Montana 09 (huntnphool)

[huntnphool]

 Well were do I start. Another outstanding week in Montana spent with friends, family and in my opinion one of the most beautiful states in the country. Where else can you be driving down the interstate, point a camera out the window and get pics like this. To be continued...

                                 Click On Image For Full Size

[huntnphool]

Here are a couple more

[huntnphool]

Heading through Big Timber we spotted a roadkill and stopped to check it out, turned out to be a pretty nice whitetail buck.

[huntnphool]

Just as we were getting to the beginning of our hunting area we spotted this first buck along the railroad tracks. The second buck was just down the road a little bit more and when we got out to get a couple pics he bolted strait at the train. M-Ray got it in sequence but the buck went right under the train.

[huntnphool]

The first morning at the cabin we decided to skip hunting and help coral the cattle, they were shipping them off to auction at noon. Since we didn't get done with the cattle until about 11:00am we decided to go take some pics until the evening hunt. The reservoir was like glass so we got some pretty cool mirror image shots.

[huntnphool]

[huntnphool]

While I'm waiting I will post a few pics of some bucks we found. The first pic is from 2007. I took this pic as a buddy was taking aim with archery gear. He shot right under his chest twice before the buck took off. I found the buck again last year and got a few pics of him. He had grown a bit bigger but still hadn't reached his potential. The combined pic shows him on the right side from last year and I got pics of him again this year, left side pic. You can see he has finally reached trophy potential. He was on neighboring property the last couple years so he has been untouchable. I hope he makes it through the winter and we get a chance to get on him next year.

[huntnphool]

Here is the full size pic.

[huntnphool]

Here was a nice little spork.

[huntnphool]

We took our time and checked out loads of bucks to get a good feeling for what was a good buck this year. On Tuesday I spotted a good buck frist thing in the morning, he was down a draw feeding with a large group of does. He appeared to have real good mass and a nice typical frame.

 Since it was first thing in the morning and we were 1/4 mile from the cabin we decided to leave him for the time being as its private land and there wasn't much worry about him being pushed out of the area or shot by anyone else.

 We checked out a lot of area and decided to try and get M-Ray a shot at the morning buck. I dropped Mark and my brother off up high in the draw so they would only have to walk downhill, I then drove all the way around, rolled down the window to listen and waited for a shot and a drag.

 A little while later I got the call on the radio, they couldn't find him and were heading back up to where I dropped them off. While I was waiting I spotted this buck working a doe up through a draw. He looked tall but didn't seem to be too impressive through the binos, he was a long way off. I put the scope and him and he looked to be a shooter. All I could do was digiscope him so I grabbed the camera and took a couple.

[huntnphool]

 We made plans to go around to the bottom first thing the next morning, watched the next disc of "Band of Brothers" and went to bed.

 Next morning we hit the bottom of the draw at first light and there just a few hundred yards from the night before was the buck Mark and Waid had gone after. They made a good stalk and got within 75 yards and dropped him with one shot.

 He is a nice old buck with dark heavy antlers. At some point he broke off a good section of his right g3.

 A few field pics, dressed him out and loaded him in the carrier to head back to the cabin.

[huntnphool]

 Thursday came with B-Day wishes from my bro and M-Ray. I told them for my birthday I wanted a buck with extras, stickers or the big tall one from the day before. They laughed and said no problem

 We headed out and took pics of several more nice bucks but the big tall buck was not to be found. We decided to head into town to get fuel and something to eat when we ran into this guy. He had several does but had one doe he was really paying attention too that didn't want anything to do with him. He was not the biggest buck but he did fit the bill with a nice sticker on his left side. The only problem with this guy was he was on posted land.

[huntnphool]

Heading back in from town we noticed the buck with the sticker had jumped the fence and then the road and followed his doe onto public land.

[huntnphool]

 I decided it was time to notch the tag and give myself a B-Day present.

 We had a lot of fun and saw hundreds of deer. I took 2K+ pics on the trip and got some pretty nice ones too. The next day we packed up and hit a praire dog town for a hour before hitting the road.

[M_ray]

Sorry guys before you go geting mad at Rob it was my fault this took so long I had some of the pics he needed to finish the post. I am in the food wholesale business to Grocery and well Thanksgiving is a pretty big time of year to say the least so I am very busy at the moment when I get a chance I will add some comments and pics to the story.