The BaitShop Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Hunting > Big Game
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Opening Day In Montana
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

This site is completely supported by donations; there are no corporate sponsors. We would be honoured if you would consider a small donation, to be used exclusively for forum expenses.



Thank you, from the BaitShop Boyz!

Opening Day In Montana

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
CB900F View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
Honor, Integrity

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Eritrea
Status: Offline
Points: 8857
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CB900F Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Opening Day In Montana
    Posted: 23 October 2016 at 03:02
Fella's;

Yesterday, Saturday the 22nd of October, was opening day
for the deer/elk rifle season here in Montana. It dawned
very cool and cloudy with precipitation threatening.
Then the precipitation stopped threatening and actually
began precipitating with all the cold wetness it could
muster.

My son went up onto the ridge behind our place & sat in a
ground blind we'd put up on the east end of the ridge.
The son-in-law also trekked up there, both of them on
foot mind you, and the son-in-law stayed on the west end.
However, both of them neglected to give me a clear and
understandable description of their intent, so I went
across the pavement to the south. I heard them shoot
awhile later & figured they'd scored. Both of them are
good shots. Perhaps 10 minutes or so later, I heard a
spate of shots to my east on a neighbor's land. About
this time I then became involved with some personal
business that had decided that it could not wait. So
there I was, with me bare bum hangin' out, when I
fleetingly see a pod of bachelor bucks transit my hunting
ground. There were four that I saw, and there may have
been one or two more. But, the sighting was for all of
maybe 10 seconds, long enough though to discern that
atleast one of the bucks was a real keeper. They also
crossed a fence that was a property line & that was the
end of that.   Being cold, wet, but relieved, I took the
ATV back to the ranch to help the boys with their deer.

Because I expected them both to have filled their tags, I
parked the Yamaha & took the truck up the ridge. Keep in
mind that it's still dark, cold, very low clouds, and
raining. Which meant that my glasses were fogging inside
the truck as I drove near, and by, my son. And a minute
later, my son-in-law. I had supposed they'd be up on the
hill field dressing their kills so I wasn't looking for
them down in the hay fields. And gee, I didn't find
either one up on the ridge, so down I came.

At which time I did see my S-I-L & daughter on the
tractor coming my way. He told me to follow the north
hay field fence & I'd find my son and his deer, which I
did. Greg now had the Yamaha ATV, and a few kind words
for his apparently blind father. I then helped him load
the doe onto the ATV & then departed via pavement,
leaving him to the hay field.

Come to find out, my son took about a 300 yard shot &
shot over the first deer, then left the blind he'd been
in & a minute later shot the doe at about a hundred
yards. Eric had taken a little 3X4 buck & then just went
to get the tractor. When he returned to the scene of his
success with my daughter, he busied himelf getting the
buck loaded into the bucket & my daughter popped an
onlooker, another small buck. So, two deer in the
bucket! I, having returned to the ranch, got warm & ate
breakfast.

About three PM, I went back to the south & holed up in an
ideal spot to get a nice buck. I napped while waiting.
But at around 5:30, no deer at all had shown up to help
mow the hay field & no sign of them coming either.
However, I did spot a small herd grazing very close to
the place Greg had shot his doe in the morning. So, I
loaded up, drove past the deer, & turned in on the lane
to our spring coulee. I parked in the first field, not
wanting to get too close & spook the herd. This also put
the wind in my face & I knew the herd was grazing &
moving toward me. I hiked to the fence line & turned to
where the deer would be & followed the wire. This was up
& down, fairly steep, and unimproved field. It was a
slog. I proceeded this way about three eights to half a
mile, stopping to keep my breathing calm & looking
sharply. The rolling nature of the terrain meant I could
easily find myself in sight with no cover.

I spotted a buck at a fence corner & he was the only deer
I did see. I moved to my right about 15 yards & steadied
up on a 4 inch wooden fence post & looked around. He was
it as far as I could tell, so I shot him. Immediately,
four does burst out of a little swale that had hidden
them from me & pounded downhill to the south. The little
buck staggered & went down just out of sight. I hiked to
him and looked around, about 400 yards to my right front
was a herd of about 20 to 25 deer! They just stood there
lookin' back at me. Oh well, that's the way it goes. If
I'd passed on the little buck, he'd still have spooked &
probably spooked the big herd as well. He's a nice
little 2X3 meat deer.

I didn't know it, but Eric had watched the shot from the
highway to the south. He met me at my truck, rode with
me back to the buck & helped me load it. We field
dressed it in the dark by headlight. I'll skin it later
this morning.

So we've all filled out deer tags, now it's on to elk.

