I’m writing this blog from the Big Sky Country of Montana. The weather has been normal. That means the sun shines for a few hours, rain showers are predictable and snow is likely. We’ve seen all three in the span of three days of hunting so far. We’ve also seen hundreds it not more than 1,000 head of deer. When deer aren’t in the Nikon spotting scope we’re looking at pronghorn and we’ve also had the pleasure of seeing some great herds of elk.
How many people does it take to shoot a whitetail in Montana? Now you can see why sometimes getting a hunt captured for TV isn't as easy as using the TV remote.
Bill decided to try for whitetails on the first half of the hunt and try as
we might we couldn’t get the whitetails to respond positively to antler
rattling. We switched to spot and stalk strategies, and on day two we were within shooting distance of two nice whitetails that would score close to 140 points. Of course getting the camera into place in time was a trick and both of those bucks gave us the Montana slippery escape.
On day three Mr. Miller had a close encounter of the Montana kind with a true monster muley. The buck was out past his ears sporting extra points in his forks and kicker points as an added eye pleaser. I almost had to trip Bill during the stalk to get a chance at the exceptional buck, but as luck would have it the buck gave us the slip when the circumstances almost came together. It’s an ending Bill and I are used to when the camera follows you around. Hunting is easy. Adding a camera and extra person into the mix makes for a difficult, if not almost impossible situation at times.
But the day was not wasted. That evening we moved to an alfalfa field that was ripe with deer. We took our time getting into position and when we popped up we immediately spotted a “shooter” buck. Since none of the deer were alarmed we took our time and Bill built a small shooting rest on top of an irrigation dike. A few minutes later he made a super shot at 310 yards and pummeled a mature 5×5 buck.
I think Bill likes Montana. He commented he’s been in few if any places where he’s seen so many deer and he and I are having a great time with our guide Myles Gardner, the son of my good friend Doug Gardner who owns Gardner Ranch Outfitters.
What’s next? I’m up to bat and now it’s my turn to see if the Montana bucks can give me the slip.
Mark Kayser
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