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CB900F
Administrator
| Joined: | 5 February 2005 |
| Location: | Lesser Falls, Montana USA |
| Posts: | 268 |
| Photo: | | | Are you a handloader?: | No | | Favorite type of cartridge to load?: | none |
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Posted: 20 October 2008 12:12 AM |
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Fella's;
Even though I put in my antelope tag application this year with a landowner's endorsement, the State of Montana told me no license. It used to be that having a landowner's application was an automatic tag pull. I've talked to other's who also put in with a landowner's endorsement & didn't pull either. We are starting to suspect skullduggery. But, nonetheless, I recently participated in an antelope hunt as a guide.
My hunter & I got up to the area just at false dawn, parked the truck & got ready to go. The area is roughly 2.5 miles long and about a mile wide. The south is high, the north low. In the south end is a basin occupying about a third of the area. From the basin, there's a watercourse extending to the boundry on the north. Think of a giant soup spoon layin on a napkin.
We walked a half mile east to the watercourse, saw goats in the distance to the north, and knew we had a hunt goin' on. We eased up the drainage to about 120 yards below the stock pond dam that's at the north end of the basin. We could see a herd of about 60 antelope, but at around 6 to 800 yards. We were able to scope them out & determined that there were several very good sized mature bucks in the mix. The goats were obviously not yet in rut though. Maybe another week or so for that. Their behaviour just wasn't consistent with rut. The herd would pod out in three or four groups separated by anything from a hundred yards to a quarter mile, and then reform as a single homogenous entity. We watched for over an hour, but there was no real movement that could work to our advantage.
So, being bored, we decided to do something. We started to resneak back downstream with the idea of going to the north edge, continuing east & trying to advance south again in the cover of a low ridge. Didn't work, we got busted & away they went. Drat!
Sooooo, we went back to the truck for lunch at about 11:00 AM. After sandwiches, lies, and nefarious plotting against the G-D commie antelope, we set out with a new plan.
Plan B was to head into the wind and go south in the cover of the ridge bounding the watercourse to the west. The further south we walked, the heavier the wind blew. The only good thing about it was that the air was movin' so fast, the goats wouldn't have time to scent us. Yup, that's a fer sure, fer sure, right there. Take it to the bank. 
We stayed low until we were about halfway up the basin, then eased up & took a look over the ridge east into the basin. Just one small pod in view, which was dangerous. Not knowing where the main group was was just askin' to get busted. So we eased back down & continued south, curving to the east as we went around the basin. We got into some pines and again eased up to scope the situation out. We were now looking N.N.E. & could see the entire basin. Still just the one pod of goats, hangin' all the way across the basin on the east rim, about 150 yards north of us. Perhaps 800 yards total distance between us.
We watched, hopin' the wind would push 'em over the east rim & into the lee of the ridge. I don't know just how fast the wind was blowin', but a crow flew over us & turned directly downwind. The wind got up his poop-chute & puffed him out like a balloon & poof, he was gone so fast ya wouldn't believe it unless you'd seen it!
Our only chance was to scoot across the basin on a diagonal hoping to intercept the goats on the far side of the east ridge. If they popped back over, we were busted & no doubt about it. So we moved our butts right along tryin' to do that thing.
So there we were, about 150 yards from the east ridge, far enough north I hoped to put us onto the pod, which contained two good bucks.
thrschwapppoppthockathockabzzzzz!!!!
Directly on line with us a Loach cleared the ridge about 150 feet off the deck! We looked up & made comments such as "shuckey darn". When we looked down, the antelope in the process of milling around on our side of the ridge just about 120 yards north of us! We said "shuckey darn" again & hit the deck. A very low rise then provided a minimal amount of concealment from the game. I was luckily to the north & slightly behind my hunter. The goats were south & above. He got ready & we waited about 20 seconds.
The head of the first buck appeared over the rise! We held still. His buddy quickly joined him & the does immediately followed. I'm expecting my hunter to shoot. Nuthin'! Time d-r-a-g-s on & finally BANG - flop.
"Whatinhell took you so long!?" I said. He stated that he wanted to thoroughly check the two of 'em out & then picked the one he wanted to shoot. The bullet entered the front of the neck to the left of the spine. It exited the left rear of the skull leaving a baseball sized crater. He was shooting a .300 Winchester magnum with a 130 grain bullet at something around 3500 fps. The distance of the shot was something like 100 to 110 yards. We weren't able to recover the bullet.
I then field dressed the beast & marched to the truck. Got to the truck at 3:00 PM & drove to the kill site & we loaded him up & made for home.
And I want to tell you that even though I wasn't the hunter, I had just about as much fun being the guide. I'll also tell you that a little later in the day, the Knob Creek & water went down just fine to help ease the sore muscles.
900F
P.S. For those who aren't familiar with the term, a Loach is a small helicopter designated OH-6.
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72coupe
Handloading Master
| Joined: | 11 June 2006 |
| Location: | Iowa Park, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 1546 |
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Posted: 20 October 2008 02:14 AM |
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Now tell everyone who calls OH6s loach. I would guess that few have heard that word.
Did you check the loach for 30 cal bullet holes since you are missing one? Every one I ever saw or flew in had at least a few. Since they were mostly used for bait.
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armoredman
Handloading Master
| Joined: | 8 April 2006 |
| Location: | Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 541 |
| Photo: | [Download] | | Are you a handloader?: | Yes | | Favorite type of cartridge to load?: | rifle |
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Posted: 20 October 2008 03:14 AM |
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Dating yourself there, since those who call them Loaches were most likely slogging through rice paddies some 30 years ago - and thank you for your service!
Sounds like an interesting hunt, even without the scout helo trying to draw fire...
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