TRS_Montana
Well-known member
This year I drew my second choice tag which was for a district that has less than about 2 square miles of decent public land for antelope hunting. None-the-less, we decide to give it a whirl as it was in an area that my wife is doing some of her PhD research in and would let us kill two birds with one stone. We also thought it would be a good chance to get out with our little guy, since antelope hunting has been a somewhat of a family tradition for us.
We headed out on Thursday, October 15 at about 7:00AM and stop in Bozeman to take care of some stuff at school. By noonish we are on the road again and get to our district at about 2:00PM. I have only hunted in this district one time and that was about 4 years ago, so I really don't know what to expect.
We decided to just do some recon on that first afternoon to see what the herds look like and where we might have the best chance of seeing some lopes. I had an either sex tag, but I knew that this district just doesn't have many nice bucks in it. Since we love antelope meat, I really didn't care if I went home with a buck or doe, so I was ready to shoot the first adult prong I had a crack at.
At about 2:30PM, we pull up to the first chunk of land I want to look at. As we are pulling into the approach, I see about 20 white bodies out in the middle of the needle grass-covered rolling hills. Right in the middle of the state land! I couldn't believe how lucky we had just gotten.
The entire herd is lined out, grazing in the afternoon sun about a half mile from the road. Not a care in the world. I don't see any other vehicles and it is 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon. This couldn't be more perfect. I notice that the direction the herd is feeding in will take them to about 40 yards on the other side of a hill. Man, you can't draw it up any easier!
Oliver is just waking up from his 2 hour nap and needs to eat...NOW! Linnea decides she and Ollie will stay at the car so that he can get some lunch. So I grab the gun, pack, and orange vest, kiss Linnea and Ollie, and jump the fence. As I am shaking my head, thinking to myself "Man, hunting is never this easy!", I hear the unmistakable crack of a rifle shot. Then another. What the hell.
I keep telling myself that the shots didn't come from the public land, but deep down I knew they did. I climb up to the top of the hill I needed to be at and see that the herd of lopes is replaced by two hunters.
I really wasn't too bummed, though. I headed over to talk to the other hunters, who turned out to be a really nice husband and wife in their 60s. They had shot two little does out of the herd.
After helping them gut and drag their critters out, I hop in the car and we head on out to a couple other patches of public land. We drove around for about an hour and didn't see any other antelope on public land, so we head back to the first piece where the other hunters had shot theirs and decided to just go for a walk. I took the gun, but we weren't really there to shoot anything, just to stretch our legs and enjoy the scenery.
Things started off well. Here are my two favorite hunting partners:
After a little while, the wind really started to pick up. Looking back, I realize that Oliver was subtly trying to tell us that he wasn't having fun....
We all pulled it together and after an hour, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. In the morning, Linnea and Oliver slept in and I headed out to see if I could connect. I drove to the same patch of public that had critters on it yesterday. You can see about 4/5ths of the public land from the road, so I just glassed for about 20 minutes from the warmth of the car. After seeing about 5 different groups of hunters and no antelope, I decide to drive around a bit. This little whitetail decided to pose for a quick shot:
After driving around for about an hour and not seeing anything, I decided I was going to swing by that piece of state land one more time before heading back and picking up the fam. As I am getting close to it, I see a white spot about 700 yards off the road onto the public. One lone antelope. There is a dried up creek bed that leads up to about 100 yards away from it, so I figure it's worth going after.
As I am walking through the creek bed, I peek over the side to see this little thing just busting across the prairie. I didn't think I could have spooked it, so I let it go over a hill and then head up to see if it stopped on the other side.
When I get to the top of the hill, I see 4 antelope feeding towards me at about 450 yards. There are enough little knobs between me and them that I am able to get up to about 70 yards away. Just as I am peeking over the last knob, I see all 4 bed down at the base of the knob I am on. Not wanting to ruin any meat, I decide to wait until I get a clear shot at one of the 2 adults when they stand up. After about 25 minutes, one of the does gets up to graze a bit more and offers an easy broadside shot at about 50 yards.
After gutting her, I head back and pick up Linnea and Ollie so that they can come out and cut her up with me.
Can't believe how fortunate we are to live in a place like this. We took our time and enjoyed the awesome scenery provided by the Crazies and the Absarokas. Oliver was entranced with seeing his first big game animal up close. Can't wait till this little guy is old enough to hunt with me!
