Hunting on the HiLine 2014, Volume 4: A Nice, Big Rooster!

Today I bring you a belated post of our last hunting excursion of the season. 

While my family was here, we took them up to the Lost River WMA for some game bird hunting. The day was pretty nice, with the temperature right around 30 degrees, minimal wind, and sunshine. The hunt was lead by Harvey, who stomped, sniffed, and pointed his way through the brush along the riverbank.  Jeff was right behind him, then the rest of us followed along behind. 

Right way, Harvey got on scent. Jeff was the only one carrying a gun, so he stayed right with the dog while the rest of us were occupied with the task of crossing a barbed wire fence. Of course, that's right when Harvey pointed and flushed the bird. I looked up just in time to see the bird fly up and Jeff take his shot and nail him cleanly. A nice, big rooster pheasant! 

Harvey shot over to where the bird landed. By now, I was over the fence but my family members were still in progress. Not to say they take a long time, but just that pointing, flushing, and shooting a bird only takes flashes of seconds. So, we missed Harvey's retrieval process, but Jeff tells me we still need to work on Harvey's soft mouth. If we were really serious about hunting him more often, we also probably would never play tug-of-war with him with his dog toys as that only reinforces the same behavior with game birds... and no one wants to eat pheasant that's been the "rope" in a tug-of-war match. 

Harvey did relinquish the bird fairly quickly to Jeff and I placed it in the backpack. We spent another hour or so hiking around looking for birds, but never did find any more. 

Later in the weekend, we enjoyed the meat in one of our favorite preparation styles, something I call Pheasant Poppers. Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but I'm sure you can imagine. You cut the usable meat off the carcass, then cut into small bite size pieces. Place a jalapeno slice on top a piece of meat, then wrap the whole thing with bacon and put on a skewer. Repeat until all meat is used. Then grill until done! So simple and delicious! If you're averse to pheasant, or don't have a hunter in the household, or bird season is over (which it IS in Montana), then you can use chicken or any other type of poultry you'd like. There's just something about bacon on the barbecue, too... YUM!

So, that's a wrap for Hunting on the HiLine 2014! We'll be back again next fall with more hunting adventures! Until then, hopefully there's something on PrairiePonderingsMT that will keep you hooked. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'll be launching a new weekly series on the blog! Can't wait for you all to see what it is all about! 

Hunting on the HiLine 2014, Volume 4: Week Of Hunting

Last week was the week of hunting around here! Jeff's friend Jeremy (remember him from This Post?) was here for the whole week. He's easy to host and fun to have around. Then, Jeff's Uncle Collin and Aunt Patsy arrived on Sunday and left on Wednesday, also for hunting purposes. They were staying with Tom and Carol, but we all got together in the evenings for meals.

Time was spent in the Lost River Wildlife Management Area and surrounding environs (again, read the post I linked to above for more info) and also in the Sweetgrass Hills, as the two primary hunting areas, with some excursions around old-standby coulees, too.

Because I was at work during the day, I did not go along on any of the hunting day-trips. Thankfully, Jeff shared some of his photos with me, so that's what we'll post on the blog this time, along with some info that Jeff did share with me about how the hunts went.

This photo (above) was from the hike into the Sweetgrass Hills. It had snowed a bit overnight, which typically means it's easier to spot elk. This particular view is looking back from the Hills to the surrounding flat-land. Pretty cool how the Hills just sort of rise up out of the prairie.

They guys actually did spot a group of elk right away, but were unable to take one home with them.

That's Jeff's Uncle Collin looking back at us.

Even though they day resulted in not bringing an elk out of the mountains after all, it sounded like everyone really enjoyed the hiking, as evidenced by the enthusiastic retelling of the day's events over dinner. Jeff said he learned a lot about what to do next time, and also that he just enjoyed being outdoors. He also said that it was cool to see the headwaters of Sage Creek, which is the creek that runs through our family farm, providing fresh drinking water most of the year to our cow herd.

At the bottom of this ravine is a very thin beginning of a creek, fed from a spring.
Thus, Sage Creek is born!

Much of the rest of the week for Jeff and Jeremy was spent driving around some of their usual haunts, looking for deer and elk. They did a lot of driving and A LOT of hiking in the coulees and along the Milk River. By the end of the week, Jeff and Jeremy had reached a number of conclusions about the deer population this year.

First, it appears as though the deer numbers are not actually less, as some around here have said, they're just spending their time in different places. With so much CRP having been taken out in recent years, it makes sense that the deer would seek different places to bed in safety. Namely, the coulee banks and ravines. Jeff is thinking they spend their day in the coulees, then feed on the flat lands at night.

Second, for some reason, there does not appear to be as many large deer in our area this year. Jeff and Jeremy spent significant time surveying the scene, and the deer that Jeff eventually shot on the last day of their hunting week was one of the largest they saw all week.

So, with that all being said, if you're planning on hunting in this area this year, remember two things: You're probably going to have to hike, and you're probably not going to shoot a record buck this year.

Jeff with this year's buck.
Not a record by any means, but not bad given what they saw in our area this year.

