Sorry for the delay in this post, but it has been a disaster since getting home on Friday night. Had to re-set camp in my shop, as it was raining/sleeting when we left eastern Montana on Friday morning, so to keep the wall tents from molding, I had to set them up in my shop to get them dried out. And, wife needed the dead bolt on the front door fixed, at least a dozen light bulbs changed, a new toilet seat installed, and two dinner dates and a breakfast date. So, I really haven't had time to write about how this one unfolded.
But, here it goes.
As you know, we were over filming an elk episode last week. We had hoped that with some good scouting, we could get the elk hunt done early and use the final four days for deer hunting. So, while I was elk scouting/hunting, we were also deer scouting/hunting.
Lawnboy was the appointed trigger man. I told him he could have first shot, but if he passed on something that would make good footage, I would muscle him out of the way and he could hold the legs as I gut and gilled.
In the days of elk scouting, I saw lots of muleys. 30 to 40 a day. No big bucks, but some nice ones. But, given how far I was from the trailhead, there was no way I was going back this far for a 24" 3X3 that I would (or Lawnboy would) have to pack out on our backs.
I really didn't expect to see to much in this area, as the biologist told me the genetics sucked in the area I would be hunting. He should know. I had found tons of sheds on this area while turkey hunting last spring. Found a bunch while scouting these days also. Never did find a whopper, but some nice ones that when attached, with 24" of spread, would have been in the 160ish range. That is a shooter for me.
After spending the entire first day elk hunting, I was surprised that in the many miles covered in fresh snow, I only saw about a dozen deer, and none were bucks. Not good. Wasn't sure what I would tell Lawnboy, as he arrived that afternoon.
When Lawnboy showed up, there was about an hour of daylight. He was roaring to go scouting, so given how soaked and tired I was, I offered to let him head out on his own. In the process, he struck up conversation with most anyone on the forest, and came back with a lot of info. And, in his stroll, he saw a 22" 4X4 whitetail, which he should have shot, but since he doesn't hunt on Sundays, that was not an option. He also found a nice mule deer buck and a lot does.
I was not with him, so I am suspicious he was making these up, as that report was by far better than anything I had seen in my three days of stomping the hills. In spite of his findings, we had to get an elk on the ground, so those bucks would have to wait a few days.
Fortunately for the deer hunting aspect, we got the elk on Monday. That took the entire day and all our energy, so we were quite wore out the following morning, causing us to sleep in Tuesday, and not get to the hills until about a half our after sunrise.
Not sure it made much difference to get a late start that morning. It was raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock, so I was in no big hurry to go out in the torrent, get soaked again, possibly get the rigs stuck, and ruin the camera equipment. Yet, we only have so many days to get an episode, so regardless of weather, we hunt and film. There are no mid-day pictures for this hunt, as it was raining or snowing every day, and the camera stayed on my pocket.
Anyhow, when we got to the trail Lawnboy wanted to take, the rain had lightened some. We had not gone but a few hundred yards to the first ridge, when he spotted a group of deer feeding a couple coulees west. We snuck over and checked them out, only to find the bucks in the group to be forkies. Normal doe group still holding the year and a half old bucks.
We moved on and in our three mile loop, found many other groups of deer in similar spots, with the same composition of animals. Lots of does, fawns, and young bucks. Nothing Lawnboy or I would shoot with three days left to hunt.
By noon, we had exhausted this piece of country and decided to head back to camp and grab a quick bite of food. We would dry gear and cameras, and do some map work in hopes that a new location would provide bigger bucks.
My mind was drifting back to that group of three nice muley bucks we saw the morning before, while stalking the elk. The biggest was a decent 4X4. Not long tines, but good mass. And, at night, I almost creamed a really good one with my ATV, while driving back to our parking spot on the county road. But that spot required we reload the ATVs and trailer them 40 miles. I was just too lazy for the logistics of that, if it would be only an afternoon hunt.
Lawnboy thought the bucks might be starting to get closer to the does, even though the rut is a couple weeks off. His idea was to hunt the ridges above the doe groups, in hopes we find some getting an early smell of what they were looking for. It turned out to be a good idea.
