so i just got back recently from my hunt in Montana. this is the story I have written for it so far, i have some adjustments to make before its finished but here is the story line along with a couple pictures. thanks for checking it out- Ryan
September 12th of 2008, My father, Don and I boarded a plane destined for Billings, Montana via a short layover in Denver. We left our 90 degree humid weather of Florida and landed in beautiful low 70 degree weather of Billings. This trip had been planned for a year and preparations were made with our family, that lives there, to get time off of work to hunt together for a week during early archery season. The Gill family doesn’t get to hunt together as much as we used to so when we have the opportunity, we wont turn it down.
For those who don’t know how our family is constructed , my father Don, or Donnie as the family calls him, and his brother Tommy are the oldest of the Gill bunch. Tommy’s kids are Danny and David who have families themselves and also live in MT. Another family member has joined us as well from our home state of Pennsylvania , Seth Walk. He is a cousin that is relatively difficult to explain the relation so I will spare you the effort..
To start off the week we had a practice session in David’s front yard. I was shooting a 75# American hornbeam self bow I had made in the spring and shooting self made, river cane arrows with wrapped turkey fletchings and a combination of stone points I knapped and some others with steel broad heads I cut out of a saw blade. My goal was to harvest a deer with stone points as it has been a quest of mine for several years and though I have hit some, I have never recovered my quarry. Sad to say, but true. This was my last effort to take a deer with my self bow and stone points before I deemed it unethical\ unreliable compare to steel broad heads. Donnie was shooting a 50# Bear recurve and cedar arrows with Wensil Woodsman broadheads. We were the only tradition hunters out of the bunch. The rest hunted with compound bows so we were considered at somewhat of a disadvantage, but not looked down upon.
I shoot year round and have become relatively accomplished with my self bows so I was comfortable shooting longer distances with my equipment. Sometimes as far as 45 yards, although I consider that out of my ethical deer hunting range, I feel I can make good long shots on deer unaware of my presence and strike with good accuracy.
The first morning I hunted a tree stand along a steep, rocky bank that mule deer used to travel around the side of the hill. It was rainy and about 35 degrees at day break and not much was moving, but being motivated we toughed it out for a few hours before returning to the house for a cup of coffee and some eggs. later on I took a slow walk\stalk down a brushy cooly. The idea was for me to “sneak and peak” through the bottom and try to get a shot, if I bumped any deer out hopefully they would cross by David and Donnie at the other side. It was kind of, a non aggressive drive during the heat of the day when the deer were easier to sneak in on. I saw a few deer but never got a good shot. I put a really nice stalk on a Quaken Aspen stump before realizing in fact that it was not a mule deer’s rump. When I got to the bottom, David had a mule deer doe cross by him, actually heading my direction, so we determined it was not one that I had bumped but just crossed by coincidence. The deer was walking swiftly and as David released, the doe stopped suddenly and instead of hitting the body, the arrow sailed into the doe’s neck and head union. She ran about 20 yards and collapsed. Although not the textbook shot or situation, it was hard to argue with success. After dressing and pictures we were finally able to go back for some soup and sandwiches.
The next morning I sat in the same stand. The thermometer at the house read 30 degrees that morning and the small pond and creek were iced over as we crossed to our stands. The weather seems drastic at times, cold in morning and warming up to 90 degrees by mid afternoon and back to cold in the evening, beautiful weather in my book. I had only been in that stand once before and of course I managed to get lost on my way into the stand. It took me close an hour to get my bearings and locate the stand, but by then it was plenty daylight. I thought all was lost but within a half hour I had movement behind me. A whitetail buck about 14-16 inch spread and 8 points came in with a doe and were eating chokecherries under my tree. I stood motionless for about 10 minutes while they worked their way out of the trees. The buck walked into 15 yards and offered me a fine shot and I connected with it well. Unfortunately, I was shooting a stone point and I experienced the same results as previous efforts. Despite good shot placement, and after a 2 1\2 hour wait, we trailed him for some 200 yards or more until what little blood we had ran out. It had appeared that he entered the creek bed so we searched it well with no luck. It had completely disappeared. We kept an eye our for magpies and ravens the rest of the week with no luck. This kind of experience doesn’t sit well with me at all. Not the disappointment of losing a nice buck, but the regret of shooting an animal with inferior equipment. After this and other experiences, I personally don’t find stone points ethical nor practical for modern hunting. I will admit that stone will kill, but not as reliably and ethically as steel and at this point have decided against using stone in the future. And hopefully my experience with it will help others in some way in avoiding losing deer, even well hit with a stone point.
That evening, Danny had a shot at a whitetail doe and was given no more than a neck shot, he felt comfortable with the shot and took it and the deer dropped instantly. Another deer for the meat rack! The two brothers had struck first. After dressing and loading the deer to hang, we all stood around the house and enjoyed his success.
