Vanish and FireTiger's 2022 Journal
- Thread starter vanish
- Start date
I had debated camping on Saturday night but after we didn't get home until 5pm I felt I would be better off sleeping in my own bed and getting a very early start on Sunday.
I decided to hike into the ridge where I had glassed the two small bucks during scouting. I had been avoiding this spot as it involved crossing a pretty steep canyon and creek in the dark, and that didnt seem worth it for what I had spotted there, but figured it was now or never.
The canyon traversal ended up being pretty uneventful except for the dusky grouse flushing underneath me. I got to a decent spot to glass several meadows near the ridge top, including where I had seen the bucks one evening in August, just before daylight. After an hour so I decided nobody was coming out so I switched to still hunting.
I worked my way across the ridge, which was pretty nice with scattered pines, aspens and grassy patches. You may remember I had worked late on Friday and my mind kept drifting back to reflecting on the events of that day. Not the best when you're supposed to be in tune with nature.
To the point where I walked right into one of those bucks. He had been feeding in this partial opening just in the other side of the pine tree at middle left. Under 40 yards. He didn't stick around. Perfect opportunity wasted.
This snapped me back to reality, at least for half an hour or so. Then I found myself drifting into my head again. It was quite frustrating. I didn't want to be thinking about work on a Sunday!
The rest of the morning proved uneventful. I think that's going to be a wrap for this tag. Thursday afternoon we are headed south for muzzy pronghorn, the next Wednesday we head west for FireTiger's deer.
I decided to hike into the ridge where I had glassed the two small bucks during scouting. I had been avoiding this spot as it involved crossing a pretty steep canyon and creek in the dark, and that didnt seem worth it for what I had spotted there, but figured it was now or never.
The canyon traversal ended up being pretty uneventful except for the dusky grouse flushing underneath me. I got to a decent spot to glass several meadows near the ridge top, including where I had seen the bucks one evening in August, just before daylight. After an hour so I decided nobody was coming out so I switched to still hunting.
I worked my way across the ridge, which was pretty nice with scattered pines, aspens and grassy patches. You may remember I had worked late on Friday and my mind kept drifting back to reflecting on the events of that day. Not the best when you're supposed to be in tune with nature.
To the point where I walked right into one of those bucks. He had been feeding in this partial opening just in the other side of the pine tree at middle left. Under 40 yards. He didn't stick around. Perfect opportunity wasted.
This snapped me back to reality, at least for half an hour or so. Then I found myself drifting into my head again. It was quite frustrating. I didn't want to be thinking about work on a Sunday!
The rest of the morning proved uneventful. I think that's going to be a wrap for this tag. Thursday afternoon we are headed south for muzzy pronghorn, the next Wednesday we head west for FireTiger's deer.
Truck is 2/3 packed, with mostly the food left. This will be our first true hunt as a family, so interested to see how it goes. FireTiger has dibs on first stalks as she didn't get to hunt pronghorn last year. Probably won't arrive until after dark, but not too late either.
A buddy of mine texted me that he (independently, didn't know where we were going to be) is setting up camp tomorrow just where we had planned to camp, so that could be fun. He's got a nice setup.
I'm really looking forward to seeing some animals after that last deer hunt. This week has been intense at work still, but significantly improving. Should be a good extended weekend, assuming I don't find @QELKhunter at my glassing point.
A buddy of mine texted me that he (independently, didn't know where we were going to be) is setting up camp tomorrow just where we had planned to camp, so that could be fun. He's got a nice setup.
I'm really looking forward to seeing some animals after that last deer hunt. This week has been intense at work still, but significantly improving. Should be a good extended weekend, assuming I don't find @QELKhunter at my glassing point.
QELKhunter
Well-known member
How's your day one thus far?Truck is 2/3 packed, with mostly the food left. This will be our first true hunt as a family, so interested to see how it goes. FireTiger has dibs on first stalks as she didn't get to hunt pronghorn last year. Probably won't arrive until after dark, but not too late either.
A buddy of mine texted me that he (independently, didn't know where we were going to be) is setting up camp tomorrow just where we had planned to camp, so that could be fun. He's got a nice setup.
I'm really looking forward to seeing some animals after that last deer hunt. This week has been intense at work still, but significantly improving. Should be a good extended weekend, assuming I don't find @QELKhunter at my glassing point.
No Verizon signal where we were hunting. My buddy with ATT had 5 bars.
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Arrived Thursday night to cool temps and a thickness in the air. Quite unusual compared to the usual death heat. Our friend (see 3rd season deer hunt last year) and his buddy had gotten there a few hours earlier, had the Alaknak set up and gotten a couple hours of scouting in. Not great conditions and they had only seen two. I decided to sleep in the tent to give the girls a littler more space in the back of the truck.
