vandeman's montana deer hunt

[vandeman17]

Thank you guys to the thread started about our hunt. http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,165326.0.html

Here is the story and some pics

Myself, my dad and Ribka all headed to Montana for a mulie hunt. We left Saturday and Ribka got there a few days before us. He shot a nice buck and if he wants to share his story he can. His pic is on the link above. We got into town on Saturday afternoon and got settled into our room and then went for little drive to check out the area. If it was any indication of what was to come, we had barely made it into the hills and on each side of the road up on these two ridges were bucks and one was hot on the trail of a doe. This got us excited and we knew from then on out that the bucks were in the rut. We started our actual hunting time Sunday and were greeted with a steady wind of 20-25 mph with gusts up to probably 40-50 mph. This made for some tougher hunting but we still were seeing tons of deer and plenty of bucks out chasing does all day every day.

Our plan going into the trip was for my dad to be first shooter and to take the first mature "meat buck" he saw so that I could focus on trying to get a good buck. Sunday and Monday we battled the wind, saw tons of deer and plenty of bucks but the only one we put a stalk on kept working out of range as he constantly was roaming and going from doe to doe. Combo a buck chasing does and a constant cold wind and getting a clean, ethical shot was tough. Tuesday morning we awoke to another very windy day and they were predicting 50+ mph gusts. We decided to head back to a spot we liked to glass from first thing in the morning and as we were headed there, I spotted 4 deer feeding off close to a little creek bottom. We stopped and I put the glass to them and saw that one was a buck but I couldn't tell what he was. I got the scope on him and waited until he lifted his head. As soon as he did and took a few steps, I knew he was a mature deer and would be a perfect meat buck. My dad was able to ease up towards them and dropped him with one shot. It was dang cold trying to take care of him in a steady cold wind....

The next morning found us back at our favorite spot to glass first thing in the morning. It didn't take long for us to find a buck and eight does that we had put to bed the night before. He wasn't the bruiser I was looking for but after watching him for a while and thinking about the forecast for another batch of nasty winds to come through, I decided to put a stalk on him. He was about a mile or so from our location so I came up with a plan and left my dad down to watch it all through the scope. I got up to my first desired location on top of a ridge and spotted him and his does about 350 yards away. I sat next to a little tree and watched them, hoping that they might feed their way towards me for a shot. It was pretty neat to sit and watch him check all his does and push them all around. Hardly a moment when by when he didn't have his head down with his nose up a doe's butt. I spotted movement coming out of a little draw and I saw a little two point and spike working their way up towards them. As they got closer and he spotted them, the bigger buck got all ruffled up and spent the next few minutes posturing and then finally running them off. After about twenty minutes of watching this, they finally bedded down so I had to come up with plan b. I picked out a little knob behind where they bedded, backed off my spot and made a big loop around to try and get behind them. As I made the loop, I came across a few does that I had to be careful not to blow out as well as a buck just cruising way up on top of the ridge. When I got to the base of the knob I picked out I dropped my pack and crawled up to the top as it was mostly just grass and a little small sage. As I got to the top I saw one doe bedded and then antler tips about 75 yards away. I got excited and put my binos on him and saw that it was the little two point. I knew the other deer were close but didn't want to spook them so I just held tight and waited. After a few minutes the little spike started working his way up towards us and as I watched him, I caught movement right in front of me. I slowly turned my head and there was a doe's head that had me pegged. I sat there frozen and finally she stood up and as she did, just to her right I saw antler tips move and then the buck stood up. She was wary of me but he had no idea and took a few steps and nudged her in the rear. She started walking and he followed right behind her. As soon as he cleared the little grass in front of me, I let it rip at 35 yards and he jumped straight up in the air and kicked out his back legs. He took off running and I stood up and watched, knowing I had drilled him. After about 100 yards, he stopped, got wobbly and tipped over. I buzzed my old man on the radio to let him know he I got him and started with the success texts.  As we were gutting him, I looked up the ridge a ways and there is a buck cruising for does about 200 yards from us. 

Overall, it was a great trip and it is just amazing to be able to see that many deer and that many buI cks. If I had to guess, I would say we saw over 100 deer a day and at least 20 or more bucks per day. It sure can spoil a guy. Here are some pics of our deer, as well as other deer we came across throughout the hunt. Enjoy and thank you all for reading my story and sending me the encouraging words!

I tried to add some pictures but am having issues so I decided to just upload all of them to photobucket and hopefully I can post a link so you can see all the pics we took. We got some cool ones of bucks not only in our hunting area but also out in the fields on the drive in.

[92xj]

Congrats again!!!
If the pictures continue to act up for you, text them to me and I can post them.

[Curly]

Nice write up. Sounds like a blast.

[vandeman17]

Congrats again!!!
If the pictures continue to act up for you, text them to me and I can post them.

I think they are all just too big since they were taken off my dad's nice camera. They are uploading to photobucket as we speak

[92xj]

Cool, there is a way to set up Photobucket to upload the pictures to the standard forum size, I think 800x800 or something like that, so you don't have to resize each one one after its uploaded to Photobucket. I remember setting mine up way back when. Sure does make it easy for posting them on a forum. Just a thought.

[jasnt]

Great story

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Congrats!

[bobcat]

If they're on photobucket, you dont need to resize.

Congratulations on the successful deer hunt!

[vandeman17]

If they're on photobucket, you dont need to resize.

Congratulations on the successful deer hunt!

They were just uploaded to my computer so now I am sending them to my photobucket. You would think a guy that works on his laptop every day would know more about the dang things.

[Falcon]

Congrats on the buck and thanks for the great story.

Bcat,

Love the new avator

[vandeman17]

lets see if this works

http://s498.photobucket.com/user/vandeman17/Montana%202014/story

[92xj]

 

[vandeman17]

Can you see the pics?

[92xj]

Yep 119 I think was the total

[vandeman17]

Yep 119 I think was the total

Yes sir that's all of them

[gasman]

Awesome pic Adam 

[vandeman17]

Thanks Pete. Pretty crazy to be taking pics of some of the bucks when normally we would be ecstatic to shoot them

[The scout]

thanks for sharing your story sounds like you got it figured out. we were there the week before it got cold hunting in t shirts but it was windy like that, makes it tough.enjoy those hunts with your old man

[YoterHunter]

Nice job . Glad to here that that you guys got your deer. Better then hour trip . Ohwell that hunting congrats . Nice looking bucks.

[vandeman17]

Nice job . Glad to here that that you guys got your deer. Better then hour trip . Ohwell that hunting congrats . Nice looking bucks.

Thanks man. We had a great time. Only good thing about a hunting trip ending is that means its time to start planning the next. 

[Fullabull]

Well done Vandeman! Very nice buck 😀

[blackveltbowhunter]

Awesome photos and bucks! Congrats!

[bowhunterforever]

Awesome photos and bucks! Congrats!

[vandeman17]

Thanks guys. Can't wait to go back next year

[ribka]

Nice buck

Your Dad's photos turned out really well 

[elkoholic1]