Bearpaw Season - Fall 2015

[bearpaw]

Mike, Mark, & The Sunrise Buck
I received a call from Mark that they were in town early so I explained that my last hunter had just killed his buck and we were done taking care of it and asked if they would like to go out for an evening hunt. Mark said, "That sounds Good, we'll be waiting for you!" I met brothers Mike and Mark at 3:00PM, we shook hands, it was good to see these guys again, we relived prior hunts as we drove to the ranch. Mike had killed a good Shiras Moose and Mark had killed a nice Cougar on previous hunts with Bearpaw Outfitters. The wind was gusting pretty good and we only saw two small mule bucks and some mule does that evening. I was concentrating on mule deer because Mark has wanted to kill a mule deer his entire life, they don't have mulies in Missouri.

Yesterday, Day 1
At 6:30 AM Mike & Mark climbed in my truck, we stopped for a drink and breakfast hotdog, then headed to the ranch. The wind was gusting even heavier, all day we only saw 6 bucks and 17 doe, one of my slowest days on the ranch ever. I finished the day with my tail between my legs!

Today, Day 2
At 6:40 AM Mike & Mark climbed in my truck, we stopped for a drink and breakfast hotdog, then headed to the ranch. The wind was gusting but not nearly as strongly, the sunrise was just outstanding, the best this season. Anyone who hunts eastern Montana knows what the sunrises can be like. This awesome sunrise was bound to have a positive effect on our hunt!   

The morning started off slow, we spotted a few small bucks and 8 does and took a long range shot at a coyote but that was not effective. We hiked into a little hotspot I like and found many fresh rubs but the buck wasn't there. Next we circled around the hill across the draw and just as we topped out on the other side of the hill we spotted a dandy mature whitetail buck chasing a doe. Mike got a good rest, the buck was standing behind a fallen tree, "Can you see him, he's behind the fallen tree to the left of the doe?" Mike replied "I got him!" He could see the lower half of the deer, Mike squeezed off the shot, the buck kicked and ran off like a streak of lightning. "You hit him good, lets move forward and see if we can see him again!" We moved forward and then I stopped to glass, I spotted an antler sticking up out of the grass, "There he is, your buck is down!"

We went straight to the buck, the hit was perfect, looked like a heart shot. Sure enough when I gutted the buck the largest piece of heart was about 1/3 of the heart. Mike made an excellent shot, especially considering the top half of the buck was mostly out of sight. We snapped lots of photos, texted the taxidermist, and then tugged the buck out to where I could back the truck to him. I love it when a plan comes together.

After caring for the buck we hunted this evening for Mark's mule deer. Just about 10 minutes before dark we got onto a good group of mulies with several bucks, one of them was a smoker. The deer had spotted us and the big buck dashed into a brushy draw, we could have shot a halfway decent 4x4 still with the does and small bucks, but how do you do that when you just seen a smoker? 

We tried to find the smoker buck but no luck. We are returning to the same area tomorrow morning to look for the Smoker Buck! Wish us Luck! 

Photos of the sweet sunrise and Mike's whitetail.

[bearpaw]

Mulie Morning
In the morning Mark and Mike jumped in the truck and we headed to the Quick Stop for coffee and breakfast snacks then we headed to the ranch. I stopped the truck, we grabbed our gear and proceeded to our glassing vista. The wind was pretty calm, I was expecting to see our buck, we inched forward glassing feverishly for the smoker buck. Sadly he was no where in sight, in fact there wasn't a deer in sight. We moved to several glassing points and started spotting deer, we started seeing a lot of mule deer in various locations. As the morning sky brightened we glassed numerous bucks and does. We heard some shots on the neighboring property and moved over to look into the canyon next to that property. We spotted a fork horn buck that had a broken rear leg and a broken jaw hanging, wow how could anyone be that bad of shot. As bad as I wanted to relieve that poor guy of his misery, legally we had to leave him, I'm sure one of the many coyotes we've been seeing will find the buck and finish him off. 

We saw the smaller 4x4 buck from the evening before three times, he was hot after a doe that was leading him all over the place. We watched other bucks chasing does and then finally spotted a taller buck that Mark decided to take. The range 336 yards, I whispered "Hold high on the shoulder but not over the buck, be sure you are just high on the shoulder and hold right at the base of his neck for wind drift, we're probably going to get 6 to 8 inches of wind drift. BOOM, nothing, he's still standing there shoot again, BOOM, the buck moved a little and stopped, BOOM he moved more, buck was moving into the brush, BOOM, buck moved into another opening following his doe and stopped, BOOM, still nothing! "Hold on Mark!" I turned to Mike "Mike hand me your gun, we know it's right on!"

We had to wait a minute then we spotted the buck again in the brush, "Hold Dead On the center of the shoulder, this gun is flatter shooting", BOOM, the buck hunched up and moved out of sight "You hit him hard!" Then the buck moved into sight again "Shoot Him Again", BOOM, the buck faltered, then dropped and rolled down the hill stopping at a dip. Mark was frustrated by his gun but relieved that Mike's gun had saved the day. We approached the buck, took photos, then field dressed and drug the buck out. One of the shots was back a ways, probably due to gusting wind, but both shots had been solid shots. As we headed to the barn to skin and bone the buck we reflected on the morning events. It had definitely been a "Mulie Morning", we went from seeing 10 to 15 mule deer per day to seeing 29 does and 9 bucks in a couple hours. We decided to stop and shoot Mark's gun, sure enough the bullet hit the top edge of the target, more than 5 inches high at 100 yards, Mark had been shooting over the buck at 336 yards. We sighted the gun dead on at 100 yards since Mark was going hunting in Missouri as soon as they get home.