We have hunted the unit for years and done well in a specific area. This was there first time hunting the unit and we kept joking they had picked the same spot as my buddy is a pretty good e-scouter. Friday morning, we headed out before dawn to get to our glassing point. The early light wasn't great as there was still some fog and clouds. Sure enough, half an hour later our buddy pulls up behind us and was like, yup, this was where we were gonna start.
As we had the baby and dog, we planned to essentially camp in this good spot and wait for the right opportunity to unfold. It has worked well before. Well, for once there were no pronghorn in the general area. We finally saw a herd a couple miles out, but in the meantime another truck had pulled up nearby and made a play on them with a decoy. It didn't work.
A few hours in, a bachelor group of six yearling bucks started making their way to us. Neither of us was terribly interested in shooting one of them, but FireTiger decided to go see if her tricks would work on them. She was able to get a few of them to 90 yards.
As the day wore on, I spotted a good sized buck and herd a couple miles south of us. Lots of coyotes around this year, and they kept chasing one of the fawns. Watched them for awhile but they didn't approach the property line. I pulled up OnX to check something unrelated, and find that area was now open to the public. Dang, too late to go for them now, but maybe in the morning.
Day one ended without a ton of excitement. Also, it appears nearly every photo I took has our daughter in it, so, you get an Ada pic. She was helping glass.
We decided not to rush for day two as we knew there weren't any pronghorn bedded in that area and hopefully let daughter get a little more uninterrupted sleep. Her usual bedtime routine had been disturbed that first night as we transitioned from car seat to camp.
Those same bachelor bucks were in the area again Saturday. It was after noon and that was all we had seen, except for the vultures feasting on what must have been an opening day kill. Perhaps that was why the pronghorn seemed to be avoiding the area, though we have doubled up here before. Usually, we'd be able to see groups out to 3 or 4 miles away, and this time there was just nothing. So, FireTiger decided to stalk in on a group of three of them bedded.
Halfway through her stalk, a group with a nice buck ran in from miles away, directly in line with her. I could see them in the spotter and it looked like a good position for a stalk, but she could not see them.
You can see if you squint that one of the does is on to her. Eventually they all lined up to look. Despite what it looks like FireTiger couldn't even see the fence. They busted off without her ever seeing them.
With three of the little bucks, she had them at 90 yards six times. Horns have to be at least 5 inches to count as a buck, and she wasn't even sure they would qualify for that. It was fun to watch but no trigger was pulled.
The day got a lot hotter and by 2pm we decided to go for a drive so the girls could be in the A/C. Three hours of driving turned up only a single doe. Without much to go on, FireTiger told me to take the gun for a walk and she would just hang out with the baby.
After a half mile of walking, despite the heat waves, I spotted a herd in the distance. I decided to close the distance and reassess when much closer. I got totally suckered at this point as after another 1.5 miles when I finally came over a little rise and saw them again ( tbh I had been thinking I imagined them ), they were still 3/4 of a mile away. On my map it looked like there was a strip of private between us, so I decided to bail. I learned later it was walk-in access. Regardless, I didn't see a way to put a stalk on them and I wasn't prepared to be 3 miles in during the last hour.
Our buddies had a little bit more excitement with several stalk on doe groups and a shot at a small buck, but the shooter was working without a bipod and had difficulty with the grass and wound up with a miss.
Those same bachelor bucks were in the area again Saturday. It was after noon and that was all we had seen, except for the vultures feasting on what must have been an opening day kill. Perhaps that was why the pronghorn seemed to be avoiding the area, though we have doubled up here before. Usually, we'd be able to see groups out to 3 or 4 miles away, and this time there was just nothing. So, FireTiger decided to stalk in on a group of three of them bedded.
Halfway through her stalk, a group with a nice buck ran in from miles away, directly in line with her. I could see them in the spotter and it looked like a good position for a stalk, but she could not see them.
You can see if you squint that one of the does is on to her. Eventually they all lined up to look. Despite what it looks like FireTiger couldn't even see the fence. They busted off without her ever seeing them.
With three of the little bucks, she had them at 90 yards six times. Horns have to be at least 5 inches to count as a buck, and she wasn't even sure they would qualify for that. It was fun to watch but no trigger was pulled.
The day got a lot hotter and by 2pm we decided to go for a drive so the girls could be in the A/C. Three hours of driving turned up only a single doe. Without much to go on, FireTiger told me to take the gun for a walk and she would just hang out with the baby.
