Antelope hunt 2008

Hi my name is Robb Latrielle and the following is a blog about our antelope hunting trip last fall.  Last year about this time Myself Robby Farnes and Casey Scott decided to put in for a party tag to hunt antelope near my uncle’s ranch in Lewistown.  A couple months later we got the news we were waiting for, we got the tags.  After talking to my uncle we quickly decide that opening weekend would be our best bet to bag three bucks.  Fast forward to the second week in Oct, we were a week from heading east to our hunting spot near Lewistown and my brother Sam Kuehn who hasn’t really hunted since his early teens started to show interest in going.  The only problem was he had just bought a Bushmaster AR .223 and was itching to shoot something. Never the less we decided to let him tag along, after all as you will see from the pictures he is good for more than a few laughs.  Because he didn’t draw a tag he would buy an over the counter doe tag.  Two days before the opening of the season we headed east only making it about 50 miles before we thought we better stop and have a Trixy burger and a couple of beers (thanks for driving Robby).  We somehow managed to turn a 3 and a half hour drive into 5 and a half but we finally got to my sister’s house about midnight.  The next morning with our heads still a little foggy from the 300 mile bar hopping session we pulled it together and headed out to scout the area we drew the tags for.  Thanks to my uncle Marty who gave us a book that showed us who owned what land in our hunting district we found our way around pretty easy.  We had no problem finding antelope, they were everywhere like we anticipate seeing how they haven’t been shot at in a year.  We watched the biggest antelope any of us had ever seen for about 20 min at about 75 yards.  One day too early.  Feeling confident we knew where to find the antelope the next morning we headed back to Lewistown for the night.  That night an early season storm blew in and we woke up to about 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground, hoping this would change the pattern of the antelope we stuck to our game plan…. Drive until we find them and then ask for permission to hunt them.

Back in Ovando at Trixie’s we drew straws to see who would get the first shot and I won so I would have the first buck then Robby then Casey and Sam could shoot at any doe after we shot first at the buck.  It didn’t take long for us to run into the first group of Antelope and they were on the wrong side of the fence so we continued on, and ran into another group right off the road.  We quickly drove to the ranchers house and asked permission, luckily he knew my grandfather and granted us permission.  I pulled up on a fence post as the antelope started to run, the buck stopped at about 300 yards and I put the hurt on him one shot.  Before I could turn to Sam and say I got him he was already unloading his AR at one of the does, no luck for him round one.  Now it is Robby’s turn, we spotted a loan buck in a field near Roy, MT again we got permission and put a stock on him.  Settling up next to a grain bin Robby took aim at the laying down buck, I ranged him at 230 yards boom Robby shoots and misses (doesn’t happen very often) so I got a better angle on the buck and ranged him again… oh 320 yards I said my bad.  Robby’s second shot found the buck’s neck and dropped him in his bed.  Casey you’re up! We couldn’t believe our luck to this point 3hrs in and 2 bucks down and it got better.  Driving the back farm roads we found a group of 3 does and one buck, Casey jumped out and shot once twice and missed both times at about 150 yards!!! WHAT! Then the buck started running boom he shoots again, buck still running away now at about 300 yards….. BOOM off hand he shoots for the last time before the buck goes over the hill.  I yelled nice shooting Ass eyes (inside joke) looks like old meat in the pot (his gun) needs to hang it up and he said I think I got him.  We laughed and said well you go check we are going to get Sam a shot at these does over the ridge, we did and Sam missed about 10 times in 3 seconds.  We drive back and Casey is up on the top of the hill with his hands up in the air, in my face right.  You have got to be shitting me, perfect shot 300 yards off hand running.  It did take him 4 to get the job done but never the less it was a hell of a shot.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get Sam a doe on this trip but he will make the trip again this fall with his new 270 short mag looking for revenge.  It was a great trip and to many good times to fit into this blog.  Enjoy the pictures.

