Busy Summer

It has been way too long since I have updated this Blog. I decided I needed to just sit down and put something on paper (so to speak).

This summer has been so busy for my family and I. We have been chasing the kids from one event to the next, so there hasn’t been much time for “Outdoor” activities. Even though realistically we have spent most of our waking hours outdoors, sitting at Baseball games or at Swim meets.

My son and his Baseball team had an awesome year. It has been a long time coming and they finally won the Championship this year. This was their 3rd year together as a team, and have really come together to play some awesome little league baseball. Their coach does a great job of getting to know the individual kids and their talents, and being able to then place them in the field where they will be most effective. The first 2 years that these kids were together was like watching the Bad News Bears. They were by far the youngest team in the league and were out played in every game. Finally this year though, they have some age on them and every kid has excelled at their position. Every kid on the team just knew they were going to win the Championship this year, and it was great to see them accomplish that.

After Baseball we moved onto Swim Team. This is Jack’s second year on the team and it is only Meara’s first year. They have both had great years on the team, swimming really well at the meets they have entered. Meara is a natural swimmer and Jack has to work at it harder than she does. We have fun with the Swim Team, as we pull our camper to the various out of town meets, and end up camping with the other families. The families are what makes Swim Team fun for us. They are a really good group of people, which tend to keep family first in their lives.



Half way through the swimming season we had a death in the family, so we all packed up and went to Austin, Texas. Jack and I went for 1 week, while Meara and Sandy stayed down there for 2 weeks. Everyone is home now, and I can rest a little easier knowing my family is safe and all under 1 roof. We finished up the swimming season with the State meet in Conrad on August 1st.


I have some fun things planned for this Fall.

I am going to put a trail cam on a snake den that I really hope to get some good pictures from. The tough part is going to be getting in there to place the camera, and then going back in to retrieve the pictures. I will need to have on my big boy britches those days!!

I drew a Cow Elk B tag for area 690, which is the area south of Chinook and Havre, Montana. This is one of my favorite places to hunt, as it brings back fond memories of past hunts and growing up in the area. I will also hunt for Mule Deer in the same area.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer and are as excited as I am about the upcoming hunting season.

Spring Turkey

On this particular April morning, my alarm sounded off at 4 am, I almost changed my mind, because I was tired, looking for any excuse that there wouldn't be any turkeys out this early in the morning. Fortunately though, I had done some pre-scouting the night before, and had found a good group of turkeys right before sun down. I was pretty sure that they were headed to roost as I sat at a safe distance and watched as a few Toms strutted for their pretty lady friends. Hunting is usually the only thing that gets me out of bed before the chickens, and seeing these Toms strutting had an awesome effect on me.

I pulled my truck into the edge of the field in the morning. I checked the clock and it said 5 am. Checking the internet last night I knew sun up was going to be at 6:14 am. As I gathered my hunting vest, decoys, my shotgun, snacks and water, I could already see the first hint of light coming in the east. I turned on my head lamp and headed down a small trail that ran along the field where I saw the turkeys last night. As I approached the location where I last saw them, I turned off my head lamp and was surprised at how light out it was already. I panicked a little bit and checked my watch. 5:30 am and I didn’t have a moment to lose.



I unpacked my decoys and in the process dropped one of the fiberglass stakes that hold up the turkeys, but I didn‘t want to turn my headlamp back on to see it. I made a split decision. Since I only had one stake, all I could put out was one decoy, so I decided to put out my Feeding Hen decoy. I stabbed the stake into the ground, and not even a second later I heard a booming gobble coming from within a 100 yards. I think I crapped myself, just a little! I scurried as quietly as I could and got to the edge of the field and set up in front of a barbed wire fence, as I didn’t want to have to shoot thru the fence. I found a spot that had some over hanging limbs, tall grasses and settled down about 20 yards from my Hen decoy.

