Introductory note: The following is the first of a three part blog about my 2009 pronghorn hunting trip to Montana. In writing it I learned that an unsuccessful hunt can lead to a much longer story than a successful one. Somewhat counter-intuitive I think. Part of the way through I also realized that it chronicled events that don’t tend to end up in popular magazines where the result is often a quickly related success story without the description of any pitfalls encountered. However, even with my relatively small amount of hunting experience I can positively say that things don’t always go as planned or expected. The weather doesn’t cooperate. I, the guide and/or the outfitter may not agree on a variety of things. I may not have exercised due diligence in researching the hunt. This blog entry keeps dustyvarmint’s Mostly Archery’s purpose of, “Helping you avoid making the same mistakes I have made,” at the forefront. I hope it helps.
Beautiful Pronghorn
“One-thousand, three hundred ninety-one, One-thousand, three hundred ninety-two…” I was counting my first pronghorn on a long car trip from Kansas to Washington State at age nine. Since then I have been infatuated with these multi-colored speedsters. When the Navy transferred me to Washington from Wisconsin in 1995 Mrs. dustyvarmint was dismayed (and annoyed) that I’d pull off the road simply to watch them run about the prairies. I’d be thirty-seven years old before I had the means and opportunity to head west in pursuit of what I consider the most beautiful of North America’s game animals with bow in hand. I missed three awesome bucks before a last night check showed my bow had somehow come off zero. The next day I compensated for the problem and took my first pronghorn buck although much smaller than those I had missed.
When Super Slam archer and friend Gary Martin began putting together a 2009 pronghorn hunting trip to Montana it didn’t take much for me to sign on. In addition to hunting pronghorn I wanted to see what habits a hunter of Gary’s caliber exhibited. How did he interact with the outfitter and guides? What things did he do to prepare? What set him apart from the average (or below average) hunter like me?
We’d be hunting with Ken Greslin’s Powder River Outfitters through booking agency Close Encounters for which Gary is a booking agent. Our group of eight would be the first group to hunt with Powder River for the 2009 season, arriving the day before it opened and hunting three to five days. Since Gary was going along and I didn’t figure he would be going if he didn’t consider this a good operation I coasted along and didn’t subject the outfitter to my normal Spanish Inquisition of questions. You’ll see this was a poor decision.
General inquiries on archery hunting forums about population and weather conditions indicated numbers in the area were overall down due to winterkill and the summer had been mild and rainy. Just like here at home in Wisconsin. The hunt was intended to be conducted from blinds over waterholes in an area that is historically very dry and very hot. However, considering the recent weather, I prepared gear for both blind sitting and spot-and-stalk hunting.
Eight of us made the trip in three vehicles. That gave me plenty of room to throw in the three kitchen sinks I always bring. The fifteen-plus hour drive from Wisconsin took us through the great state of South Dakota where we primed our bowhunting souls with many sightings of pronghorn on the prairies. If the pronghorn numbers were down from winter kill we sure couldn’t tell it. Rain tracked our final leg from South Dakota into Montana and Broadus. Ken was there to greet us and we quickly moved into the comfortable mobile home that would be our living quarters for the next few days. He checked our licenses, collected the remainder of our hunt fees and split us among the guides. Somewhere along the line there was a mix-up in the fees between Powder River and Close Encounters. We each paid $50.00 too much for which there was no refund. I’m still confused on the matter.
One of the bunk trailers.
An older style bunk house.
Having learned to check bow zero upon arrival at camp from my 2006 South Dakota pronghorn hunt it wasn’t long before I was sending a few 100 grain Wasp JakHammers downrange. My first arrow nailed the cottonwood leaf I’d planted on the target and my next arrow was just beside it. A few more arrows and I was satisfied. Camp cook Jane made us a hot and hearty ranch dinner, wake up and breakfast times were determined and I hit the hay. It rained during the night.
Day One – Where’s The Ark?
Three of us were assigned to guide Tim. I wasn’t aware of it, but the booking agent had cut a deal with the outfitter for a reduced rate for us if the guide assignment was increased to 3 x 1 vice the standard 2 x 1. This reduced the overall number of blinds a particular guide had for rotation purposes and there was seemingly no effort on the part of the outfitter or guide to make sure there were sufficient prepared blinds.
