Randy49er
New member
Be Careful out there Big Fin! Good luck and have a great hunt.
Montana Deer - Roadless Muleys
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
rk_az
Member
Good luck, looking forward to the show.
konasage
Member
Love it when you don't have to worry about hearing a 4wheeler over your heaving lungs when you get to the other side of the canyon
So do critters!
So do critters!
havgunwilltravel
Active member
Best of luck Big Fin, certainly the hunt conditions put it right up there with what we like doing best...wild and remote and everything earned the hard way..shoot straight and glass hard..
Joe Hulburt
Well-known member
I hope you don't mind me reposting your thoughts on a board here in Oregon Big Fin. People need to see that! Here most just point the finger at other hunters and blame them while they fight loosing an inch of road access. Pretty sad!
Good luck with the episode! I am hopeful it will enlighten a few old cronies here when it airs....
Good luck with the episode! I am hopeful it will enlighten a few old cronies here when it airs....
First day is done. Five does, one 4 x 4. With only forty minutes of light, it was not practical to drop off our ridge and chase him up and over the next one. This is big steep country, so today the buck wins. But, this evening we found the playground and will be there at daylight. Also, on the way out, some wolf tracks were in our tracks from this morning. Will keep our eye out for that opportunity. Tired and whooped right now. Miles come hard in these mountains. Guess you should expect to be tired when you are up with the bighorn sheep. I think I am more windburned than anything.
Expect to report a dead buck by this time tomorrow. But, I always have that expectation.
Expect to report a dead buck by this time tomorrow. But, I always have that expectation.
recon6036
Well-known member
I have faith that tomorrow when I log on you'll be reporting.....big buck down!!!! Good luck Big Fin!!!!
Hoofed up some more ridges with not much to show. Ten does, two young bucks, and one mountain lion. I am sure there are some bigger bucks around, just need to find them. Tough country to hunt, yet good for the body and soul.
wingman1
Active member
Hit it hard in the morning.... the rut is coming on!
Good luck
Good luck
GFHunter
Member
The Rut is here!!! FINALLY
I'm sitting here windburned and tired, but not nearly as windburned as I will be by the time we wrap this up on Tuesday night. Not the forecast I had hoped for the next two days.
We will be in the high mountain passes, so I suspect our gust will be higher than 65 mph. And we are supposed to find a deer and kill him in this weather. Man, can they make this any more difficult? (Don't answer that question.)
Besides the disappointment of the weather forecast, we only saw four deer today. Two does and two bucks.
Good news is that one of the bucks was a whopper. The kind of buck that is the reason you come to this tough country and hunt them.
We saw him at about 3:30pm. Too late for an assault from our position. We were about two hours hike from the trailhead, and this buck headed into a hole that was at least another hour and a half, maybe more.
Tomorrow we will go in after him and hope he and his does are still there. One smaller buck was tagging along for left overs, but I doubt he will qualify for any.
This buck is one you hope to see. The location makes you wish you had not seen him. If we find him and tag him, he will be my best mule deer, by a large margin. He posed for the spotting scope out in a snow field, allowing me to dial it up and give him a really good assessment. Wide, tall, and very big fronts. Couldn't make out what the backs look like, but I would shoot him based on the other three characteristics.
If you look at this pic, you will see some burned timber in the far top let corner. He dropped off the ridge, onto our side, down into that stuff. Look at it on Google Earth and the only way to get in there is to scale up the face you see in the pic, coming in from the creek bottom down below where I am glassing. Coming in the other way is about four miles of steep, nasty, dark timber.
It is very cool to see a buck of that quality in country this wild and crazy. I know our odds of finding him are slim. With the rut, he might be chasing does three miles away, come morning. Yet, it will allow me to dream all night.
I am unloading anything out of my pack that is not absolutely essential. Not taking the spotter. If I find him in that basin, I don't need a spotter to know it is him. Water, food, lighter, ammo, rifle, and carving tools. Everything else is staying at the truck.
Another aspect of this hunt has to do with my recent heart attack. To have hunted this country and climbed these ridges the last three days has been refreshing and assuring to relieve some of those doubts that linger in your mind. Not even the slightest blip on the cardio scale. Hope it stays that way.
Given the effort it will take, I am not sure if any of us will have enough gas to hunt the following day. And, if the wind is blowing 65+ mph, not sure I have any interest in a second day of those conditions.
I have shot in crosswinds up to 30 mph and practice that. I don't like it at 30 mph, so I am sure I will hate it when it is even higher. Nothing but straight upwind or straight downwind shots tomorrow.
Wish us luck. No doubt, we could use a double dose of it in our crazy attempt to pull this off.