Let the torturous waiting begin. I sat there for about half an hour and listened to what I could tell were 5 different Toms gobbling back and forth, at what felt was right above me. This was already one of the coolest hunting experiences I have ever had. I’ve never had the pleasure of just sitting and listening to multiple gobblers going back and forth like that. While I was sitting there I kept second guessing myself, wondering if I should try to sneak out and put up the Jake decoy that I had along. The trouble was the leaves around me were completely dry and any little movement would make a huge ruckus. I also wasn’t sure where the missing stake was, and I was positive that I would spook the turkeys if I tried it. I checked my watch at 5:50 am as I saw geese coming in overhead and landing in the field ahead of me. That made up my mind, I was just going to have to work with one decoy out in the field.



I should also tell you that I have never tried to call in a gobbler by myself. I have been with buddies that have tried calling when we were out with little success. At this point I was sure wishing I would have had one of them with me using their turkey calling skills. I had borrowed an Owl hooter and a couple slate calls from my good friend Andrew and had practiced on them at home in front of my wife and kids. (them not giving me a lot of love in the end). I wasn’t deterred though. I have worked with a box call in the past and knew the cadences that I need to follow for the yelps and cutts of the hens. I thought, “What the heck“? The turkeys don’t know how to laugh. Worst case, I will just go home empty-handed like every other turkey hunt in the past years.

At 6:00, it was like a switch was turned on, and my little pocket of Cottonwoods came alive. More Geese were flying into the field now, deer were out feeding, raccoons were running down the Milk River behind me, and the turkeys had really picked up their gobbling. I could also hear the hens start to chatter now. I was finally able to pick out a dark spot about 300 yards away from me on the opposite edge of the field. Even through my binoculars I couldn’t tell what it was, although I could see it move around and hear gobbling coming from that direction. I was like a little kid in a candy store at this point. Geese, deer, turkeys, pheasants were surrounding me, and I was soaking up the sights and sounds of this morning. I was wishing that I had my video camera along or some sound recording equipment just to capture what was going on around me.

I was soon snapped out of my wonderment state as I watched a couple turkeys soar through the edge of the trees and land in the field 75 yards from me. As soon as these two were on the ground, 3 more turkeys came down from the roost, and 3 more were soon to follow. I could hear gobbling from some of these 8 turkeys and then I saw a couple fans come up and my heart went in my throat. I counted 4 Toms and 4 Hens in that bunch and was pretty sure there was at least one more Tom across the field.

Now it’s my turn to make some noise. I took the slate call out of my pocket and started out making some really soft yelps, I have heard to always keep it light, the turkeys will hear you and you don’t want to come on too strong and sound unrealistic. I was listening to the real hens and how much their sounds differed from each other and that was a real confidence booster. I altered between watching the turkeys and calling to them. Checking on the other Tom I noticed that he had closed the distance to 150 yards, and I could see a big fan with white tips on it.

Once the lone Tom got to within a 100 yards, he veered off from the group and crossed the field in front of me. He then disappeared into the tall grass and trees bordering the field to the left of me. All the time I watched him I could tell that he was a good turkey with a nice beard that would drag the ground when he fed. Then a thought occurred to me. That bugger is going to bust me if he comes back through the trees and stumbles into me, as since he wasn’t gobbling anymore, I couldn’t tell where he was!! 10 very long minutes passed as I called and watched the group of turkeys on my right and watched for any movement on my left. All of a sudden a hen appeared where the Tom went in and he was following her back to the group on my right. As they got back to the group he then turned around and came all the way back across again. This time I figured he was about 50 yards out, still way too far to shoot, as I had my Weatherby shotgun that just has a fixed full choke. I wasn’t exactly sure how far out it would reach. I knew it patterned good out to 30 yards, and was confident I could take anything close to my decoy.



All the calling I was doing didn’t seem to have any effect on the Toms. I wasn’t sure what to do as the wind was in my face, I wasn’t sure that they could hear me as I was calling really soft. But surely they could see my decoy right?? As he got off to my left I really layed into the slate call, he absolutely put the brakes on and his head was on a swivel looking for the hen he had just finally heard. He started strutting hard as he also finally saw my decoy off to his right at 30 yards.

