My sister and her husband flew to MT from TX this past weekend to spend time with my parents and shoot pheasants on my Dad's place. My wife and I met them over there on Thursday. It was nice to hunt some of the stuff again where I grew up. We shot over 40 roosters in 4 days, so the bird hunting was nothing short of great.
I took my rifle out Friday afternoon looking for deer. In MT, our deer-A tag can be used on a whitetail or muley. Since I really enjoy muley hunting, I was hoping to only shoot a whitetail if it was really an exceptional buck. This particular area doesn't have much for muleys, mostly whitetails. I saw a buck I would have been very happy to take just at sundown. I made a go at him and screwed it up. I should have had him. I got a pretty good look at him through my spotting scope. At first look, I figured as a 4X4, he'd of scored high 140s. When he turned his head I saw that he had 5 on his left, all very long. I knew he was in the 150s at least, so I quit looking and started after him.. If he was 5 on both sides, he was a real whopper. After blowing my chance at him that evening, I tracked him the next AM into a 640 acre piece of CRP... then gave up.
I decided to check another place that I hunted often while growing up, but a place that I had never killed a deer at. It was an area you have to hike into. Anyhow, I spotted a buck in some bitterbrush. He was bedded and looking at me, about 50 yards away. I didn't think he was that great, but he was a nice one. Then he jumped and started to run away. I sized him some more through my rifle scope (stupid idea!). In any event, there is a reason why I try to never carry a round in the chamber or size them running away through a rifle scope.
A few minutes later I was putting my tag on a nice 5X5 MT public land whitetail. Hopefully the pictures turn out good. He's around 15 points smaller than I was expecting. But as soon as I shot, I figured that was going to be the case. No regrets though. He's a nice buck and will eat well. He also had a recently broken back hock. He wouldn't have escaped the mobs of coyotes and certainly wasn't going to grow any bigger or breed any more does.
I should have some pictures back to scan in tonight.
I took my rifle out Friday afternoon looking for deer. In MT, our deer-A tag can be used on a whitetail or muley. Since I really enjoy muley hunting, I was hoping to only shoot a whitetail if it was really an exceptional buck. This particular area doesn't have much for muleys, mostly whitetails. I saw a buck I would have been very happy to take just at sundown. I made a go at him and screwed it up. I should have had him. I got a pretty good look at him through my spotting scope. At first look, I figured as a 4X4, he'd of scored high 140s. When he turned his head I saw that he had 5 on his left, all very long. I knew he was in the 150s at least, so I quit looking and started after him.. If he was 5 on both sides, he was a real whopper. After blowing my chance at him that evening, I tracked him the next AM into a 640 acre piece of CRP... then gave up.
I decided to check another place that I hunted often while growing up, but a place that I had never killed a deer at. It was an area you have to hike into. Anyhow, I spotted a buck in some bitterbrush. He was bedded and looking at me, about 50 yards away. I didn't think he was that great, but he was a nice one. Then he jumped and started to run away. I sized him some more through my rifle scope (stupid idea!). In any event, there is a reason why I try to never carry a round in the chamber or size them running away through a rifle scope.
A few minutes later I was putting my tag on a nice 5X5 MT public land whitetail. Hopefully the pictures turn out good. He's around 15 points smaller than I was expecting. But as soon as I shot, I figured that was going to be the case. No regrets though. He's a nice buck and will eat well. He also had a recently broken back hock. He wouldn't have escaped the mobs of coyotes and certainly wasn't going to grow any bigger or breed any more does.
I should have some pictures back to scan in tonight.
Sounds like you had a blast in your own stomping grounds.
