Montana Whitetails - Hope they cooperate!
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
JoseCuervo
New member
Love the aerodynamic eye guards.....
Very well done.
Very well done.
The Hedgehog
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2000
- Messages
- 11,634
Wow! Congrats Oak. That's a stud whitetail.
MT deer are taking a beating for sure in the last few days. No tag soup for me.
MT deer are taking a beating for sure in the last few days. No tag soup for me.
Morning - Windy and slow
Oak said it was my job to do the posting today. So, here it goes.
After the display Oak made yesterday, I felt that I had no choice but to go after the deer real aggressively, hoping I could find something to shoot, ruling out any chance at a buck like his.
Right away, we bumped a buck and a doe. They made it over the ridge, and were never to be seen again. Actually, seen again, but heading down through the timber at fast clip.
We circled the knob, hoping to get some good glassing areas underneath us, and hopefully away from the wind. That worked, but only a few muleys and three whitetail does made themselves visible.
Not the result I was hoping for. The pressure was starting to mount. I told Oak I would stick to whitetails for the first three days, then all nice bucks, whether whitey or muley, were fair game. After this morning's bust, I was thinking about mule deer.
Since everyone was working on beauty sleep, I decided to snap some pics while I kept an eye out for the big buck I knew was sure to show up. Guess I should have joined them, as we all know that beauty sleep would do me a lot of good.
Oak getting a good dose of that beauty rest.
Oak doesn't get paid for this, so I cut him some slack, but these camera guys get paid to sleep on the job. Man, what am I gonna do with them?
Someone has to keep an eye out for these deer.
We marched back to the truck and decided we had better spend a couple hours doing the work of making TV. Interviews, transitions, editors notes, etc.
A quick lunch was made in the strong west winds and we packed up and headed to our evening spot. Figured we would try to get in by 1:00 pm and sit out the day on some good trails we knew were coming through the bottoms and leading to the pine ridges. I had seen a good buck last night, just after legal shooting light, so I hoped to get a better view of him, and maybe a shot.
Oak said it was my job to do the posting today. So, here it goes.
After the display Oak made yesterday, I felt that I had no choice but to go after the deer real aggressively, hoping I could find something to shoot, ruling out any chance at a buck like his.
Right away, we bumped a buck and a doe. They made it over the ridge, and were never to be seen again. Actually, seen again, but heading down through the timber at fast clip.
We circled the knob, hoping to get some good glassing areas underneath us, and hopefully away from the wind. That worked, but only a few muleys and three whitetail does made themselves visible.
Not the result I was hoping for. The pressure was starting to mount. I told Oak I would stick to whitetails for the first three days, then all nice bucks, whether whitey or muley, were fair game. After this morning's bust, I was thinking about mule deer.
Since everyone was working on beauty sleep, I decided to snap some pics while I kept an eye out for the big buck I knew was sure to show up. Guess I should have joined them, as we all know that beauty sleep would do me a lot of good.
Oak getting a good dose of that beauty rest.
Oak doesn't get paid for this, so I cut him some slack, but these camera guys get paid to sleep on the job. Man, what am I gonna do with them?
Someone has to keep an eye out for these deer.
We marched back to the truck and decided we had better spend a couple hours doing the work of making TV. Interviews, transitions, editors notes, etc.
A quick lunch was made in the strong west winds and we packed up and headed to our evening spot. Figured we would try to get in by 1:00 pm and sit out the day on some good trails we knew were coming through the bottoms and leading to the pine ridges. I had seen a good buck last night, just after legal shooting light, so I hoped to get a better view of him, and maybe a shot.
mohunter
New member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2009
- Messages
- 154
Sounds like a great hunt so far. Oak is going to need alot more beauty sleep than what he can get on a pack.
Afternoon - Time to get serious
We were parked and walking into our spot about 12:30 pm. Timing seemed on track. I really didn't care for this strong west wind, as this drainage runs east and west, and I wanted to be able to hunt it from the west. Not in this wind.
So, we took the extra time to walk all the way down the north lip of the drainage, to the far east boundary, where it meets some private. From there, we dropped south into the creek bottom, then up the opposite side and moved back west, to take us away from this private/public boundary. No sense in hunting next to a place you can't shoot.
