Last Weekend C-4

sageadvice · Oct 1, 2014

I've been out several times and going again in a few minutes, seen few deer so far. I tried to sit a trail that was being used but about a hour was all i could abide. Old habits are hard to break, this Timber country here is vast and almost all accessible to hunt but is just not my cup of tea.

If your zone closes this weekend, go get em!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

larrbo · Oct 1, 2014

Bag the big one Sage.

oilcan · Oct 1, 2014

Good Luck Joey i'll be heading up to X-1 in about 9 days.Will not make the opener but we'll give it a go.

manny53 · Oct 1, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-14 AT 08:09PM (MST)[p]hey joey these came from about a mile from the buck you took up C-1 a few years back

oilcan · Oct 1, 2014

Nice Bucks manny i used to Hunt that area when it was still X-1.

sageadvice · Oct 1, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-14 AT 10:33PM (MST)[p]Thanks guys!

edit: Oilcan, I hope you find a Toad!!

Manny, some Dandy Bucks there!!

I took a ride, started on Hy 36 and came out on A-21 at the foot of Swan Mtn.

The best part of the trip was the company. This spring i ran into a guy that i used to work with many years ago. Back then, we both worked as apprentice's for a local Plumbing Contractor. After work and on weekends, we'd team up to hunt, fish, or maybe just get our chores done while consuming large quantities of cold beer.

Short story, he moved away to where i live now.

We talked about hunting as easy as if we didn't have a 30 year gap between our last outing and had just gone last week. He had a tag, a sweet little 7mm-08 mt rifle, and said that he gets out once in awhile. Earlier today, i called and asked if he was up for a "ride" and he was. He covered his side of the road and i covered mine. All said and done, we saw very little game but it was a great time.

Now the kicker: he's been blind for 4-5 years now. He wanted to go...hell yeah, jump in, you gotta slam that door!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

jester · Oct 1, 2014

Good luck!
I always considered C zone the poor man's X zone!
I always did fine in C zones..however prefer B Zone..
need kids Joey so you can bank their points then you
could hunt X zones ever year! Plus is all the Jr hunts!!
Jester

oilcan · Oct 1, 2014

"need kids Joey so you can bank their points"

jester that's a good plan i have 2 Daughters and i tried and tried to get them involved in Hunting but they just where not interested.They like eating the wild game but would rather stay home with my wife and go shopping.LOL

sageadvice · Oct 1, 2014

lol, i have to get points the old fashion way...

a guy can hunt X-1 about every other year can't he?

C is close to home. I hunt the "poor Man's" zone, can start shooting less than a mile from my house.

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

jester · Oct 1, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-14 AT 11:38PM (MST)[p]Nope they cut tags...down to like 900 from like 1200..
In 3 yrs it will be down to 500 ( bio lady predict).
took me 2 points this year!
Jester

sageadvice · Oct 1, 2014

Jester, good luck on you hunts this year. I read where you have some good ones coming up.

Hey, you guys remember i won a Badlands 2200 backpack from one of Founders contests? I got it today. The straps are at least a foot too short, adjusted them all the way out, nothing even comes close to clicking in the buckles. I gotta find a tent maker or somebody! lol

Pretty neat to get that though. I'm not complaining just commenting that those Badlands rigs ain't built for normal sized people.

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

oilcan · Oct 1, 2014

I'm curious to see how crowded it is thats a lot of tags but it is a Big unit.

sageadvice · Oct 1, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-02-14 AT 00:08AM (MST)[p]I don't think i ever hunted X-1 or X-2.

Few years ago, I met and hunted a bit with a guy worked a tire shop in Alturas. He killed some outsized bucks above Lookout on a piece in X-1 that everybody though was private but actually was Public property. The Guy that Ran the Big Ranch nearby tried several times to run him out but couldn't by law and they both knew it.

Here i have a X3A tag in my pocket that took me like 5-6 years to get and he kept saying, "too bad you don't have a X-1 tag". lol

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

Spotnstalk80 · Oct 2, 2014

Sage! You try the area I pointed you to last year? Been quite a few success stories over there from guys driving.. and sitting like myself..

My brother drove up on this beauty..

Same day a friend drove up on this guy...24" 4x4

Sorry for the neck strains..I'm fairly certain I may be picture posting retarded..

sageadvice · Oct 2, 2014

Spot, No i haven't not this year. Last year, Larrbo and i spent a couple days near there, in that area, didn't see much other than campers and people crawling all over the place. I was this year right across the Hiway, 36, wild cow Mtn, Upper Rice Creek, Wilson Lake area, same deer, no luck.

I realize that there are better areas and better ways to hunt than what i do but i don't care. Maybe care is not the word but if i get a buck or not doesn't concern me. If i go down where you guys hunt, that's a long little hunt for me when there is pretty good country right here close to home. I'd rather take a blind guy on a deer hunt than get a deer. That's not the way it used to be but the way it is now.

Nice bucks!!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

Spotnstalk80 · Oct 2, 2014

I hear ya on that one Joey, sometimes its just about the company and the adventure and less about the kill.. good on you and good luck this weekend as the season wraps up. Be it a kill or just another great memory in the old memory bank!

sageadvice · Oct 2, 2014

Thank You Spot, some might not see it like you and i but that's ok too. For me right now, it's going. It's just how much i still enjoy just going out and being there with a tag in my pocket.

