Deer 2016

[Hunterbug]

This year both the girls and I drew deer tags for second season. The problem is that Hunter drew a doe tag for one area, Payton drew a doe tag for RJ's place and I drew a buck tag for RJ's place. As it turned out Payton had an archery tournament opening weekend so I took Hunter and Krackalope up to help them find their deer.

Hunter and Karl had a hard hunt. Opening day we saw nothing, not even a rabbit! I talked to someone that I know and she told us where she saw some does. The next morning we went up and saw 4 does on private property. We watched them for a couple of hours but they wouldn't come our way. We took the afternoon to scout some new areas and found a place to hunt the evening. We spotted a deer on a hill about 800 yards away, too far to see if it was a buck or doe. As we were trying to get closer, a parasailer came over the hill right above the deer. Really? What are the odds that a parasailer will appear right over the deer that you're trying to kill? Of course the deer took off. Monday morning we headed to the spot that we had scouted Sunday afternoon only to find a truck with 4 hunters getting out. So we headed back to where we saw the deer the day before on the private land. As we were driving in I spotted them at the top of the hill on public land. Hunter and Karl jumped out and went after them. I decided to drive around to the bottom and try and get on the other side of the deer. I parked and hadn't gone 20 yards before I saw deer feeding. So I backed out and went to where I had dropped them off and followed their route. I crested the hill and saw Karl but no Hunter. I kept walking and I saw them sitting together near the bottom of the hill. I whistled and they yelled to get the truck, Hunter had her deer. She had dropped it with one shot from her 30-06 at about 150 yards.

[sakorick]

What a smile! I love happy endings!:happy:

[Hunterbug]

Hunter and I got home on Monday and I started getting ready for Payton and I to leave on Friday to hunt RJ's place. We left Friday morning and got to Craig about 1500. After checking into our hotel, we grabbed our stuff and headed to his house. He was still at work but said that there had been an average 4X3 buck hanging around. I would be fine with that. When we got into the driveway I started glassing for deer. I spotted 4 does across the road in a wheat field that we couldn't hunt. While glassing I saw a deer laying down right behind the hay shed. I saw antlers and really started getting excited. I texted RJ and told him that I saw a buck. He just replied, "Is he dead yet?" So Payton and I crossed the road and moved for a shot. He was laying in a cut back in the hill side and so couldn't see us. I finally could see his head but not much of the body. I moved to the left to try and get a better shot. Then I could see him watching us. I knelt down but then I couldn't see him. Payton suggested extending the shooting sticks out for a standing shot. So I extended them as far as they would go and stood up. I squeezed the trigger.....and missed!:oops:As I worked the bolt, something I can do REALLY fast, he stood up. I took a breath and squeezed the trigger again launching a 165gr Sierra Gameking at 2900fps. I saw him tumble down the hill before I heard the hit. We walked up and I saw the antlers sticking up over the grass. This was not an average 4X3. He tried to get up and I put another bullet through the ribs and ended it.

[Hunterbug]

RJ got home and helped with dressing the deer and loading it into my truck. We got it hung up in the barn and capped for a mount before heading inside for some dinner. While dinner was cooking I stepped outside and saw 7 deer crossing the road to RJs property. I got Payton and we went out to try for a shot. She could only see one clearly and it was a fork buck and they took off so we went back in for a great dinner and an evening of playing cards.

The next morning we went back out looking for a doe. We saw a doe with a pair of yearlings on the hill but the doe was always either skylined or at a bad angle and Payton had no intention of shooting anything small. She wanted a deer that outweighed Hunter's. After breakfast, with nothing moving, RJ suggested that we head up and check out the BLM land up the road. As we drove up the road he saw some deer on his property in the sage brush. Payton got out, racked a shell in the 257, stepped off the road a ways, and picked a solid rest. There was a doe standing broadside at the far fence. Payton looked at me and I nodded and she fired. The deer kicked and ran off, heading down hill. Then about 9 deer that we hadn't seen ran off up the hill. So Payton and I went to where the deer had been standing and started following the blood trail. It wasn't long before I found her dead.

[Hunterbug]

After getting her deer cleaned we went back to the house and they loaded some 44 mag ammo and we spend the afternoon shooting.

Dirty Payton. She loves RJ's 44 Mag and can actually shoot it pretty well.



RJ shooting the Noisy Cricket. My NAA 22 Mag.

[Hunterbug]

We had a great time and a HUGE thank you to RJ for making it happen. When we got our deer to the processor they were weighed with just the meat and bone. Hunters deer had weighed 66 pounds, Payton shaved that  with 67 pounds. After they weighed Payton's I told her that she could take the rocks out of it. :grin: My buck weighed in at 169 pounds! While dressing it I was scooping out handfulls of fat!

[Hunterbug]

What a smile! I love happy endings!:happy:

She was thrilled and so was I. It was her first big game animal without me being right with her. She found it, picked the animal and made the shot all on her own.

[gitano]

Did you move the pictures? I can't see them. I saw the ones from the phone though, Great Stuff! Congratulations to all!

Paul

[recoil junky]

Yeah, they distappeared.

It was great. HB told you his version, now I get to tell mine:

HB and I had talked about the medium 3X4 that's been hanging out on the hill behind the chicken coop, but HB mistook where the chicken coop was to where he saw the buck and in the long run he made the right mistake.