Here he is, trying to figure out what this thing is
All in all, a fun successful hunt for Oliver's first!
We headed out on Thursday, October 15 at about 7:00AM and stop in Bozeman to take care of some stuff at school. By noonish we are on the road again and get to our district at about 2:00PM. I have only hunted in this district one time and that was about 4 years ago, so I really don't know what to expect.
We decided to just do some recon on that first afternoon to see what the herds look like and where we might have the best chance of seeing some lopes. I had an either sex tag, but I knew that this district just doesn't have many nice bucks in it. Since we love antelope meat, I really didn't care if I went home with a buck or doe, so I was ready to shoot the first adult prong I had a crack at.
At about 2:30PM, we pull up to the first chunk of land I want to look at. As we are pulling into the approach, I see about 20 white bodies out in the middle of the needle grass-covered rolling hills. Right in the middle of the state land! I couldn't believe how lucky we had just gotten.
The entire herd is lined out, grazing in the afternoon sun about a half mile from the road. Not a care in the world. I don't see any other vehicles and it is 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon. This couldn't be more perfect. I notice that the direction the herd is feeding in will take them to about 40 yards on the other side of a hill. Man, you can't draw it up any easier!
Oliver is just waking up from his 2 hour nap and needs to eat...NOW! Linnea decides she and Ollie will stay at the car so that he can get some lunch. So I grab the gun, pack, and orange vest, kiss Linnea and Ollie, and jump the fence. As I am shaking my head, thinking to myself "Man, hunting is never this easy!", I hear the unmistakable crack of a rifle shot. Then another. What the hell.
I keep telling myself that the shots didn't come from the public land, but deep down I knew they did. I climb up to the top of the hill I needed to be at and see that the herd of lopes is replaced by two hunters.
I really wasn't too bummed, though. I headed over to talk to the other hunters, who turned out to be a really nice husband and wife in their 60s. They had shot two little does out of the herd.
After helping them gut and drag their critters out, I hop in the car and we head on out to a couple other patches of public land. We drove around for about an hour and didn't see any other antelope on public land, so we head back to the first piece where the other hunters had shot theirs and decided to just go for a walk. I took the gun, but we weren't really there to shoot anything, just to stretch our legs and enjoy the scenery.
Things started off well. Here are my two favorite hunting partners:
After a little while, the wind really started to pick up. Looking back, I realize that Oliver was subtly trying to tell us that he wasn't having fun....
We all pulled it together and after an hour, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. In the morning, Linnea and Oliver slept in and I headed out to see if I could connect. I drove to the same patch of public that had critters on it yesterday. You can see about 4/5ths of the public land from the road, so I just glassed for about 20 minutes from the warmth of the car. After seeing about 5 different groups of hunters and no antelope, I decide to drive around a bit. This little whitetail decided to pose for a quick shot:
After driving around for about an hour and not seeing anything, I decided I was going to swing by that piece of state land one more time before heading back and picking up the fam. As I am getting close to it, I see a white spot about 700 yards off the road onto the public. One lone antelope. There is a dried up creek bed that leads up to about 100 yards away from it, so I figure it's worth going after.
As I am walking through the creek bed, I peek over the side to see this little thing just busting across the prairie. I didn't think I could have spooked it, so I let it go over a hill and then head up to see if it stopped on the other side.
When I get to the top of the hill, I see 4 antelope feeding towards me at about 450 yards. There are enough little knobs between me and them that I am able to get up to about 70 yards away. Just as I am peeking over the last knob, I see all 4 bed down at the base of the knob I am on. Not wanting to ruin any meat, I decide to wait until I get a clear shot at one of the 2 adults when they stand up. After about 25 minutes, one of the does gets up to graze a bit more and offers an easy broadside shot at about 50 yards.
After gutting her, I head back and pick up Linnea and Ollie so that they can come out and cut her up with me.
Can't believe how fortunate we are to live in a place like this. We took our time and enjoyed the awesome scenery provided by the Crazies and the Absarokas. Oliver was entranced with seeing his first big game animal up close. Can't wait till this little guy is old enough to hunt with me!
Here he is, trying to figure out what this thing is
All in all, a fun successful hunt for Oliver's first!
