Stubaby
Very Active Member
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Well after reading Bobcat’s long-a$$ poem about Punkins——I decided it was time to set the alarm Friday night and get 4 hours worth of sleep before the general rife hunt.
My good buddy from Montana’s nephew lives in Utah and he has only killed one deer in his life back when he was 14. I’d been watching some bucks this week and I thought we could head out and sling some lead together.
I finally got my suppressor—so I wanted to give that a try in the field as well. I threw it on a Ruger American “compact” model I bought because my older two kids(12 and 10) are almost to hunting age. I wanted to bring them along but a 2900 vertical climb through oak brush and wet conditions at 330am didn’t seem like an outing to drag them through.
Even though I had a good game plan it was apparent that two other people were a tad ahead of us and instead to going to a place in the dark to make a play—they were hell-bent on going through the area where the deer had been the nights before and blow them all out.
We played the patient game and after shooting light got into an area that was enough distance from the other hunters that if we saw deer they would either be undisturbed or bumped our way.
I look up to our left and there were 4 deer above us looking our way. I broke out the spotter and they were all bucks. One was a 4x4 and guessed around 130-140”. There was a smaller 3x3 and two forkys. I have some neighbor's who have kids with digestive issues and venison is the only meat they can handle——so add that to my trigger-happy finger and the fact that I really wanted to try the suppressor on a kill-shot meant I was shooting.
Once Jared saw the 3x3 he was wanting to double-up so we did. The only thing worse than bush-whacking up an oak brush hill is bush-whacking down one with 120lbs of gear and boned out meat in your pack in a soggy rain.
We had a great time and my back and feet were very glad to get back to the truck in the afternoon. Some lessons learned:
1. Suppressors are awesome. I didn’t have to doubt if or where I hit my buck. At 259 yards I was able to see the whole thing happen. I drug my feet getting one because of all the BS and wait time but they are totally worth it
2. Trekking poles are essential equipment. I’d still be up there if I didn’t have mine for the descent.
3. I love my Hatch bipod and Outdoorsman tripod.
4. Putting the cross-hairs on a big game animal is always a good time.
5. Gaiters are also essential hunting equipment.
My good buddy from Montana’s nephew lives in Utah and he has only killed one deer in his life back when he was 14. I’d been watching some bucks this week and I thought we could head out and sling some lead together.
I finally got my suppressor—so I wanted to give that a try in the field as well. I threw it on a Ruger American “compact” model I bought because my older two kids(12 and 10) are almost to hunting age. I wanted to bring them along but a 2900 vertical climb through oak brush and wet conditions at 330am didn’t seem like an outing to drag them through.
Even though I had a good game plan it was apparent that two other people were a tad ahead of us and instead to going to a place in the dark to make a play—they were hell-bent on going through the area where the deer had been the nights before and blow them all out.
We played the patient game and after shooting light got into an area that was enough distance from the other hunters that if we saw deer they would either be undisturbed or bumped our way.
I look up to our left and there were 4 deer above us looking our way. I broke out the spotter and they were all bucks. One was a 4x4 and guessed around 130-140”. There was a smaller 3x3 and two forkys. I have some neighbor's who have kids with digestive issues and venison is the only meat they can handle——so add that to my trigger-happy finger and the fact that I really wanted to try the suppressor on a kill-shot meant I was shooting.
Once Jared saw the 3x3 he was wanting to double-up so we did. The only thing worse than bush-whacking up an oak brush hill is bush-whacking down one with 120lbs of gear and boned out meat in your pack in a soggy rain.
We had a great time and my back and feet were very glad to get back to the truck in the afternoon. Some lessons learned:
1. Suppressors are awesome. I didn’t have to doubt if or where I hit my buck. At 259 yards I was able to see the whole thing happen. I drug my feet getting one because of all the BS and wait time but they are totally worth it
2. Trekking poles are essential equipment. I’d still be up there if I didn’t have mine for the descent.
3. I love my Hatch bipod and Outdoorsman tripod.
4. Putting the cross-hairs on a big game animal is always a good time.
5. Gaiters are also essential hunting equipment.
