sureshot
The Hunt Never Ends....
I've always wanted to hunt out west for elk or mule deer but had never found the time to do so. Last year I was approached by a friend from Montana who was going to draw an Iowa late season muzzleloader tag. He wanted to know if I would be interested in doing a swap hunt with him. I explained to him that I only hunt by permission and that I would have to speak with one particular landowner who I thought may be interested in the idea of partaking in the swap hunt. I spoke with the landowner, we all exchanged pictures of deer we had killed in the past, and agreed that this would be a great trade.
On Friday afternoon after getting off work I met up with the landowner and we began our trek west. Along the way we stopped and picked up IowaWhitetail.com's very own Dwilk aka 'DareDevil Derek.' We drove 8hrs to Fargo and I was starting to get tired. I decided to stop at a rest stop and crash for 4hrs of horrible sleep before once again hitting the road. We arrived in NE Montana shortly after 12pm, met up with the gentlemen from up there who we were doing the swap hunt with, and hit the road to begin our hunt. Here are some photos I took while out hiking the countryside;
On the first day we did a lot of walking and glassing. Around 11am I was walking up a coulee and jumped a whitetail from his bed. It all happened so fast that by the time I realized he was a shooter he was already 80yds and running fast. I squeezed off a few shots as he ran over the hill and missed both times. We ended up seeing this whitetail again a few days later but he had crossed the border into Canada. It is always a bummer when a big one gets away, but it was a pleasure in itself just seeing him;
The next day we walked and walked and walked some more, however, no big mule deer were seen;
On this hunt we found this old homestead. It was 5.5miles from the nearest road. Incredible to think of how people lived back then. They had to have been tough as nails!
The next morning we headed back up towards the Canadian border and hit up some state land. It is vast and there is plenty of it in Montana. Derek and I were setup on a high vantage point on a wheat field overlooking a huge bottom full of coulees. Our goal was to spot a shooter buck and move in for the kill. A fresh blanket of snow had fallen overnight which aided us in spotting deer. It was shortly after shooting time when we noticed a muley buck with 3 does on a nearby sidehill. We went into stalk mode and shortly later were within 80yds of him. He crested the hill and began our way.
He was completely focused on the does. At 65yds I shot and drilled him. My muley tag was filled, and Derek had captured the entire hunt on video (will be posted on TrophyPursuit.com in the near future).
As I stated before, this was my first trip out west. This is something that I strongly encourage all of you to do someday if you can…..at least once! Make it happen! The scenery was out of this world….and I loved every minute of it. To bring home a nice mule deer was just icing on the cake.
Now it's time to start focusing on late season whitetails. I plan on putting out some ground blinds and rearranging cameras this weekend in hopes of finding a shooter here in Iowa for not only myself, but for the individuals from Montana who we are doing the swap hunt with.
Take care,
-Chris
On Friday afternoon after getting off work I met up with the landowner and we began our trek west. Along the way we stopped and picked up IowaWhitetail.com's very own Dwilk aka 'DareDevil Derek.' We drove 8hrs to Fargo and I was starting to get tired. I decided to stop at a rest stop and crash for 4hrs of horrible sleep before once again hitting the road. We arrived in NE Montana shortly after 12pm, met up with the gentlemen from up there who we were doing the swap hunt with, and hit the road to begin our hunt. Here are some photos I took while out hiking the countryside;
On the first day we did a lot of walking and glassing. Around 11am I was walking up a coulee and jumped a whitetail from his bed. It all happened so fast that by the time I realized he was a shooter he was already 80yds and running fast. I squeezed off a few shots as he ran over the hill and missed both times. We ended up seeing this whitetail again a few days later but he had crossed the border into Canada. It is always a bummer when a big one gets away, but it was a pleasure in itself just seeing him;
The next day we walked and walked and walked some more, however, no big mule deer were seen;
On this hunt we found this old homestead. It was 5.5miles from the nearest road. Incredible to think of how people lived back then. They had to have been tough as nails!
The next morning we headed back up towards the Canadian border and hit up some state land. It is vast and there is plenty of it in Montana. Derek and I were setup on a high vantage point on a wheat field overlooking a huge bottom full of coulees. Our goal was to spot a shooter buck and move in for the kill. A fresh blanket of snow had fallen overnight which aided us in spotting deer. It was shortly after shooting time when we noticed a muley buck with 3 does on a nearby sidehill. We went into stalk mode and shortly later were within 80yds of him. He crested the hill and began our way.
He was completely focused on the does. At 65yds I shot and drilled him. My muley tag was filled, and Derek had captured the entire hunt on video (will be posted on TrophyPursuit.com in the near future).
As I stated before, this was my first trip out west. This is something that I strongly encourage all of you to do someday if you can…..at least once! Make it happen! The scenery was out of this world….and I loved every minute of it. To bring home a nice mule deer was just icing on the cake.
Now it's time to start focusing on late season whitetails. I plan on putting out some ground blinds and rearranging cameras this weekend in hopes of finding a shooter here in Iowa for not only myself, but for the individuals from Montana who we are doing the swap hunt with.
Take care,
-Chris
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They can be fun to hunt. Congrats.
