Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:02:37 PM
Pathfinder JR and I attempted an antelope hunt in Montana back when he was 13 with disastrous results… 90% winterkill in our unit. We hunted 4 days and never saw a goat we could shoot at. This year, we decided that it was time to redeem ourselves, get the skunk out of the boat and put in for Wyoming tags.
I have 4 points that I have been banking, and I didn’t want to burn them, plus I thought that trying to get 3 goats on the ground in 4 days might be a bridge too far, so we only put PathfinderJR and LittlePathfinder in for the tags. We found a unit they could draw with no points and put in. This spring we found they had drawn Unit 17 Tags, so we began to plan. We did know upfront that a unit you can draw with no points was going to be challenging to find goats on public land (what little of it there was), but we didn’t predict how hard it would be.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:03:17 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:03:57 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:04:45 PM
We left Walla Walla around 3pm (I’m a teacher) on Tuesday and pulled an all nighter (PathfinderJR and I switched driving duties every few hours) to get to our unit just at daylight. It was encouraging to see a herd of antelope skylined in the first minutes of light just as we entered our unit (albeit on private land), including 3 bucks that were worthy of pulling off to the side of the road and waking up the boys to look. We hit WalMart in Gillette to stock up food, breakfast at Perkins and were headed out to find a place to camp.
Immediately, 3 things were apparent;
1. Lots of antelope
2. None of them were on public land
3. Wyoming was in the midst of a drought that makes ours here in Eastern WA look green and lush
At first the amount of goats was encouraging and exciting. About the first 10 herds we stopped for all had good bucks in them. We had our OnX Maps open in our laps and we figured it was just a matter of time before we came across a herd on one of the scattered chunks of state ground or BLM. 4 hours later we still had not seen an animal on public. Most of the pieces of public were small enough that you could see the whole thing from the road, so we had only gotten out of the pickup twice to hike up a hill. Frustration was beginning to set in.
We drove to one of the two larger Walk-In Areas near the center of the unit to find a place to pitch camp. Even though it was a Wednesday, the place looked like opening day of deer rifle season in Washington. Pickup trucks and orange dots running around everywhere. We stopped and visited with a couple of guys from Pennsylvania. They had both tagged out (on public ground) opening day. Their dad had been trying to find a goat on public ground for a week and was having no luck. We set up camp and studied our maps.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:05:43 PM
We did see some nice muley bucks (also on private ground) and got to film some sparring (I’ll try to post it). The long drive in the dark back to our camp had us planning to hit one of the few spots in the morning that was big enough to hike (albeit a short hike) to the top of a ridge and glass into a bowl on the other side. There had been no trucks there that afternoon, so we thought it would be a good place to start the day.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:06:50 PM
“Well, let’s go hike into that piece.” I said, trying to lift everyone’s (including my own) sagging spirits. We drove around the corner and found no less than 5 pickups. All parked on the same piece of land. All empty. As we glassed into the piece, we could see orange hats, jockeying around for position. Two guys ran by, at a crouch, obviously intent on something in the bottom of a draw that we couldn’t see. A few minutes later, 3 muley does came boiling out of the draw. Almost at once you could see every orange hat turn and start walking back in the direction of the parked trucks.
This was not in the brochure…
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:07:37 PM
“This is hopeless.” PathfinderJR said. “We are not going to find anything dumb enough to stand on public ground. We could drive and walk around for a week (which we did not have) and not see two bucks in a legal area.”
“Everyone has the same OnX Map that we have.” I said. “No one has an advantage in finding goats over us. We just need to keep at it until we catch up with the laws of averages”.
“We have one advantage…” said Junior, pointing at his little brother.
Little Pathfinder knew exactly what his brother meant. He is 13, but looks younger than he is. He’s very polite, smiles a lot and isn’t afraid of farm dogs. He has an excellent record of knocking on doors and getting permission to hunt.
“I don’t know if that will work here.” I said. “ I asked everyone. There is no such thing as getting permission on private land in this unit. No trespass fees. No nothing. The bio said don’t even ask about a landowner “list”. It doesn’t exist.”
Little Pathfinder looked at me like I just told him he was adopted.
“Dad.” He said “Let me knock on some doors.”
And that became the new plan. Drive up to a ranch. Deploy the cute kid. Play with the farm dogs for a few seconds, smile, knock, look hopeful and ask nicely. We figured we had about the same odds as finding a buck standing on a little 80 acre square looking lost.
