Blog Entries tagged 'swarovski'

Matt-DIY Antelope

matthewblog@bowcast.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:00:00 +0100

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DIY Montana Antelope

Montana is a HUGE state and it can be incredibly boring to drive across if you don't have something to think about.� This year I made the drive with antelope on the brain!�

After successfully drawing one of the 560 non-resident archery only tags, I was excited for the season and opportunity to chase some speed goats with my bow.� The tag in my pocket was valid for any hunting region 3 through 7.� I had one bonus point and used it to draw a 9000-00 series tag which allowed me to hunt from August 15th to November 9th.�

The deadline for the antelope drawing is by June 2 and so one hour before the deadline I was submitting my request online.� There are other hunt series that allow archery and rifle but the archery portion for these tags is September 6th to October 11th. Check out the Montana FWP website for all the seasons and changes to the archery seasons as they changed this year, http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/default.html.� I am also on their mailing list to receive the hunting regulations every year which are great to have in hand when you are in the field.

I determined where to go by using the Montana FWP website and Eastmans' Bowhunting Journal (EBJ) to narrow down which region I was going to hunt in.� After looking at a map of the antelope distribution and reading the May/June 2008 EBJ issue, I determined a region that would be the target where I would direct my car come August 14th.� The archery success rates for this region looked good to me and would hopefully be worth the drive.� Now I just needed to know which dirt road I was going to drive down and where I was going to hunt.

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The Montana FWP website has a great Hunt Planner portion to their website, and you can get great statistical information on success rates for drawing your tag and harvest information.� I used this website, EBJ and advice from a friend who lives in Montana to select my hunting district.� I looked on Google Earth until my eyes were blood shot and found a few places that had potential and were on public land.� There was also going to be a few areas that I could hunt on private land with the help of landowners through Montana's Block Management program.� My hat off to the landowners who allow hunters access to the land they own without paying a fee.�

I started the drive on the 14th of August and made a quick stop to pick up the 2008 Hunting Access Guide hot of the press.� This is the Block Management guide for Montana and has maps and access information on where to hunt on private land with the permission of the landowners.� It is a great partnership between hunters and landowners and one that I will be using more in my future hunts.�

I hunted mainly on BLM land open to the public and didn't see but two old farmers who must have thought I was crazy driving my 2000 Mercury Sable down the old dirt roads chasing antelope with a bow.� I also hunted on some Block Management areas.

For me I had to keep the cost of this trip as low as possible so my plan was to hunt on public land or block management areas so I didn't have to pay a trespassing fee.� Another item I did without was a Montana decoy.� I also don't like sitting still for very long and decided to use the spot and stalk method, which was a good choice as there were lots of waterholes all full due to the wet spring and summer.

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On the first day of the hunt I had 2 stalks that put me within 60-70 yards of a buck.� One buck I hunted was by himself and was a mature P&Y buck with lots of mass.� After making a stalk to within 200 yards I waited 4 hours as we both took naps.� He finally got up and walked over a ridge and I ran up the draw and guessed that he was going to the right on the other side.� As I was crawling over the ridge I spotted him 100 yards away but to my left.� I dropped back down the ridge and ran a few hundred yards to get in front of him.� As I crawled back over the ridge I had positioned myself in front but he spotted me after a few minutes.

Antelope have 20 power eyesight and this big buck was using all of it.� He ran off and I didn't find him until the next morning when I again spooked him out of a draw.� This time I followed him and after a mile or so he came to a fence.� Antelope don't like jumping fences like whitetail do.� They will but as a last resort.� I was on a ridge that ran perpendicular to the fence line and I positioned myself on the ridge 60 yards from the fence.� As the buck made his way down to my position the wind really started to pick up.

The buck would walk 10 feet and stop and look across the fence into the valley below.� Finally he made it to within 75 yards and stopped looking away from me.� I should have drawn at this point but didn't.� I let him advance another 10 yards at which time he stopped and instead of looking out into the valley looked right at me in the tall CRP grass.� I drew my bow and he bolted and then stopped at what I estimated was 70 yards.� My pin was just settling for the shot when he bolted again this time to safety across the fence.�

I was so disappointed!!� This buck was huge and it had been the perfect funnel to drive him to my position.� I learned a lot from this opportunity and really should have filled my tag but that is hunting.� Although I saw plenty of antelope, I didn't have that type of opportunity the rest of the hunt.� It was a long drive home to say the least and I still have that antelope burned in my brain.

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Here are a few items that I learned on this DIY hunt that I wanted to pass along.�

-Purchase an antelope Montana Decoy.� I have used one before and think it would have worked great a few times on this hunt as the topography doesn't always give you a nice deep draw to make your stalk.� The use of a decoy could have given me a few more seconds at times to draw and aim.

