Montana hunt
 

I'm in northern Montana hunting out of Havre, my favorite spot in the state. Tried a spot yesterday where I've done well on pheasants and only saw huns and sharpies, but managed a following double on these two, my first of any kind shooting left handed. Shot them with a 26" 1-1/2 frame VH12 using the proper vintage Peters and Federal papers that smell nice but burn about as dirty as black powder.

great picture to go along with great shooting. Have fun. Enjoyed my hunt up there and have been thinking that the Montana trip needs to become a yearly adventure. Much like going to church on Sunday, a Montana bird hunt just does a body good.

Montana
 

I'll be in Lewistown area the second week of November!!!!!

I got back to the area where I always hunt when here today and had multiple shots each at pheasants, huns, and sharpies. Only managed one sharpie in the bag but it wasn't because the opportunities for more weren't there, though most of the 16 shots I took today were pretty long. It's a gorgeous place to hunt. Sloping land with wheat fields transected by brushy washes - what can be better than that? I've got pans of looking both down onto the lower lands and up towards the higher areas. The clump of trees on the dam in the second pan can be seen about dead center in the first picture. The pond behind that little dam was full of mallards. You just chase birds up and down those drainages all day. I came up one and kicked a couple of single sharpies out and when I got to where the drainage headed out at a wheat field the adjacent hilltop erupted in a cloud of sharptails... not sure how many but it was about "an acre" of sharpies. I got off four shots as they took off away from me into the wind then turned downwind and sailed past me at horrendous speed in the 25mph wind that was blowing. Good thing I got a bird on the first shot! Of course, just to keep Bruce happy, I hit it with only one pellet and that was in the head; not a single other hole in the bird when I filleted it out. That was intentional, of course..... I waited until he turned his head a bit to look at me before taking the shot...

May I ask why you're shooting left-handed?





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Not near as many birds obvious today as yesterday but it wasn't bad. A few sharpie and hun groups, one of huns that flew right by me as I was fileting this monster on the tailgate. This is the biggest sharpie I have ever seen; it's as big as a frying chicken and my only bird today. For this area the huns and sharpie populations are healthy but the pheasants are way down. I found yesterdays sharpie cloud in the same place as yesterday and one hun group was at least 20 but flushed at least 100yds out. Those bad boys sit on a rise all day and flush way early. I can't imagine how you'd hunt them around here with dogs. The sharpies are the same really; I walked the perimeter of a wheat field, a bit outside the fence in the pasture ground and kicked up 3 groups. They feed in the wheat stubble then spend the day adjacent to the field on a rise that gives them a good view. Smart little devils. This one just made the mistake of flying by me instead of straight away with the rest of the group. Have added a picture of an idyllic valley to wander and hunt.

best of luck. know two days are alike.

Enjoy your trip :) your photos of the prairies look like snapshots of heaven on earth to this east-coaster.

The pictures of the prairie are wonderful. People of south do not understand the vastness of the land or how wonderful it is.

You're spot on with that..my family/friends whom have never taken the time to explore the west do not seem to understand or appreciate our deep affinity.