By mid-afternoon, we were hiking the ridges, looking for doe groups below. We found a group of seven, as soon as we were a half mile from the parking spot. No bucks to be found.
We circled the basin and by moving along the high ridge. From that next point, we saw nothing. It looked like another patented Lawnboy shortcut to go down the ridge and back up, rather than circling the ridge of this basin. Shorter in time, but always a lot more work.
Two does were waiting for us as we hiked up the ridge. No bucks to be found. We went to where the private property fence line scaled this ridge, as brush was cleared on both sides, making the trek easier. As we crested the ridge, we glassed west and saw nothing.
Lawnboy lead us southwest, along a finger of the ridge where we could glass. About a dozen does were bedded straight out from us. A small buck was with them. More glassing located a nice 3X3 bedded about couple hundred yards from the doe group. A potential shooter, if he came on the public and the camera guys told me it was good footage.
I spotted a cool looking shed antler down in the bottom. I told Lawnboy I was going down to get it, and he offered to stay high and continue glassing.
It was now getting late and the coyotes were howling. They stayed across the ridge from us and howled like they were paid to perform. As I picked up the shed, I looked back up the ridge to show it to Lawnboy. By this time, he had hustled the camera guys down into a crevice and was pointing frantically across the basin. He gave me the "Stay down and stay out of sight" motions, so I just sat still. I waited for him to shoulder his rifle, not being able to see the cause of his commotion.
Finally, Lawnboy led the camera guys off the ridge, through a small gully to the south. He motioned for me to stay in the wash that would take me up the ridge, but keep me out of sight from whatever had garnered his interest. I hustled to them to see what had happened.
Lawnboy indicated that just before dark, three bucks dropped from the opposing ridge, down in to the basin where the does were bedded. It was so dark, he couldn't tell for sure, but he thought one was worth our time for a follow up in the morning, and that the second biggest one was also a pretty good one.
This was far better news than I had expected to hear. Lawnboy is usually a pretty upbeat guy, but he was talking almost too fast for me to follow along. I had a feeling he was sandbagging me with the size of the buck he had seen, not wanting to overstate anything until he got a much better look.
With that, we headed back to camp with headlamps on, quite excited by our possibilities of the next morning. The wind was picking up and clouds were rolling in pretty low and heavy. Probably would be another day of bad weather, but there is no such thing as weather bad enough to ruin a good day of hunting.
Day two to follow shortly.
But, here it goes.
As you know, we were over filming an elk episode last week. We had hoped that with some good scouting, we could get the elk hunt done early and use the final four days for deer hunting. So, while I was elk scouting/hunting, we were also deer scouting/hunting.
Lawnboy was the appointed trigger man. I told him he could have first shot, but if he passed on something that would make good footage, I would muscle him out of the way and he could hold the legs as I gut and gilled.
In the days of elk scouting, I saw lots of muleys. 30 to 40 a day. No big bucks, but some nice ones. But, given how far I was from the trailhead, there was no way I was going back this far for a 24" 3X3 that I would (or Lawnboy would) have to pack out on our backs.
I really didn't expect to see to much in this area, as the biologist told me the genetics sucked in the area I would be hunting. He should know. I had found tons of sheds on this area while turkey hunting last spring. Found a bunch while scouting these days also. Never did find a whopper, but some nice ones that when attached, with 24" of spread, would have been in the 160ish range. That is a shooter for me.
After spending the entire first day elk hunting, I was surprised that in the many miles covered in fresh snow, I only saw about a dozen deer, and none were bucks. Not good. Wasn't sure what I would tell Lawnboy, as he arrived that afternoon.
When Lawnboy showed up, there was about an hour of daylight. He was roaring to go scouting, so given how soaked and tired I was, I offered to let him head out on his own. In the process, he struck up conversation with most anyone on the forest, and came back with a lot of info. And, in his stroll, he saw a 22" 4X4 whitetail, which he should have shot, but since he doesn't hunt on Sundays, that was not an option. He also found a nice mule deer buck and a lot does.
I was not with him, so I am suspicious he was making these up, as that report was by far better than anything I had seen in my three days of stomping the hills. In spite of his findings, we had to get an elk on the ground, so those bucks would have to wait a few days.