I said to myself. “Ok Chris. It’s time to put up or shut up! You have waited a long time for this.” He would approach another 10 feet or so and I would lay into the Hen call. He would stop, throw his tail feathers up, give the hen a little dance and then continue on until I would call to him again. The whole time I am running the sequence through my head. How close do I need to get him, set down the call and pull up my shotgun from my lap without him spooking? I called to him 4 to 5 more times until he was about 10 feet from my decoy. I called him one last time to induce his dance ritual and while he was turned a little I eased up my shotgun and clicked off the safety. He must have heard my safety clicking off, because his tail went down immediately and his head was on a swivel looking for the danger. It didn’t matter though, I pulled the trigger and he fell right by my decoy at 6:42 am.



I then fell to my back screaming and yelling, punching the air and thanking the good Lord for letting me harvest this awesome bird. My nerves were fried, but I had called in my first turkey!! I got the turkey out of the field, packed all my gear and walked back to my truck. The walk back sure didn’t seem as bad as the walk in! I then had to go find some friends that I knew were close by, so that they could take some pictures for me. After the pictures and back slapping were over I drove to the land owners house and thanked them and showed off my turkey. I then made the short drive home and apologized to my wife, because I knew immediately that I would get a full mount of this turkey to preserve my memories of this awesome hunt. My family is awesome though, as they know how much this hunt and harvesting this Turkey means to me.

Spring

It feels like spring has finally returned to N.E. Montana after 4 months of freezing temperatures and blowing snows. During these 4 months I find myself having to take extraordinary steps to keep from going stir crazy. I will try to watch the weather and plan to take the kids ice fishing at one of the many reservoirs in the area. What usually happens though is they will get bored after half an hour and I will end up pulling them around on their sleds. But, when we get home we all feel refreshed for having gotten out of the house for a couple hours. I will also go hunting rabbits with friends or just take a drive and explore the country side. I do what I can to enjoy this season, as I know that the hot weather and mosquitoes are just around the corner.



Most of the snow has melted, there are a few drifts left in the shady spots and the north facing coulees, but mostly they are gone and the creeks are running full again. I have yet to see a Robin or a Meadowlark, but I feel that they are not far away. My wife’s garden has tulips popping up and small buds are forming on the Lilac bushes. Huge flocks of Geese are making their yearly trek back north, stopping off at the open water holes and the Missouri River.



April 10th will mark the opening of Spring Turkey season here in Montana. I, as well as many other hunters, have dreamt of this date during the long winter months. We huddle in our warm houses and scour the Cabela’s catalogs that are laying around for the latest and greatest gear that will make us all Turkey hunting Gods. We watch the Outddor channel as Ray Eye and other TV personalities from seasons past bag their giant Gobblers as we can only look out the window at the blowing snow and the mercury hugging -20 below.



So, here is to another Spring coming and blessing us, and may we all get out in the field and chase huge Turkeys!!

Hunting cold weather Rabbits

I hunted Cottontail Rabbits in South Valley County. The temperatures hovered around the -15 mark all day. As the day wore on, I knew I was going to see an awesome sunset, if I could just bare the cold. My fingertips and toes were screaming in agony, as the vehicle's heater just couldn't keep up with the cold. By the time the sun set, I don't think I could have pulled a trigger if I was to see one last rabbit. I feel it was worth it though, as I got some great shots of the setting sun that day and some Rabbits to boot.

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Time to reminisce

It’s that time of year, when I take time to reminisce of the great hunts and outdoor adventures that I took during the year. It is also a time when the seasons clash and the hunting & fishing comes to almost a screeching halt. This is the time that I really begin to cherish the circle of friends that I have. They won’t let me become a hermit during the winter months, when it is very tempting to sit next to the fire in my lazy boy and watch football all weekend long. But, more on this later.

My year started out with Camping with the family and taking the kids on some fishing excursions. I have to admit that summer is definitely not my favorite season. I have never been a fan of the heat, and am definitely not fond of all the mosquitoes, wasps and a billion other flying and biting insects. The first big freeze here in N.E. Montana is like heaven for me, as it kills off 99.9% of the insects and signals a season change.


As that season changes from summer to fall it also signals that upland Game bird season is about to begin. I spend the summer months traveling around. Seeing the Doves, Sharp Tail Grouse and Pheasants get me to day dreaming of my shotgun becoming warm to the touch from all of the shooting I will be doing as soon as Dove season opens. We have to hunt Doves hard here first, because they will leave the area and migrate south as soon as the weather becomes too cold for them. That seems like after the second hard freeze. Once the Doves have left the area I can then turn my attention to the other fine species we have here to hunt.