After a half mile of walking, despite the heat waves, I spotted a herd in the distance. I decided to close the distance and reassess when much closer. I got totally suckered at this point as after another 1.5 miles when I finally came over a little rise and saw them again ( tbh I had been thinking I imagined them ), they were still 3/4 of a mile away. On my map it looked like there was a strip of private between us, so I decided to bail. I learned later it was walk-in access. Regardless, I didn't see a way to put a stalk on them and I wasn't prepared to be 3 miles in during the last hour.
Our buddies had a little bit more excitement with several stalk on doe groups and a shot at a small buck, but the shooter was working without a bipod and had difficulty with the grass and wound up with a miss.
Sunday was the final day and thus far we hadn't even put on a proper stalk. Despite our lack of opportunities, we decided to return to our favorite spot. Call it a confidence thing.
While the only thing hanging in our immediate vicinity was half a dozen coyotes, we started to pick up more pronghorn on the horizon. By 9am we had the six bachelors, two new pairs and the same nice herd buck from the day before within a couple miles. While there wasn't any stalking, there was lots of glassing to be done by whoever wasn't on baby duty. It just felt like a matter of time before some worked in our direction.
While FireTiger was trying to put daughter down for her morning nap, I saw a few of the does with the herd buck break off and start our way. A few minutes of watching and I called "It's go time!" Panic ensued as we were a little less prepared than we should have been. By the time FireTiger was suited up, they had covered half the distance and I was concerned she might not be able to cut them off in time.
Right before she started the stalk, she noticed a new pair had come in from behind us and were within half a mile, and an awesome spot for a stalk. While the other buck was bigger, this was golden. She took off down the hill to get in position. Finally, game on!
She didn't make it 200 yards when a truck came roaring down the nearby road, slammed on its breaks and jumped out to see what we were looking at. This sent all the animals in the valley packing. Pretty heartbreaking for our best opportunities of the hunt to end that way. It is not unexpected when you're hunting close to a road, but the timing was just amazingly bad. It could have been worse I suppose, if she had made it close to range, but it really took the wind out of our sails.
While they ran off a mile or so, they didn't all immediately leave, which gave us a little hope. We decided to take a lunch break, get off the glass for a bit and regroup. Well, it didn't work as over time all the animals faded into the distance.
Once again, as temperatures were getting hot we thought it best to get everyone in the A/C. We drove some newly opened ground but couldn't turn anything up, and that wrapped the hunt. A real fizzle. I guess our muzzy season luck was destined to run out at some point. Yeah, we didn't hunt quite as hard with the baby, and there was a hail mary stalk or two I might have taken without her, but we hadn't really needed to go to those lengths in the past. Our buddy and his friend went home with tags unfilled as well.
While the only thing hanging in our immediate vicinity was half a dozen coyotes, we started to pick up more pronghorn on the horizon. By 9am we had the six bachelors, two new pairs and the same nice herd buck from the day before within a couple miles. While there wasn't any stalking, there was lots of glassing to be done by whoever wasn't on baby duty. It just felt like a matter of time before some worked in our direction.
While FireTiger was trying to put daughter down for her morning nap, I saw a few of the does with the herd buck break off and start our way. A few minutes of watching and I called "It's go time!" Panic ensued as we were a little less prepared than we should have been. By the time FireTiger was suited up, they had covered half the distance and I was concerned she might not be able to cut them off in time.
Right before she started the stalk, she noticed a new pair had come in from behind us and were within half a mile, and an awesome spot for a stalk. While the other buck was bigger, this was golden. She took off down the hill to get in position. Finally, game on!
She didn't make it 200 yards when a truck came roaring down the nearby road, slammed on its breaks and jumped out to see what we were looking at. This sent all the animals in the valley packing. Pretty heartbreaking for our best opportunities of the hunt to end that way. It is not unexpected when you're hunting close to a road, but the timing was just amazingly bad. It could have been worse I suppose, if she had made it close to range, but it really took the wind out of our sails.
While they ran off a mile or so, they didn't all immediately leave, which gave us a little hope. We decided to take a lunch break, get off the glass for a bit and regroup. Well, it didn't work as over time all the animals faded into the distance.
Once again, as temperatures were getting hot we thought it best to get everyone in the A/C. We drove some newly opened ground but couldn't turn anything up, and that wrapped the hunt. A real fizzle. I guess our muzzy season luck was destined to run out at some point. Yeah, we didn't hunt quite as hard with the baby, and there was a hail mary stalk or two I might have taken without her, but we hadn't really needed to go to those lengths in the past. Our buddy and his friend went home with tags unfilled as well.
A couple notes about daughter.
