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MT Antelope (Photos Added)


DonBo

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This hunt started as a "Field Trip" for our Chilakoot Bowhunters Indoor Winter Animal League. Darn near half the league came on this trip. I had hunted with Powder River Outfitters near Broadus, MT on several ocassions and had no worries about booking them for this hunt.

You've seen some of the photos, here's the story of my hunt: I'ts actually kind of embarrassing. I hit one the first day and didn’t recover it. Hit him high in the back in a non-fatal spot above the spine. These animals are very high strung and react quicker than anything you could imagine. I believe this particular goat ducked at the shot, thus the high hit. Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' too it.

These two fine goats were taken on day two, both over water:

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This is Gabe, the youngest of the group. He is heading into the Army next spring right after graduation. We were all rooting for him to score.

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Then we had a few days of tough hunting. We got over an inch or rain overnight. Water everywhere, no reason for them to come to established spots. Spot and stalk put several on the ground for others.

Scott claimes the big one in front ducked, and hit this one behind it. It's his story and he's stickin' to it.

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Our very own Archerysniper:

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Last day of hunt, sitting at a gate crossing, early morning. Was kind of nodding off and looked up to see a nice buck right in front of me making a scrape. Before I could get ready, and he turned broadside, he was nearly 50 yards and I shot under him. I believe this buck was only 15 yards from me before I first saw him at 40+. Guess that’s what happens when you close your eyes. frown

Later in the day, I was reading a really good book and looked up to see another one less than 20 yards that probably should have been visible to me for 100 yards or more. Again, nose in book, not paying attention. Well he stopped and I shot, AND HIT A STRAND OF BARBWIRE! dam, last day and missed two. Kind of depressed.

Then with an hour left, (I had already called in to have them pick me up. Didn’t want to have to deal with a dead goat when we leave at 5am tomorrow) a buck shows at the top of the hill above me. He walked down the fenceline for about 100 yards. Didn’t look like he was coming to my spot. He kept looking behind him and sure enough, there’s another one. That one came right through the middle of the gate, 25 yards at 100 MPH! The first one also started running, but turned towards the gate…and stopped. 35 yards. Facing me. They are tiny animals and I wasn’t worried about taking this shot. I hit him hard and he ran only about 50 yards before piling up. Looking at him he turned so fast at the shot, that I hit him way back at a broadside angle. Luckily I hit kidneys and the main artery that runs under the spine.

The first two this day were much bigger than this, but I was pretty happy with the way things turned out.

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When they finally picked me up, I found out my partner Matt had his own happy ending:

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11 of us shot 8 goats, everyone had multiple opportunities and everyone saw some real trophies.

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WTG guys! That looks like it was an awesome adventure for sure! I hope to hunt antelope in WY in 2015 and I am already looking forward to it.

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That's a lot of shooting you guys did. Did any of them come into decoys?

Decoys were used on a couple occassions, but the rut is JUST starting and they were not responding to them.

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This is the blind I sat first day. Not much of a view down in this draw, but did see three bucks, and had my first shot of the week from here.

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Nice sunset.

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Scruffy looking mule deer growing in her winter coat.

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Future trophies with proud Mom.

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Spent one full day in a treestand up in the windmill. The view was awesome!

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This is the view where I finally killed my goat. The fence seen is the one I hit with my arrow with the second shot of the day.

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Thank's for sharing the windmill pic Don I have been waiting to see it.

I have other pic's from the trip but I'm having troubles with the photo loader.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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