Mostly, no one was home. Little Pathfinder met a lot of dogs (he loves dogs, so he spent more time playing fetch than he did talking to farmers), a couple of renters, but only one actual landowner with decision making capabilities. That one was a “no”. Outfitters leasing the land for hunting. She also warned him that most of the ranches were the same situation. 11 doors and a couple of hours later we were no closer to an antelope than we had been that morning. We did see one buck that I feel would have made Boone and Crockett. Tall, hooked and heavy, he carried his mass up past his cutters. He was bedded with two does in a private field with not a care in the world.
Door number 12 our luck changed though. A nice fella about 70 years old who was a 3rd generation rancher whose grandfather had homesteaded the 2400 acre cattle/wheat ranch in the 1890s. After a few minutes of visiting in the driveway, Little Pathfinder popped the question. To our shock, the rancher agreed to let us hunt for a modest trespass fee.
I suppose we could have taken our chances and tried to keep finding goats on public land. To be honest, we had not really exhausted all of our options. There were 3 or 4 pieces that we could have actually hiked into first, but at that point I felt like we were being offered something worth the cost. We had already invested quite a bit of time and money into the hunt, and the trespass fee was about what I was already spending on fuel. I paid for Little Pathfinder and Pathfinder JR actually had the cash stuffed in his glove box from selling firewood. We were happy to help the rancher pay his taxes this year.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:13:10 PM
“Can you hit what you’re aiming at?” He asked.
Not a bit offended, LP grinned and answered “I can hit a gong out to 500 yards sir.”
The farmer looked suspicious again. “Ok then. I guess we’ll see.”
The rancher decided that we should be guided on our hunt (I think he was worried that we would shoot a water tank or a tractor). He directed us to the portion of his ranch across the highway (the furthest away from his house and barns I noticed). There was a water hole and a deep draw. He said there would probably be goats bedded or feeding in that area.
He was right. We glimpsed a couple of bedded does as we slipped through the gate towards the water hole. Creeping up the hill on the opposite side of the draw we spotted ears, so we went prone and began belly crawling. We crested the top and found about 20 antelope, including a nice buck bedded in the draw. The buck was quite a ways off to our left. I spotted another buck down in the bottom of the draw. I could only see the top of his back, and he had his head down feeding, so I never got a look at his horns, but his body looked to be about the size of the bedded buck. He fed down into the draw and disappeared. We decided to back out and loop around to the left to get a batter angle on the bedded shooter.
After crabbing backwards back down the hill, we trucked it to the end of the waterhole and started creeping back up the hill towards the goats. 100 yards from our intended shooting position we went prone again and began belly crawling. I looked over at PathfinderJR. He had elected to go short-sleeves that day, and I could tell he was regretting that choice. As we churned through the packed sand and gravel, I could see blood on his elbows.
Cresting the top of the draw we hugged the ground and tried to get our bearings on the antelope that were now scattered around all within 300 yards of us. We spotted the bedded buck right away. There were several smaller bucks in the herd, but no other shooters. I still couldn’t see the buck feeding down in the draw. After a while, PathfinderJR noticed a good buck that was far up the draw from the herd, at over 400 yards. It was a very good buck. As He lay there with the rangefinder trying to decide if he wanted to take a 450 yard shot, the other buck fed out of the draw and we finally got a look at him. He was not as tall as the bedded buck, but heavier with really good cutters. I told JR to forget about the far buck. We now had two shooters at under 300 yards, chip shots for both boy’s rifles.
We made sure each one had the correct buck in their scopes and let Little Pathfinder fire first. His buck, quartering slightly away at 243 yards dropped like a stone in it’s tracks. The other buck got to it’s feet and Pathfinder JR put him back down in his bed again at 267 yards. Both bucks were stone dead within 5 seconds of each other. We got to our feet and the rancher was behind us, grinning from ear to ear. He said he didn’t think he had ever seen two antelope die that fast. He walked over to Little Pathfinder and clapped his hand on his shoulder. “I guess you were right about your shooting.” He said.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:14:15 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:22:08 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:23:42 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:24:48 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 13, 2020, 04:25:55 PM
Post by: Woodchuck on October 13, 2020, 04:46:19 PM
Post by: Sutherland on October 13, 2020, 04:55:56 PM
Post by: gramps on October 13, 2020, 05:14:57 PM
Thanks for sharing an EPIC trip with your boys with us.