She's super mobile for a 7 month old. No problem standing if there is anything to grab on to, and a super speedy crawler. This all means you can't take your eyes off her very long, and she'll wind up trying to tumble someplace she shouldn't, or have a mouth full of rocks.
We did our best to create essentially a plan pen in the back of the truck out of blankets and pillows, but even with the tailgate down and cap open it got pretty warm back there and was only good for so long.
Hitting regular naptimes and bedtime made a big difference in her overall attitude. That was more important than hunting until the last minute.
Pretty sure she set her three day poop record. I don't know why she pooped so much but it was mildly annoying.
Next up is FireTiger's mule deer hunt. We leave Wednesday afternoon to start Thursday. This one will require hiking in, which will make things another level of interesting. I'm essentially there as mule and Dad duty. Going to try packing in a tent as a "safe" area for her to hang out, since our overall plan is similar - get to predetermined glassing spot and stay there. We may return to the truck for her naptime. Undetermined as of yet.
She's super mobile for a 7 month old. No problem standing if there is anything to grab on to, and a super speedy crawler. This all means you can't take your eyes off her very long, and she'll wind up trying to tumble someplace she shouldn't, or have a mouth full of rocks.
We did our best to create essentially a plan pen in the back of the truck out of blankets and pillows, but even with the tailgate down and cap open it got pretty warm back there and was only good for so long.
Hitting regular naptimes and bedtime made a big difference in her overall attitude. That was more important than hunting until the last minute.
Pretty sure she set her three day poop record. I don't know why she pooped so much but it was mildly annoying.
Next up is FireTiger's mule deer hunt. We leave Wednesday afternoon to start Thursday. This one will require hiking in, which will make things another level of interesting. I'm essentially there as mule and Dad duty. Going to try packing in a tent as a "safe" area for her to hang out, since our overall plan is similar - get to predetermined glassing spot and stay there. We may return to the truck for her naptime. Undetermined as of yet.
As someone who is considering burning my points on a muzzleloader buck tag in the next couple years rather than wait another 5 for a rifle tag, I've really enjoyed reading your muzzleloader pronghorn adventures the past few years. Thanks again for sharing!
We have a 5 month old daughter, and I'm definitely impressed you're doing all that. I hiked all over the place with her this summer, but haven't spent a night in a tent or even car camping with her yet. We are so set in our nighttime routine that includes bathtime, etc, that we haven't really branched out yet, and frankly, the lack of temperature control of camping makes me nervous for another couple months at least. I think my wife and I lack the confidence to push ourselves and our daughter into a place that could jeopardize the sleep routine we have worked so hard to establish, because the dark side of NOT getting the nighttime sleep and/or the daytime naps is all too fresh in our memory.A couple notes about daughter.
She's super mobile for a 7 month old. No problem standing if there is anything to grab on to, and a super speedy crawler. This all means you can't take your eyes off her very long, and she'll wind up trying to tumble someplace she shouldn't, or have a mouth full of rocks.
We did our best to create essentially a plan pen in the back of the truck out of blankets and pillows, but even with the tailgate down and cap open it got pretty warm back there and was only good for so long.
Hitting regular naptimes and bedtime made a big difference in her overall attitude. That was more important than hunting until the last minute.
Pretty sure she set her three day poop record. I don't know why she pooped so much but it was mildly annoying.
Next up is FireTiger's mule deer hunt. We leave Wednesday afternoon to start Thursday. This one will require hiking in, which will make things another level of interesting. I'm essentially there as mule and Dad duty. Going to try packing in a tent as a "safe" area for her to hang out, since our overall plan is similar - get to predetermined glassing spot and stay there. We may return to the truck for her naptime. Undetermined as of yet.
We are looking at some used pop up campers this week actually in the hopes of being able to follow in your footsteps of family hunts with an infant next year. Thanks for including those details, super interesting and relevant for me to read about.
duckhunt
Well-known member
Great stuff vanish.
I'm general, I think it is a much more fun hunt. I'm never looking for a booner. Just unlucky this year combined with trying to do it with a baby.
We spent a week camping at a lake with her back in May, sleeping in the car. It was actually easier then as the schedule didn't matter quite as much and she could reliably be strapped to someone for a couple hours at a time. Much more difficult now that she's crawling, but we agreed we'd try to keep as much of our lifestyle as we were comfortable with. Backpacking is right out though
We've definitely tossed around the idea of a camper, but it conflicts with trying to stay minimalist. FireTiger grew up with RVs while my family had cabins.
