Bearpaw Season - Fall 2013

[kramman]

Alright!

[hirshey]

Looks like a fantastic season... congrats!

[Ripper]

The story about Alex and Xander really touched me Dale. I'm sure the whole experience was very rewarding to you. Good job to all of you.

[bearpaw]

Matt and Mike from Nevada and Texas were our next Montana deer hunters. On their arrival day there was an hour of daylight left so I suggested we hunt that last "best" hour.

Five minutes into the hunt we spotted one of the biggest bucks I've seen on the ranch this fall. Another earlier hunter had made the mistake of passing this buck on the first day of his hunt. Neither one of the guys wanted to end their hunt on the first day so we passed the heavy, narrow, tall buck again. 

Next day the first hunt day we saw 21 bucks, whitetails and mulies, a couple pretty good shooters, but we passed them all. The guys were having so much fun looking for bucks, neither wanted to end it. 

On the second hunt day they were ready to put a buck down. We saw about a dozen or so bucks on the morning hunt but none were as large as what we had already passed so I suggested we pass them, then suddenly as we were driving along the edge of one of the alfalfa fields we spotted a buck bedded in thick timber and within range of the truck. Matt slipped out of the truck, he loaded his gun, found a rest, and took careful aim. BOOM, the buck never got up, he just rolled over. Awesome shot, congrats Matt, one for the wall!

[bearpaw]

The story about Alex and Xander really touched me Dale. I'm sure the whole experience was very rewarding to you. Good job to all of you.

It touched us all. Alex's hunt was special, I'm sure that little deer will be the biggest trophy we kill this year. Incredibly I have had to delete two nasty comments off my facebook page, I almost didn't post it in this topic, but I hoped it would be appreciated for what it really means to Alex.

Thanks a lot for commenting. 

[h20hunter]

The story about Alex and Xander really touched me Dale. I'm sure the whole experience was very rewarding to you. Good job to all of you.

100% on that one.....that shows what it should be about.....he may never be able to share that experience with his son or family again. Some chances to make memories only come around once.

Bad comments on FB about it.....can't say what I want to about those that would find a hint of negativity about it.....I'd get banned in a heartbeat.

[Buckmark]

The story about Alex and Xander really touched me Dale. I'm sure the whole experience was very rewarding to you. Good job to all of you.

It made my day better after reading it...

[actionshooter]

That is the best hunting story I have heard in a long time. Very touching!

[bearpaw]

After we took care of Matt's buck and had some lunch we went out for the afternoon hunt. I happened to think of a small canyon I hadn't hunted for more than a week and headed there. I wanted to drive down the old logging road into the canyon then I planned to drive back out and get up on a high spot to glass for the rest of the evening. Less than 100 yards into the canyon we spotted a big 20-22 inch whitetail bedded right off the side of the road 50 yards in front of the truck.

Mike got out of the truck walked around the truck to where he could see the buck and just as he raised his rifle the big buck jumped up, the buck ran about 10 yards and stopped, Mike shot but it was a miss. The buck trotted 30 yards and stopped again, but Mike couldn't see the buck from where he was at, pretty soon the big buck trotted off and we haven't seen him since. We hunted the rest of the evening, saw a few bucks, but nothing close to the big boy we had missed. Day #2 ended after seeing 20 or so bucks.

Day 3 found us out looking for the heavy, narrow, and tall buck, but no luck, in fact we looked for a couple bucks we had passed but couldn't find them. Finally we got onto a nice 4x4 but forgot to put a cartridge in the chamber, CLICK, buck gone. Later in the day we got onto another pretty decent buck but missed that buck. We also saw the big wide 4x4 that a hunter had wounded a week before, he was just fine and chasing a doe but gave us no shot opportunity.

