2020 in Montana

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Hobbes_mobile
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

I've recently worked on the euro mounts for our 2020 bucks.
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Hobbes_mobile
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

Still more work to do
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

I cooked up some whole antelope tenderloins a week or so ago. It had a little more color inside than the photo shows.
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Hobbes_mobile
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

I also picked up some early Christmas gifts. Merry Christmas to me. Tough time to start reloading since components are nearly impossible to find. The equipment isn't even easy to come by right now.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hoobilly »

I read on facenook where you can use some kind of ash that will help break down all the fat skin and muscle from skulls. Takes half the time in boiling them. Loins look good.

Powder has been so so for us. Primers on the other hand is almost impossible
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Hobbes_mobile
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

hoobilly wrote: December 17th, 2020, 7:06 am I read on facenook where you can use some kind of ash that will help break down all the fat skin and muscle from skulls. Takes half the time in boiling them. Loins look good.

Powder has been so so for us. Primers on the other hand is almost impossible

Soda Ash. I have a bag of it that was left here by previous owner for the pool, but I've used it more on skulls than the pool.

I found some Federal 215 primers but the shop would only let me buy one box if I bought a box of bullets. I should go back and buy more bullets and primers but they may already be gone. I bought 7mm bullets. I'd like to set up for .223 also, but it's pointless if I can't find primers.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by timbrhuntr »

Congrats on your Montana season I hope to be able to join you out there again next year !
How did the boiling turn out ? I never seem to have good luck with boiling especially the small nasal bones. I started to do my skulls with the maceration process a few years ago. Takes a while longer but the end result seems better for preserving the small nasal bones and easier cleaning and whitening after. Just don't do it indoors lol
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CamoMan4025
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by CamoMan4025 »

Looks great. I left my deer head in Montana and the outfitter was taking to a local taxidermist to do a euro mount for me. He apparently users some type of beetles???
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

Beetles are the way to go. There is a relatively local guy that has them, but I didn't want to pay.

The soda ash helps so that you don't have to boil too long, but it's not uncommon to need to epoxy the small bones and maybe some teeth back in place
I use a peroxide cream from a hair product store that an be brushed on then wrapped in plastic wrap.

Here are last year's (2019) deer and Antelope
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If you look closely the small bones on the deer had to be glued back in place. The Antelope turned out better than the deer.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by jsh909 »

Looks really good Hobbes.

We started burying ours a couple years ago. Takes awhile but works really well. They come out a bit yellow, so it takes some whitening, but it's free.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by CamoMan4025 »

Well, since I was clear across the country, I didn't have much of a choice but to pay. I believe they said it was going to cost me $85. I gave the outfitter $100 and said use the $15 for gas. I've had a couple done in VA by a guy who works with my stepson. He didn't charge me anything, but requested a bottle of bourbon. I spent like $45 of the brand he likes and we were both happy. I'm not sure of his method, but they came out bleach white and I was very happy!
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

Sunday 12/20
I didn't find any elk on Friday and my planned pheasant run on Saturday was cancelled.

I have been helping my son set a scope up on an AR. I'm not very familiar with ARs and prefer a bolt action myself. We shot some yesterday but the scope needs a rail riser and was uncomfortable even with the high rings.

Remember I said I'm not too familiar with an AR. I wasn't thinking and learned the hard way where not to stand. In case you ever wondered.....a shell casing spit out of an AR between your coat collar and neck will burn and peel skin when you grab it and yank it out of your collar.
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I did find a 1" rail riser today. I'd hoped for a 1/2" so may have to drop back to lower rings. I'm going to mount it soon and see. I also got lucky and found one last box of small rifle primers.
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Wednesday:
The scope on the AR ended up at a height that we both liked, so I dialed it back in today at lunch. This is 5 shots at 100 yards from a not so good rest on my tailgate. I bumped it up an inch and a half afterwards. I had to tape up a quick target because I didn't bring enough with me. It's hard to not rip through the ammo with an AR. :)
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I also worked on the European mounts this evening by scraping off most of the leftover bits of flesh and applying the peroxide creme with a brush then wrapping in plastic wrap. I'll remove wrap and wash off tomorrow.
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I cooked mule deer steaks this evening in the cast iron.
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I'm going to try to make a drive in the morning to glass for a cow elk at daylight. If I don't see anything, I'm going to try to convince myself to actually hike/hunt a loop that let's me look at country that I can't glass. I've burned through the antelope steaks and I'm more than halfway through the mule deer steaks. I've got plenty of deer burger left, but a cow elk would be great in the freezer. I wish I wasn't so lazy at this time of year.