The intent was for us to be in the blinds by 7:30 am. Well after day light. This was odd to me, but I’d only hunted pronghorn once so I let it pass. Instead of heading to the blinds, though, we headed to nearby Broadus and the guide’s house to get a missing cooler. It seems there were three of us and Tim only had two lunch coolers. Perhaps it would have been bad luck to use one of the probably five us hunters had brought along? Then we headed to the local taxidermy shop to get yet another license none of us knew was required despite the booking agent’s guidance, my having called Montana once, Ken’s license check and our having spent half the previous day in camp loafing about with the guide present. As you can imagine you could have cut the intensity in the air with a dull butter knife by this time.
dv’s Time Out Corner: Montana’s on-line licensing system forced us to buy the required Bow and Arrow License and Conservation License before applying for the pronghorn draw. However, a Hunting Access Enhancement fee is ALSO required. Next time I’ll call the state management agency twice, instead of just once, to verify I have the right licenses. Montana was courteous enough to send a reminder to buy the Hunting Access Enhancement fee AFTER my return.
Finally we headed to the field. We saw mule deer and pronghorn on our way into the first blind. Tim told us to keep the doors and windows on the blind closed and not to stick anything, like binoculars, out. I was selected based on Gary’s customary virtual coin toss so I scrambled into the blind, Tim passed my lunch cooler in and they were off. The blind was basically a 2 x 4 and plywood constructed box approximately seven feet wide by eight feet long by eight feet high on wheels. A creaky old chair glared at me from the corner. There was a door on one side and small window, maybe eight by eighteen inches, on each side. Right off I noticed there were no peepholes to look out of. I donned my black shirt, black balaclava and black gloves and opened one window which overlooked the seep Tim expected the pronghorn to water from. Otherwise I was forced to peer from the small saw kerf surrounding the windows on the other sides. The blind was of sufficient size to cause me to run around, stealthily, checking windows like a hamster in a ball.
Inside of the box blind.
An initial look confirmed a nice buck on a northwest slope about three hundred yards away, two bucks among a herd to the east and another buck to the northeast. Within twenty minutes a doe came trotting to the blind from the south. She came within forty yards and bedded at seventy-two for quite some time. After that the various bucks and does moved about feeding and the rain came down in giant cauldrons. I wished I was out chasing the pronghorns on their own ground and planned many stalks in my mind. I felt the chances of a pronghorn coming to water in that weather were nil. However, to leave the blind and “blow it out” didn’t seem like a valid option either. Tim checked up on me occasionally via cell phone and I sampled some of the lunch. Having learned over time that a book really helps pass the time in a blind I’d also brought my I-pod with e-books, music and games solitaire and Tetris.
A doe (near the center of the picture) beds about 70 yards from the blind.
At about 4:00 pm Tim called to say he was picking me up. He said if he didn’t work toward picking up the other two hunters he didn’t think he’d be able to retrieve them due to the now very greasy two-tracks. And, their cell phones didn’t work. He gave me a gentle tongue lashing for having the east window open while packing the truck. Having quite a few blind hunting days behind me for a number of species and being quite confident in hunting from a blind I was irritated, but let it slide. On my previous trip I’d shot or shot at pronghorn from three to thirty-six yards with one side of the blind’s windows open all day long without problem and without the pronghorn ever spotting me inside. The key was to wear black, stay back in the shadows of the blind and never open windows on the opposite side of the blind. When I pointed out that the wind was blowing directly from the blind to the stock tank and the seep hole he indicated that, “pronghorn don’t smell.” Again, that was in direct conflict with my previous experiences.
Anyway, Tim was in a hurry to pick up Ralph and Gary so I enjoyed some fast pasture driving like that I’d grown up with in Kansas including lots of sliding, tight turns and counter-steering. When we saw a nice buck in a short crop field not 20 yards from the road he asked me if I could jump from the truck and shoot it once it had crossed the road onto my side as he estimated it would do since this was, “big country and I should get my pronghorn however I could considering the weather”. I let him know I wouldn’t do that and I’d rather go home empty-handed than do that. He could let me out of the truck and I’d spot and stalk all day, even in the rain, but I wouldn’t jump out of the truck and shoot a pronghorn. The truck grew quiet for awhile.
We picked up Gary and Ralph with a lot more fast pasture driving. Neither had seen any pronghorn from their blinds although there were numerous animals in the surrounding hills. Tim raced back to camp so we could be on time for another of Jane’s hearty dinners. After dinner I bent Gary’s ear A LOT, took a shower and hit the hay once again. Gary had agreed with my blind hunting technique and window tactic. I learned that one member of our party who had been sent to sit on a windmill despite the forecast endured the driving rains for about an hour, but then abandoned his stand and simply sat upon a rock in the rain until he was picked up.
Ok, that’s it for Part 1. Please check back soon for Part 2.
happy hunting, dv
If you liked this blog you may like the following:
Feedback, Questions & Comments
I’d like to hear your tips, feedback, comments or questions. Please leave them below.
Subscribe
Like this blog? Want to be notified of updates? Subscribe via RSS feed by clicking here.
