Montana 2020

[hobbes]

We've had crazy beautiful weather since the brutal opening weekend of the General Season. I suppose it's not necessarily good weather for killing elk but beautiful none the less. It's barely under 70 degrees this evening, so I'm outside with my granddaughter.

Pedro is keeping an eye on us with the Elkhorns in the background.


The weather is supposed to get colder for my mule deer hunt. I hope that holds. I won't complain too much if it gets colder than the current forecast. Three things that I could do without is rain, mud, and high winds. I start the hunt on Wednesday.

 

[hobbes]

More Elkhorns this evening:

 

[hobbes]

I had to drive to another town today to pick up a set of snow tires for my son's car. I noticed a buck with a couple does at one spot. He was still there when I came back through about 4 hours later. He was a decent looking 4 point, neck outstretched and lowered, running at one of the does. The rut should be rocking next week when we start hunting. It's looking like we'll be hunting in snow. There's a winter storm warning this weekend, Saturday night - Monday, and more on about Wednesday. That's better than mud.

 

[hobbes]

I'm spending today in preparation for the mule deer hunt. I've still got to change my oil. My tundra had a platform across the entire bed when I bought it. It's worked but I'm tired of needing to lift everything heavy up onto the platform. I cut the platform back so that a twin size memory foam mattress will fit on it and I can actually sit up with my feet on the truck bed floor. It leaves a compartment with a hinged lid just under the side window that will swing open. I won't be sleeping in it on this trip, but I can now slide heavy coolers or totes straight in off the tailgate on the passenger side.


I cooked the first of this year's antelope steaks today at lunch, butterflied loin steaks. I still can't get over how good antelope is.

 

[TheCougar]

I'm spending today in preparation for the mule deer hunt. I've still got to change my oil. My tundra had a platform across the entire bed when I bought it. It's worked but I'm tired of needing to lift everything heavy up onto the platform. I cut the platform back so that a twin size memory foam mattress will fit on it and I can actually sit up with my feet on the truck bed floor. It leaves a compartment with a hinged lid just under the side window that will swing open. I won't be sleeping in it on this trip, but I can now slide heavy coolers or totes straight in off the tailgate on the passenger side.
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I cooked the first of this year's antelope steaks today at lunch, butterflied loin steaks. I still can't get over how good antelope is.
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View attachment 230486

Antelope is awesome. I’ve had a lot of people tell me the meat is terrible, but I’ve yet to have one that is bad. If you put the sneak on them and get them with the first shot when they haven’t run a mile, and you cool the meat down quickly, it’s just as good as elk.

 

[hobbes]

Winter is back. Bucks should be on their feet all day after this. We won't be hunting locally, but similar weather where we will be.

 

[hobbes]

 

[lif]

Great job of logging your season for everyone. Makes for some fun day dreaming for those of us sitting at home. I’ll be rut hunting some whitetails next week in the snow as well. Wish I was chasing Mulies, but I’m just thankful I get to hunt at all. Good luck. Looking forward to the conclusion of your story.

 

[hobbes]

Great job of logging your season for everyone. Makes for some fun day dreaming for those of us sitting at home. I’ll be rut hunting some whitetails next week in the snow as well. Wish I was chasing Mulies, but I’m just thankful I get to hunt at all. Good luck. Looking forward to the conclusion of your story.

Good luck with the whitetails. 15 or 20 years ago I'd never have dreamed that I wouldn't spend every possible moment in a tree stand in November every year for the rest of my life.

I'd be more than happy to be spending this week (or maybe last week) in a tree stand in Southern IL in the Ohio River bottoms. Not that I would trade it for my upcoming hunt, but I wish I'd made it back home for the whitetail rut also. We won't pass a big Montana whitetail if we run across one.

 

[hobbes]

My son and I are driving to our mule deer destination tomorrow. I should be asleep now, but I always was a night owl. I regret it more in the mornings as I get older. I turned 50 this year and it doesn't really seem possible.

