danmayland
WKR
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2015
- Messages
- 489
Antelope hunting in
Montana has become a yearly tradition with my son. The 2015 and 2016 years really blessed us with some amazing experiences and two trophy bucks.
Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to draw a rifle buck tag this year but scored a doe tag for the same unit we've hunted in the past.
Time was short this year with work and football schedules so we only had one day to try and get it done.
We left at 5 am this morning and drove 3 1/2 hours to the unit and immediately headed to our favorite BLM lands. Panic started to set in after about 3 hours of hunting and glassing without a single sighting of any antelope.
Thankfully I saved some extra maps on my OnXmaps app and we located a large chunk of BLM I had never hunted. The wind was blowing 25 mph with mixed rain and snow so I knew the antelope were going to be hunkered down.
We hiked in about 3 miles when we came across a large heard of 70+ antelope bedded in a huge basin. Fortunately they were sucked up against a rim of the basin trying to escape the inclement weather. We belly crawled about 100 yards up to the edge of the rim and had the entire heard at 250 yards. There were a dozen bucks with 3 bombers and one pushing 80 inches!! Quite disappointing not to have a buck tag in my pocket but fun and exciting none the less!!
I picked out the biggest doe I could get a safe shot on as they were huddled pretty close together. Pointed her out to my son who was laying beside me. A well placed head shot with a 25mph cross wind sealed the deal. The herd had no idea what had happened and they just stood there observing what the heck that noise was. My son was so excited to see so many antelope in one heard and all the big bucks!!
We will be back next year hopefully with a buck tag in hand!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Montana has become a yearly tradition with my son. The 2015 and 2016 years really blessed us with some amazing experiences and two trophy bucks.
Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to draw a rifle buck tag this year but scored a doe tag for the same unit we've hunted in the past.
Time was short this year with work and football schedules so we only had one day to try and get it done.
We left at 5 am this morning and drove 3 1/2 hours to the unit and immediately headed to our favorite BLM lands. Panic started to set in after about 3 hours of hunting and glassing without a single sighting of any antelope.
Thankfully I saved some extra maps on my OnXmaps app and we located a large chunk of BLM I had never hunted. The wind was blowing 25 mph with mixed rain and snow so I knew the antelope were going to be hunkered down.
We hiked in about 3 miles when we came across a large heard of 70+ antelope bedded in a huge basin. Fortunately they were sucked up against a rim of the basin trying to escape the inclement weather. We belly crawled about 100 yards up to the edge of the rim and had the entire heard at 250 yards. There were a dozen bucks with 3 bombers and one pushing 80 inches!! Quite disappointing not to have a buck tag in my pocket but fun and exciting none the less!!
I picked out the biggest doe I could get a safe shot on as they were huddled pretty close together. Pointed her out to my son who was laying beside me. A well placed head shot with a 25mph cross wind sealed the deal. The herd had no idea what had happened and they just stood there observing what the heck that noise was. My son was so excited to see so many antelope in one heard and all the big bucks!!
We will be back next year hopefully with a buck tag in hand!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk