September 14 - Day 1
Montana Archery Antelope Hunt
| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place on private land in central Montana, in the Missouri River Breaks Country. I'm hunting with my friend Dwane Kiehl, who owns and operates Flatwillow Creek Outfitters, has several hundred thousand acres of good Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer and Antelope habitat. The Kiehl's lodge, where we'll be staying, is located near Winnett, Montana. Dwane has been using decoys for antelope a long time, and that's what we're going to try and do on this hunt. I've hunted antelope with my bow, but I've never had a decoy work, so I'm eager to see it in action. This is my first hunt in Montana, and hunting in new country is always fun.  Friday A.M.  A decent buck has us pegged This morning's hunt didn't start out very well. We were hunting some higher elevation, mountain foothills, and with a rain storm having moved through yesterday, the whole area was set under a heavy fog. After an hour or so the fog started to lift enough that we could see a few hundred yards, and we saw our first antelope, a decent buck walking alone through the fog. Our goal this morning is to find a group of does with one buck and try to set up a good decoying situation.  As the morning wore on, we covered some ground on foot, some in vehicle, and saw antelope literally less than every 5 minutes. This property was literally covered up with antelope. We saw several buck bachelor groups, which wasn't a good sign for decoying, as it seemed to indicate they were not yet in full rut. About mid-morning we found a group of does with one very big dominant buck who was busy chasing off satellite bucks, so we figured he was sufficiently riled up to try and decoy him.  A couple of satellite bucks  Dwane tries to entice a nice buck to come to us  These boys were nowhere near any does Unfortunately, because of the antelope that were pretty much everywhere around us, and the terrain being somewhat flat just there, it was pretty tough to get within the 100 or so yards we wanted before showing the decoy. With some creative route planning, though, we managed to close the distance. Right when we were within about 10-15 yards of getting to a good spot to show the decoy, the fog that had let up socked in heavy again, and we lost the buck and his doe group in the fog. Oh well, nothing attempted, nothing gained. Throughout the morning we continued to see antelope, but the bucks weren't acting real possessive and territorial yet, at least that was what it appeared like through our binoculars. We tried to decoy 3 other good bucks this morning, but they simply weren't yet interested in fighting. We had one buck that thought about coming, but then thought better of it and didn't. Then we had another buck and his does that came to about 45 yards out of curiosity, but that was a little further than I cared to shoot, so we just watched them. In early afternoon, the fog started setting in pretty heavily again, so we decided to hit another ranch about 30 miles away in some different type of country, in more "traditional" antelope country. In all this morning we probably saw over 30 bucks, including some real whoppers. Friday P.M.  The greasewood flat where we first spotted my buck This afternoon we hit another area about 30 miles away from our morning hunting area, and we immediately got excited about what we saw. We spotted 3 different groups of antelope, and each one had lots of does and only one buck. For whatever reason, it seemed that the antelope here were further into the rut. We determined to go after the biggest group, because it had the biggest buck and the group was the most approachable because of the terrain. We were getting ready to get out of the vehicle and get after them when the wind switched and made it impossible to use the only good approach route to those animals. So, we went to plan B and decided to go after a good sized group we saw feeding among some thick brush adjacent to a greasewood flat. The wind was perfect and since they were close to cover, that would allow us to get closer to them much quicker than crawling through completely open country.  My buck's lady friends When we were still about 150 yards from the group, we saw the buck take off by himself running at a full gallop. He proceeded to run full speed, by himself, up and over the nearest hill. We were scratching our heads at that, but since the does were still there feeding contentedly, we figured the buck would come back. We snuck to within about 75 yards of the does and just waited for the buck to come back. After about 10 minutes, sure enough, here he came trotting back over and slowly but steadily worked his way back towards his does. When he had almost reached his does, Dwane popped up the decoy - at this point the buck was probably a little more than 60 yards away. Immediately after he put up the decoy, he turned back to me and motioned to get ready to draw, because the buck was coming. He motioned to sit up and look for myself so I could see. I got up on my knees, arrow knocked, peered through the top of the big bush we were behind, and sure enough he was coming at a fast trot. Instead of coming straight at the decoy, though, he was coming at a slight angle to pass beside it. As soon as I saw him cross about the 30 yard mark, I drew. Instead of stopping beside the decoy, though, he kept trotting past. At this point I had to swing with him since I was drawn. Dwane, seeing what needed to happen, obligingly ducked out of the way so I could get past him with my swing. The buck was getting dangerously close to getting behind some cover, when he slowed down, stopped, and looked almost in our direction, acting slightly confused. Right at that moment my auto-pilot took over, I placed my 20 yard pin low on the chest and let fly. The buck was quartering very slightly towards us, and the arrow took him just in front of the left leg, angling back. We saw and heard the solid hit, and could easily see blood pouring out of the exit wound. The buck ran a half circle of about 40 yards, stopped, started to wobble, and then went down. He half got up twice, but went down each time and the last time was for good. Talk about exciting! His does were staring in his direction, having no idea what had just happened.  My buck going down after the shot  A very happy hunter!  We paced the shot off at 24 yards. Shot placement, as shown by field dressing, was a perfectly-centered heart shot. I couldn't have been happier with that. The blood trail was one of the best I've ever seen. Everything went perfectly, and to top things off, he is a really nice buck, the best I've taken, and my first antelope with a bow. Hunt Conclusion As far as I'm concerned, this is the way antelope are meant to be hunted with a bow, when the time is right. Decoying is very exciting, to say the least. It really gets your heart pumping. Dwane Kiehl has been decoying antelope for himself and clients for more than 10 years. He has got literally bunches of antelope on his properties, and lots of bucks. This was supposed to be a 4-day Live Hunt, but I hope you don't mind it's only going to be 1 day! Thanks to Dwane for that. This was an awesome hunt. If you're looking for a truly exciting and challenging bowhunt, with a chance to take one of the most unique game animals in North America, this is it. Antelope are a beautiful animal, and in my opinion are great on the table.  Check back next week for another Archery Antelope Live Hunt, but this one will take place in Wyoming. See you then!
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