In mid October I have to take a break from hunting to switch to hunting Rattlesnakes as they are beginning to den up for the winter. This fall I had an especially great Rattlesnake hunt with some very good friends. Its funny, but I will cherish that hunt for a very long time. We saw so many different kinds of snakes on that trip. We all definitely had a great time, and got some remarkable trophies for the wall.


This also is the year that I hunted a lot more with my son Jack. We hunted Upland Game birds together early in the fall, we then hunted deer together during the big game season. I had bought him a single shot .22 for him for his birthday. He had that along on most trips, and is becoming quite proficient with the open sights. I also bought a ground blind that we set up in the corner of a friend’s field. We saw a lot of deer out of that blind, and put some very good meat in the freezer in the process. I hunted Mule Deer with a good friend, had an awesome hunt and harvested a nice Mule deer buck that day. It turned out I was a little bummed that Jack wasn’t with me that day, as I think he would have really learned a lot from the experiences that day. We had intended to be out all day, covering a lot of ground, and in the past it has been too much for his 9 year old wiggly little self to take. As it turned out we saw this buck not very far out of town, and were back within a descent time.


It starts to be a slow time for me after Big Game season winds down. But, as I said, I have some great friends that won’t let me slow down too much. This is now the time that we start ice fishing and hunting Rabbits. I will be in search of some great little fishing holes, that I can also take my family to this summer as well for some camping and drowning of worms. Jack and I will most definitely get out and take after some Rabbits here in the near future as well. I hope that I will let myself relax enough for the Super Bowl though, as I also have a friend that throws the best Super Bowl party in Valley County.

I will update as this long, long (but insect free) winter progresses.

Mule Deer Hunt '09

A friend of mine, Rob, and I wanted to go hunting Mule deer on November 11th which was also Veteran’s Day, so we both had the day off. He is new to the area and wanted to see some of the fine deer country that NE Montana has to offer. He had already filled his tag with a nice Mule deer buck a few weeks ago, but wanted to tag along and help me anyway. I picked him up around 7 am, as we thought we wouldn’t have a ton of competition where we were headed. I have hunted an area the last few years that hasn’t been overly pressured by hunters and I have seen some nice bucks in the area as a result during scouting trips. I had packed a big lunch to take with us along with a thermos of strong coffee for the long day ahead of us, and we headed for our hunting spot.

On the drive we passed some areas that are usually overrun with hunters as they are not far from town and the land owners will usually let anyone in that will respect their land. We were passing one of the last private ranches in the area before we would enter public access BLM lands. We slowed at a cattle guard and 200 yards away was a great buck with about 20 does feeding on a hay stack, when we slowed down further all the deer became spooked and ran down to some cover a ½ mile away that had some water and tall Cottonwood trees. We drove up the road a ways and stopped and glassed this buck, as I was stunned to see a buck of this magnitude in this location, as it is known to have great pressure just over the fence from where the buck was on BLM land. I was pretty sure that I knew who the land owners were so we watched the buck a little more to see if he would settle down in a pattern and go back to feeding or lay down. We watched the deer a little more, they seemed to be happy to be feeding in a big area that had two reservoirs with no cover for hunters or predators to sneak up on them. I went to talk to the land owners and they confirmed that that piece of land indeed was theirs and that we were free to hunt it. What great news!! Usually my luck would be that buck was on some ground that was closed to any hunting. The only problem was, like I said, the deer had settled down and were feeding on some land that was completely in accessible without being spotted for 600 yards any direction. I was about to recommend that we skip this buck and head for our intended destination when the deer started to feed for a big coulee that was still on the same ranch. We watched these deer for another half hour until they bedded down and then we took off for the coulee formulating a plan as we went. We left the pickup behind and two dogs immediately started following us!! Dogs are not great companions when you are trying to sneak up on deer. We had to walk back and try to loose the dogs back at the ranch house.