A true memory maker .
Post by: Brushbuster on October 13, 2020, 05:34:18 PM
Post by: csaaphill on October 13, 2020, 05:50:37 PM
I am very surprised you got permission as you did, especially after the opener. So... on that grats :tup:
The only time I was able to do that was on this one guys land just up out of Dayton, where me and dad had spotted a buck or what we thought was running along the open then up into the brush. We took a chance and stoped to ask even though signs all over the place said No Hunting No Tresspassing. He was a cool old guy and gladly gave me and dad Permission.
Most if they even answer the door are like... Oh He** no! OR can't you read!!!! Or if they even offer with permision are like no, there's too many already... >:(
So... I am glad you were able to secure permission.
I remember you saying your son was to join the military has he already or...?
Anyhow's Grats :tup: :IBCOOL:
Post by: ctwiggs1 on October 13, 2020, 05:59:18 PM
Post by: Dan-o on October 13, 2020, 08:10:53 PM
Thanks for the terrific write-up.
Post by: Widgeondeke on October 13, 2020, 08:19:33 PM
I agree with it being a hard year. unit 43 numbers were way down. I was happy with the 2 does we got. It is crazy how they "know" the land borders. We saw a shooter buck 30yds off the county road bedded down without a care in the world as every hunter had to keep on driving :bash:
Congrats
Post by: Caseyd on October 13, 2020, 08:53:58 PM
Post by: Muleyslyr on October 13, 2020, 09:00:49 PM
Post by: mburrows on October 13, 2020, 09:09:27 PM
Post by: Stein on October 13, 2020, 09:14:28 PM
Post by: redi on October 13, 2020, 10:08:52 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 14, 2020, 07:56:04 AM
Holy crap awesome hunt! And that pic of the landowner is awesome too, he and the coloring in it makes me think of a Norman Rockwell, or some of my Grandads cowboy pictures he has/had.
I am very surprised you got permission as you did, especially after the opener. So... on that grats :tup:
The only time I was able to do that was on this one guys land just up out of Dayton, where me and dad had spotted a buck or what we thought was running along the open then up into the brush. We took a chance and stoped to ask even though signs all over the place said No Hunting No Tresspassing. He was a cool old guy and gladly gave me and dad Permission.
Most if they even answer the door are like... Oh He** no! OR can't you read!!!! Or if they even offer with permision are like no, there's too many already... >:(
So... I am glad you were able to secure permission.
I remember you saying your son was to join the military has he already or...?
Anyhow's Grats :tup: :IBCOOL:
PathfinderJR is in his senior year at EWU. At this point his plan is to finish his degree and then enlist in the Army on a Ranger contract. He has wanted to do that since high school, but I kind of insisted that he get his bachelor's degree first. That way if he wants to make the Army a career, he has the option of going to Officer Candidate School without having to figure out how to finish his degree first.
Post by: ctwiggs1 on October 14, 2020, 07:57:55 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 14, 2020, 07:58:08 AM
Dude, most of the private land over there is just as brown as the public land. You still did a dang good job. Great job to your boys as well!Yeah, the drought there is horrible. They were supposed to get some of this rain starting Sunday. I hope they did. The rancher had a truck with a water tank and a hose already set up and ready to go in the barn. "Fire hasn't started yet... but I know it will."
Post by: ctwiggs1 on October 14, 2020, 08:00:50 AM
Dude, most of the private land over there is just as brown as the public land. You still did a dang good job. Great job to your boys as well!Yeah, the drought there is horrible. They were supposed to get some of this rain starting Sunday. I hope they did. The rancher had a truck with a water tank and a hose already set up and ready to go in the barn. "Fire hasn't started yet... but I know it will."
We ended up taking what I keep calling "4x4 equivalents" because it was about as good as it gets up where we were. I did notice that in other areas with irrigated ag fields (mostly alfalfa) the horns were significantly larger. Go figure
Post by: sjhgraysage on October 14, 2020, 09:36:07 AM
Congrats all around, and especially to Silver Tongued Little Pathfinder!
Nice pics too!
