Pathfinder's Montana Antelope Hunt a Total Bust

[Pathfinder101]

Any of you guys drive through eastern Montana and not see an antelope?

I haven’t.  At least not until last weekend.    PathfinderJR and I had drawn antelope tags for the 700 unit in eastern Montana.  I had been putting in for antelope in Montana for 3 years with my sister and brother in law in unit 481 without success.  This year they decided that they didn’t want to put in, so I put JR and me in for the 700 unit thinking that we would draw (which we did) and have a nice hunt.  He is 13 now so is eligible to hunt in MT and I figured this would be a great first out-of-state hunt for him.
I retired from the Army last year and took a job teaching high school, which I love, but really doesn’t leave much time for hunting seasons, particularly ones that we have to travel for.  Still, I wanted to make it a good trip, so I planned to pull JR (and myself) out of school for a couple of days and manage a 4 day hunt.
I was hoping to leave Walla Walla by 3:30 but PathfinderJR had a football game Wednesday night, their biggest game of the year with their across-town rivals, so I decided that I would suck it up and let him play before we took off.  We managed to get out of town around 7pm.  Our destination was a Block Management Area about 1 ˝ hours east of Billings that Google claimed was about 11 hours away.  Even without the time change it turned out to be more like 13, but while JR slept I gutted through the night and we were about an hour west of Billings when it started getting daylight.  As things got lighter, I started looking for goats.  You know…the herds of antelope that usually line both sides of the Interstate along I-90 from the Montana/Wyoming border through to around Butte?
Nothing.
Not a single antelope off the Interstate.  I thought that was odd, and around 7:30 JR woke up and looked around.  “Seeing any antelope yet?” he asked.  I told him that I hadn’t.  “Well,” I reasoned “It’s hunting season, they’re probably not as visible this time of year…  We’ll see some as soon as we get off the freeway and out into the backcountry.”
We made it to our BMA to sign in around 10:00am.  The ranch we had the BMA reservation for was so large that it was split into 6 “pastures”, each of them supposed to be assigned to a group of hunters for a 3 day period.  FWP told us that there would be a trailer with an FWP employee stationed out at the ranch all season to control the comings and goings of who hunted which pasture.  We pulled up to the trailer and a guy came out looking like he had been exiled to a deserted island for a very long time.  He had us come into the trailer, filled out our paperwork and started handing us maps.  “Hunt wherever you want.” He said.  “There’s no one else out here.”  Then he handed us several more maps.  “There’s no one on ANY of these BMAs right now, so you guys might as well try them too.” 
He didn’t sound very hopeful.
“What is the problem?” I asked.  He shrugged.  “I don’t know, I usually work in western Montana, so this is all new to me.  Maybe it’s the drought.  I haven’t seen anyone kill an antelope out here yet.”
We set up camp a few miles away at a public fishing access and headed back out to the BMA around noon.  We checked out 4 of the 6 pastures that day, driving the access roads, and even hiking into a couple of waterholes that were back off the roads.  Nothing.  Not a single goat.  The problem was evidently NOT the drought.  Most of the water tanks had water in them.  We hiked down to one to look for tracks.  None.  No footprints, no antelope poop…nothing.  Driving the perimeter of the ranch just before dark we did see a couple of goats, safely feeding on highly posted private land.  The only living thing we saw on our BMA was a mule deer doe who looked confused as to why on earth anyone would be out here on the barren landscape with her.
That night while we sat glumly over dinner at our camp a nice local fellow stopped by to chat.  “Duck hunting?” he asked.  “No, “  I said  “Antelope”. 
He cringed visibly. 
“Oh God,”  He mumbled. “ I wouldn’t even waste my $17 this year…” (now it was my turn to cringe-our tags had cost us $205-plus the 4 years of points it took to get them at $20 a piece..)
So, I asked him where all the antelope were.  To make a long story short (the guy liked to talk) apparently the goats were just starting to recover from the 90% winterkill they took 2 years ago (normally 6-12 inches of snow, they had gotten 6 feet) and this spring and early summer the wet conditions had brought EHD and wiped out fully half of what was left.  “There won’t be any antelope around here for the next 4-5 years he predicted.”  After commiserating with us for a bit he tried to offer a few tips (he had hunted this BMA for years) on honey holes that we could hike into and try to find a goat, but didn’t sound very hopeful.  We thanked him, he wished us luck and left us to cry into our chili. 
The next day we woke determined to hit it hard and beat the odds.  We drove up nearly a tank of diesel and hiked almost 15 miles in 3 different areas.  We checked every waterhole, canyon and road we could find on our map.  Nothing.  Butkus.  Nada. Nix.
That evening we did manage to spot a small group of goats at the far north edge of our area.  They were about a mile away and running the opposite direction.  We tried to make it over in their direction, and at least we did find some tracks and poop and even what I thought was a shed horn (antelope).  After further investigation of the area we turned up a skeleton, so it could be that the horn belonged to the skeleton as it was a bit coyote-chewed.
The spotting of the goats gave us a little hope for the next day, so we got up and headed back to the same area to see if we could locate the antelope from the night before, but they were long gone.  We hiked, spotted and hunted until about lunch time before finally giving in to the idea that this probably wasn’t going to happen for us.  As a small consolation prize I let JR smoke a couple of prairie dogs with his .270, so the trip wasn’t a total loss.  Dejected, we limped back to the river, broke camp and decided to pull an all-nighter to get home a day early and try to squeeze one last day out of the Washington deer season before it closed Sunday night.  PathfinderJR had tagged his buck already, but I still had a tag in my pocket, so I figured our time was better spent trying to do that than looking for antelope that just weren’t there.
Had we not been as time constrained we might have been able to bomb over to another part of eastern Montana, but we were hearing much the same story from the locals about the winter kill and the EHD.  To make matters worse, on the way home (this time mostly in the daylight) we started seeing goats around Big Timber, and were pretty much subjected to a parade of antelope on both sides of the Interstate from about Livingston almost all the way to Missoula.  Of course, by that time we were far outside our unit and our tags were worthless.  Every time we spotted another group PathfinderJR would let out another groan and bang his head against the passenger window of the truck.  “They’re RIGHT THERE…” he would moan “Look at that buck…”
The one bright spot was that on the way back, we spotted a herd of Bighorn rams out of the Rock Creek herd.  We pulled off the highway, I got out, ran up the hill and snapped a few shots.  There were a couple of good rams in the group, and all 4 sheep looked healthy.
So, Pathfinder and PathfinderJR’s big adventure turned out to be a phenomenal bust.  If there was one silver lining it was that after pulling an all-nighter to get back to Walla Walla, I slept about 2 hours, got up and got out to find a 3x4 mulie buck on the last day of the season.  At least I didn’t eat that tag too. 
Lesson learned:  Communicate better with the game biologist in the region that I draw a tag.  I probably could have avoided this fiasco by talking with some bios and finding out which part of the 700 weren’t decimated.  I underestimated this hunt, figuring that because I “have always seen antelope in eastern Montana” and that I had been told that this particular area had goats several years ago, that this hunt would be a slam dunk. 
For what it is worth, next year I will start building points for Wyoming.  I have told PathfinderJR that in a couple of years we will draw a decent hunt there and get our revenge… 