We will be in the high mountain passes, so I suspect our gust will be higher than 65 mph. And we are supposed to find a deer and kill him in this weather. Man, can they make this any more difficult? (Don't answer that question.)
Besides the disappointment of the weather forecast, we only saw four deer today. Two does and two bucks.
Good news is that one of the bucks was a whopper. The kind of buck that is the reason you come to this tough country and hunt them.
We saw him at about 3:30pm. Too late for an assault from our position. We were about two hours hike from the trailhead, and this buck headed into a hole that was at least another hour and a half, maybe more.
Tomorrow we will go in after him and hope he and his does are still there. One smaller buck was tagging along for left overs, but I doubt he will qualify for any.
This buck is one you hope to see. The location makes you wish you had not seen him. If we find him and tag him, he will be my best mule deer, by a large margin. He posed for the spotting scope out in a snow field, allowing me to dial it up and give him a really good assessment. Wide, tall, and very big fronts. Couldn't make out what the backs look like, but I would shoot him based on the other three characteristics.
If you look at this pic, you will see some burned timber in the far top let corner. He dropped off the ridge, onto our side, down into that stuff. Look at it on Google Earth and the only way to get in there is to scale up the face you see in the pic, coming in from the creek bottom down below where I am glassing. Coming in the other way is about four miles of steep, nasty, dark timber.
It is very cool to see a buck of that quality in country this wild and crazy. I know our odds of finding him are slim. With the rut, he might be chasing does three miles away, come morning. Yet, it will allow me to dream all night.
I am unloading anything out of my pack that is not absolutely essential. Not taking the spotter. If I find him in that basin, I don't need a spotter to know it is him. Water, food, lighter, ammo, rifle, and carving tools. Everything else is staying at the truck.
Another aspect of this hunt has to do with my recent heart attack. To have hunted this country and climbed these ridges the last three days has been refreshing and assuring to relieve some of those doubts that linger in your mind. Not even the slightest blip on the cardio scale. Hope it stays that way.
Given the effort it will take, I am not sure if any of us will have enough gas to hunt the following day. And, if the wind is blowing 65+ mph, not sure I have any interest in a second day of those conditions.
I have shot in crosswinds up to 30 mph and practice that. I don't like it at 30 mph, so I am sure I will hate it when it is even higher. Nothing but straight upwind or straight downwind shots tomorrow.
Wish us luck. No doubt, we could use a double dose of it in our crazy attempt to pull this off.
A few more pics, since I fired up the computer.
Fast food - OYOA style.
We walk in via the valley you see down below. The trailhead is around the backside of the mountain to the right. We then scale up this face for the best glassing in the drainage. Takes almost two hours to get here.
With the winds at 30+ today, I built a little shelter at the expense of a scrubby little pine tree and limbs off a bunch of his neighbors. The only way I was able to spend the entire day up there.
Two camera guys catching a well-earned bit of shuteye.
Flat out cool country. Tough to hunt, but as cool as any place I have ever hunted.
Fast food - OYOA style.
We walk in via the valley you see down below. The trailhead is around the backside of the mountain to the right. We then scale up this face for the best glassing in the drainage. Takes almost two hours to get here.
With the winds at 30+ today, I built a little shelter at the expense of a scrubby little pine tree and limbs off a bunch of his neighbors. The only way I was able to spend the entire day up there.
Two camera guys catching a well-earned bit of shuteye.
Flat out cool country. Tough to hunt, but as cool as any place I have ever hunted.
junior88
Well-known member
give 'em hell Fin
I hear lawnboy knows Suzzy Chapstick personally......a little preventive medicine for the expected windburn. Glad to hear the heart is doing what it's supposed to be doing. Thanks for taking me/us along on the adventure.
havgunwilltravel
Active member
Looks magic country Big Fin...sure hope you can talk one of the camera guys into taking a sleeping bag and hanging it out on that ridge with you above the basin until that big boy shows, which he surely should at this time of the year..although i know nothing is certain with big deer.
I wouldn't be looking or glassing anywhere else if you know a big buck is in there until you have to head home...he surely shouldn't be in such a big hurry to leave his girls.
Fingers crossed..look forward to the updates..
I wouldn't be looking or glassing anywhere else if you know a big buck is in there until you have to head home...he surely shouldn't be in such a big hurry to leave his girls.
Fingers crossed..look forward to the updates..
DreaminofMT6X6s
Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2010
- Messages
- 801
Get some Fin! Nice work. Keep at it.
CabinFever
Member
At least there's no lack of purdy country, that usually makes crummy conditions worth it for me. Good luck with the buck.
