Western hunting

[scott myers]

I recently switched over from shooting a compound 3 years ago.  I honestly wish I would have done this sooner rather than now but anytime is a good time I suppose.  I was leaving Montana a few years for work and picked up shooting stick out there.  I was hunting with my compounds and always had out there and never used a stick.  Always had great success with it.  Well, I'm heading back, stick in hand and i'm a little nervous about getting shots.  Most of my shooting with the compounds were pretty close( 5 to 30 yards) with only one long shot on a mule buck at 61 yards that I smoked.  I have been hunting whitetails back east for the last few years with my longbow and I have done pretty well.  I'm a meat Hunter so I normally don't have an issue letting things walk if I don't feel comfortable with a shot that are bigger than the doe standing closer.  That being said, all of you that hunt out in the western states are you getting reasonably close shooting or are you practicing so you can take shots at distance?  My comfort zone on elk is at 30 and under at this point and I like to keep at 15 and under if possible.  I know this all subjective to us as individuals but I was just curious to see if you were all getting pretty close.  I will be heading back to the Livingston area so it will be open and wooded with good terrain for the most part.

[Tree Killer]

My longest kill shot on an elk was 22 yards, my last bull was at 10 yards.

Most of the blacktail bucks I've killed were between 12 and 20 yards, my last buck was under 20 yards.

Pick you shots, know your limits, and have fun!

[Mark Baker]

Scott....call me when you get here!  Believe me, if you are dedicated, and by that I mean you are driven to hunt with a trad bow, the shot opportunities will come.  It takes work, it takes practice, you got to get your mind "in the right place"...but you can do it!    

Besides myself (Livingston and Bozeman area) there are a bunch of us trad guys here to help you out.   And Montana is a small state, with some of the best bowhunters in the world residing here that are more than willing to help out traditional bowhunters on their journey.

To answer your question, "yes", you can expect to get shots often enough to have success if you can put the whole "do your part" of the equation together.   My comfort range is similar to yours, and I've never lacked for opportunities.  I sometimes have years where "my" part doesn't quite step up...but I get my chances.  Hey, that's bowhunting and that's why we love it.  It it were easy, I'd sooner hunt with a rifle.   And by the way, being a meat hunter, you have a generous season to hunt with a rifle here as well...to put the venison on the table if you need.   The fact that you are motivated to hunt with a trad bow tells me you are more than "just" a meat hunter....

[McDave]

I haven't hunted as much as a lot of you, but all of my hunting has been in the West, except for some hog hunting in Texas.  West Texas, that is.  All the game I've taken has been at pretty short distances, by Western standards, all less than 20 yards, although I'm prepared to take shots out to maybe 30 yards if the occasion presents itself.

All the game I've taken has been dumb luck on my part.  The deer in my avatar, for example, was taken when the sun was going down in southern New Mexico.  I had given up hunting for the day and was walking back to the truck.  I certainly wasn't trying to be noisy, but I wasn't trying to be stealthy either.  I was just walking along quietly, when I came around a big manzanita bush or something and saw a big deer from the neck back, with his head down behind another bush.  He was chomping on something, and the noise of his chomping was louder than the noise of my walking.  I could even hear the chomping myself.  I was able to take my time drawing and shooting, just like I would at a 3D deer target, and he never knew what hit him.

At least two other times, I have fallen asleep in my stand or blind and woke up to see a deer browsing less than 20 yards away.  Probably it's a good thing that I fall asleep, since I am so fidgety that I probably scare them all away when I'm awake.

Another time, I was riding around with a rancher in a light drizzle when he spotted a nice blacktail that seemed to be headed toward a stand of his.  He drove over and dropped me off, and I didn't even have time to lock in my safety strap before the deer came right under the stand.  That time, my dumb luck was that I managed to shoot the deer without falling out of the wet slippery stand!

There are other stories of my dumb luck, but these are enough to give you the idea that even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.  In most of the places I hunt in the West, it is impossible to walk without making noise, so it seems to work out best for me to find a likely spot and then wait and see what happens.  If they don't see or smell you before you see them, then they might eventually work within close enough range to get a shot.

