Not sure where to start.....so bear with me. I always love to see others' posts of success, so here goes:
Finally got my 2012 Montana Pronghorn with my bow. I love that 900 tag. 50 yard shot with the Bowtech 82nd Airborne and the G5 Tekan went right through him and stuck in the ground a few inches. He ran 30 yards and piled up.
Then it was off to Wyoming on the 14th of October to help find a Muley buck for my buddy, Butch who shot that monster bull moose last year. This was a general area, but we found some bucks the night before the opener. We were sitting on a large ridge before sunlight at about 10,400 ft. We knew there would be deer below us, and the wind was in our face. As the sun was coming up, I began to make out the deer from the bushes about 400-500 yards below us. I found a buck that I thought I could talk Butch in to shooting.
He scooted over to look through the scope and said, "That's not the one I want.....the one that just picked up his head is better." I leaned over and was pretty excited. It was a good buck. There were about 15 deer in the little group. The best buck was 408 yards at a very steep slope below. Butch wanted to see if we could get a little closer, but we were out of cover and did not want to get picked off. As we were whispering, the deer just scattered in all directions. We couldn't figure out what happened. The wind was good and none of them ever looked our way.
We started running from left to right, all the while keeping our elevation. We knew the bucks would do one thing...go UP! We went about 800 yards with the wind in our face to see if we could re-locate the bucks and I thought I saw a coyote running away from us. Nope. Mt Lion. That's what buggered the deer! He dropped off the hill about 80 yards away. We knew we had to act fast...and that's when Butch found the two bucks. We were still above them a little, but they were even futher to our right heading up a chute. Once they got a little higher up, they went back to feeding. I stayed high and Butch crept down the face to get even with them.
After getting the bog-pod out and steady, he looked up and gave me the thumbs-up. I could only see the smaller buck now because of a tree but after the shot, the bigger buck came rolling down the hill and into a bush. It was awesome. 165 muley down. Nice shot @ 420 yards straight accross with the .300WM. Congrats to Butch...
Now for the crazy part. I have a thing for mule deer. It's more than a thing....it's a love affair. However, I drew a pretty good bull elk tag and wanted to get off the raghorn express. I had never hunted the area I put in for, but my buddy Steve assured me that we could find elk. We were up north of Jordan scouting the breaks the day before. Anybody who has been up there knows how that place just droppes off into he//. It got dark and we had only seen two little muley bucks. Hmmmm? What to do? Steve knew of a little block management that he bow hunts that usually holds elk. Problem was....it held other hunters most of the time, too.
We arrived at the sign-in box in the morning with about 5 other vehicles. I was bummed. It was too close to shooting light to go anywhere else, so we decided to get the wind right and make the most of it. This BM is only 2 and 1/2 sections. We were skirting the fence and herd bugles. We couldn't believe it. The wind was in our face and only had 5 minutes till shooting light. We decided to keep along the fence-line and head to the back of the property. We had climed a few small hills and now the bugles were less than 500 yards away.
I was getting excited untill shots started going off. At this point we were running as fast as we could to get some elevation to see where the elk would be going. We were on a little rise and saw a herd to our right about 800 yards away, but they were about 100 yards from the back of the BM. Then more shots were going off. 8 shots in total and none were from us. The herd was nervouse, but I could tell that they were not the ones getting shot at. Our only play was to get down and accross this flat before the herd made it to the property fence. If Steve hadn't of bow hunted this place since he was a kid, there was no way this would have worked.
There was no time to look at the BM map and get the gps out to see where the property lines were. As the two of us were running as fast as we could I looked up and could see that the closer we got, the hill the elk were on would shield us. I got to the bottom of the hill and heard a bugle. That was all the energy I needed to get up that last little rise. We both threw our backpacks off and layed in the grass. The main herd was 191 yards away and were 30 yards from the property fence. Some of the lead cows had already crossed.
This bull was in the back as I was wiping the sweat from my eyes so I could see through my rifle scope. Steve said, "the back one is a six point". I said, "good six, or rag six?" "Good six" he said. Boom!! The .30-06 hit home and knocked the bull down. "He's broke---I could only tell after you hit him", said Steve. Oh well. Too late. I don't care. He must have busted off his main beam fighting weeks ago. It was polished off good. We ran up the hill as the herd was finishing clearing the fence and cheering like crazy. There layed the bull not 40 yards from the "other guys" land. Steve knew the land owner and headed back to his house to see if we could get the truck any closer as we were 1.8 miles from the truck.
Half an hour later, Steve and the land owner were in his truck, and because it was dry, he let us drive right to him. I bought a new pack frame, but was glad I could break it in another time. Here are some pics...