[shanevg]

What a bummer!  So sorry to hear about the bust!  I'm hoping to hit WY next year for my first antelope hunt and hope I don't have the same experience as you.   I do have 4 points so I should get a good hunt.

At least Jr got to get a buck!

[Bootfish]

Nice writeup, that is one reason we didnt put in for Montana this year, heard it has been dismal in our usual area, the 690.

On the flip side, thats a nice Washington buck and you look pretty rested considering what you had been through!!

Wyoming should treat you better, good luck on the draw.

[Ridgerunner]

Headed to the 700 units in about a week for deer, hopefully the antelope numbers are better where I will be hunting I know last year the numbers were still solid.  Wyoming will treat you much better I'm sure.  Sorry to hear it was so tough.

[Craig]

I have hunted 481 twice. I was in 481 earlier this year and the antelope numbers suck. A couple years age I would see hundreds on antalope during a trip. I seen about 30 in three days this year.

[NRA4LIFE]

Sorry to hear that.  Where we deer hunt in the 700 unit, the antelope numbers are horrible.  They've been that way now for close to 10 years.  I don't even get doe tags anymore when we're out there and the lope season is still open.  Haven't had a tag now in probably 6 or 7 years.  Sad.

[Bob33]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience.

I hunted Montana antelope from 2000 through 2009 and was generally successful. I've been hunting Wyoming since 2005. I heard about the 2010-2011 winter kill of antelope in Montana. It was even mentioned on here:

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=69548.0

When I hunted Wyoming in the fall of 2011, I heard from some that their herds had been hit hard the prior winter as well. I did not experience that. This year I heard the summer's drought hurt the antelope herds also. I did not experience that as we all filled our tags quite easily.

[huntnphool]

I wish I would have known you had a 700 tag, I could have helped you out.

[Woodchuck]

From now on I am calling you before I hunt anywhere.   

[Pathfinder101]

I wish I would have known you had a 700 tag, I could have helped you out.

Yeah, I should have put it out there better.  Thought it would be a slam-dunk, y'know...

[Pathfinder101]

Jeeze, even the pictures from the trip are jinxed.  They won't post.  I'll try again...

[Pathfinder101]

OK, that one worked.  I'll try again...

[Pathfinder101]

One more of Prairie Dog Death...

[Echomules]

Great write-up and photos! Sorry to hear about how that went down. We hunt region six for birds and the goats got hammered up there also. We saw one small herd and a bunch of single bucks this year, not a good outlook for their future.

[huntnphool]

From now on I am calling you before I hunt anywhere.   

I lease a chunk of land in 704 that has pronghorn on it is why.