Enough of that. I'll try to make it as live as I can, but signal varies. Semi-Live is more likely. This year will basically have the same goals for myself as last year. That hunt can be found here:

2019 Mule Deer Semi-Live Rut Hunt

I'll make this as live as possible but it will likely be more of a semi-live hunt where I'll update in the evenings due to poor cell service. I'll be heading out with my truck loaded early tomorrow morning and hunting until Thursday next week. My primary focus is rutting deer, but I'm bringing...

www.rokslide.com

The difference this year is that my oldest son is going. He'll be following me out because he needs to come back Sunday. He's killed a boat load of turkeys, two small whitetail bucks, a spike mule deer buck, and a cow elk. The cow and one whitetail was with a bow. He won't be terribly picky, but he also doesn't want to shoot a tiny little buck. I suspect he'll be ready to shoot any decent 4 point.

We'll be taking Finn, my youngest griffon, and same dog I took during antelope. I should be taking Kassie but she's more excitable and more likely to blow through birds until she settles down. Isaac doesn't have a lot of time so I don't want to deal with that. Finn will be dropped off at a kennel Thursday.


The current forecast shows it warming a little. I was hoping that it would stay cold, but the bucks should be rocking anyway.

 

[hobbes]

The drive out is normally 6 hours, but it was at least 7.5 hours today because the road conditions were variable from dry to ice.



I'd planned on getting a pheasant hunt in this evening but we didn't arrive until 3:30 PM and made it out of the hotel for some glassing here close by.

I wasn't surprised to see deer, but I was surprised that the pile of does we watched had three 4 pts join them just before dark. They were all feeding on private that we can't hunt but I think they came from state land that I've seen deer bed on before. We will start there in the morning before taking Finn out for a pheasant hunt. I think Isaac would shoot any one of the 4 points, but it was dark enough that we couldn't be certain.

Finn wasn't impressed with our interest in deer. I think he felt entitled to a rooster after the long drive.


I'll update tomorrow.

 

[hobbes]

It's not warmed up yet

Yes, that's a negative. About to get out of truck and try to get a closer look at the bucks we saw yesterday evening

 

[Fatcamp]

Ouch. That's sassy!

 

[204guy]

Good luck. I was in the general area last weekend and the bucks were still bachelored up. Very little rutting. It was strange.

 

[rooster440]

I hunted opening week and most of the bucks I saw were still in bachelor groups, the two studs I saw were solo. I ended up with a great 4x4 on day 3.


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[hobbes]

Bucks are with the does now.

Thursday Morning:

The bucks were gone this morning and the deer that were still around wanted to stay on property that we couldn't hunt. We only found does where we could hunt. We spotted a pretty good looking buck from the truck around mid morning and watched him cross a fence onto Block Management. We made a play for him but once we started getting closer we realized there was another fence below him that marked the limits of where we could hunt. At that point we backed out.

We hunted pheasants for a few hours and saw lots of birds, but mostly hens. I missed one rooster and my son lost one.
We saw a pile of roosters on property that we couldn't hunt. We also had a pretty good 4 point stand and look at us from 30 yards. He was off limits even if we weren't in the truck.

 

[hobbes]

Thursday Evening:

We had dried out for an hour mid day then dropped the dog off at a local kennel. We got out of farm country with limited access and headed for some bigger blocks of BLM and Block Management. We found one little buck and some does, so pretty uneventful evening. We'll try where I killed last year's buck in the morning.
The roads are ice, so driving is slow.

 

[hobbes]

Isaac just killed a 4 pt that we've been trying to kill all morning. Finally found him bedded with a small buck and slipped in for a 110 yard shot when he stood up. Working our way off this badland knob down to him.

 

[hobbes]

Just got to the truck after breaking him down. We are taking a break then heading back with the sled.

Sunrise

We found him right at daylight but he kept moving with a couple does. We bumped him twice but he never got a real good look at us and never smelled us. The snow is noisy so we we're lucky to finally get a little wind cover. The does split one way and him and a little forkie the other the second time. They'd probably went a few hundred yards around a knob and bedded. We were able to keep peeking into places and found them before sneaking along the back side and creeping to the crest for a shot down. The little guy was facing us so stood up. That brought Isaac's buck to his feet and he turned broadside to look up at us. He took 3 bounds after the shot with the offside leg broken. We went gutless but it sounded like soup in there. Judging from entry hole, I'd say the lungs were jello and the heart probably wasn't much better.






The shot was from the right side of that knob just below the peak.

 

[rooster440]

Stud of a buck!


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