2
270XBolt
Guest
Have been having fairly good luck recently here despite the low amount of deer numbers. First my wife and I made a 1 mile hike into public land at first light hoping to intercept a buck on his way to bed. Found 2 Muley bucks and 1 Whitetail buck chasing 12-14 muley does near the river bank and figured we would wait until they headed out to make our move. Something spooked them all and the does headed up a far away coulee and out of rifle range. If the buck followed them we would get no shot, but the bucks for some reason broke away and headed in out direction. Once the 2 bucks got onto the adjacent ridge, she got a steady rest and made a 400yd kill shot on the biggest one. All this only a bit over a week since abdominal surgery and still full of bandages. She only complained a little bit, such a trooper.
Then went out hunting last saturday in blizzard-like conditions hoping to intercept a rutting buck. Found a buck with 6 does working along a hillside out of the wind and figured we could get into position to make a good shot. The group came into view so I got my 14 yr old son onto the shooting sticks and ready. He said he was to unstable and couldn't make the shot as the wind was whipping and snow hitting hard. It reached up and held the stick hoping to make it more stable and he said it was perfect. He took the 300 yd shot and it was a spot-on double lung shot. The buck ran over the hill and disappeared. We took up the trail quickly as the snow was covering it fast. The buck had run down the hill and got to the fence but could not get over it before he expired. He ended up being a 24 inch wide 4x3 with a back tine measuring over 16". Needless to say my son was very cold yet very excited.
On the way out of the pasture we decided to look over a CRP field that had a small hill in the middle of it. It was still snowing fairly hard so it was tough glassing, but we managed to pick out a good buck and 4 does on the down wind side of the hill. We hatched a plan to move closer until the deer, who had not seen us yet started to get nervous and then see if we were in range. We inched closer and closer until the buck stood up. We ranged him at 385 yards and decided that this was a close as we could get. Bipods down and 1 perfect shot put the 6x5 muley buck on the ground.
My sister called me the night before Thanksgiving wanting to know if I would help her go look for a buck she had shot at that evening. I could, but only for an hour as I had to work. Thanksgiving morning we scoured the hills but could not locate the buck and his 6 does. Due to work and dinner with family we could not hunt any more that day and made a plan to hit the pasture again in the morning. Once morning came we found the pasture lacking much activity. We decide to go down a rarely used road that had severe overgrowth that needed to be trimmed. We got out to trim and heard a buck grunting in the draw only 15 yards from the truck. Out popped a doe and 2 matching spikes hot on her heels. We grunted back and they decided to square off complete with snort wheezes and bristled up hair. All this a mere 15 yards away. It was quite a show and we finally had to usher them out carefully as we did not want them to blow all the deer out of there. Got the brush trimmed and followed the road to the base of a big butte, from there we will walk to the top and glass. Well my sister must have thought it was a race to the top because I had to keep reminding her to stop and glass back as we go. I had just let her go off again and was looking SouthWest when i noticed a buck at 450 yards limping off in the juniper thicket. I got my sister attention and we looked him over a decided he was the one she had shot at. My buddy stayed on the ridge while my sister and i dropped off the ridge and put a sneak on to the bucks location. We got to where we were just above the buck and my buddies hand motions indicated he was still there. We crept over the ridge and the buck was standing there at 50 yds. My sister got a good shot into him as he ran off and he went down for good. Turns out my sister had shot him in the lower leg and as rutted up as he was, he showed no signs of the initial hit. Beautiful buck and a happy sister. 25 inch 5x5 old and gray buck.
Then went out hunting last saturday in blizzard-like conditions hoping to intercept a rutting buck. Found a buck with 6 does working along a hillside out of the wind and figured we could get into position to make a good shot. The group came into view so I got my 14 yr old son onto the shooting sticks and ready. He said he was to unstable and couldn't make the shot as the wind was whipping and snow hitting hard. It reached up and held the stick hoping to make it more stable and he said it was perfect. He took the 300 yd shot and it was a spot-on double lung shot. The buck ran over the hill and disappeared. We took up the trail quickly as the snow was covering it fast. The buck had run down the hill and got to the fence but could not get over it before he expired. He ended up being a 24 inch wide 4x3 with a back tine measuring over 16". Needless to say my son was very cold yet very excited.
On the way out of the pasture we decided to look over a CRP field that had a small hill in the middle of it. It was still snowing fairly hard so it was tough glassing, but we managed to pick out a good buck and 4 does on the down wind side of the hill. We hatched a plan to move closer until the deer, who had not seen us yet started to get nervous and then see if we were in range. We inched closer and closer until the buck stood up. We ranged him at 385 yards and decided that this was a close as we could get. Bipods down and 1 perfect shot put the 6x5 muley buck on the ground.
My sister called me the night before Thanksgiving wanting to know if I would help her go look for a buck she had shot at that evening. I could, but only for an hour as I had to work. Thanksgiving morning we scoured the hills but could not locate the buck and his 6 does. Due to work and dinner with family we could not hunt any more that day and made a plan to hit the pasture again in the morning. Once morning came we found the pasture lacking much activity. We decide to go down a rarely used road that had severe overgrowth that needed to be trimmed. We got out to trim and heard a buck grunting in the draw only 15 yards from the truck. Out popped a doe and 2 matching spikes hot on her heels. We grunted back and they decided to square off complete with snort wheezes and bristled up hair. All this a mere 15 yards away. It was quite a show and we finally had to usher them out carefully as we did not want them to blow all the deer out of there. Got the brush trimmed and followed the road to the base of a big butte, from there we will walk to the top and glass. Well my sister must have thought it was a race to the top because I had to keep reminding her to stop and glass back as we go. I had just let her go off again and was looking SouthWest when i noticed a buck at 450 yards limping off in the juniper thicket. I got my sister attention and we looked him over a decided he was the one she had shot at. My buddy stayed on the ridge while my sister and i dropped off the ridge and put a sneak on to the bucks location. We got to where we were just above the buck and my buddies hand motions indicated he was still there. We crept over the ridge and the buck was standing there at 50 yds. My sister got a good shot into him as he ran off and he went down for good. Turns out my sister had shot him in the lower leg and as rutted up as he was, he showed no signs of the initial hit. Beautiful buck and a happy sister. 25 inch 5x5 old and gray buck.