Hunting season is not over yet, so there's still time for Jeff to shoot an elk. Jeremy and his wife are coming up again in a few weeks, and they'll be looking for deer still, too. And, on top of all that, we have hardly taken Harvey out bird hunting, either! So, stay tuned for more Hunting on the HiLine updates as the fall hunting season continues!

Hunting on the HiLine, Volume 3: River Morning

This time of year, our house becomes a hunting lodge. On weekends we are not in Bozeman, Jeff's buddies or family members are at our house, hoping to find an antelope, deer, elk, or birds. Usually, the company is pretty easygoing and fun to have around. I join them on their hunting excursions whenever I can.

Last weekend was opening weekend for two new animals. Antelope Rifle season and Pheasant season both opened. Jeff and his friend Jeremy went out early Saturday morning and both got their antelope right away. Jeremy had a buck tag and shot a nice animal. Jeff only had a doe tag, but got his right away, too. 

That left the rest of the weekend to go after some pheasants. With the opening of the Lost River Wildlife Management Area last fall, we have found an excellent new pheasant habitat, very close to our house. We also have a great dog to show us the way to the birds! 

The Lost River WMA is about 10 miles from our house, but if you were to simply look at comparison photos of our farm next to some of the WMA, you'd think you were in different worlds. The landscape is completely different, with the Milk River carving out steep cliffs, breaks, and coulees. It makes for some pretty wonderful scenery. Knowing the setting and lighting would be perfect, I brought my real camera and snapped some photos of this highly photogenic place in the morning glow. 

It was a beautiful, crisp fall morning with no breeze to speak of. We spent about two hours hunting and Harvey lead us to several rooster pheasants. As always, what I enjoyed the most was watching Harvey work, and simply being outside in a beautiful place, with people I love, and with nice weather to boot. It was truly an ideal morning! 

Starting off on our hike.

Harvey is surveying the scene.

Jeff and Jeremy.

Milk River, near Canada.

I really wish this photo hadn't turned out a bit blurry. Need to work on improving my camera skills.
Guess I'll have to go back up some morning and try again! 

Milk River.

I do need to continue to refine my camera skills. I have also thought about using Lightroom or some other basic photo editing program to sharpen my images for the blog. But... sometimes I feel like I spend enough time on the computer as it is.

Also, for those few of you who may have already read this posts, sans photos, here it is again! I have been traveling a lot lately and trying to edit and upload posts using the app on my phone. I haven't mastered that yet, either. This is how I had always intended this post to be, with photos. :)

I've got lots of great blog post ideas coming up for the next few weeks, so stay tuned! 

Hunting on the HiLine 2013, Vol. 3: Buck Found on Lost River

The hype on the Lost River WMA (See Previous Post) proved true right away on Friday evening.

I had the chance to join Jeff and Jeremy on their evening hunt. We had barely driven into the WMA when we spotted a group of mule deer on a coulee bank. After scrambling out of the vehicle and slightly away from the road, Jeff and Jeremy scoped the deer and spotted a large buck. Jeremy was able to take a shot before the buck went out of sight around the bend of the coulee. It's pretty amazing he was able to take a shot after all the scrambling around and loud noises we were making. The deer were on the move.

 All except the one who took the bullet. He went nowhere.

We field-dressed the deer on the side of the point and loaded him in the pickup. With several daylight hours left, we decided to bird hunt in the flat along the south bank of the Milk River. We had a nice hike through some prime pheasant habitat. Harvey was with us and he trailed a few birds, but only pointed and flushed a pheasant hen. The hike was roughly two miles. We enjoyed working with the dog and the guys also took the opportunity to scout some prime deer and elk habitat. There were definite signs of elk having been in the river bottom recently.

This photo was taken from where we field dressed Jeremy's deer. The flat light makes the photo lose some dimension, but still gives an idea of the striking landscape and river valley.

We also saw three beavers and lots of gnawed trees and branches. It will be cook to see over the next few hunting seasons whether or not the beavers build a successful dam and watch their progress doing so.

As twilight fell, we began our trek out of the river and headed for home. We saw many, many deer on our drive back home but none were exactly what Jeff wanted to shoot. Most of them were does and fawns, which you're not supposed to shoot anyway.

The next morning, Jeff and Jeremy went out again. This time, they went to an old standby hunting ground which is actually the pastureland of a family friend of ours. Jeff got his buck that morning.

Group Photo

 This was the largest deer Jeremy had ever shot. Once they had both deer back to the yard, the guys measured and scored the size of the animals. I don't really understand the measurement process, but I think it involves measuring the width between both racks, the length of the racks as well as each of their tines, and the circumference of each rack at some strategic locations.  Jeff's buck scored 148 and Jeremy's was 172.  I think they are both planning to have at least the antlers mounted. The well-planned and executed decorating scheme at our house consisting of mismatched, second-hand furniture, and antlers on the wall will gain another statement piece.

The measuring process.

Now that they both have shot pretty nice buck mule deer, the guys are switching their concentration to hunting elk and working Harvey on some game birds. Jeremy will be back in a few weeks and the hunt will be on again. You can bet they'll be spending some more time in the Lost River. It has definitely shown it is prime habitat for many different types of animals. It's a neat place to hike. I'm also interested to come back during different seasons to see how the landscape changes.