| Hello,
Hunters!
Time to let you all know how things
went in 2005, and what we’ll offer in 2006.
Page Senn
was here for bear hunting
in early May; saw lots of the Elkhorns and Big Belts. It
still kind
of surprises me to find myself watching bighorn sheep in the Elkhorns;
there are enough there to let out two permits now. Page saw
several
nice rams, and a couple of black bears, but not the big color phase
bear
he wanted, so he’ll be back another time.
Fall
hunting season started with
Fred Blackburn as our cook and resident archaeologist at
Ramshorn.
Bric and I guided Jim DeMeerLeer for sheep the first couple of days;
then
Jim Burns walked in from the Yellowstone River side of the mountain
with
a 95# pack on his back, in the dark, to keep us company and help us
glass.
Jim got a nice 5 year old ram with 15 inch bases his fourth day of
hunting.
As usual the ram chose a tough place to die, and I really appreciated
Burns’
strong back in helping us get the ram to the horses. This is
the
second year that our hunters were the only ones to take rams in our
district.
Bric guided
Ken Cypress bowhunting
from Ramshorn for elk the rest of the week. Ken saw game
every day:
moose, goats, bears, mule deer, and elk. Fred and his dog
were on
moose duty, keeping them out of camp. We moved to the
Holliday ranch
camp for the last couple of days of Ken’s hunt. Ken got
trapped by
two bulls, one on each side of him, and neither close enough to shoot.
Mark Wood
arrowed a porcupine, and
passed up a badger and a 3x4 mule deer, just wanting a bull.
Scott
Davis had a close call from the “duck blind” with a bull and several
cows;
lots of bugling on both sides of camp, but couldn’t get close
enough.
Daryl VanBrandt got a 4x4 whitetail; hit him in the jaw to knock him
down.
Steve McVay just couldn’t get in position for a good shot. On our new
adjoining
lease on Daisy Dean, we had 70 elk at 100 yards, and couldn’t get
closer.
Brian Hall
and his father-in-law,
Charles, began their archery antelope hunt with Brian getting a 13 inch
buck right off the bat. Charlie shot at several bucks without
effect,
but he sure had fun scaring them. It was all practice for
next time!
Chuck
Benhoff’s five friends from
Virginia were here opening day of antelope rifle season. It
had rained,
and the countryside was more lake than land. Four good bucks
the
first day. Bob Muscolino was a little fussy and went to
shooting
at coyotes; he got one. Saved his antelope for last day and had another
trophy.
Second
antelope hunt saw Jim Berghorn,
from Tampa Bay SCI, and Kent Regli, from Idaho FNAWS, here on donated
hunts.
Jim brought his wife Gail and son Carl along. Jim picked out
a nice
buck that ran into a fence and got his horns locked in the
wire.
Jim thought he should have a fair chance; we all watched him get “un
stuck”
and run after the rest of the herd. Jim caught up with him
half a
mile later and made a good sporting kill. Kent took
a 15 inch
buck after a long stalk to within 300 yds.
The Ost
brothers rounded out the
antelope season with 13, 14, & 15 inch bucks. We had
a lot of
Hungarian partridge this year; the boys found out they are mighty
small,
and you don’t get every one you shoot at.
General
rifle season started off
with lots of excitement. Steve Hayne got a big five point
bull and
Dennis Muellner got a nice six point bull. Ken Cypress came
back
and took a big 5x5 whitetail buck and a coyote. It was real
foggy
the last morning of his hunt, so Kenny pulled out early; Dennis and
Steve
got their bulls when the fog lifted. Dennis also took a mule
deer
buck north of camp. Jeff Risner & Steve both took
nice antelope;
Steve can explain the importance of having a friend coach while trying
to shoot antelope. On the fourth day of the season, Steve,
Jeff,
and I had 181 elk coming toward us, with 20 rack bulls in the
bunch.
They pegged Bric and his hunters, turned around, and left the
country.
Elk are darned alert!
Second week
of the season, Jeff Thompson
took a mule deer buck the first evening from duck blind, while watching
a small rack bull. The next couple of days, he took both a
buck and
a doe antelope. Then in a good snow squall, from the same
blind where
he got his muley, he took a “five point” rack bull. This guy
had
been through the wars; he had broken off his browtines on one side, and
all but a few inches of the entire antler on the other side.
Quite
a load of meat to drive back to Tennessee. Jeff’s brother
Ronnie
added a nice buck antelope, but gave his deer and elk luck to his
brother.
Elroy Hodder took a nice 4x4 mule deer buck.
Bill Narke
keeps on hammering the
big whitetails. This year’s buck was a 4x4 with a 21 inch
spread.
Bill and Allen saw lots of elk, but bulls would not
cooperate. The
Californians, Mike, Charlie, and Larry, passed up some good muley
bucks,
and didn’t get into bulls.
The
following week we had no hunters.
We had stormy weather, and wound up with about 400 head of elk on Daisy
Dean Creek. Peter Wipf, Chuck Benhoff, and I watched two big
bulls
from one of those herds that had a attitude problem. They
were doing
some very vigorous fighting a couple of days that week, and the
following
week I watched them do it again, several times. Very
impressive.
The last
week of the season, Jeff
Schmit got a big whitetail buck; shot him in his bed at 75
yards.
Lee and Mike Zimmerman took two 4x4 whitetails. We all saw
lots of
elk every day, and the last day was too close of a call. 400
elk
split on both sides of Jeff. The bulls had us pinned down at
600
yards; it was just too risky to shoot at that distance. There
are
dozens of big bulls left!!
This was
our first year on the Daisy
Dean lease, just northeast of Holliday’s. It always takes
awhile
to figure things out. We sure got in to lots of action; next
year
will be better. We have some rock blinds to build for those
elk.
The Holliday ranch continues to produce plenty of good antelope and
whitetail,
with some mule deer and elk thrown in for good measure. We
use horses
on Holliday’s and hunt on foot after we drive over to Daisy
Dean.
We’re planning a new cookhouse for camp next fall. So far
this winter,
we’re having mild temperatures and adequate wet snow, so game is doing
great.
We’ll take
two sheep hunters to the
unlimited area, and see who is lucky enough to draw in limited entry
districts.
The goat population is tremendous near Ramshorn; would sure like to
have
a hunter draw a tag. Moose seem to be on the increase
everywhere;
if you can draw a tag, you’ll have a good opportunity.
It’s always a pleasure to show
hunters
good Montana hunting. Give us a call to discuss your hunt
plans for
the coming year!
|
Yours in good hunting,
Monte |
|