Curt, you would have been a welcome addition to the camp I'm sure. Tracy is a good judge of character I've found. Maybe next year we can all hunt together, its an awesome place.
I'm still strugglin with photobucket so I'll relate a story instead of pics. We'd just pulled into the ranch and after changing clothes in the middle of a field, we hopped into the ranch manager's truck. Somebody spotted some pronghorns up on a hill near the 2 track we were on. So somehow I got selected to do the first stalk. Don't know why, could have been my big mouth saying something like " looks like a feller could move around that hill and cut those two off " that did it.
I couldn't believe how difficult it was to get within a hundred yards undetected let alone within bow range. Turns out those bucks ran past us at a trot around 80 yards out and never spotted me and Pete. If they'd come on the other side of the crest of the hill I might have had a shot on the first day.
After scouting some we realized there was a buncha water on this place and the pronghorns were just about waterin' everywhere. So blind sittin seemed like a low odds proposition. I never did like sitting in a blind anyway.
First mornin out Pete got us on some nice bucks early on. Well, early for Pete anyway, which meant 9 AM. According to Pete nobody kills elk or pronghorns in the morning. Every animal killed in Montana is taken in the afternoon! Regardless, Sean, got a look at a nice buck but declined the shot as it was just too long.
As it turned out long shot opportunities were the rule not the exception . So we started a serious stump shooting regimen the first day. We shot out to 60 or 70 yards just to get our heads used to estimating distance in the wide open spaces. It was rough lemme tell ya. Range estimation seemed much more difficult there than at home. Never having been up close to a pronghorn didn't help either, not knowing how big they were.
We hunted the first ranch for half of the first day and the morning of the next and then we moved east to check out another place. The difference in the animals was like night and day. The animals on the first place were like hand fed family pets compared to the ones on the second place!
We sat water holes for a day and had some sightings of prongs and some big mulies but again there was water in every depression so they were not concentrated anywhere.
Had wonderful accomodations , THE nicest place I've ever stayed while hunting. Hated to leave it . Beautiful views, great hospitality and lotsa mounted critters on display. The folks that owned it were the most giving and honest people I'd ever met. I feel blessed to have been able to sit and talk with them.
So Wednesday (I think) we went back to the first place and were allowed to set up our camp for the remainder of the trip. The ranch manager set us up in a dry gully to get us out of the wind and keep us out of sight of the animals. It was an awful good camp except for the dead badger. So I named it "Stinking Badger Camp". I could have just as easily named it "Pete's Stinking Butt Camp" but I digress.
I'll go try to get some pics figgered out.
Topic: Home from hunting *PRONGHORNS* in Montana (Read 787 times)