Robb Latrielle

Montana Elk Hunt

I spent a good part  of the last couple of week in August scouting western Montana looking for elk.  There was a spot we found last year where a nice heard of elk always seemed to hangout early in season while the weather was hot.  It was perfect, easy to get to a lot of water and only twenty min from my front door.  I had spent enough time watching and hunting this heard that  I felt confident in our chance.  The way that we had hunted them before was to just ambush them.  They weren’t very vocal in this area.  Most likely because they lived so close to people.  They would make noise before light but then would shut up.  We hunted them hard the whole first week of the season.  Having a lot of close calls but nobody getting any shots.  It was the morning of September 11 my alarm went off at 4:30 and I yelled out and my buddy Tanner Kahler do you want to do this?  He said I don’t care its up to you.  My reply was I got a good feeling about today.  So boom we were in the truck stopping for coffee and on our way.  We  got to the gate about an hour before sunrise and started on our twenty min walk to the top of the ridge.  We hit the spot where we always sit and wait for the sun to rise and listen for elk.   It wasn’t two min when we heard the first bugle, nothing sounds better then a bugle in the morning dark.  It was from way down in the bottom which meant that we had plenty of time to cut the heard off.  So we sat there waiting for the sun to rise and see if we could spot them coming up.  As the sun rose we could still see the whole heard in the bottom and they were acting really funny.  All the cow were acting like they wanted to head up the hill but the heard bull wouldn’t let them.  Didn’t make any sense until we heard the other bull below up bugle.   Tanner and I decided that we wanted to make sure that we stayed in front of the main heard but to keep an eye out for other bull below us.  As we worked our way up the road we spotted that smaller bull paralleling the heard just like we were.  The problem was the heard wouldn’t come out of the bottom with him in the way.  That heard bull would chase his cows all the way back to the bottom every time the satellite bull bugled.  Finlay after about an hour things seemed to calm down and the heard started working their way up.  So as we move trying to say in front.  We spotted the smaller bull again doing the same thing again.  This time we decided that we would try and cut him off.  We both ran down the road to a little opening hoping to see him cross.  After about five min of waiting Tanner decided he was going to continue up the road and see if he got in front of us.  I waited about another five min and figured that he must have gotten by.  So I started my way father up the road.  About ¼ of a mile up the road I spotted Tanners pack sitting in the middle of the road.  Which meant only one thing ,  That he took off running up the road.  So I did the same thing running into him about  200 yard up the road.  He told me that the bull went in a thicket of trees that was right below us.  So he decided that he was going to sneak down a trail and see if he could catch him crossing.  I decided that I would sit on the other side of the thicket and do some cow calling trying to get him to come out.  I hadn’t left Tanner more than a min and only got one soft cow call out and I could see the tips of his horns coming up the hill side.  Trying to stay calm I reached for my range finder and tried to get an range on him.  The first time I ranged him he was at 33 yard and I was shooting at a fairly steep downhill angel.  I drew back my bow and cow called to stop him.  He stopped in a perfect opening and I put my thirty yard pin right behind his shoulder and let her go.  I heard it hit but wasn’t sure exactly where it hit. He spun around really quick and ran down the hill about ten yards stopped and looked back to see what had happened.  By that time I had another arrow knocked and put another good shot  in him.  He turned and ran down the hill the same time I turned just in time to see Tanner coming up the trail looking at me like what the hell happened.  All I could do was put both hands above my head and say I smoked him.  After about half and hour  of waiting and a really good blood trial we found hill piled up in a small group of trees.  It was a moment that I will never forget.  And I hope that this fall is just as fun.

My Buddy Casey Scott and I decided this past winter that we were going to float the river next to our hometown of Missoula, in the early days of January just creeping up on the last days of the season. I was in town from Helena for a few days and thought that it sounded fun. I might want to mention that we were floating the river in a canoe.  Luckily Casey and I have taken this float many times and felt confident that we wouldn’t roll.

After we heard from everyone and there dog “You’re gonna kill yourselves” we made plans to meet up the next morning.
I pulled up to Casey’s house around 5:30am. The temp was -5 degrees. Yeah it was cold but we decided that there were ducks to be killed.  So we dropped off the shuttle truck downstream and headed up to our put in area, and in no time we were on the river. We pulled over at a few back sloughs to jump some quackery. Casey got a double. A Pintail Drake and a Bufflehead.  I got a few Mallards. A few high fives and we were back in the Canoe.

About half way down the river we noticed something we didn’t like much……as far as we could see the entire river was frozen over.  We were able to paddle through it for a while but the further we got the thicker the ice got.  Eventually we had to get out and drag the Canoe through a farmer’s field. Long story short, I had to hitch-hike back to our takeout area and come pick Casey and the Canoe up. It was a fun day just too damn cold.

Jeff Thomas