Bearpaw Fall 2010 Season

[bearpaw]

Having a blast archery antelope hunting, season started Aug 15. We are hunting a remote area in Eastern Montana. Two successful archers so far, and a few missed bucks too. Today we set our last hunter up in a wash along a fence line and then circled around and exposed ourself to the herd. They took off down the fenceline and jumped through the wash between the waiting hunters who were only 15 yards apart. It was like a buffalo stampede...LOL 

In all the excitement the hunter's arrow fell off the rest and he was unable to get it straightened out in time, he got no shots on that set up, but it was exciting and will remain fresh in the memories of all involved for years to come.

Today we hunt water again, two real good bucks were seen this morning by the hole we will be hunting, I really expect my last hunter to get his goat tommorrow, fingers crossed. His son already shot a nice buck (his first archery hunt) on the same waterhole 2 days ago "fingers crossed". It's nearly time to get ready to leave, better go.

I will post some pics as soon as I get a chance.

[rasbo]

sounds busy,hope they all score

[Gringo31]

Good Luck!

[Kain]

Sounds like a good time.  Archery for antelope sound tough.  Post up some pics if you get a chance.

[whacker1]

very cool - keep up the good work

[mulehunter]

Sound like FUN!  Cant wait to hear all stories.


Mulehunter 

[Little Dave]

That must have been a sight.  Best of luck to you and your hunters out there.
Look forward to the pictures & stores.

[carpsniperg2]

sounds like some happy hunter and there is nothing better then that

[bearpaw]

thanks everyone....

[bearpaw]

Well Friday August 20th was a bust, it was the first day that we had no shot opportunities.

But we spotted some bucks which were hanging out in some good broken stalkable country and planned to try some more stalking on Saturday. One group of twelve bucks had about a 15 incher plus another real special buck who's horns lay flat out each side of his head, wished I would have drawn a tag this year.... I would look for him if noone else got him, oh well, maybe next year.

Saturday the 21st treated us much better. We did some spot & stalking in the morning, got close a few times but couldn't close the deal so then we put Gerald on a new waterhole in the afternoon. Just before dark one doe and 3 bucks come in, Gerald shot at one of the bucks and they all ran out, pretty soon they all come back and Gerald got another shot, unfortunately another miss. We found and checked both arrows and they looked clean with no sign of a hit.

On Sunday morning the last day of the hunt I went to start the truck and had a flat tire, a cactus casualty...LOL. We lost a 30-40 minutes but finally headed out and got Gerald in the blind as quick as we could. Then Anthony and I went looking around, we bumped a few antelope including a buck a previous hunter had wounded in the neck, and we found another buck that had a limp with a front leg, Gerald must have hit with the second shot the night before, even though his arrows were clean, we had seen this buck previously and he had not been limping, so it had to be Gerald's second shot from the night before.

We watched the 15 inch buck with the neck wound bed down and then headed to get Gerald from the blind. We carefully approached the sage bottom where the big buck was bedded. We had him pretty well pinpointed "we thought". Being careful with the wind, we glassed the sage for horn tips every few steps. Finally it appeared the buck must not be there, we went right into the middle of the sage hoping he would get nervous and stand up. Finally we whispered to each other that he must have left and decided to check the nearby water hole, nothing there either.

Next we walked back to the sage bottom, I figured we would walk up the bottom in case the buck had moved farther up the bottom. Suddenly I spotted horn tips, only 30 yards from where we had already been, I used the rangefinder, 50 yards exactly. We got on our knees to try and make it another 5 yards to the last sage bush between us and the buck. We crawled a few steps and suddenly here come the cows over the horizon looking and mooing wondering what we were doing, WOW, we're getting no breaks on this hunt.

Yep just as you guessed, the buck saw the cows and stood up knowing they were looking at something. I whispered to Gerald that we were busted by the cows and the buck was now standing and looking our direction, draw your bow, raise above the sage brush, and arrow him, as Gerald raised up I ranged again and whispered 48 yards. He just barely missed the bucks back. As I said before, we are getting no breaks on this particular hunt.... we watched the buck run fast out into a large open area. It was now obvious this buck was not hurt badly at all, somehow his neck wound had visibly bled, but obviously the arrow from several days before had missed the spine and jugular and it appeared this buck was healing up well.

Next we took Gerald and hid him in a wash near where the other wounded antelope likes to cross, then Anthony and I went looking for that buck. Finally some luck, we jumped him on a small ridge and he ran straight for the wash where Gerald was hidden, but he bedded down about 100 yards short, dang, after a while I could see Gerald was trying to find a way to make a move on the bedded buck. Anthony and I tried to get in the back ground behind the bedded buck and waved my arms at Gerald to hold tight.

That got the buck's attention and Gerald saw us, we motioned for Gerald to stay hidden. Pretty soon the buck got nervous and got on his feet again, but I was worried about which direction he would go. Antelope never go the direction you want them to...LOL. As luck would have it we got another lucky break, the buck started moving toward Gerald's position in the wash.

As we watched we couldn't beleive it, the plan was coming together. The buck slowly worked his way toward the wash, I moved to the left so I could just see Gerald hidden in the wash, just as the buck was about to get to Gerald he veered left, I was too far away, I couldn't tell if the buck was in range or not, by now it appeared the buck might be too far away, then suddenly we thought we could see Gerald raise his bow. The buck did not stop and it seemed like forever waiting for some reaction. Then suddenly the buck kicked and bolted a short distance. He stopped and you could tell he was having trouble standing, then I watched him keel over in the video screen. We went to meet Gerald and see his buck, upon close inspection we found that Gerald had hit the buck in the front leg the night before.

We skinned and boned the buck and headed for town. Gerald was a little late leaving, but he left with a smile on his face and an antelope in his cooler. Man I love it when a plan comes together…

All 6 archers had shot opportunities at 40 yards or less and three of the guys connected. Unfortunately, 3 guys did not get to fill their tags but all had a great time and that is the most important thing. The archery antelope hunt was a great start for our 2010 season, bear and archery deer are next, starting Sept 1st, I can't wait.

PS - The last photo in this post is of some headstones we found on the prairie in the middle of nowhere that obviously was somewhere to someone. I will add success photos in the next post.

[bearpaw]

antelope taken

[seth30]

good story!  I hope someday to hunt antelope again!

[Michelle_Nelson]

Looks like you guys are having fun.

[mulehunter]

   Look like FUN!


Mulehunter

[gasman]

Boy do those goat pic get me going  Oct. can not come fast enough