2016 Montana Archery Antelope Hunt

[Jason]

I'm not much of a story teller so bare with me.

Earlier this year a buddy who lives in Montana asked fellow forum member Tonymoe and myself if we would like to plan a archery Antelope hunt for his bachelor party for the archery antelope opener on Aug 15th, heck yeah we both said!, so we all put in and fortunately we found out on August 1st that we all drew tags.
Tony and myself took off for Montana on the 12th and hung out for a couple days at our buddies house in Bozeman before heading up on Sunday the 14th to setup camp and scout the area for Lopes.
Opening morning the 15th we headed out of camp and right off the get go we bumped a Lope Buck not 300yds from our camp, I took off after him and was only able to get within 73yds of him and I never had a good shot opportunity as he didn't stay put for very long, and before I knew it he was in the next county. Cool part is I seen a small bull Moose during my stock, doesn't get much sweeter than that in the first 10 minutes!. On down the road we continued, the plan was to spot and stock, 30 minutes later we spot a small group of Lopes in the same area that we had seen them in on Sunday while we were scouting, they were feeding on the side of a hill and there was one buck in the group, so Tony and myself took off after the Lopes, the plan was we would stock up the backside of the hill and work our way down to the Lopes, I went up the ridge farther than Tony so we would box them in, we were in position and slowly crawled our way down the hill, but they Lopes were farther to the west than we anticipated, I was closest at 70yds of the group but I didn't see the buck, they kept feeding away from me so I kept in pursuit, crawling on my hand and knee's with bow in hand, I caught back up with the group again and now I have the buck in sight, I range him, 61yds, he is broadside looking away from me so I slowly stand up, arrow already knocked, drew back, settled my 60yd pin on the money spot and I let it fly.

[Jason]

More pics. Some of these were taken through the spotter at long distance, so quality may be low.

[go4steelhd]

Tagging

[Jason]

As my arrow left the bow it was deflected by a sage limb that I didn't see, the arrow hit him in his rear hind quarter. Now this is where hunting will test your mental and physical state, for the next 7 hours and several unsuccessful stocks to get another arrow in him was brutal to say the least! and even though the buck was hit in the hind quarter he had no problem covering 200-300yds at a time and he always stopped where he had the best vantage point of his surroundings. At 3pm we had come up with another plan that we hoped would get me in close to seal the deal. The buck was high on a ridge that had drainages around it, so I hiked up and was able to get within 80 and I knew I needed to get closer, so that's where the boots and pack came off, I crawled from there to close the distance, now I was close, he was bedded and I could only see him from his cheeks up as there was grass and sage in between us, I ranged him atleast 10 times as I wanted to make sure the grass wasn't giving me a bad reading, 24yds, easy shot, now I just need him to stand up and I would smoke him, for the next 25 minutes I waited for him to stand, my feet were hurting, my back was stiff, didn't matter, all I was focused on was the shot when he stood up. Several times he acted like he was going to stand and didn't, I knew he was hurting, the whole time I was ready, arrow knocked and release on the loop, all I needed him to do was stand and give me a couple seconds, and finally it happened, he stood quartering towards me and before he knew it my arrow had already passed through his lungs and out the opposite side, he went maybe 5yds before his time was up. These high Mountain Lopes are some tough SOB's! and I have a whole new respect for these animals! It burned me knowing he was hurt but I was happy to be able to seal the deal.

[mburrows]

Nice write up, thanks for sharing. Sounds like a great trip

[Widgeondeke]

Way to stick with it and finish the deal.
That's a nice buck.  Have you taken green measurements?  Looks long enough to make P&Y. 
Congrats 

  I recall tracking a speed goat my buddy wounded. We tracked for a few hours and never got closer than 300 yards.  It Finally went into a different unit and onto private property. 

[Jason]

Way to stick with it and finish the deal.
That's a nice buck.  Have you taken green measurements?  Looks long enough to make P&Y. 
Congrats 

  I recall tracking a speed goat my buddy wounded. We tracked for a few hours and never got closer than 300 yards.  It Finally went into a different unit and onto private property.

It will book Pope and Young. Green score before deductions 75" after deductions 73 1/4".  P&Y minimum 67".
I'm also going to do this guy justice with a shoulder mount.

[bowhunterforever]

Nice write up and great goat

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats man. Good looking lope right there.

[JLS]

Congratulations.  Nice buck.  That's a neat unit, it's not everywhere you can hunt lopes at 9k feet.

[tonymoe]

Nice work Jason,

It was a great hunt. Stalking lopes in willow filled creek bottoms was quite a challenge knowing there's griz in them hills pilgrim!! With that being said......I can't wait to get back there. Most challenging hunt physically and mentally.

[Jason]

Nice work Jason,

It was a great hunt. Stalking lopes in willow filled creek bottoms was quite a challenge knowing there's griz in them hills pilgrim!! With that being said......I can't wait to get back there. Most challenging hunt physically and mentally.

Yes I can't wait tell next year brother. And I'm not done writing the story yet, I still have to write about your adventures..

[Jason]

Congratulations.  Nice buck.  That's a neat unit, it's not everywhere you can hunt lopes at 9k feet.

Hmmm...Who spilled the beans? Tony?? because I didn't say anything about 9k feet..lol

We were at 9500+ feet one day and I think Tony and I were really feeling the altitude that day and we were almost ran over by a supersonic heard of lopes as they rocketed out of sight past us.

[BGLEMIN]

Solid prongy!!

[JLS]

Congratulations.  Nice buck.  That's a neat unit, it's not everywhere you can hunt lopes at 9k feet.

Hmmm...Who spilled the beans? Tony?? because I didn't say anything about 9k feet..lol

We were at 9500+ feet one day and I think Tony and I were really feeling the altitude that day and we were almost ran over by a supersonic heard of lopes as they rocketed out of sight past us.

No, don't throw Tony under the bus.  I've left a lot of tracks in that unit and the adjacent ones.  I could even tell you the road you took that picture from.