After a long summer of waiting antelope season has finally arrived. This year I was to be hunting with my Dad and my wife Kim for the first five days of the Montana season.
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/P1030252.jpg)
Heres a pic of our camper "lumpy" in our quaint antelope camp known as "the hole". My dad and I had scouted the two previous weekends and had 3 blinds located over water. Two were pit blinds and I have been using for years and one was a double bull popped up over a water tank in a new location to us.
This first one is the "princess blind" a blind where I killed my first buck years ago and also where Kim shot her first buck two years ago. The blind is dug in in the sage and the dark hole you see is the shooting window. This blind will keep you in a sweatshirt until well after noon even on a hot day!
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/IMG_0241.jpg)
This is the double bull we popped up at the stock tank. We set up for a ten yard shot to the tank but after the tank overflowed a new water hole popped up twenty yards below the blind. Luckily a shooting window was facing that way as well.
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/IMG_0239.jpg)
This picture shows the lower water hole better. (http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/IMG_0238.jpg)
Heres a picture from the "chipmunk blind" looking down on the water.
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/P1030222.jpg)
Day one was a little cooler than I like for sitting in the blind so I spent the day stalking while Kim and my Dad opted to hunt the water. About 12:30 kim called and let me know she had just arrowed a doe from the double bull with her wheelie bow.
The rest of the afternoon was spent taking care of her beautiful goat.
Day two was spent in a different area looking for goats as the weather was still cool. After not finding goats I opted to do some elk scouting instead and spent the day figuring out the mountains and the access points on a little range. I did manage to sit the double bull blind for the last few hours and had one doe come into about 40 yards before she boogered away.
Day 3 I opted for the "chipmunk blind" while my dad went to the "princess blind". I sat from before light until 5 and only saw one buck who came within about 50 yards until he too got an errant breeze and took off snortin his fool head off. I decided to head back to camp as I felt the day was ruined here. When I got back to camp I found my Dad had a nice buck on ice.
My dad and Kim than loaded up and left me alone for the rest of the weekend. Already an amazing start considering we had never got two goats in one year before.
That night I spent shooting and sharpening my Treesharks in anticipation of an all day sit in the double bull blind.
By 5:30 i was in the blind anxiously awaiting a good day in the blind. After shuffling around all my stuff about ten times I got settled in for the wait. I didnt have to wait long as I noticed a buck coming quickly to the water. I flipped on the video camera and nocked an arrow to await the shot. The buck walked straight down into the water and drank at a bad angle. After a long drink he backed out of the water and looked like he would leave. Instead he came back to the water and got another long drink. This time when he left he angled up to the right and gave me a quartering away shot. I quickly drew back my "dark matter" centaur and let one rip. The arrow flashed into the side of the buck and he was outta there in a flash. I was worried about the hit as I thought it could be a bit high but before I had too much time to worry the buck had made a little half circle and tippe dover behind my blind.
Heres a pic I took as I walked up to the buck.
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/P1030231.jpg)
This is a self photo of the buck and I!
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/P1030236.jpg)
The treeshark entered at the last rib on his right and stopped just under the skin in the center of the opposite shoulder. A very devestating would very typical of a treeshark.
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hillbilly-kim/P1030248.jpg)
All in all an awesome 4 days with two of my favorite people in the whole world. Amazing for the three of us to all kill goats in 4 days. Usually we are lucky if we end up with one goat for the 3 of us!
congrats!.... awesome pics and story!!
Congrats on a nice goat :thumbsup:
Great pics and congrats to all on your goats. :thumbsup:
Enjoyed the story.
Tracy
Congradulations-Hap
Nice! Love hearing about hunts for animals we don't get over here in NZ.
Thanks for sharing :)
congratts! :thumbsup:
Awesome story! Congrats.
Nice....congrats. I hope to be able to hunt them goats someday.
:thumbsup: :archer2:
Congrats on a great family hunt. Great way to do it.
:clapper: :clapper: Congrats son a great trip and making much meat and many memories with those most important to you.
Congrats,a very successful hunt.
Good buck
Congratulations on a good hunt!
You guys had a great opener. congrats on a nice buck!!
Congrats to all of you! I need to get after those goats one of these days,
Congrats again,
Bisch
Way to go sir! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Antelopes are definitely on my bucket list!
Right on man, looks like fun.
Nice Buck....... :thumbsup:
Awesome, congrats and thanks for sharing!
Good Shoot'n!
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Excellent!! :thumbsup:
Nathan
Congratulations on a successful hunt for all three of you! Nice story and pictures! :thumbsup:
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
Good work.
NICE! Where in MT were you hunting?
Great story and pics :campfire: CONGRATS :archer:
Good deal, Chris. That's something I'd like to do.
Thanks everybody. Owlgrowler we hunt in the Dillon area.
Congrats to all!
:clapper: Congrats!
Congrats!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I hope to fill my UT Antelope tag with one of those beauties.
Thanks for taking us along on your hunt. Nice pics of the setup and antelope. :thumbsup:
Congrats. Good story telling.
Nice job. :thumbsup:
:clapper: :clapper:
:cool:
Awesome.
Congrats :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :campfire:
What a hole. Nice Goat.