-Take a good spotting scope and tripod.� I was using a Swarovski spotting scope on a $15 tripod, not a good combination when the wind is blowing.� A spotting scope is a must and this glass is the best I have used.� It saved me many hours hiking towards does but when you don't have a tripod with a good head it can get old fast as you try to adjust and then re-adjust on your target.�

-Try to find a taxidermist in the area that you could call and ask about weather conditions and winter survival.� Then make it a point to stop by and meet them so you can start to build a relationship.� If I would have called ahead and talked to one I would have found out that every water hole was full due to the wet summer.� This could have been useful information if I was planning on setting up a blind on a water hole.

-Buy some knee pads and gloves that cactus won't go through as you will be crawling through it if you are using the�spot and stalk method.�

-Mentally I dropped out of this hunt after missing the second opportunity at the big buck.� Be prepared to have stalks that fail.� I think I had the mindset that I was only going to get one good stalk and after I wasn't successful I was in the dumps.� Realize that you will have multiple stalk opportunities each day if you are in a good area and work hard.

-Practice shooting in the wind.� Montana and Wyoming are two very windy states and if you are hunting antelope you better be prepared to shoot in the wind.� I practiced shooting in the wind many times this summer and learning to hold your bow somewhat steady is a challenge that you don't want to learn when you have that chance on your perfect stalk.

-Listen to the antelope trilogy series again on BowCast!!!

If anyone has any questions on this hunt or wants me to expand in any area, please let me know and I will do a follow up blog entry.� As for the season... I never made it back over to Montana but will be putting in for the drawing next year.

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My Introduction Blog Entry - Dave

daveedge@bowcast.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:00:00 +0100

Hello Everybody in Bowcast land. How about a little about myself. I am 16 yrs old I live in sw Colorado. I will be a junior in high school this year. I don’t have to go very far to go bow hunting just out my back door for mule deer. We have some good bucks in our area. I have been hunting for 5 years and I started bowhunting in 2006.I have killed a bull elk with my bow so far. The reasons why I wanted to write for bowcast is to help young archers and give people a different point of view. I have a lot to learn in the years to come. My personal favorite species to hunt is the mule deer because it is a blast trying to out smart the gray ghost. My plans for the future are to keep writing for bowcast and I would like to guide the eastern plains of colorado for the huge mule deer and whitetail that roam the plains.
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Dave [...]

It's the digi digi doc y'all

aroney@bowcast.com — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:26:53 +0100

...pumpin it fresh y'all...D.O.C. on the mic gettin fresh y'all.

I'd love to see a comment on anyone who can give me name, title, and year of these lyrics. Think old school west coast.....

On to the topic of this post. I have noticed a few questions on [[digiscoping]] on the BowCast forums, and in all honesty, I have never had the opportunity (or the equipment) to complete a digiscoping setup. So therefore, I was not qualified to answer, although there was some good insight included on those posts.

But that is all going to change soon as I have been talking to some of the hard core digiscopers, and it is definitely something I want do this year. I totally get stoked thinking about having both a [[spotting scope]] AND a camera together as one unified scouting tool this summer. I think of all those "spots" I have seen across the horizon or across the ridge, that give me a momentary picture through my spotting scope. I am looking to capture some of those "spots" permanantly - through digital technology.

My first inquiry about digiscoping as a scouting tool was to Shawn "Launch" Monsen from FMP. Shawn indicated (as a true tech geek would) that [[digiscoping]] was one of the coolest things he got into (as far as scouting goes) several years ago. And what better way to peak my interest by Shawn providing some pics to get me going. Below are a few of these images that Shawn captured through his Swaro 65 mm scope and Sony camera with Swaro adapter:

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As a good computer geek, I started a google search on digiscoping, and have included some of the better resources I turned up. If you are interested in digiscoping at all, these links are a great place to start:

Digiscoped - although focused on the Audubon flavor, there is some great content on the what and how:

http://www.digiscoped.com/

I then moved on to some of the major optics manufacturers. They had some cool info as well.

Nikon - Nikon has both "An Introduction to Digiscoping" and "An Introducttion to Digiscoping Vol 2". Great stuff:

Nikon Digiscoping - Vol 1

http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/how_to/digisco/

Nikon Digiscoping - Vol 2

http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/how_to/digisco2/index.htm

Swarovski had a basic description of what digiscoping is and why it's "cool":

Swarovski Digiscoping

http://digiscoping.swarovskioptik.com/content.php?&l=en&nID=x44d9e12f1d6521.30275931&nID=x44c4c854958678.07887545

While I didn't gain a ton of insight from Leica's sight (but some really cool example pictures), I was pretty amazed to find a term called "Phone Scoping". I didn't know you could actually use your camera enabled mobile phone to digiscope....check out Leica's sight to find out how:

Leica Digiscoping

http://us.leica-camera.com/nature_observation/digiscoping/

I am curious if anyone else in the BowCast community has resources to share. If you do just post a comment to this post. I'd also be interested if this blog entry peaked anyone else's interest in [[digiscoping]]. More soon....

Aneal

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