Once we got rid of the dogs we continued on to within about a half mile of the deer and were stuck with the terrain and 20 sets of eyes on the lookout. So, we back tracked a little bit and made a big circle down through the creek bottom and slowly crested a couple small ridges that were between us and the deer. After a mile sneak we were starting to see ears and horns sticking above the next ridge. We were doing so good and had the perfect wind for doing a stock on these deer. Crawling on our knees thru the cactus and sagebrush was the only way for us to close the next 200 yards for me to hopefully get a shot when the buck stood up. After we had gone another 150 yards, one of the does stood up and looked straight at us. I thought we were busted dead in our tracks. I still couldn’t see that buck as he was still bedded down. We laid completely still until the doe decided we were a mirage or something and she fed off down the hill out of our view. After that scare we decided that this was as far as we could go, if I got on my knees I could see that top foot of the buck’s rack, I was thinking that if he stood up I would have a pretty good neck shot or right behind the neck in the shoulder to anchor him down. We laid there for about an hour as different does would get up and feed for a while and then lay back down out of view. As we laid there out in the middle of this flat open field, we could see vehicles going by on the county road. No vehicles ever stopped, but if they had, they would have had a clear view of the story unfolding out on the prairie.

When finally the buck stood up I was turned around on my knees to try to relieve myself!! I got back to my gun as slowly as I could and got a good steady rest, but I could only see the buck’s head and Rob had ranged him at 150 yards. There was no way to take a shot, so we let them settle down again, and tried to hatch another plan to get closer. It was decided that I would crawl ahead another 50 yards into the next coulee and try to get in a better position. Rob, being in a good spotting position, would stay behind and give me hand signals on the buck’s whereabouts. I took off for the next coulee and I could see some does were getting antsy, but they were focused on Rob instead of me. I got to just the underside of the top of the next ridge with the just on the other side, but all I could see were does. I looked back at Rob through my binoculars and he was trying to tell me to hurry up and get on top of the ridge to get a shot at the buck before they took off. I went a liitle higher up the ridge and could finally see the buck was standing up looking back towards Rob. I hurried a few extra yards to the top and the buck was just getting ready to turn and run, when I shot him, he went down and rolled into the bottom of the next coulee. Without Rob along I don’t think I would have been able to harvest this animal, as he was able to guide me in the last few yards, where I wouldn’t have been able to see by myself. That was a great hunt and a great stalk, where I didn’t think I would be hunting that day. We had a short drag to where we could could pick the deer up along a road. We headed for town and ate our lunch and drank our coffee while trying to remove cactus thorns from elbows and knees.

Whitetails from the ground blind

I had decided to pick my son Jack up from school, so that we could make it into the ground blind with about an hour of shooting light to spare. It was an awesome time!! We chatted about what his day was like at school, what all the different bugs were that were crawling around inside and outside of our ground blind and just having a good chat. He did really good for about 30 minutes keeping his wiggles and giggles in check. Sunset this time of year was listed at 4:36 pm, at 4:15we really hadn't seen anything except deer in adjacent fields that we weren't allowed to shoot, so we decided to pack things up.


After I had stowed everything in my backpack, we had taken along some munchies, water and hunting magazines, we stepped out of the blind. As I turned to close up the entrance flap, I saw a Whitetail Doe standing in the exact spot we had just been staring at for the last hour. I told Jack to stay right where he was, I slipped around the ground blind and made a good shot on the doe. Jack was so excited that we had actually seen a deer within shooting limits and had harvested it as well. We walked up to the doe, in order to field dress her & take some necessary pictures. My camera battery was dead by this time, so I really hope the picture I took with my phone camera will turn out OK.


I field dressed the deer, while Jack was asking all the questions, as this was his first deer to be seen dressed out. He did really good right until the very end and then he got really quiet and wouldn't talk to me. He said that he was just really sad about the whole process as he had just seen the deer walking and now her entrails were laying in the field. That's alot for a little boy to try to process in his brain that usually only thinks about sports, Star Wars & the occasional girl. I tried to explain to him that this is how we get our food for the table, and that this was our way of helping Mother Nature balance herself out. Without hunters there would be an over abundance of deer and alot of them would die from starvation or disease if they are not managed in an appropriate way. He seemed to be able to grasp that it was better for this deer to end up on our table than to starve and suffer this winter. Hopefully he will accompany me again this fall, but I will not push the point. I am just glad he went with me this time, we had a blast.