The next morning, Seth sat in a stand known for nice whitetails. It was his first morning out hunting on that trip and a very respectable 9 points came in by his stand. He thought it worth taking, which later I agreed it was worth taking even on the first day. The buck stood facing directly away from him and would not offer a broadside shot and was on a trail that would not make the deer turn. The deer was close though, only about 10 ft. Being an accomplished hunter, he as well took a neck shot and dropped the buck instantly with a severed spinal cord, windpipe and artery all in one. While David and Seth dressed and caped the deer out for a head mount, I walked to the creek bottom for a little scouting.
At the base of the two main hills is the remains of a very old homestead. The well, and stone foundation are all that remains today, but during it’s use the owners had planted two rows of trees as a wind breaker ,or Shelter Belt as its called. I found a heavily used trail in the shelter belt that deer crossed nearly every night. I broke a few limbs out of the way and hunkered down in the waist high grass. The creek ran only feet away from me and made it hard to hear approaching deer, but I knew to get ready when I heard the deer jump the barbed wire fence and enter the shelter belt. If they walked down the trail I chose, I figured the grass would be too high to shoot so I would have to wait until they reached the 2 ft wide creek for a clean shot. Just as planned a doe jumped the fence and I readied when I heard her hooves hammer the dirt. The grass was higher than I expected and all I could see was here head coming through the grass. When she stepped into the creek I drew my steel tipped cane arrow but was again, only offered a neck shot. None of us are regarded as “neck shooters” we all usually wait until a good shot is offered, but in all of our cases, deer would have walked by if we would not have taken the shots given. We sustain ourselves on meat, not horns so when we have a chance to make meat, we do just that. That being said, I picked a spot on the neck and let it fly! My steel broad head buried deep into the spinal chord at a distance of 15 yards piling her up on the spot. For good measure and to ensure a quick kill, I gave a quick follow up shot through the body. I stood in excitement for about 10 minutes, enjoying my surroundings and giving thanks for the opportunity to be there. Though not a nice buck, any successful kill with primitive equipment is something to hold dear. I then took a walk to fetch my Father for a hand in picture taking and dragging. After dressing and pictures, we were on our way back to the house to enjoy a evening coffee and prepare for dinner and relive the evenings success. How 4 hunters shot 4 deer in the neck in 4 days, we may never know. All were success stories and clean, quick kills but still very much a coincidence that we all managed to get deer in the same fashion. With my kill, I had gained the respect of the other hunters in my primitive weapon’s abilities. After losing the buck earlier in the week, Tommy, David and Danny all offered me a spare compound bow hoping I would have better luck with it. Of course I declined and they respected that, but it felt good to prove myself and my self made equipment to them. I had seen my bows kill deer before, first hand, but this was their first time seeing it work.
The following day we took a day off of hunting and went trout fishing. I sported my fly rod and dry flies while Donnie, and Dan chose spinning rods with Mepps spinners and night crawlers. We all caught plenty of trout and it felt good knowing the pressure was off of me for getting a deer.
For the second to last day of our hunt, The family decided to push out “Brown Cooly”, which as a deep creek bottom thick with red brush and aspens. Since I was the youngest, most able, and already harvested a deer, I was chosen to be the “sneak and peaker” again. Like before this was to be a slow paced type of drive with more emphasis on stalking and still hunting not driving, but for the sake of taking advantage of a good situation, watchers were placed at the other end. Donnie and Danny were the watchers while I was the driver and Tommy remained at the top of the ridge to deter deer from running up and over.
During my stalk I had the creek to disguise my walk and I stumbled onto a coyote. It was sunning and grooming itself and I placed an arrow perfectly. Unfortunately, as coyotes are know for, it dodged the arrow at the last second and all I got was a wad of hair and a little blood from a graze. Just to be sure I trailed very little blood for 150 yards and confirmed he was not going to sustain any major injury. I continued the deer stalk. I jumped a few and they mostly circled behind me but as I got close to the end of the stalk, a doe trotted my way and I whistled for it to stop which it did perfectly, except for a 1 inch sapling between us that I didn’t see. As luck would have it, my arrow buried into the small tree and the doe ran off. I retrieved my arrow and continued along. As I reached Danny’s position he motioned to stand still. I noticed he was standing over a mule deer doe that he had shot, but pointing into the brush and showing me 2 fingers. As everyone converged, the two mule deer had to pick someone to come out to. One went by Donnie, but his arrow did not find its mark. The other came by me, walking perfectly broadside, it stopped and had its attention to Tommy, still on the hill. It was a longer shot but she wasn’t looking my way and I felt very confident. I drew my bow and send a cane arrow 35 yards straight through the lungs and she crashed off into the brush where she expired shortly after. That was the 6th deer we had taken in 6 days, Unheard of from us before even in gun season, let alone bow hunting. Pictures were soon to follow and soon enough we were loaded up, tagged out and back on gravel road before nightfall.
It was the ending to a perfect hunt with family in central Montana. We all had a great time and most of us got deer while some of us got doubles. Everyone was in high spirits as the week came to a close. After giving thanks for our success and family we spent the last day of our trip having a barbecue to relive the week and spend much needed time with great family. The next trip cannot come soon enough.
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