Adventure In The West....

[Whip]

I've just returned from an incredible hunting trip to Montana and Colorado and had the time of my life.  I've always really enjoyed the stories of others trips that they have shared here and want to try my hand at sharing my adventure through pictures.  

After a LONG day at work on September 8th, I finally hit the road headed west.  My destination would be Winnett Montana, where I would meet fellow Trad Gangers Norbert Schulz and Leo Schmaus, along with his freinds Jordan and Jim for a long weekend of chasing antelope.
 

I drove as far as I could that night, and caught a few hours of sleep in the truck.  The next morning found me back on the road.  The North Dakota badlands to me are the first real sign that I have found "The West".
 

Rendevous were made, and camp was set up.  Antelope country has its own special appeal, and it felt good to be back.  The wide open spaces provided our "Home On The Range".
 
 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

nice looking camp Whip..... can't wait to read & see more of your trip....

[Whip]

Leo was the point man for this operation, and had made plans for us to hunt a Block Management Area, which is private land enrolled in a State program to provide access to the public.  Thousands and thousands of acres of land were available for our explorations.

Our modus operandi would consist of spot and stalk, and using a decoy in an attempt to lure bucks with love on their mind.

Norbert demonstrates his technique.
 

Hey Norb!  I think it might be more realistic if you bend your knees a little!

We head out to find the quarry.  Binoculars are constantly at our eyes checking on the possibilities and planning an approach.
 

[Whip]

Sometimes antelope could be spotted from the road and an approach planned.  Other times we had to walk to check the other side of a ridge or in fields that weren't visible from the road.  

This buck was spotted as we drove, and we turned around and parked out of sight.
 

We stayed in the bottom of a washed out draw, and worked our way to where we thought we could intercept him.  It was a great plan, but a minor miscalculation resulted in a familiar sight...
 

Another stalk found us following a creek bottom to circle around behind a buck bedded by himself out in field.  In the middle of the stalk we were startled when we jumped a group of deer.
 

An approach was made, and everything went perfectly.  Wind was in our favor, we were within about 100 yards of a bedded lone buck, and we got the decoy in position. When he finally stood, he saw the decoy, and started to walk our way.  But when he got within about 50 yards, he got nervous, and circled away from us.  

It seemed that the rut had not kicked into high gear yet.  Many times we saw groups of does and fawns with no bucks in sight, or maybe being tended by small immature bucks.  The bigger buck antelope seemed to still be by themselves, and the smaller ones were thinking they were big shots by having all the does to hang out with.  I'll be they really thought they had the world by the tail this year!  Little did they know that the big boys were just saving their energy for when the time was right, and they would be in to take over when it mattered.  

Unfortunately for us, the decoys didn't seem to draw much interest.  We could have tried other methods, such as sitting on water holes or fence crossings, but we were enjoying each others company and having fun hunting together.  I just didn't feel like sitting in a blind by myself when we would only have a few days to enjoy together as it was.

[K.S.TRAPPER]

Great looking camp Whip,Looks like a good time.Can't wait to hear the rest.

Tracy

[Al Kidner]

Thanks for sharing Wip. Always good to read your threads and just love the white plains style tent.


 In Oz,alan

[IB]

Great to see ya made it back to your BRIDE    

Good Story and Photos Joe DON"T WEAKEN Keep it comming!!      

[vermonster13]

Nice camp

[Whip]

The area of Montana we were hunting is remote and beautiful, yet it is also a harsh, arid environment.  Evidence of hardy settlers is everywhere, and it is difficult to comprehend the struggles they must have gone through to carve a life out of the land here.  Old homesteads serve as reminders of much harder times.
 
 

I really found this old rotted log on a cabin interesting.  The entire outside of the log had rotted away, leaving the inside heartwood intact.  It almost seemed the original sapling was shedding its skin to reemerge from its capsule.
 

[Whip]

Vance, I know you're going to be really disappointed with me, but I didn't take any pictures of the meals we had!  I can tell you that we ate like kings.  Leo whipped up some great evening meals, including a fantasic Jambalya one night, and ribeyes as big as your head the next.  On Monday evening Joseph Myers drove over from Livingston for a visit and brought along a smoked pork shoulder roast.  Leo added grilled pork tenderloin.  "The other white meat" never tasted so good!

Sure the hunting was the excuse to be there, but to me the real treat was having a chance to meet and share a camp with other Trad Gangers.  My only problem is that apprantly I was enjoying myself so much I forgot to take pictures of much of the camp life.  Norbert will be back tomorrow, and I hope he will pitch in to help bail me out there.

Game is abundant, and in addition to our main quarry of antelope, it is home to what seemed to be large numbers of mule deer, and suprisingly, numerous elk.  This isn't what I typically thought of as elk country, but it did have numerous timbered ridges that the big deer called home.  According to Leo, hunting pressure often drives them out of the hills, and it is not uncommon to see large herds out in the middle of the prairie.  Most of the other hunters in the area seemed to be elk hunters.