Finally got my 2012 Montana Pronghorn with my bow. I love that 900 tag. 50 yard shot with the Bowtech 82nd Airborne and the G5 Tekan went right through him and stuck in the ground a few inches. He ran 30 yards and piled up.
Then it was off to Wyoming on the 14th of October to help find a Muley buck for my buddy, Butch who shot that monster bull moose last year. This was a general area, but we found some bucks the night before the opener. We were sitting on a large ridge before sunlight at about 10,400 ft. We knew there would be deer below us, and the wind was in our face. As the sun was coming up, I began to make out the deer from the bushes about 400-500 yards below us. I found a buck that I thought I could talk Butch in to shooting.
He scooted over to look through the scope and said, "That's not the one I want.....the one that just picked up his head is better." I leaned over and was pretty excited. It was a good buck. There were about 15 deer in the little group. The best buck was 408 yards at a very steep slope below. Butch wanted to see if we could get a little closer, but we were out of cover and did not want to get picked off. As we were whispering, the deer just scattered in all directions. We couldn't figure out what happened. The wind was good and none of them ever looked our way.
We started running from left to right, all the while keeping our elevation. We knew the bucks would do one thing...go UP! We went about 800 yards with the wind in our face to see if we could re-locate the bucks and I thought I saw a coyote running away from us. Nope. Mt Lion. That's what buggered the deer! He dropped off the hill about 80 yards away. We knew we had to act fast...and that's when Butch found the two bucks. We were still above them a little, but they were even futher to our right heading up a chute. Once they got a little higher up, they went back to feeding. I stayed high and Butch crept down the face to get even with them.
After getting the bog-pod out and steady, he looked up and gave me the thumbs-up. I could only see the smaller buck now because of a tree but after the shot, the bigger buck came rolling down the hill and into a bush. It was awesome. 165 muley down. Nice shot @ 420 yards straight accross with the .300WM. Congrats to Butch...
Now for the crazy part. I have a thing for mule deer. It's more than a thing....it's a love affair. However, I drew a pretty good bull elk tag and wanted to get off the raghorn express. I had never hunted the area I put in for, but my buddy Steve assured me that we could find elk. We were up north of Jordan scouting the breaks the day before. Anybody who has been up there knows how that place just droppes off into he//. It got dark and we had only seen two little muley bucks. Hmmmm? What to do? Steve knew of a little block management that he bow hunts that usually holds elk. Problem was....it held other hunters most of the time, too.
We arrived at the sign-in box in the morning with about 5 other vehicles. I was bummed. It was too close to shooting light to go anywhere else, so we decided to get the wind right and make the most of it. This BM is only 2 and 1/2 sections. We were skirting the fence and herd bugles. We couldn't believe it. The wind was in our face and only had 5 minutes till shooting light. We decided to keep along the fence-line and head to the back of the property. We had climed a few small hills and now the bugles were less than 500 yards away.
I was getting excited untill shots started going off. At this point we were running as fast as we could to get some elevation to see where the elk would be going. We were on a little rise and saw a herd to our right about 800 yards away, but they were about 100 yards from the back of the BM. Then more shots were going off. 8 shots in total and none were from us. The herd was nervouse, but I could tell that they were not the ones getting shot at. Our only play was to get down and accross this flat before the herd made it to the property fence. If Steve hadn't of bow hunted this place since he was a kid, there was no way this would have worked.
There was no time to look at the BM map and get the gps out to see where the property lines were. As the two of us were running as fast as we could I looked up and could see that the closer we got, the hill the elk were on would shield us. I got to the bottom of the hill and heard a bugle. That was all the energy I needed to get up that last little rise. We both threw our backpacks off and layed in the grass. The main herd was 191 yards away and were 30 yards from the property fence. Some of the lead cows had already crossed.
This bull was in the back as I was wiping the sweat from my eyes so I could see through my rifle scope. Steve said, "the back one is a six point". I said, "good six, or rag six?" "Good six" he said. Boom!! The .30-06 hit home and knocked the bull down. "He's broke---I could only tell after you hit him", said Steve. Oh well. Too late. I don't care. He must have busted off his main beam fighting weeks ago. It was polished off good. We ran up the hill as the herd was finishing clearing the fence and cheering like crazy. There layed the bull not 40 yards from the "other guys" land. Steve knew the land owner and headed back to his house to see if we could get the truck any closer as we were 1.8 miles from the truck.
Half an hour later, Steve and the land owner were in his truck, and because it was dry, he let us drive right to him. I bought a new pack frame, but was glad I could break it in another time. Here are some pics...
Congrats.