We were in place as hoped. Immediately, Oak spotted a small 3X3 mule deer. Troy confused me by saying there was a different deer, which I could not see, until it turned and started moving the opposite direction. It was a whitetail and a buck, but in this thick cover, I couldn't tell how big. I readied for a shot when he entered the far opening. I asked Oak to stop the buck with a grunt, if possible.
As the buck entered the opening, Oak grunted and the buck stopped broadside. I then saw he had only three points per side, and nothing big. The cameras were rolling, but I was not going to take that buck, with half the hunt still remaining. He walked off, not knowing how close a little more mass, a fourth point, and some width would have put him to being a TV star.
We sat for over an hour, watching as a 4X3 muley chased his doe and rutted himself to a frenzy about 200 yards in front of us. He too was safe. But, a lot of fun to watch these bucks when they are rutting this hard.
Oak told me his GPS listed 2:42 to 4:40 as the prime hunting hours of the day. Whatever.
I told him by 2:42, I wanted to mover further west to the next big opening and sit there for an hour. If that didn't work, I would move even further west and finish out the evening. We joked that this would allow us to put his GPS prime times to the test.
We were in place by 2:30. The sun was shining hard our direction, but to glass this opening efficiently, it required that we set up on a little knob on the NE corner. The put the slowly sinking sun directly in our face to the SW. We tried to hide in the shade of some small trees. Last night, we had watched two whitetail does and a muley doe in this meadow.
We sat for a while and I was tracking time and thinking we only had twenty minutes until we needed to pick up our gear and move west to the final opening. Not sure what I was really thinking, as I didn't have my pack off, no round in the chamber, and I was staring at the far horizon when Oak whispered, "There's a deer right out there across the meadow." Given how low key he was, I really didn't get that excited. I am accustomed to my response to bucks, which is much more vigorous and usually has some colorful language.
Seeing my casual state of action, Oak says, in a much more excited tone, "Get ready, that is a nice buck." Probably as excited as I have seen Oak in the times we have hunted together.
Great, now my state of dysfunction required me to slip out of my pack, chamber a round, acquire the deer in my scope and try to get off a 330 yard shot, all while making sure the camera guys were rolling. Not likely.
Oak is giving good instructions while I frantically start getting my act together. The buck is pushing a doe real hard, and she is moving into the far brush. Oak whistles and the buck looks back. I am now ready and on the buck.
I ask the camera guys for permission. Troy has trees in his view, but Loren says he is on the buck. Loren says, "Taken 'em."
The next thing I know is the recoil of the rifle knocks my hat and I am watching for the deer. He bolts back from where he came, but within a few bounds, does a complete cartwheel and headstand. The backslapping starts.
I am in disbelief as to how quickly this has come together. My mind can hardly keep up with the change of pace created by this sudden emergence of a suicidal buck. A minute ago, I was thinking about what my wife would cook for dinner, had I been at home on this nice November evening, only to be awaken by Oak's instructions to get ready.
One of the great beauties of hunting is the sudden chaos when an animal appears, which thankfully disrupts the previous three hours of calm and daydreaming. That always makes me laugh when I think about how quickly the gears change in hunting.
Oak assures me that it was a great shot and the buck is down. I thought so, but having seen stranger things happen, I am not relieved until I see the white belly of a downed buck. And I see some G2's like none on any previous whitetail I have shot. And, a good long main beam that sweeps up on the driver's side. I am one happy guy.
As we walked up, Oak was telling me he thought the buck had five points on the driver's side and at least four on the other side. In the one glimpse I got, he looked big enough for me, so I was a happy guy to have captured such a great public land whitetail hunt on film.
When we got there, I was pleased as can be. The pics show a pretty darn good buck for the conditions we had subjected ourselves to. Not as good as Oak's buck, but we had drawn a pretty good pair.
Holy G2's Batman!
Another view. Not super wide, but OK for me.
When the buck did his cartwheels, he broke the browtine off the passenger side and the G4 off the drivers side. We looked for them and could not find them.
The main beams extend forward pretty good, and that, along with the G2, where about all I saw when I got my one glimpse before following Oak's instructions to shoot.
Two happy hunters enjoying what the On Your Own experience is all about.