Speaking of which, a little evening hunt is about to begin. I'll be checking in again later.

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

sageadvice · Oct 2, 2014

I got my Buck! the last message was meant to be poosted hrs ago before i left. it was still on my puter when i got back.

My Buddy with a camera is not home so no pic's for now. He's just a decent forky, better than average body, heavy SOB to pack out of that canyon i'll tell you, feeling my age, but that part is done and i'm hanging him in the carport now, get him all cleaned up.

Deer stew instead of Deer Tag for Dinner this Winter is going to be awful good! lol

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

larrbo · Oct 2, 2014

Way to go Joey, buck steaks this winter.

Spotnstalk80 · Oct 2, 2014

Nice work!! Show that bad boy off!

sageadvice · Oct 2, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-14 AT 01:22AM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-14 AT 01:12?AM (MST)

So i killed the buck about 3:30PM. Took him on Peg-leg mountain, a lookout station for Forrest fires just a few miles north and a bit east of Westwood. I had a good feeling about this ride. The past 10 days or so, a bunch of miles on my rig but no bucks spotted and very little sign on the old trails our deer use to migrate lower where they winter.

I remember thinking that i shouldn't be looking so hard for a buck on the lower side of the road and laughing at myself for thinking that. I already had my mind made up that if a decent little buck showed, i was going to take him if i could.

Driving along about as slow as a guy can go, i had been looking up to my right. I was on a North Slope road, major side hill. So when i again turned to look down on my side below the road, i immediately see a buck running back to my left thru the shade on a thinned out mature timber patch about 80 yards away. I shut the rig down and got out with my rifle putting a bullet in the chamber at the same time. I moved over off the edge of the forest service road and saw the buck now walking, quartering away thru the trees. Ahead of him was a 5-6'clear space between trees and i put my cross-hairs there and he walked into trouble that he wasn't getting out of.

Nice little forkie cross buck, 18" wide, about 14" high, maybe 8" points. Nice fat buck, i know there is over 100 Lbs left after head and hide off and a complete cleaning. Though i mostly crawled along road hunting this season, i feel like i earned this buck.

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

jester · Oct 2, 2014

Last year a friend hunted X1 and saw 4 buck and 5 does and four people. .open weekend! 4 days.
jester

sageadvice · Oct 2, 2014

jesterc said, "Last year a friend hunted X1 and saw 4 buck and 5 does and four people. .open weekend! 4 days."

That's Nice. lol

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

oilcan · Oct 2, 2014

Nice Buck Joey deep forks not like a lot of these California forky's you come across.

sageadvice · Oct 2, 2014

Thanks oilcan! There's much better bucks to be had but he's a respectable buck for this area.

In the past few years, i've passed up better bucks holding off for a really good one. I think i knew this year i was going to take a smaller buck if i could. I never know though, once i get a good look at a buck, sometimes i start thinking that i don't really need to shoot him.

This buck though, tried to put some moves on me to get away and that first glance i had of him, quick as it was, set in my mind that he was big enough. After that, i was on auto pilot and tried to take care of business. It worked out and i'm pleased. I'm also tired, it's been a good day, time to hit the rack!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

264mag · Oct 2, 2014

Nice buck Joe, that brown knife is that from RELH?

Spotnstalk80 · Oct 3, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-14 AT 11:26AM (MST)[p]...

sageadvice · Oct 3, 2014

264, Yep, i bought two of his custom knives and gave one to my old hunting pard for helping me make a move. I used it to skin with and that Case sodbuster to cut the legs off and such. RELH's knife is sharp and worked like a champ!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

Spotnstalk80 · Oct 3, 2014

Very Very respectable buck. The fact that he even tried to put the escape moves on ya make him a shooter. Well done sir. Now you have great memories and steaks to eat!

sageadvice · Oct 3, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-14 AT 12:47PM (MST)[p]Spot, going way back to my Days on Grandpa's ranch, when a buck would just give me a peek at him and looked like he was going to get away, only having moments between seeing him and him being gone, it always seemed to make me want that buck and i can't say how many times in a row that i got it done.

Something about having to decide right now, making quick last second shots seems to bring out the best of my abilities and has caused me to shoot a few bucks i otherwise, might not have shot.

In this case, there was no miracle shot involved but it weren't easy either.

Edit; earlier above i said, " I know there is over 100 Lbs left after head and hide off and a complete cleaning."

well i just returned from taking my buck to the local Butcher stationed in the main Grocery Store in Westwood. Hanging and read to be cut, he weighed 87 pounds. I swear he felt a lot heavier than that dragging him up to the truck! lol

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

manny53 · Oct 3, 2014

good job joey....

bullskin · Oct 4, 2014

As we get older, those bucks seems to be more prone to ground growth rather than shrinkage! Congratulations.

eelgrass · Oct 5, 2014

By golly that's great Joey. Congratulations! Nice sleek looking buck all shed out with his winter coat. A prime eating buck!

Eel

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.