Drew my 1st Montana Speed Goat 🐐 Tag

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Hide if doesn’t hurt one bit can do it right there on the tail gate and let it start cooling less mess to take home. Also if you break it there you can leave it if you take it home then go dump it somewhere it’s littering

I was 40 miles out , had I been farther I would hav done different, it was chilly this morning too , coldest morning yet

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

You’re not officially a “resident” until you start complaining about the %^+%# Californians moving here and ruining our state.

That’s usually around the five year mark. By the 10-20 year mark you get perspective and realize everyone is a transplant at some point.

I think you’re doing just fine with all the Californians over there and Boze Angeles you can keep them ! I was in your town in August for the Creed Fisher concert. We parked and was walking through downtown and I told my wife yeah a lot of people from California moved to this town and have kind of taken it over and no sooner than I said that like 6 feet away or three people walking down the street talking about how nicer it is here from California and I just started laughing.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I think you’re doing just fine with all the Californians over there and Boze Angeles you can keep them ! I was in your town in August for the Creed Fisher concert. We parked and was walking through downtown and I told my wife yeah a lot of people from California moved to this town and have kind of taken it over and no sooner than I said that like 6 feet away or three people walking down the street talking about how nicer it is here from California and I just started laughing.

My next door neighbors are from California. Couldn’t be nicer.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

My next door neighbors are from California. Couldn’t be nicer.

It’s a joke , I don’t care where people are from either

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Fresh MT lope

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Very strong gamey smell , but the taste was very mild less than a deer

 

[wannabee]

Thanks , got the tent topper this spring , ran tube lights through the frame and bought a portable charger for electric also have a small solar panel that can recharge the station, but it also charges off my cigarette lighter with a cord , gonna use that today for the first time see how long it takes , right now my power is at 93 percent and it says my and 25 more hours to run the tube lights …. The charging station best investment ever

Good ideas, I'm always looking for inspiration! I am glad you got one, I was going through looking to see how it all turned out and I was happy to see you got it done.

 

[JCS]

You put the work in, research, scouting and you were rewarded.

Congrats. Glad I was able to swing by.

 

[turbobrick]

Very strong gamey smell , but the taste was very mild less than a deer

Thanks for sharing your hunt, pronghorn is my absolute favorite, both the hunt and eating. I'm really missing the hunt with nobody in the family pulling a tag this season. And yeah, change your location I was really confused about what exactly was going on.

 

[Wyhunter]

Congrats, man

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

You put the work in, research, scouting and you were rewarded.

Congrats. Glad I was able to swing by.

I was stoked to have u there , your first harvest of any species is special

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Thanks for sharing your hunt, pronghorn is my absolute favorite, both the hunt and eating. I'm really missing the hunt with nobody in the family pulling a tag this season. And yeah, change your location I was really confused about what exactly was going on.

It is finished! Took me a hot minute to figure it out since it had been so long since I went in there

 

[INMT]

Thanks for the write up! Congrats on your first antelope! I haven't drawn the last 2 years, I miss antelope hunting. It's a helluva fun time!

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Thoughts and reflections, this hunt turned out to be exactly what I felt it was gonna be prior to drawing this tag.

In my 4 days in the field , I saw 38 antelope, 9 of which were on private.
7 bucks confirmed on public , the group of 7 , I saw at sunrise on the 3rd day that took off when I was trying to get closer to look for a buck , don’t know what was in that group before my buck ran up on my minutes later.

Why I applied for this hunt, when I moved to Montana I had never had the opportunity to hunt antelope, I got back into hunting in my early 40’s after my divorce and didn’t know anything about the point system or how and how to get tags ,Oregon has antelope, but rifle tags are very hard to get , I had started buying points with the eye on a someday chance .

Then in late 2021 we chose to relocate to Montana on a whim after a conversation with a friend that moved there.

In the spring early summer of 2022 , not knowing anything of what was somewhat local in hunting, the years of work I did in Oregon learning how to hunt after my divorce, and I learned how to use ONX , the move to a new state wasn’t as intimidating. I just started researching public land on ONX and driving out there to see it and what was running around.

Which led me to this hunt , one of the first if not the first places I went and put boots on the ground back in early 2022 was the same piece of dirt I harvested my antelope on yesterday. Which made it all the more sweeter.

I knew going in that antelope numbers were lower here than other places , but I felt that there was just enough dirt that if I worked hard I’d get a chance , I ended up with 2 in 3 days in the field , missing a big buck at 300yd on day 2 and not passing up a smaller buck the next day under 100yds. Knowing that I was only gonna get so many chances on a hunt like this.

Opening morning did surprise me , it was a rig every 20 mins minimum for 3 and a half hours , I did talk to a few people on day two and three who said that they felt there was more hunters this year than in the past so I don’t know if there was more tags or just a coincidence , I don’t know.

In 2022 when I moved here, I didn’t buy any points or put in for any draws because I still wasn’t a resident and I wasn’t paying out of state prices when I was gonna be a resident in a few months down the road. So 2023 was the first year I put in for this hunt and I didn’t draw and then I drew it in 2024 with one point and I turned 55 this year .

And my thoughts were I’d rather have an antelope hunt now while I can do it then buy a bunch of points for years and then go on a great hunt someday down the road if I’m healthy etc., etc.

And since I started hunting again at 42 ish over-the-counter tags or easy to draw tags that take zero or one points is the only hunting I’ve ever known on heavily pressured public land. That’s right in my wheelhouse so I felt right at home. Ha ha ha

Which is why I’m gonna continue to put in for the same hunt next year not because it’s great but because at my age, if I can have an antelope hunt every other year for the next so many years, I’d rather have that then wait a bunch of years for one great hunt

And the place where I killed my antelope, what made it special was it was the first place I hiked , that I encountered my 1st badger it was the first place I had a rattlesnake encounter. It was the first place I saw antelope on public land and then I ended up taking one on it two years later.

Taking a break on my hike back in 2022 overlooking the exact prairie where I would take my first antelope 2 years later , one of the pictures from that year I didn’t delete, random
If you zoom in you can see a glimpse of the road cutting through the prairie,
I took that buck on my side of the road just passed where the trees end into the Prairie opposite of where I’m sitting


My 1st Badger encounter that same day



And then this pic I posted yesterday, I was sitting up in those rock cliffs somewhere in the background way back in 2022 when I took the pic overlooking the prairie



Kinda cool how things kinda came full circle on this one.

 

[WNC2500]

Thoughts and reflections, this hunt turned out to be exactly what I felt it was gonna be prior to drawing this tag.

Kinda cool how things kinda came full circle on this one.

@Little Big Man MT Chris Enjoyed following along with you on this one, and I think it was pretty awesome how everything came full circle. Congratulations again!

 

[longbow51]

Wonderful write-up and pictures Chris. Kudos.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Wonderful write-up and pictures Chris. Kudos.

Thanks brother

 

[Flatbrimmer]

OregonChrisMTGoatSlayer !

Big Congrats dude!

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

OregonChrisMTGoatSlayer !

Big Congrats dude!

Thanks !

 

[Doe Nob]

Thanks for the write up, pics and letting us follow along!