Wide Montana Skies

[Bruce Day]

This post is only about shotguns, generally Parkers, about bird hunting, dogs, travel, interesting sights and buddies.

While it may be disappointing to some, there is nothing here about blown barrels, chamber length, yard sale stuff, how much somebody can get for a gun, having the Grecos restore a gun, complaints about Cabelas, just not much here of the normal interest.

So, if you are still with me, here goes:

Charlie and I drove out to central Montana and there met Mike Shepard from Amarillo and DicK Dow from SoCal. Dick had with him his grandson Patrick and a buddy Tony Florentino. The game was sharptail grouse, Hungarian partridge, pheasants and sage grouse. We did well on sharptails and partridge and only one sage grouse. Sage grouse are almost an endangered species and we were after several to mount. CH and I were after a couple big male sage grouse as they are about the size of a lesser Canada goose. It was too late for the sage grouse to hold anywhere in range , we found flocks of 10 or more birds, but thundering out of range. Next year we will be there on the opener.

Lots of Huns, a great gamebird. And good numbers of sharptails. Sharpies are a native bird, and home in the Judith Basin to flocks which once moved around the buffalo herds when Charlie Russell came to this country. They and the buffalo survive in deep cold and snow.

So, we stopped to see the white prairie dogs , stopped for the singing cowboys ( since 1955) at Wall Drug, past Sturgis where we decided against getting piercings or tatoos, and on to lunch at the Jersey Lilly in Ingomar. The Jersey Lilly , Lilly Langtry, was the desire of Judge Roy Bean, and several saloons were named in her honor, or perhaps admiration . Somehow Ingomar was bypassed in getting the latest Rebuild America funds and the streets are still dirt. A cultural event was underway involving looking at a few range horses buck under saddle.

So on to destination and our little cabin by the creek, complete with pheasants cackling in the brush and the coyote chorus at night accentuated by magpies.

People are always curious about guns, so here goes. Charlie had a couple VHE 12's, I shot a PHE 16 and a GHE damascus 12, Dick and Patrick a DHE 12 , a V 20, and a C grade Fox 20. Tony had a 28ga over under and Mike had a couple V 16's, a V 12 and a 20ga English gun equivalent to a Parker and also starting with a P.

So , big bench country, deep coulees, and huge thousand acre wheat fields. Hunting along the Judith R. named by Capt Clark after his fiance'. By the Judith Mountains, east of the Little Belts, north of the Snowy Range and south of the Little Rockies. Snow on the mountains, balmy breezes. Sage brush flats and steep hills. Fat cattle, isolated ranches. There is a picture of a dirt road. That is not just any dirt road, that is the Montana optic highway. I don't know when the fiber part will come. There is another photo of a golden eagle circling above. Hundreds of thousands of acres to hunt. There is a Hutterite colony in a photo, a Hutterite fellow was most helpful to us giving us directions about where to find sage grouse.


We went to the local Pheasants Forever dinner and saw friends who connected us with local hunters. Dick stayed to fish and cought a 14" brown on the stream flowing through town on his third cast. Mike is staying for two more weeks. We were up there for a week, every day in the field.

Dogs: CH and my Lewellin setters, Mike had five French Brittanys, Dick had a small Gordon setter.

Wine, great food, bourbon and ditch, slabs of cow. We'll be back.

[Dean Romig]

Thanks for the great pics Bruce.

[chris dawe]

Loved it ,thank-you!

[Bruce Day]

ttt

[Paul P.]

Good friends, good times, great guns and great pictures. Who could ask for anything more. Thanks for the pics.

[Bruce Day]

Our cabin on a bend on the creek.

[Bruce Day]

And a few pictures from Charlie.

[ch]

Thanks Bruce What fun. Like Charlie's picture of the ol elevator I know where there is on still used. Funny all thoes woodan elevatore are just alike.

[David Weber]

Really enjoyed the pics and narrative. Next year?

[C.O.B.]

Nice pics Bruce thanks for sharing them. Would you mind sharing how you came about the cabin? A western bird hunt is on my to do list. I have shot Sharptails in Manitoba and they were so tough and tasted horrible even the dog wouldn't eat one, Huns are a great gamebird however.