We are halfway through. The word challenge may be an understatement as it has been raining the majority of the time. A whopping one bedded forky spotted on Thursday, and about 40 does. The sun has finally appeared, but the horizon is dark gray. FireTiger is out solo atm while i watched the girls. Not enough signal for pics.
bowhuntmontana
Well-known member
Crap! Glad everyone is okay. Once the dust settles, the inconvenience of those types of situations can be infuriating. Hope things go well.
bobbydean
Well-known member
I love the adventure.
Been really hard to get the motivation and time to write things up. I've attempted to do it like three times. I don't know if it is just because the season hasn't been that exciting or just the rest of life has been consuming.
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Wednesday
I got out of work at an early hour and we had the truck all packed the night before, so we were able to get on the road and to our camp location before dark, and before daughter's bedtime.
Ada was quite entertained by some mice or chipmunks in the local stumps.
There were still quite a few archery camps around, as this year her deer tag would overlap the last couple days of archery season. In the past, it always started the day after the end of archery, but with the season changes a couple years ago there is now sometimes an overlap. I don't really understand how they come to the start date. Thursday, Sept 28 seemed pretty arbitrary.
We had brought some burgers for dinner, so it was just a matter of prepping the bed. We made it to bed on time, but daughter did not sleep well.
Thursday
The plan had been to be up and drive to our parking area before daylight, but we didn't get great sleep until the early hours and thus slept in. It was also raining, which made getting up early far less attractive. When we finally made it over, it was still raining, so FireTiger went out by herself for a couple hours while I watched the girls at the truck.
The weather finally broke about noon and we decided to execute our main plan: FireTiger would pack daughter in while I carried all the gear to glass, as well as a tent where daughter could have a safer place to play.
This plan was met with mixed results, as 20 minutes into our hike the weather started to turn again and we had to scramble to our glassing point, quickly set the tent up and everyone piled in to hide from the rain. I guess this worked out all things considered.
We didn't spot any deer ( not terribly surprising considering the time of day ) by the time daughter's naptime was approaching, so with another break in the weather I took her and Ada back to the truck, leaving the tent set up for FireTiger. Naturally, I jumped a buck along the way. He was focused on Ada for a minute, but I couldn't get a good photo of him through the aspens.
I was able to get back out for the last couple of hours as the weather broke once again. FireTiger had turned up a few does but no bucks. We had to leave earlier than we wanted to make daughter's bedtime, which meant about an hour before the end of shooting light, unfortunately.
We were literally packed up when I took one last look and spotted a small buck. FireTiger wanted to get a better look so tried to close the distance, but after being blocked by a creek, backed out so that we wouldn't be too late in getting back to camp. We think he was just a forky and it would have made for an ugly night, so all ok with that.
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Wednesday
I got out of work at an early hour and we had the truck all packed the night before, so we were able to get on the road and to our camp location before dark, and before daughter's bedtime.
Ada was quite entertained by some mice or chipmunks in the local stumps.
There were still quite a few archery camps around, as this year her deer tag would overlap the last couple days of archery season. In the past, it always started the day after the end of archery, but with the season changes a couple years ago there is now sometimes an overlap. I don't really understand how they come to the start date. Thursday, Sept 28 seemed pretty arbitrary.
We had brought some burgers for dinner, so it was just a matter of prepping the bed. We made it to bed on time, but daughter did not sleep well.
Thursday
The plan had been to be up and drive to our parking area before daylight, but we didn't get great sleep until the early hours and thus slept in. It was also raining, which made getting up early far less attractive. When we finally made it over, it was still raining, so FireTiger went out by herself for a couple hours while I watched the girls at the truck.
The weather finally broke about noon and we decided to execute our main plan: FireTiger would pack daughter in while I carried all the gear to glass, as well as a tent where daughter could have a safer place to play.
This plan was met with mixed results, as 20 minutes into our hike the weather started to turn again and we had to scramble to our glassing point, quickly set the tent up and everyone piled in to hide from the rain. I guess this worked out all things considered.
We didn't spot any deer ( not terribly surprising considering the time of day ) by the time daughter's naptime was approaching, so with another break in the weather I took her and Ada back to the truck, leaving the tent set up for FireTiger. Naturally, I jumped a buck along the way. He was focused on Ada for a minute, but I couldn't get a good photo of him through the aspens.
I was able to get back out for the last couple of hours as the weather broke once again. FireTiger had turned up a few does but no bucks. We had to leave earlier than we wanted to make daughter's bedtime, which meant about an hour before the end of shooting light, unfortunately.
We were literally packed up when I took one last look and spotted a small buck. FireTiger wanted to get a better look so tried to close the distance, but after being blocked by a creek, backed out so that we wouldn't be too late in getting back to camp. We think he was just a forky and it would have made for an ugly night, so all ok with that.