As I think about this hunt, it occurs to me just what we have accomplished. We came to an area neither of us had ever hunted for whitetails. We hunted terrain that was very thick, with broken meadows. We were here on the public lands during the fourth week of season, so these deer had been pressured a good deal. And, we got it all on film.
Our goal is to do our best to replicate the conditions most the viewers face when hunting. We cannot always do that, but in this case, I think we hit a bullseye. Some of you will think about the thick cover and broken elevation and think it was filmed in Northern Idaho, or maybe Maine, or the thick woods of my hometown of Big Falls, Minnesota, or any other place where the whitetails live in the seclusive woods of big forests.
I can guarantee you this, what you will see is not your standard whitetail episode. No farms, no food plots, no bait, no feeders, and all the other conveniences we see on whitetail TV that make it more likely that great bucks will be harvested., The bucks are not purebred monsters you see on some whitetail shows, but they are great bucks for where we were and the type of bucks available to us.
Thanks Oak. It was great fun. I hope your first whitetail hunt is not your last. And good luck topping that first buck. Hope I am there, if you do.
We were parked and walking into our spot about 12:30 pm. Timing seemed on track. I really didn't care for this strong west wind, as this drainage runs east and west, and I wanted to be able to hunt it from the west. Not in this wind.
So, we took the extra time to walk all the way down the north lip of the drainage, to the far east boundary, where it meets some private. From there, we dropped south into the creek bottom, then up the opposite side and moved back west, to take us away from this private/public boundary. No sense in hunting next to a place you can't shoot.
We were in place as hoped. Immediately, Oak spotted a small 3X3 mule deer. Troy confused me by saying there was a different deer, which I could not see, until it turned and started moving the opposite direction. It was a whitetail and a buck, but in this thick cover, I couldn't tell how big. I readied for a shot when he entered the far opening. I asked Oak to stop the buck with a grunt, if possible.
As the buck entered the opening, Oak grunted and the buck stopped broadside. I then saw he had only three points per side, and nothing big. The cameras were rolling, but I was not going to take that buck, with half the hunt still remaining. He walked off, not knowing how close a little more mass, a fourth point, and some width would have put him to being a TV star.
We sat for over an hour, watching as a 4X3 muley chased his doe and rutted himself to a frenzy about 200 yards in front of us. He too was safe. But, a lot of fun to watch these bucks when they are rutting this hard.
Oak told me his GPS listed 2:42 to 4:40 as the prime hunting hours of the day. Whatever.
I told him by 2:42, I wanted to mover further west to the next big opening and sit there for an hour. If that didn't work, I would move even further west and finish out the evening. We joked that this would allow us to put his GPS prime times to the test.
We were in place by 2:30. The sun was shining hard our direction, but to glass this opening efficiently, it required that we set up on a little knob on the NE corner. The put the slowly sinking sun directly in our face to the SW. We tried to hide in the shade of some small trees. Last night, we had watched two whitetail does and a muley doe in this meadow.
We sat for a while and I was tracking time and thinking we only had twenty minutes until we needed to pick up our gear and move west to the final opening. Not sure what I was really thinking, as I didn't have my pack off, no round in the chamber, and I was staring at the far horizon when Oak whispered, "There's a deer right out there across the meadow." Given how low key he was, I really didn't get that excited. I am accustomed to my response to bucks, which is much more vigorous and usually has some colorful language.
Seeing my casual state of action, Oak says, in a much more excited tone, "Get ready, that is a nice buck." Probably as excited as I have seen Oak in the times we have hunted together.
Great, now my state of dysfunction required me to slip out of my pack, chamber a round, acquire the deer in my scope and try to get off a 330 yard shot, all while making sure the camera guys were rolling. Not likely.
Oak is giving good instructions while I frantically start getting my act together. The buck is pushing a doe real hard, and she is moving into the far brush. Oak whistles and the buck looks back. I am now ready and on the buck.
I ask the camera guys for permission. Troy has trees in his view, but Loren says he is on the buck. Loren says, "Taken 'em."
The next thing I know is the recoil of the rifle knocks my hat and I am watching for the deer. He bolts back from where he came, but within a few bounds, does a complete cartwheel and headstand. The backslapping starts.