We took care of the buck, had a great Mexican dinner last night, Mike and Mark picked dates for an Elk/Mule Deer Combo next year and we said our goodbyes. We are looking forward to seeing and hunting with you guys again next year! 

[bearpaw]

Charlie traveled to Montana to get a meat buffalo with his old style rifle and to hunt deer. He dropped a nice young cow buffalo the first day of his hunt with guide Boe and then guide Nick helped Charlie nail a dandy 5x5 whitey on day 3 of the hunt. The buck had a freshly a broken eye guard from fighting. I watched a buck make a scrape and we've been seeing whitetail bucks fighting and chasing does for about 5 days now. Congrats Charlie on a very successful hunt! 

[bearpaw]

Preseason scouting had us really excited, we were seeing more bucks than for several years. But, hunting has been tougher in NE WA due to the fires and mostly due to the blue tongue outbreak several weeks ago. Tara and the guides nontheless have been having pretty good success. One of our regular hunters just texted me photos of the buck he just shot a couple hours ago. Congrats Doyce! 

[bearpaw]

Kris dropped this 4x4 whitetail, her first whitetail with Nick in Montana yesterday. Congrats Kris! 

[pianoman9701]

Lots of happy faces, Dale. Good job.

[bearpaw]

Mike had never taken a 4x4 mule deer and passed some pretty good whitetails on our Montana ranch hunt so he could look for a mule buck. Mike was hunting with Nick, they also passed a pretty good 3x4 mule buck that was limping from a fighting injury but it was short one point, so they let him limp on. They spotted a larger 4x4 in the evening and went after that buck the next morning. In the morning they couldn't find the buck they went after but this 5x5 mule buck offered Mike a great shooting opportunity which he took full advantage of. Congrats Mike!

[Sitka_Blacktail]

We heard some shots on the neighboring property and moved over to look into the canyon next to that property. We spotted a fork horn buck that had a broken rear leg and a broken jaw hanging, wow how could anyone be that bad of shot.

Probably something like this

The range 336 yards, I whispered "Hold high on the shoulder but not over the buck, be sure you are just high on the shoulder and hold right at the base of his neck for wind drift, we're probably going to get 6 to 8 inches of wind drift. BOOM, nothing, he's still standing there shoot again, BOOM, the buck moved a little and stopped, BOOM he moved more, buck was moving into the brush, BOOM, buck moved into another opening following his doe and stopped, BOOM, still nothing! "Hold on Mark!" I turned to Mike "Mike hand me your gun, we know it's right on!"

We decided to stop and shoot Mark's gun, sure enough the bullet hit the top edge of the target, more than 5 inches high at 100 yards, Mark had been shooting over the buck at 336 yards.

A good lesson for us all. Sight your gun in when you get to where you are hunting. You never know what happened while traveling.

[Gringo31]

Waiting for the cat pics!!!

[bearpaw]

We heard some shots on the neighboring property and moved over to look into the canyon next to that property. We spotted a fork horn buck that had a broken rear leg and a broken jaw hanging, wow how could anyone be that bad of shot.

Probably something like this

The range 336 yards, I whispered "Hold high on the shoulder but not over the buck, be sure you are just high on the shoulder and hold right at the base of his neck for wind drift, we're probably going to get 6 to 8 inches of wind drift. BOOM, nothing, he's still standing there shoot again, BOOM, the buck moved a little and stopped, BOOM he moved more, buck was moving into the brush, BOOM, buck moved into another opening following his doe and stopped, BOOM, still nothing! "Hold on Mark!" I turned to Mike "Mike hand me your gun, we know it's right on!"

We decided to stop and shoot Mark's gun, sure enough the bullet hit the top edge of the target, more than 5 inches high at 100 yards, Mark had been shooting over the buck at 336 yards.

A good lesson for us all. Sight your gun in when you get to where you are hunting. You never know what happened while traveling.

So very true!

We try to check guns when hunters arrive, we've learned that generally 30% to 50% of scopes need adjustment, roughly 5% to 10% have serious problems such as loose mounting screws on bases or rings, scopes that have been damaged and need replaced, or other serious issues. Sometimes we are out hunting until after dark the evening someone arrives or they arrive after dark, I usually ask if they have shot recently and if the flew to get here. As soon as someone misses, if we haven't shot their gun I am immediately thinking we need to shoot the gun at a target. More times than not, the scope needs adjustment.

[bearpaw]

Waiting for the cat pics!!!

I've got quite a few more photos and stories to share, and yes, there are cat photos already too. Been super busy, will try to get more added as soon as possible, it's time to go hunting, so gotta go!

[Mark251]

Great looking animals!  Congratulations, all 

[bearpaw]

Out looking for cougar tracks this morning , stopped for a break on top of a mountain and thought I would share the view.

[deerhunter_98520]

So jealous...would love to come on a cat hunt one of these years...probably not till the kids are out of the house

[Killmore]

What sled you riding?