Montana also has to be considered the cottontail capital of the world!  Rabbits seemed to be everywhere, and at times it was hard to keep our focus on the task at hand. Our first evening in camp Jordan walked up in the hills in pursuit of mule deer, and ended up shooting eight rabbits instead. Another evening I couldn't take it anymore, and spent some time flinging judos at bunnies.  
 

Leo did declare the camp rabbits off limits.
 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

nice pic's lot of history in them.... Nice looking bunny you got there.... must have been good eatten's

[knife river]

Great stuff, Whip!  Keep it coming!!!

[Missouri CK]

Whip,

Great to hear about the adventures of three fellow sweat veterans.  Great pictures.  Sounds like you guys had a good time.

Chris

[Whip]

Hey Chris, Good to hear from you!  Would sure love to share a camp with you and Andrew again sometime!

Tuesday morning found Norbert and I head back to the north end of the BMA we were hunting.  This area always seemed to have some antelope roaming somewhere on the property.  Maybe this morning we would be able to catch them in a vulnerable spot.  

On the way there we actually saw our first elk.  We had seen sign of them, and I even had found a small shed antler from the previous year, but on this morning we saw a nice 6x6 bull all by himself heading back into the hills.  I would sure hope to see more of those next week!

Arriving at our parking area, it wasn't long before we spotted a group of antelope in a far field that we had blown a stalk in a couple days earlier.  This time we knew the terrain better and how to move in it without being seen.  

Before even reaching that group, another bunch was spotted moving crossways to us.  We approached as close as we could through a draw, crawling the last yards to get into position.

The goats saw the decoys, and although it drew stares, they made no real move to us.  In decoying, it is important to be as close as you can in order to provoke a buck to defend his girls.  We were still over 200 yards away, and it didn't seem the bucks were all that interested in romance anyway.  

While we played with them, norb gave me a sign to look behind me.  A third group was approaching from our rear!  The decoy we had is only painted on one side, so I tried to spin it to face the newcomers, but they caught me at the trick and quickly left.  

We still hadn't made an approach on the original group we had spotted, and they had bedded near the base of a hill, but out in the field.  We made a big swing to get behind them and planned an approach that should bring us within 100 yards of their position with the wind in our favor.  Everything was looking great!  Almost!  Next theng we knew this is what we saw.
 
 
Another group, presumably group 2, had come into sight, and the buck from group 1 had gone in to join them. They had us pegged, and the jig was up.  

It had been a great morning though.  We had literally been surrounded by antelope, and had nonstop action all morning long.  We walked back toward the truck, and there was a group of goats in the field near it.  We tried one last desperate set up with the decoy, but again were too far away to do any good.  Norbert took matters into his own hands, held the decoy up in front of him and made a dash toward the herd!  They were so involved in feeding they didn't even notice him until he had gone a couple hundered yards!  Why hadn't we tried this earlier???
 

[Whip]

Praire flowers and sunsets always catch my attention.
 

 

[IB]

Good on Ya BUD    

Great story and Photography......Keep it commin

[JC]

Thanks for the great pics and story Whip. Hope to hear and see more.

[Whip]

Due to work commitments the rest of the group had to leave Tuesday afternoon.  I needed to be in Denver Thursday evening, and my original plan had been to keep after the antelope until then if I hadn't filled my tag.  But the apparant lack of romance in the air left me feeling like decoying was not the method of choice for this trip, and I decided I would rather stick with my backup plan and take a drive through Yellowstone Nat'l Park on my way to CO.  This would also allow me a chance to stop by Vance (Iron Bull) Brewers place for a visit with him and Charlie Lamb.

Camp was broken, good byes were said, and promises of future hunts were made.  Then I pointed the truck south with the goal of getting to the entrance of Yellowstone by nightfall.  The dust of the Montana roads left an interesting outline on the back window of the rig.

 

My first close up encounter with the mountains was sure a welcome sight, although the smoke from all the recent fires in Montana cast a haze on everything.  I sure couldn't complain - the folks who live out here sure had a lot more to worry about than the quality of the view.

 

My route took me over Beartooth Pass, from Red Lodge to Cooke City Montana.  I had traveled this road once before and it is one of the most spectacular high country roads I have ever been on.  Even with the constant haze, the views were breathtaking.
 

 

Life is a struggle in the high country.  Some trees just put down roots wherever they can and hang on for dear life.

 

 

[Charlie Lamb]

[Whip]

I had never been through Yellowstone before, and I figured September would be a good time to see it.  Although it is definately a pretty place, I guess it was still a bit to "park like" for my tastes.  Even this time of year there were too many people, and it wasn't long before I was looking at the map for the shortest way south.  

This bear was spotted close to the side of the road.
 

Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one to see him.  Kind of reminded me of rush hour in Chicago.
 

Sheeshh... Those people obviously don't have a clue of what it is like to really see nature up close and personal.  This felt more like being at the zoo.

There were some pretty spots though, and it was great to see the the quakies were at their best.  

 

 

Yellowstone was devastated by fires some years back, but there was evidence to show that life goes on, and the recovery was well underway.