I am in disbelief as to how quickly this has come together. My mind can hardly keep up with the change of pace created by this sudden emergence of a suicidal buck. A minute ago, I was thinking about what my wife would cook for dinner, had I been at home on this nice November evening, only to be awaken by Oak's instructions to get ready.
One of the great beauties of hunting is the sudden chaos when an animal appears, which thankfully disrupts the previous three hours of calm and daydreaming. That always makes me laugh when I think about how quickly the gears change in hunting.
Oak assures me that it was a great shot and the buck is down. I thought so, but having seen stranger things happen, I am not relieved until I see the white belly of a downed buck. And I see some G2's like none on any previous whitetail I have shot. And, a good long main beam that sweeps up on the driver's side. I am one happy guy.
As we walked up, Oak was telling me he thought the buck had five points on the driver's side and at least four on the other side. In the one glimpse I got, he looked big enough for me, so I was a happy guy to have captured such a great public land whitetail hunt on film.
When we got there, I was pleased as can be. The pics show a pretty darn good buck for the conditions we had subjected ourselves to. Not as good as Oak's buck, but we had drawn a pretty good pair.
Holy G2's Batman!
Another view. Not super wide, but OK for me.
When the buck did his cartwheels, he broke the browtine off the passenger side and the G4 off the drivers side. We looked for them and could not find them.
The main beams extend forward pretty good, and that, along with the G2, where about all I saw when I got my one glimpse before following Oak's instructions to shoot.
Two happy hunters enjoying what the On Your Own experience is all about.
As I think about this hunt, it occurs to me just what we have accomplished. We came to an area neither of us had ever hunted for whitetails. We hunted terrain that was very thick, with broken meadows. We were here on the public lands during the fourth week of season, so these deer had been pressured a good deal. And, we got it all on film.
Our goal is to do our best to replicate the conditions most the viewers face when hunting. We cannot always do that, but in this case, I think we hit a bullseye. Some of you will think about the thick cover and broken elevation and think it was filmed in Northern Idaho, or maybe Maine, or the thick woods of my hometown of Big Falls, Minnesota, or any other place where the whitetails live in the seclusive woods of big forests.
I can guarantee you this, what you will see is not your standard whitetail episode. No farms, no food plots, no bait, no feeders, and all the other conveniences we see on whitetail TV that make it more likely that great bucks will be harvested., The bucks are not purebred monsters you see on some whitetail shows, but they are great bucks for where we were and the type of bucks available to us.
Thanks Oak. It was great fun. I hope your first whitetail hunt is not your last. And good luck topping that first buck. Hope I am there, if you do.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Nice buck, good job fellas!
DRAFTSTUD
Well-known member
Great "Job" Fellas! Loved the stories and the photos were great. John
sneakem
Well-known member
congrats to both of you guys.... nice deer
Meatatarian
New member
Congratulations to both of you on fine deer!
Funny you mention that as I always look but poo-poo the times too. Until a week ago today anyway! It said it was a "Good Day" and one of the two best times was 10:52 a.m. to 12:52 p.m. At a few minutes after noon I found two bulls up and feeding and shot the first to give me an opportunity. May be a moot point though as the only time I look at the times is when I'm already out in the hills.
Oak told me his GPS listed 2:42 to 4:40 as the prime hunting hours of the day. Whatever.
Funny you mention that as I always look but poo-poo the times too. Until a week ago today anyway! It said it was a "Good Day" and one of the two best times was 10:52 a.m. to 12:52 p.m. At a few minutes after noon I found two bulls up and feeding and shot the first to give me an opportunity. May be a moot point though as the only time I look at the times is when I'm already out in the hills.
mohunter
New member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2009
- Messages
- 154
Awesome. Great hunt for both of you. Hope to see the episode. I think the show sounds great. Be nice to see hunters hunting the way most of us do. Congrats on 2 awesomw deer.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
NIce buck Oak.
belly-deep
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2009
- Messages
- 3,459
That is why I watch your show. Way to go on the bucks.
elk_hunter
Active member
Awesome work guys! Great bucks for sure!!
T Bone
Well-known member
Nice bucks guys! Congrats on your first whitetail Oak.