[scott myers]

Mark,
Well if I told you I was stoked to head back I'd be lying......IM FRIGGEN TOTALLY PUMPED!!!!!  I spent a lot of time hunting up by great falls and fort Benton for plains mule deer and whitetail.  Great success on both and tons of fun.  I had scouted some good areas around Ross Peak and Truman and got into some good animals way in the back and was looking forward to hitting that up but I left before I could do it.  I had put a lot of time into the big sky area too and had some crazy elk encounters in there while scouting and hiking.  Since we are going to be a little late getting out there I know I can get an otc tag for archery and general tag for elk and deer but I won't be able to apply for special tags as I'll miss the deadline.  I plan on focusing on whitetail and if I can get into some mulies I'd love it.  I have some folks that offered up land to hunt outside of Belgrade for Whitetail so that should be fun.  The farm I am renting looks like it's going to have some good stuff on it.  I'll just need to see what I can hunt over there in Livingston in that area OTC.  As for elk I am just going to hunt with a buddy of mine in the high woods on a general tag.  He lives up there and has some good spots.  I beleive you can hunt cows on a general tag over there for gun so that is plan for freezer meat and then the following year I'm hoping just to do bow only.  I would love to shoot with you all and BS about hunting and shooting.  I have been enjoying the highs and lows of trad and the learning curve of it all the past few years.

[Mark Baker]

It's a great area around here, with plenty to hunt with your OTC tag, both elk and deer.   Also there should be opportunity for you to pickup extra cow tags and doe tags.  

When you get here, look me up.  - Mark

[scott myers]

Mark how is the small game hunting out that way?  Lots of bunnies and Porky's and such?  How about upland birds?  I never saw too many pheasants in Belgrade/Manhattan when I was there but I did see a few.

[old_goat2]

getting them in range isn't usually the problem as your experience already shows, it's getting them to turn or come out from behind a tree and then getting drawn at the right time

[scott myers]

You got that right Goat!!!!!!!  That's always a huge thing.  It's way different than being able to hold for a couple minutes like you can with a compound.  I'm learning that on a whole new level....LOL

[Mark Baker]

It seems like the cottontails are on a "high" numbers-wise right now.  Plenty of gophers, marmots, coyotes, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, badgers....you can chase this stuff year-round if you want.  

Not a lot of pheasants around here....some but not like eastern, middle, or northern MT...but lots of grouse in the mountains.  There are blues, roughed, and some sharptails around.  Plenty of Hungarian partridge, and plenty of waterfowl too.   Turkeys are a bit east, but there are quite a few around here, you just have to draw a tag for them.

[Michael Arnette]

If your experience is anything like mine was the first few years I switched you may only get long shots now that you have short range equipment...murphy's law.
I went hunting out west for the first time last year, I had three solid broadside shot opportunities from 35 to 50 yards. Needless to say I didn't take them but I'll be practicing with a lighter arrow set up and should be very consistent out to 35-40 yards and confident on elk sized animals.

 It sounds like you have a lot of skill and experience that will come in handy for getting close. I learned a lot last year and one thing learned was to be more aggressive because western game tends to be much easier to get within range of than your average whitetail.

My compound buddy got a nice bull at 10 to 15 yards...go figure lol

[scott myers]

Mike,
I agree 100%.  When I moved out there the first time years back it's easy to become intimidated as well as you should be.  it's big country.  However like you said you can't be afraid to try anything.  I am one of those guys.  I'll try anything.  I also spent some time shooting lots of small game out there too.  Bunnies, Porky's, badgers, ground squirrel,birds, anything that would help.  I also used a lot of East Coast tactics too.  I use a Tree Saddle which works great out there as the trees are pretty scrubby and you can get into almost any size tree.  Good for water sits or if the terrain is so dang open except for one patch of trees or brush.  Worked great.  I even put a stalk on a yote and belly crawled to 5 yards but he gave me the slip when he caught on he bellied crawled too and moved before I could draw my rig back.  Cool stuff though.  However this time will be with trad stuff instead of compound so we'll see.  My lady and I are pretty self sufficient or try to be.  We eat what we kill, grow, catch and raise.  Try to limit grocery store runs except for the basic stuff, can and store.  I'm a chef so that stuff comes pretty easy but my only issue is time as I'm at work a lot. One reason I always stuck with the compound as I felt comfortable that I rarely had to use a gun to fill the freezer.  This may change things a bit but I hope not too much.  And if it does it's just going to hopefully make me better in the woods overall.  And it's fun

[scott myers]

Mark,
We are heading back on the 11th of April.  Should be there by the 14th or so.  Once we get set up and the job started I'll hit you up.