My oldest son, Isaac, and I are heading out Saturday through Tuesday to hunt pheasants and coyotes. He's more interested in yotes and I'm more interested in roosters. We'll probably try pheasants early and coyotes mid day to evening. I've not done a lot of coyote calling, so we'll see how it goes.
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soiltester
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by soiltester »

Good luck on your drive this a.m. and I hope ya' find and add that elk meat to your freezer!! :cheers:
That meat will beat deer burger any day :lol:

Oh, and add a couple of pheasants for variety also :thumbup:
ever wonder where the white goes when the snow melts??
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hoobilly »

Man that looks like a titty twister on your neck!

Nice job on the skull.

Be blessed on the cow and of course roosters and kill all them yotes
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

I had a fairly short window to hunt this morning. I needed to find elk close to my glassing point. I found some elk but not within range of the time that I had allotted. They were more than 3.5 miles straight line from my glassing point and would have been a 3 mile hike with 1800 ft of climb. That's very doable just not in the window that I had. I'll go after them next week after our pheasant/coyote hunt. I'll be up there at daylight and not glassing from 3.5 miles.

I suspect these were three stragglers on the skyline and there were more in the timber. They fed left to right and down into the timber. Mine on the left and Isaac's on the right:
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The euros may need a little more peroxide creme, but they'll probably whiten more given a few days. They look whiter in the photo than what they are.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by gobblerchsr »

Nice job Hobbes! Congratulations and Thanks for sharing!


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Hobbes_mobile
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

We left out early this morning. I had lots of help staying awake:
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The help hadn't improved much by mid-morning
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We were able to hit a couple spots today. Isaac had shots at three roosters but ended up with only one. We did one coyote set up just before dark. We had a couple howling but they were a long way.
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We are going to start tomorrow with a couple coyote set ups followed by trying to shoot some roosters then back to the coyotes. I'm not terribly experienced with calling coyotes so we'll see how it goes.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

We woke to a dusting of snow this morning and started the day off trying to call in a coyote.
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We were successful no more (probably less) than 10 minutes into our third stand. A small (25 lb) female coyote appeared out of nowhere at 100 yards and stopped at around 90 yards. She stared for a 5 seconds or so while I tried to tell Isaac where it was. The coyote turned and started slowly bounding away about a second after he spotted it, but Isaac put her down about three bounds into her retreat at 96 yards. This is Isaac's first coyote and first one he's shot at with the new AR.

She stopped in the snow just in front of the cedar bush on the left side of the photo.
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I took the photo above and the photo of Isaac just a few minutes before the coyote showed up.
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We hung her up in a cottonwood and I skinned her.
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We tried for some pheasants not too far away in a spot that I had a lot of confidence in but there has been cattle in there and they'd destroyed the cover. We saw two roosters and a pile of sharptails but no shot opportunities.

Afterwards we got in three more set ups for coyotes without any response. We had a total of seven set ups for coyotes with one being successful. We'll hunt the same way tomorrow in some new areas.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by CamoMan4025 »

Looks like a lot of fun, sorry about your "staying awake" help!
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by guesswho »

She looked bigger than 25lbs until you took the fur off. Looks like fun, except for the snow part.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Swampstalk »

I did a nice South Florida swamp 8pt back a couple years ago. Boiled and then the peroxide crème treatment. Came out pretty good and was pleased with it.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

Swampstalk wrote: December 28th, 2020, 11:07 am I did a nice South Florida swamp 8pt back a couple years ago. Boiled and then the peroxide crème treatment. Came out pretty good and was pleased with it.

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Looks good 👍
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

Slow day today. The first stand had two coyotes sit and stare from probably a mile. We made one attempt at some roosters that didn't pan out and that only served to let the sun get higher before we went after coyotes again.

Our second coyote stand had us too exposed in the sun but there weren't any shadows at that time so we got the most background we could find. A coyote came barreling over a hill within 5 minutes and put the brakes on at around 310 yards. He had us pinpointed immediately and only looked at us for a few seconds before getting out of there.
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We saw one more coyote around mid day but that was while driving. The sun and wind wasn't cooperating to find any shadows we always seemed to have a questionable wind or to get a good wind set up we were always in the sun.


We had a tailgate lunch around 1.
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Our last stand.
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I would like to stay another full day but we need to be home tomorrow evening. We'll hunt half a day tomorrow then drive home.
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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hoobilly »

Hope you get one tomorrow before heading back!

Love that topper with the side opening windows
Don't start none, won't be none!

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Re: 2020 in Montana

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

hoobilly wrote: December 28th, 2020, 9:32 pm Hope you get one tomorrow before heading back!

Love that topper with the side opening windows
I like it too but I broke one of the lifts off back in the elk season and it doesn't like to stay up in the cold.
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