’s.

Here’s a nice 4-point buck we got in the 1980’s late in the season. There was no road access where this buck was shot and we brought him out whole in the boat after sliding him down to the river from higher up in the canyon. It was cold this day, near zero as I remember now. Too cold be be boating but a great day to hunt rutting bucks.

Adam’s first whitetail buck shot at the age of 13 during the 2003 Montana season. He shot it through the heart at 150 yards at daylight with a .243 and a 100 grain Remington Core-Lokt bullet.

Dan and his good friend Lee Ford flew in the Cessna T41B to Pierre South Dakota the end of July 2004 to attend the Varmint Hunter’s Jamboree. Glen is the maker of Nesika custom actions and rifles now in Sturgis, South Dakota. We had a good flight and fine time in South Dakota. Forest fire smoke from Washington state made for about an hour of IMC conditions in Montana on the return. At 10,000 feet we could smell it and taste it and it obscured the mountains and horizon completely at times.

Travis, Adam and Carson after their first morning of goose hunting on opening day of 2004. We got more wing shooting over our barley field but just one goose fell on this foggy morning.

Carson with his first deer, a whitetail buck, at age 12. The rifle is a Lilja #1 contour 7mm/08 built on a Nesika T action with a Night Force 2.5-10 scope with the FC2 reticle. The stock is a McMillan by Truman Wilson.

Adam’s nice 4-point mule deer buck from 2004.

Carson with his first antelope that he shot with the 7mm-08 at about 200 yards.

Carson with a big 2-point mule deer buck in October of 2005.

Dan with a heavy horned antelope buck he shot with his 257 Weatherby barreled Remington 700. Shot in October of 2005.

Sally with her antelope doe she shot with her trusty 7mm-08 at 250 yards.

Packing out elk quarters in the fall of 2005. Horses take all of the fun out of packing. Actually horses like these fine geldings are worth their weight in gold at a time like this.

Dan, Carson and Travis with Travis’ first elk, a nice big cow. We got her out in halves and loaded into the truck before noon.

Dan with his antelope buck he snuck up on while it was in its bed. We don’t hunt antelope in the snow under normal circumstances. It was quiet enough that I got to within 100 yards of this fellow while he looked the other direction. He was all by himself – no does to guard his backside.

Dan shot this mule deer buck with his 340 Wby Mag Improved and a 250 gr. Sierra after Carson passed up on the 300 yard shot.

Sally with a nice 4-point mule deer she shot at 250 yards with her trusty 7mm/08.

Travis with his first buck. He shot two elk before shooting this buck. This one fell to the .243 at 150 yards.

Travis with his second elk, a nice fat cow he shot with the .243 through the lungs at 220 yards. It was cold this morning, in the single digits. The ivories on this cow were worn down more than any we’ve seen before.