900F




Edited by CB900F
Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
Back to Top
BEAR View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar

Joined: 07 September 2013
Location: Appalachian Mtn
Status: Offline
Points: 13734
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BEAR Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 October 2016 at 03:13
to be continued.....
Back to Top
Irish Bird Dog View Drop Down
.416 Rigby
.416 Rigby
Avatar
Too many

Joined: 01 March 2009
Location: Midwest
Status: Offline
Points: 5511
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Irish Bird Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 October 2016 at 15:48
bravo to the "ranch" crew for a successful first day hunt. good story too but lacks the neat pics we get from d4570!
Irish Bird Dog

NRA Life/Endowment

2nd Amendment Supporter
Back to Top
Wing master View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
AKA StraightShooter

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 7481
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wing master Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 October 2016 at 16:31
Congratulations to all of you. Meat in the freezer.

Wing master
I have always considered myself to be quite the bullshitter, But ocasionally it is nice to sit back and listen to a true professional......So, Carry on.
Back to Top
BEAR View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar

Joined: 07 September 2013
Location: Appalachian Mtn
Status: Offline
Points: 13734
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BEAR Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 October 2016 at 03:26
Congratulations. seems like more than a full day for
the whole family.
Back to Top
TasunkaWitko View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
aka The Gipper

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Chinook Montana
Status: Offline
Points: 14749
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 October 2016 at 05:19
Weidmanns Heil to everyone!

Very good story - waiting to see how it goes with the elk.

No tag for me until next week -
TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana

Helfen, Wehren, Heilen
Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen
Back to Top
CB900F View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
Honor, Integrity

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Eritrea
Status: Offline
Points: 8857
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CB900F Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 October 2016 at 06:21
Taz;

Why not? There's got to be a story there.

900F
Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
Back to Top
TasunkaWitko View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
aka The Gipper

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Chinook Montana
Status: Offline
Points: 14749
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 October 2016 at 07:22
Unfortunately, no story...just bad planning. Need to wait for PayDay!
TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana

Helfen, Wehren, Heilen
Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen
Back to Top
d4570 View Drop Down
.416 Rigby
.416 Rigby
Avatar

Joined: 27 January 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 9403
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote d4570 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 October 2016 at 08:10
Nice.
Much less expensive then our hunt, and more game.
Photo bucket is down for repairs so no pics or story for now.
let me just say a 80 gr TTS at 3800 fps out of the six is way plenty for a 4x3 mule deer at a 1/4 mile...
Good job CB.


TasunkaWitko
I always save $200 from out tax refund for my licenses and tags.
Remember: Four boxes keep us free ,the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, AND the cartridge box
Back to Top
Tikkabuck View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
**Robert E. Lee IV **

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 8740
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tikkabuck Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 October 2016 at 02:25
Pretty awesome story.What did you shoot yours with this time around ?
God,Mother,Country,and Hot Rods. Done with political crap.LOL
Back to Top
CB900F View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
Honor, Integrity

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Eritrea
Status: Offline
Points: 8857
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CB900F Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 October 2016 at 03:15
Tikka;

Since I took the bear with the 6.5 Swede, & the weather
was crappy, I used my Tikka blue/syn .30-06. That gun
wears a Leupold MKII tactical scope with a mil-dot
reticle. And that scope is when I found out that Loopy
thinks that vertical adjustments should be twice what
horizontal adjustment increments are. In other words, at
a hundred yards, half-inch up or down, quarter inch side
to side. Makes it damned hard to get it right on the
money for sight-in. Which is why I went to Zeiss for
serious glass.

900F
Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
Back to Top
jsgbearpaws1 View Drop Down
.416 Rigby
.416 Rigby
Avatar

Joined: 02 March 2013
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3599
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jsgbearpaws1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 October 2016 at 08:09
Sounds like an eventful day!
...oh yeah! thats gonna hurt!
Back to Top
samchap View Drop Down
.416 Rigby
.416 Rigby
Avatar
Honor, Integrity

Joined: 12 August 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1781
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote samchap Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 October 2016 at 14:02
A most excellent family deer tale. Really enjoyed reading
it.
samchap - Waldoboro, ME








Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday.
Back to Top
CB900F View Drop Down
Administrator
Administrator
Avatar
Honor, Integrity

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Eritrea
Status: Offline
Points: 8857
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CB900F Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 October 2016 at 04:56
I thank you all for the kind words.

900F
Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
Back to Top
bachekermooni View Drop Down
.223 Remington
.223 Remington
Avatar

Joined: 18 April 2016
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 63
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bachekermooni Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 October 2016 at 20:20
CB, Great job. Hoping you are saving the back strap for me    MN
opener next weekend. Maybe I can share a deer story as well.

May your bullets hit where you aim.
Do It Right The FIRST Time.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 11.10
Copyright ©2001-2017 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.160 seconds.