leadingedge
New member
My dad and I were able to meet up and hunt once again for opening weekend in eastern Montana. This is something we have done for the better part of 15 years now. I always enjoy spending time with my pops and as we don't live very close to each other anymore it seems like we don't get to do trips together as much. It makes it all the more special to sit on top of a ridge and scope for deer and elk with the old man. Words don't need to be spoken, the nod, the smile, its all it takes and we are finishing each others thoughts. Killing an animal is not the goal, spending time with the man that gave me my love for the outdoors is the greatest gift and all you could ask for, until this year.... that present came with cherry on top. 
We spent most of the first day scouting, scoping, laughing and joking with each other. We saw a few decent bucks, but nothing special. I had seen a really great buck in one drainage a few times this summer, but it had been over three weeks and I hadn't seen him. I figured he was still in there somewhere, but with all the moisture this fall, water and feed was everywhere so I'm sure that he wasn't moving much. We had come up with a plan for the next morning and we were going to split up. I was going to go into the drainage from one end and work my way through it. Dad was going to work his way through another drainage that connected on the backside of the area that I was going to work through and we would meet up. Since there had been a fair amount of elk traffic through the areas dad was really hoping to catch a dry cow in there. So the next morning we split up well before light and I said see you up in there somewhere. I would like to tell you of an extremely hard hunt and hours of painstaking spotting and stocking before the kill, but it all happened in under 30 minutes and couldn't have been easier. Better lucky than good.. right? I was just about to the spot that I was wanting to be at first light when I saw some deer coming out of a spring right next to the ranch corrals. There is almost always deer there in the morning, but usually just does and small bucks. I started watching them filing out of the small coulee where the spring is and as per usual, small buck, doe, doe, fawn, smaller buck..... you get the picture. I almost kept going, but something told me to keep scoping them as they kept filing out of the spring area and started heading for where they bed. Well after about 15 deer came I saw one farther back up the coulee and I put the binos on him. Good frame, no great frame, nope a no doubt shooter. I went from half heartedly watching these deer into I got to get my crap together and get on him cause he is going to take off, but he didn't he just walked out of the coulee and stood watching me, unconcerned. A short 180 yard shot later, I was walking up on a buck that just kept getting bigger and bigger. I was so stunned by what just happened that I just stood there looking at him on the ground thinking there's no way this just happened, there is no way it was this easy, it cant be real. I tagged him, snapped a few photos with my phone and then set him up and took some good field photos with my digital camera, more about that later. When I finally met up with dad, I'm sure he was confused by my walking on air and mile wide grin. He hadn't heard the shot and just asked why I was so happy. I told him I was done and he asked if it was the buck I was after and I told him, nope ive never seen this buck before, but he'd do. He just smiled and said lets go see him. When he walked up on the buck, he just stared at it. It made me smile as my dad has killed good deer in his day, but could really care less about horn size. A good piece of meat is all I'm after, is his moto and he sticks to it. But watching him look that deer over and turn to me and say HOLY COW... I haven't seen a deer like this since I was in college and your uncles and I used to hunt the Bridgers. That was pretty cool....
Anyway I have rambled and reminisced long enough.
About the digital camera photos. I got home, pulled the SD card, stuck it in my computer and NOTHING. Not a single photo, so all I have is some crappy phone pics, so sorry. I also included the antelope that I was lucky enough to get this year too.
View attachment 63684
Thanks for reading and good luck this season.
Brian
We spent most of the first day scouting, scoping, laughing and joking with each other. We saw a few decent bucks, but nothing special. I had seen a really great buck in one drainage a few times this summer, but it had been over three weeks and I hadn't seen him. I figured he was still in there somewhere, but with all the moisture this fall, water and feed was everywhere so I'm sure that he wasn't moving much. We had come up with a plan for the next morning and we were going to split up. I was going to go into the drainage from one end and work my way through it. Dad was going to work his way through another drainage that connected on the backside of the area that I was going to work through and we would meet up. Since there had been a fair amount of elk traffic through the areas dad was really hoping to catch a dry cow in there. So the next morning we split up well before light and I said see you up in there somewhere. I would like to tell you of an extremely hard hunt and hours of painstaking spotting and stocking before the kill, but it all happened in under 30 minutes and couldn't have been easier. Better lucky than good.. right? I was just about to the spot that I was wanting to be at first light when I saw some deer coming out of a spring right next to the ranch corrals. There is almost always deer there in the morning, but usually just does and small bucks. I started watching them filing out of the small coulee where the spring is and as per usual, small buck, doe, doe, fawn, smaller buck..... you get the picture. I almost kept going, but something told me to keep scoping them as they kept filing out of the spring area and started heading for where they bed. Well after about 15 deer came I saw one farther back up the coulee and I put the binos on him. Good frame, no great frame, nope a no doubt shooter. I went from half heartedly watching these deer into I got to get my crap together and get on him cause he is going to take off, but he didn't he just walked out of the coulee and stood watching me, unconcerned. A short 180 yard shot later, I was walking up on a buck that just kept getting bigger and bigger. I was so stunned by what just happened that I just stood there looking at him on the ground thinking there's no way this just happened, there is no way it was this easy, it cant be real. I tagged him, snapped a few photos with my phone and then set him up and took some good field photos with my digital camera, more about that later. When I finally met up with dad, I'm sure he was confused by my walking on air and mile wide grin. He hadn't heard the shot and just asked why I was so happy. I told him I was done and he asked if it was the buck I was after and I told him, nope ive never seen this buck before, but he'd do. He just smiled and said lets go see him. When he walked up on the buck, he just stared at it. It made me smile as my dad has killed good deer in his day, but could really care less about horn size. A good piece of meat is all I'm after, is his moto and he sticks to it. But watching him look that deer over and turn to me and say HOLY COW... I haven't seen a deer like this since I was in college and your uncles and I used to hunt the Bridgers. That was pretty cool....
Anyway I have rambled and reminisced long enough.
About the digital camera photos. I got home, pulled the SD card, stuck it in my computer and NOTHING. Not a single photo, so all I have is some crappy phone pics, so sorry. I also included the antelope that I was lucky enough to get this year too.
View attachment 63684Thanks for reading and good luck this season.
Brian
