Montana 2020

[hobbes]

I'll add to this as the rest of the season progresses. I've went ahead and included most things from spring 2020 up until now.

Montana 2020

Besides all the other craziness of 2020, hunting season has been about normal for me this year. I started the 2020 season off on turkeys in Montana in April. I finished that off in the SD Blackhills in May.

Details can be seen here:. https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/2020-montana-and-south-dakota.172466/

I bought a used 2012 Tundra to use in place of my 2006 Tacoma that my youngest son is now driving. I feel sorry for the Tacoma.

Elk rubs always pop out at me while hunting turkeys.

Deadheads are always interesting but this one was a little too old and chewed on for me to carry it out:

My favorite photo from turkey season of my Blackhills bird:

 

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We did a couple hiking days in the summer but nothing too crazy.

Due to daycare issues, I spent a lot of time with my granddaughter this year and worked remotely from home a lot.

I also had a cria born later in the year than I’d have liked, but he’s been doing good. His name is Marco. Hopefully Marco and Pedro will be solid pack llamas in the future. Hopefully I don't give up elk hunting before that
Marco the day he was born.

He loves his momma.

I had removed my previous shed because of wind damage and because they wouldn’t use it. I decided to try again and put up a small metal shed for him to have protection from the winter. They’ve started using it.

 

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I look forward to archery elk all year, but I was really looking forward to getting out of the house after this summer and getting into the mountains more. I decided to use a base camp this year instead of packing in.

For the most part, the elk have kicked my ass in archery season. It’s actually to the point of being both discouraging and embarrassing. I got on a few bulls and thought one or two of them was going to commit, but I had nowhere near the encounters that I feel like I should have had and heard nowhere near the bugles that I think I should have heard. I still got some nice photos of my days in the mountains.

Opening weekend with my oldest son:

Granddaughter around camp:

 

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Second week vacation was filled with heat and smoke and the occasional bugle and close encounter:

 

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The following weekend was much cooler weather, but I still struggled to get on many elk. My wife stayed in camp with me again.

 

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I did a few day hunts too.

 

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Antelope and Pheasant

While archery season is still in, I probably won’t make it back out for elk again until rifle and even then it won’t be a lot. I did however do a 4 ½ day combo hunt for pheasant and antelope. My wife and my griffon traveled with me for this hunt.

Last year’s antelope/pheasant combo:
https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/pheasants-and-antelope.146344/

Finn:

 

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Roosters:

 

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I spent one evening then a little more than half the next day trying to catch up to an antelope. The rain and hail ran me back to the truck on the second day but I sat around in the truck then took off again about an hour and a half before dark. While hiking back to the truck I had an opportunity to shoot a little buck just before dark. He was only 7 tenths of a mile from the truck in relatively flat ground and I’d already decided to not be picky. Yes, I had to clean milk off of his mouth for the photos.

With editing:

Without:

 

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I still have quite a bit more hunting to do this year, unless something out of my control happens.

I'll hunt the opening weekend of the general elk season with my youngest son. I'd like to go stay at some friends' wall tent elk camp because I love the camp, but my son wants to try to find a bull. The wall tent camp is set up in a spike only unit.

Between now and general elk, I'll likely get out at least once with one of the other two bird dogs and look for local birds. I'll do that mostly so they can have some time afield.

In November I'll elk hunt with a rifle as often as I can, but my main hunt for that month will be a combo mule deer rut/pheasant hunt. I've done this hunt the last four years. I left the bird dog home one of the years because I took a buddy along to look for his first mule deer. My oldest son will likely be going with me this year. I think I'll just update this thread as a semi-live hunt instead of doing a stand alone mule deer thread this year.

Last year’s mule deer rut/pheasant combo
https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/2019-mule-deer-semi-live-rut-hunt.148550/

I'll take my youngest son out locally to look for a mule deer also.

Between then and the end of the year, I'll do at least one more multi-day pheasant hunt and I'll look to fill a cow tag that runs until January if I've not already filled the tag.

 

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This is our tenth fall and winter in Montana, so the weather about to show up here shouldn't be a surprise. Some folks would say winter is showing up but it's really just fall in MT. I thought I'd get out to run at least one dog this weekend, but it's looking like a good weekend to work on household chores.

 

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I've cleaned up some of the pheasants for cooking this weekend.

Breasts


Legs & Thighs


I'm going to give this recipe that I found online a try this weekend. It looks like a stew kind of weekend.

Pheasant Leg Stew - The Sporting Chef

Don’t throw away those pheasant legs and thighs! Try braising them. It is the same process as using your slow cooker. This is a great way to turn pheasant legs and thighs into tender vittles. Best of all, braising can be done in advance as in mass quantities. Save the legs and carcass in the…

sportingchef.com

I'll probably go with pheasant parmesan for most of the breast along with pasta and cheese sauce. The rest will probably be a copy of Panera Bread's chicken and wild rice soup.

I'll be grinding antelope meat and cutting steaks from the loins this weekend also. I may have to cast iron a steak or two.

 

[Michael54]

Favorite pheasant recipe? Our season starts next week

 

[hobbes]

Favorite pheasant recipe? Our season starts next week

I've not tried a lot of different recipes. I like the pheasant parmesan and pheasant with wild rice soup that I mentioned (edited) above. I prefer to remove the tendon from the breast because it's tough.

 

[Michael54]

I've not tried a lot of different recipes. I like the pheasant parmesan and pheasant with wild rice soup that I mentioned (edited) above. I prefer to remove the tendon from the breast because it's tough.

We do the cajetory with marinara over rice.

Smoked ill soak the whole breast in an orange juice and soy sauce mix overnight and then wrap em in bacon. Smoke to 165° temp and pull em and cover with foil.

I find the meat dries out way quicker than chicken so i've been hesitant to just replace chicken with pheasant in a recipe unless it includes broth or a sauce of some sort.

 

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A couple inches so far at home.

 

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Working on the pheasant leg stew.

Browned legs and thighs for braising.


Carrots, celery, onions, garlic


After one hour in the oven: Three hours of this should make it fall off the bone.

 

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Meat is picked from bones except for a few that need more time. Bones are back in pot to continue making broth.