Montana Safari
We were bouncing along in an early 80’s model blue and white F-150 long bed pickup truck over an old cattle track across a prairie near Winnett, Montana. Winnett is located in Petroleum County situated slightly east of center of the state and has a population of 182. Larry Pendleton, our guide, reached into the pocket of his blue flannel shirt and pulled out a tin of Prince Albert tobacco and a pack of rolling papers. As he tried to steer the with the wheel pressed between his forearms, he rolled a cigarette, carefully pouring in the tobacco then licking the paper and rolling between his thumbs and fore fingers. We were headed for some rimrock from where we could glass a canyon and look for Pronghorn. Larry finished rolling his cigarette and now it was lit and hanging from the corner of his mouth. We looked up ahead and a covey of Grouse sailed off ahead and lighted in the tall grass right off the trail. Larry took the cigarette from his mouth, turned and looked at us and said, “You guys want to shoot some sharpies?” This is the way it goes hunting in Montana with Larry and the reason I refer to this as my Montana Safari. As we pursue larger game like White tail, Mule Deer or Pronghorn we get the chance for all kinds of opportunistic hunting of foul and varmints of all kinds. We had a couple of old 870 pumps hanging in the back-window gun rack of the F-150 and a yellow and a black Lab sitting in the bed of the truck. Larry stopped the truck and we rolled out grabbing the 870’s and walked up the covey and rolled a couple of grouse. The Labs went on the retrieve, we threw our prize in the back of the truck and went back to our pursuit of Pronghorn. On this particular hunt I would describe it as an upland bird bonanza. We had multiple opportunities to shoot Hungarian partridge, sharptailed grouse, sage hens and pheasants. We were able to complete the upland bird grand slam in between antelope stalks.
In addition to the bird hunting we had opportunities to shoot quite a few cotton tails that often ran across out of the end of irrigation pipes, zigzagging across the fields. We would shoot the rabbits and Larry would make us “shuck” them where we shot them, so we would not bring fleas into camp. Larry kept a fry daddy at camp and in the evenings, we would fry bird and rabbit backstrap and cut up a potato to make home fries and have a feast sitting by the campfire under the cottonwood trees situated in the bend of a big creek on the ranch.
The other activity I learned to greatly enjoy on my Montana Safaris is varmint hunting. In addition to the occasional opportunistic shots at coyotes we were able to practice our long range shooting at the prairie dog town. We would set up on rise over the dog town and take 400 and 500 yard shots with the heavy .223 with a bull barrel and tripod.
On the third day of this trip I was able to connect with a nice pronghorn buck. We spotted a herd from a few miles away glassing from the rimrock. Larry said “there are few shooters” in the group so we planned our approach. We started out on foot working out of site below the edge of the rimrock to where we anticipated they would be, being careful to stay downwind of the heard. When we were below the hill that we judged they would be on the other side I low crawled through the sagebrush and cactus and saw them at about 400 yards in the valley below. I opened the bipod legs on my rifle, peered though the scope and looked for the best buck. Larry crawled up beside me with his glasses and helped me spot. I found a nice buck, placed the cross-hairs behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. At the report of the rifle the antelope scattered. The one I had aimed at dropped in his tracks and Larry patted me on the back and shook my hand.
This is the reason I always enjoy hunting out in Montana with my friend Larry. We go out to Montana with big game hunting as the goal, however the opportunities for wing shooting and varmint shooting, make the trip special and perhaps the nights out under the cottonwood trees around the camp fire, drinking bourbon and listening to Larry tell stories of hunting in the Bob Marshall wilderness as he breaks out his Prince Albert Can and rolling papers is the best part of all.