Just before dark we were glassing the high ridges and I spotted a nice 4x4 mule buck about 2 miles away. We went to start the truck and drive across the ranch to go after him but the truck wouldn't start. We were parked on a long hill that goes down to ranch house so I put the truck in neutral and we coasted down the hill to the corrals. We got out of the truck and went to get the 4 wheelers so we could drive closer to the buck. We happened to see a big whitetail buck run across the driveway just outside the yard. Mike ran to the fence across the yard and took 4 shots but I think his adrenalin was going so bad that he was doomed to be able to hit that buck. The buck was still chasing the doe around as they went back and forth across the hillside and eventually out of sight.

Mike seemed discouraged, I grabbed the wheeler, told Mike to jump on, and we headed for the mule buck. This was their last day and I was doing everything I could to get Mike a buck. We closed the distance, it was getting late so I tried to get a little closer than I should have, that was a mistake, the deer headed for cover. We snuck slowly toward where we had seen them disappear, "there they are, the buck is on the left, do you see him, get a good rest and make a good shot in the shoulder." Mike settled down and seemed to make a good shot, the deer dropped like he had no legs. "AWESOME SHOT, you dropped him!" Finally we had a deer down for Mike.

We walked toward the deer and when we approached I could see that Mike was going to grab the horns, "You better poke him first and make sure he's dead." So Mike poked him in the rump, the deer jumped up and took off half running. The buck stopped about 50 yards from us, I told Mike to make a good shot, BOOM, the deer dropped again. We got within 10 yards and the buck jumped up again, this time he hobbled off with a limp in the rear end. I said "Shoot Again", but Mike replied back "I'm out of shells!" I watched the buck disappear into the timber and then we hurried back to the wheeler and headed for the truck where there was more ammo. We got more ammo and headed back to look for the buck but it was too dark to shoot and we had to back off. I decided to wait 4 hours and then hopefully we would find the buck dead in his bed. At 9:00 pm we resumed the search and searched for 2 hours with 7 people. My 2 hunters had to catch a flight in the morning so Mike left his deer tag and we searched again the next day for another 2 hours. After I was convinced we did not kill the buck I called off the search. I saw a bullet hole through the bucks neck when we walked up to him, but apparently the shot only rattled the spine and did not break it because the buck certainly got back up.

Mike did not leave with a deer but he definitely had his chances and if we ever find that mule buck I will ship him the horns, but I'm hoping that buck makes it. I would encourage everyone to try and settle their emotions before they take the shot. But, I can't say too much as I had the same problem when I was younger, I would just get too excited and my shooting would suffer.

[Killmore]

That is a great story about Alex,that  is what its all about.  And your last story has me nervous about missing now!

[bearpaw]

That is a great story about Alex,that  is what its all about.  And your last story has me nervous about missing now!

Shoot your gun before you leave, be sighted 1 or 2 inches high at 100 yards and you will do fine.

See you soon. 

[bearpaw]

The next hunter was Richard, he has hunted with us in MT at least twice before as well as a lion hunt in Idaho and some cow elk hunts in Utah. First morning out we saw 6 to 8 bucks and about the same in the evening, it was a slow day. Next day we spotted a medium sized, heavy horned 5x5 bedded in the thick pines, Richard put the crosshairs on him and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately he hit a small limb which deflected the bullet. We checked for blood and jumped the buck again and saw that he was fine and there was no blood trail.

We circled around and happened to spot the buck again, he had only gone 100-200 yards and bedded down again. The buck saw us but stayed bedded, he thought he was hidden, in fact he even dropped his head practically out of sight. Richard got a solid rest and pulled the trigger, BOOM, the buck never even stood up, he was dead in his bed. Congrats to Richard on an excellent shot and unique buck.

[Machias]

Great mass on those antlers!!  Awesome looking buck!

[bearpaw]

While I was deer hunting in Montana Nick was moose hunting in Idaho. They passed 8 bulls and even seen a cougar, on the last day they downed this Idaho bull. Congrats to Michael! 

[KFhunter]

that's one heck of a nice picture - and bull 


I'd blow that one up and frame it