**Returning Champs** BUCK U- Team 3
09-02-2012, 07:40 PM
#14
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Iowa
Posts: 1,858
Good luck in NM SDHunter. You have to be pretty stoked. Welcome back everyone else. I was just thinking, has there ever been a 2 time winner of this contest. I'm kind of thinking not...so maybe we can do it this year.
09-03-2012, 08:28 PM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location:
Posts: 1,324
Back a few years ago I was on a team called the "Dark Horses" - believe we were the first team to repeat....
09-04-2012, 06:16 AM
#18
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Eastern Shore, MD
Posts: 215
I just got back last week from a early season antelope hunt in Montana. The short version is I ate a tag sandwich. I shot a few inches under one at 76yards the first evening on my first ever spot and stalk. I Had one of the best times of my life and not harvesting an animal had no impact on the experience.
Here's the long version:
After getting into Missoula, Driving 2 1/2 hours to the Big Hole Valley and setting up camp we decided to Take a look around the area we would be hunting. Out the gate we saw a single Buck about 100 yards of the dirt road. We parked about 1 /2 mile downwind of him in a creek bottom and began our stalk. We snuck along a sage brush covered barb wired fence row till we got 200 yards away. I then belly crawled the last 125 yards and holed up behind the only 2 foot sage brush in the cow pasture. The wind swirled and he moved quickly off to my left then stopped. I ranged him at 76 and aimed accordingly using my 60 yard pin knowing I wouldn't be getting closer. I shot about 4 inches below him and he was gone. That episode in its self made my trip.
The next day we went to another block management property. This area was more of gun area because of its layout. We saw a few Antelope but couldn't get inside 125 yards of them. Mid afternoon we hunted a water hole with great sign. Neither of us enjoyed sitting in a blind staring at our decoy so we did these for 3 hours and decided spot and stalk was what we were going to attempt the rest of the trip.
That evening we went back to the block parcel were I had missed the evening before. It was long after glassing we found another buck. We made a move on him and got to 90 yards before a vehicle came down the lane and opened a cattle gate and he went away from us and we ran out of time.
Later we went into town and were granted access to hunt a 30,000 acre cattle ranch. There were two large jags of Antelope both numbering around 60 each. The next morning we arrived at daylight and spotted them feeding in a few green bottoms. We made our plan and embarked on a 4 hour 3 mile stalk in which we crawled a solid mile of it. Sure enough we got to within 100 yards of the group. We had a doe and 2 fawns work to us to 50 yards but the group moved off. We played cat and mouse with them for the rest of the afternoon but couldn't get close enough after that.
That evening we went and glassed the area from the previous evenings in preparation for our last morning the next day. We spotted a group of 33 and got ready for the morning.
The morning came and sure enough they were there in two groups. We set out to get down wind of them and started on a 2 mile circle. Some cows in the process wouldn't move off and eventually they spooked them as we got close. We started a quick step to get down around a hill and then up the other side to cut them off. About 20 minutes later we had almost climbed to the top of the ridge when they popped over it 95 yards from us. All we could do was lay flat and let them move off because we were caught in the open. The moved off and onto property that we could not access. We were a bit bummed but looked over the ridge and could see the other group of 10 feeding below. We went back down the hill and found a drainage ditch that followed the front side and into the green are they were feeding. We got setup 125 from them down wind. No sooner we sat down in the ditch my buddy says here they come. They had been bumped by the only other hunter we saw the entire trip who had tried to stalk them from the upwind side and in the bare open.
That was our last chance.
Even though I didn't harvest one, the scenery, vastness, people, friendship and the beauty of being out of cell range made for an experience I'll never forget. It was hard to get back on the plane yesterday.
Here's the long version:
After getting into Missoula, Driving 2 1/2 hours to the Big Hole Valley and setting up camp we decided to Take a look around the area we would be hunting. Out the gate we saw a single Buck about 100 yards of the dirt road. We parked about 1 /2 mile downwind of him in a creek bottom and began our stalk. We snuck along a sage brush covered barb wired fence row till we got 200 yards away. I then belly crawled the last 125 yards and holed up behind the only 2 foot sage brush in the cow pasture. The wind swirled and he moved quickly off to my left then stopped. I ranged him at 76 and aimed accordingly using my 60 yard pin knowing I wouldn't be getting closer. I shot about 4 inches below him and he was gone. That episode in its self made my trip.
The next day we went to another block management property. This area was more of gun area because of its layout. We saw a few Antelope but couldn't get inside 125 yards of them. Mid afternoon we hunted a water hole with great sign. Neither of us enjoyed sitting in a blind staring at our decoy so we did these for 3 hours and decided spot and stalk was what we were going to attempt the rest of the trip.
That evening we went back to the block parcel were I had missed the evening before. It was long after glassing we found another buck. We made a move on him and got to 90 yards before a vehicle came down the lane and opened a cattle gate and he went away from us and we ran out of time.
Later we went into town and were granted access to hunt a 30,000 acre cattle ranch. There were two large jags of Antelope both numbering around 60 each. The next morning we arrived at daylight and spotted them feeding in a few green bottoms. We made our plan and embarked on a 4 hour 3 mile stalk in which we crawled a solid mile of it. Sure enough we got to within 100 yards of the group. We had a doe and 2 fawns work to us to 50 yards but the group moved off. We played cat and mouse with them for the rest of the afternoon but couldn't get close enough after that.
That evening we went and glassed the area from the previous evenings in preparation for our last morning the next day. We spotted a group of 33 and got ready for the morning.
The morning came and sure enough they were there in two groups. We set out to get down wind of them and started on a 2 mile circle. Some cows in the process wouldn't move off and eventually they spooked them as we got close. We started a quick step to get down around a hill and then up the other side to cut them off. About 20 minutes later we had almost climbed to the top of the ridge when they popped over it 95 yards from us. All we could do was lay flat and let them move off because we were caught in the open. The moved off and onto property that we could not access. We were a bit bummed but looked over the ridge and could see the other group of 10 feeding below. We went back down the hill and found a drainage ditch that followed the front side and into the green are they were feeding. We got setup 125 from them down wind. No sooner we sat down in the ditch my buddy says here they come. They had been bumped by the only other hunter we saw the entire trip who had tried to stalk them from the upwind side and in the bare open.
That was our last chance.
Even though I didn't harvest one, the scenery, vastness, people, friendship and the beauty of being out of cell range made for an experience I'll never forget. It was hard to get back on the plane yesterday.