Fortunately for the deer hunting aspect, we got the elk on Monday. That took the entire day and all our energy, so we were quite wore out the following morning, causing us to sleep in Tuesday, and not get to the hills until about a half our after sunrise.
Not sure it made much difference to get a late start that morning. It was raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock, so I was in no big hurry to go out in the torrent, get soaked again, possibly get the rigs stuck, and ruin the camera equipment. Yet, we only have so many days to get an episode, so regardless of weather, we hunt and film. There are no mid-day pictures for this hunt, as it was raining or snowing every day, and the camera stayed on my pocket.
Anyhow, when we got to the trail Lawnboy wanted to take, the rain had lightened some. We had not gone but a few hundred yards to the first ridge, when he spotted a group of deer feeding a couple coulees west. We snuck over and checked them out, only to find the bucks in the group to be forkies. Normal doe group still holding the year and a half old bucks.
We moved on and in our three mile loop, found many other groups of deer in similar spots, with the same composition of animals. Lots of does, fawns, and young bucks. Nothing Lawnboy or I would shoot with three days left to hunt.
By noon, we had exhausted this piece of country and decided to head back to camp and grab a quick bite of food. We would dry gear and cameras, and do some map work in hopes that a new location would provide bigger bucks.
My mind was drifting back to that group of three nice muley bucks we saw the morning before, while stalking the elk. The biggest was a decent 4X4. Not long tines, but good mass. And, at night, I almost creamed a really good one with my ATV, while driving back to our parking spot on the county road. But that spot required we reload the ATVs and trailer them 40 miles. I was just too lazy for the logistics of that, if it would be only an afternoon hunt.
Lawnboy thought the bucks might be starting to get closer to the does, even though the rut is a couple weeks off. His idea was to hunt the ridges above the doe groups, in hopes we find some getting an early smell of what they were looking for. It turned out to be a good idea.
By mid-afternoon, we were hiking the ridges, looking for doe groups below. We found a group of seven, as soon as we were a half mile from the parking spot. No bucks to be found.
We circled the basin and by moving along the high ridge. From that next point, we saw nothing. It looked like another patented Lawnboy shortcut to go down the ridge and back up, rather than circling the ridge of this basin. Shorter in time, but always a lot more work.
Two does were waiting for us as we hiked up the ridge. No bucks to be found. We went to where the private property fence line scaled this ridge, as brush was cleared on both sides, making the trek easier. As we crested the ridge, we glassed west and saw nothing.
Lawnboy lead us southwest, along a finger of the ridge where we could glass. About a dozen does were bedded straight out from us. A small buck was with them. More glassing located a nice 3X3 bedded about couple hundred yards from the doe group. A potential shooter, if he came on the public and the camera guys told me it was good footage.
I spotted a cool looking shed antler down in the bottom. I told Lawnboy I was going down to get it, and he offered to stay high and continue glassing.
It was now getting late and the coyotes were howling. They stayed across the ridge from us and howled like they were paid to perform. As I picked up the shed, I looked back up the ridge to show it to Lawnboy. By this time, he had hustled the camera guys down into a crevice and was pointing frantically across the basin. He gave me the "Stay down and stay out of sight" motions, so I just sat still. I waited for him to shoulder his rifle, not being able to see the cause of his commotion.
Finally, Lawnboy led the camera guys off the ridge, through a small gully to the south. He motioned for me to stay in the wash that would take me up the ridge, but keep me out of sight from whatever had garnered his interest. I hustled to them to see what had happened.
Lawnboy indicated that just before dark, three bucks dropped from the opposing ridge, down in to the basin where the does were bedded. It was so dark, he couldn't tell for sure, but he thought one was worth our time for a follow up in the morning, and that the second biggest one was also a pretty good one.
This was far better news than I had expected to hear. Lawnboy is usually a pretty upbeat guy, but he was talking almost too fast for me to follow along. I had a feeling he was sandbagging me with the size of the buck he had seen, not wanting to overstate anything until he got a much better look.
With that, we headed back to camp with headlamps on, quite excited by our possibilities of the next morning. The wind was picking up and clouds were rolling in pretty low and heavy. Probably would be another day of bad weather, but there is no such thing as weather bad enough to ruin a good day of hunting.
Day two to follow shortly.