VVVVT VVVVVT VVVVVT (cell phone on vibrate receiving a text)

HB: rcd 3:23 pm Oct 27 "Just checked into our room on our way to your house."
(we are remodeling and there is "stuff" everywhere)

Me: "Ok. I hafta stop in town should be there by 5 easy."

HB: "I see the buck. he's laying down south  of the chicken coop in that cut. He's about 20 yards on the other side of the fence"  

OK, to me the chicken coop is due east of the house and the "cut" would be north of the chcken coop and 20 yards on the other side of the fence means he's bedded down in the saghebrush by the rocks probably and if you haven't shot him from the deck by now then we're not on the same page . . . . . . . OH HECK, he's on the other side of the road!!!!!!! SOUTH DUH!!!! He's on Chuck's side of the fence!!! (me 'n Chuck have an agreement, he can hunt my side of the fence and I can hunt his side. (spit in palms handshake))

Me: sent 4:13 pm "Is he dead yet?

HB "no. Can I take him?"

Me: "Sure"

HB: 4:32 pm "He's dead now!! He's big!!!! 4X5 plus brow tines!!!"

Me: "KEWL!"

HB: "there are 10 does in the feild up there"  And for some reason I'm still thinking he's  just EAST of the house NORTH of the chicken coop.

I'm now leaving the grocery store and on my way home as my phone is going nuts, but I can't look at it and drive. I turned off onto 18s, stopped and looked at my messages.

HB: I'm going to need help

Me: Where are you??"

No response, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is HB up to now?

Becaue as I drive around the corner I should be seeing HB's Toyota pick-up but it's not in the yard and not out in the pasture so I slowly drive up the road and see tracks leading off the county road to the HAY SHED south of the road and sure enough there's HB and Peanut and HB's blue Toyota BEHIND the windbreak all but hidden in waist high grass and sagebrush.

HOLE EEE  :cens: Yeah he's big alright!!!!! and I can't get to photobcket as they are having "technical difficulties" which is probably why we can't see HB's pictures.

RJ

[gitano]

Hunter has finally learned to smile! :D

Love the pictures of Payton shooting the .44 and RJ shooting the pea-shooter!

What a great hunting year for everyone. And it's not over!

Paul

[JaDub]

It`s ALL good guys. So glad to hear you made a triple out of it. Gotta love paragliders........... I think they actually shoot at `em around Boulder.

Took me five days to find a doe in area 39. Could not believe how warm and totally dry it was. Had to go into deep high timber on the north slope to find any deer. My doe dressed out at 89 lbs.......... she was a toad. Took her  at 75yds with my trusty Tikka  150 grn  Spitzer Sierra , 48 grns of  4064 in  .308 . She ran about 18 yards before she found out it was difficult to run without a heart. Ran smack into a big tree trunk .......... dead as a door knob. Put her down at 0730 the last day of the season. Just about didn`t go out the last day...........it was a tough hunt. :o

[gitano]

Took her at 75yds with my trusty Tikka 150 grn Spitzer Sierra , 48 grns of 4064 in .308 .

Paul

[Hunterbug]

Good job, JaDub. You gotta love the 30-06 short. It gets it done. :D

[sakorick]

Good job, JaDub. You gotta love the 30-06 short. It gets it done. :D

Nice!

[JaDub]

First kill with the .308. I initially bought it when I first started shooting in anticipation of deer and elk hunting. I bought it new. It`s a Tikka T3 light. Did my first reloading with it. It was a tack driver pretty much right out of the box. Because I`m a pretty lightly built kinda guy I resisted the recommendations from others to go with a 300 win mag for elk hunting. That said next rifle I bought was a sporterized Springfield 03-A4 at auction. It too is a tack driver. Then I fell in love with a Winchester mod 70 in 7mm  Rem mag.  And then, and then, and then.............

Well , you can see where this is going.

Like Larry Potterfield says.......... " How many pair of shoes does one woman need ?"

At least one more............ !

[recoil junky]

And how's that sevemag working out for ya?  I don't dare carry mine anymore, I don't even have to think with it and  :cens: now the work starts. I didn't mean to shoot and now I have this 5X rag horn bull down.

Last time I carried it I didn't even load it and shot this:



Gol-durn thing, I just put the scope on him and the next thing I knew kaBOOM . . . . . THWACK, right in the neck and I had an elk down.

RJ

[gitano]

7mm Mag is a great North American cartridge.

Paul

[JaDub]

Full freezer , RJ !!! Nice going . Nice to drive up to the kill too, eh ??

I love my 7mm, it just puts down whatever I shoot at, `cept if the triggerman is trying to look thru fogged over glasses at 19 below. I took out the TIKKA this year for deer `cuz I thought the shot would be a close one, which it was. I also picked up a SAKO FinnBear in 7mm Rem mag ........... just havn`t had the chance to shoot it yet. Anyone have any experience with one of those ??

[gitano]

In 7mm what? There are lots of 7mms.

Paul

[JaDub]

7 mm Rem Mag

[recoil junky]

That elk picture is from '04? Very small bodied, but he was very tasty.

 RJ

[JaDub]

Big horns are nice but don`t eat so well.  

[gitano]

They may not eat as well, but big horns usually mean a lot more to eat.

Paul

[JaDub]

10-4 on that.  Big difference between bull elk and cows out here.