:tup: ;) :chuckle:
Post by: OutHouse on October 14, 2020, 09:36:16 AM
Post by: dvolmer on October 14, 2020, 09:41:21 AM
Post by: CoryTDF on October 14, 2020, 11:19:47 AM
Now lets see if you can come home with a bull. Darin will appreciate if you are successful this year LOL. Better bring some goat to elk camp this year. I know i already said it but congrats to the boys. I forgot to run out to the cooler and take the backstrap tax. LOL
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 14, 2020, 12:53:10 PM
Meh, looks like a high fence operation to me. Not overly impressed. J/K :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
Now lets see if you can come home with a bull. Darin will appreciate if you are successful this year LOL. Better bring some goat to elk camp this year. I know i already said it but congrats to the boys. I forgot to run out to the cooler and take the backstrap tax. LOL
If I have to bring Darin an elk head too, I will wind up sleeping in your cooler this winter, because it will be warmer and cozier than where my wife will have me sleeping.... :rolleyes:
Post by: CoryTDF on October 14, 2020, 01:00:01 PM
Meh, looks like a high fence operation to me. Not overly impressed. J/K :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
Now lets see if you can come home with a bull. Darin will appreciate if you are successful this year LOL. Better bring some goat to elk camp this year. I know i already said it but congrats to the boys. I forgot to run out to the cooler and take the backstrap tax. LOL
If I have to bring Darin an elk head too, I will wind up sleeping in your cooler this winter, because it will be warmer and cozier than where my wife will have me sleeping.... :rolleyes:
Already put a cot out there for ya!
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 14, 2020, 01:16:25 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 14, 2020, 04:16:37 PM
I am going to try to get ahold of PathfinderJR's phone and get some of the mule deer pictures off it. We saw a couple of good bucks that he photographed. All on private land of course.. :rolleyes:
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 15, 2020, 07:55:39 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 15, 2020, 07:57:00 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 15, 2020, 07:58:26 AM
Post by: Karl Blanchard on October 15, 2020, 08:01:02 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 22, 2020, 06:34:37 AM
1. Butchering is done (Thank heavens, just in time to leave for Idaho tonight...)
2. Euros are done (the goats will go to the taxidermist for full head mounts later. -Gotta pay off the deer and bear rug I dropped off last month first... For now, just putting the euros in the den so we can admire them.)
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 22, 2020, 06:36:02 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 22, 2020, 06:46:35 AM
Steve Rinella guilted me into doing it. I don't like being referred to as "...A lotta guys..."
As in "A lotta guys just throw these away... they don't know what they're doing... this is really good meat, you just gotta know how to cook it... blah...blah...blah...."
Turns out, this time he was right. Don't know yet about raw caribou eyeball fat, boiled deer tounge, fire roasted coyote, or hot buttered buck nuts... but pronghorn ribcage rubbed in mustard and BBQ rub thrown on a Traeger for 4 hours on low heat turned out pretty good....
Post by: ctwiggs1 on October 22, 2020, 07:02:41 AM
Antelope is stinky and gross. Especially WY antelope. NOBODY likes it. Not sure why anyone would even want to shoot it. :dunno:
In all seriousness, my wife told me "Dang, I think this is just about as good as elk!"
Post by: Pathfinder101 on October 22, 2020, 07:11:25 AM
Stop that Pathfinder. Nobody needs to know.
Antelope is stinky and gross. Especially WY antelope. NOBODY likes it. Not sure why anyone would even want to shoot it. :dunno:
In all seriousness, my wife told me "Dang, I think this is just about as good as elk!"
I think your wife and my wife read from the same script. Mrs. Pathfinder said something pretty similar.
Post by: ctwiggs1 on October 22, 2020, 07:13:39 AM
Post by: Widgeondeke on October 22, 2020, 07:41:42 AM
When it comes to elk, he prefers to shoot cows or young bulls as they taste better.
Post by: ctwiggs1 on October 22, 2020, 07:54:20 AM
:yeah: My family agrees. We prefer antelope over venison & elk. My brother lives in WY and the locals hunt antelope to have meat at deer/elk camp :drool:
When it comes to elk, he prefers to shoot cows or young bulls as they taste better.
I shot an older bull elk this year, and I'm semi-hoping that the family is super high on antelope and maybe a little bit downer on elk :chuckle:
I love elk, but dang those goats are fun.
Post by: sjhgraysage on October 22, 2020, 10:47:56 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on November 03, 2020, 12:22:27 PM
Post by: ctwiggs1 on November 03, 2020, 01:29:05 PM