BuzzH
Well-known member
Its been a hectic 10 days or so for me, trying to get work tied off for the season and also trying to squeeze in some hunting.
I spent a few days looking over some pronghorn in the area I drew close to home as a 3rd choice. I found one buck that I liked the looks of, and watched him off and on for 3 or 4 days. He would never leave the private he was on, so I gave up on him.
Last Friday I woke up early for a morning hunt and it was just pouring rain. I decided to wait around the house until it stopped or let up. My wife left for work about 8:15 or so. About a minute later she came back into the house telling me rather excitedly to "get a camera!!!". I rounded up the nearest camera and took a picture of this guy off our back deck:
The moose eventually made its way back up toward more appropriate habitat.
The rain let up, so I decided to head out and see if I could turn up anything in the Southern end of the hunting unit. I just barely got into the unit when I glassed up this guy from the county road:
I sent my buddy Monty a text and told him I was going to make a run at this buck. The trouble is, it was just over a mile away and it was flat as a table top. I left the truck at 10:20 AM
My "plan" was to just walk at the herd and when they started getting nervous I would try crawling on my belly from there. I made it about half way before they started getting nervous. I sat down and let them calm a bit. I then just started crawling toward them. I eventually made it to 325 yards after watching them bed. I waited until they stood up, but the wind had really picked up so I elected to pass on the shot and see if they would feed closer. That didn't work well as they fed almost directly away another 100 yards. They eventually bedded again so I continued to crawl. I finally got up to 251 yards from the bedded buck and doe. I waited about 30 more minutes and finally the buck stood up. I was all set with my rifle rested on the lowest strand of a barbed wire fence up against a steel post. Not the greatest rest in the world, but all I had to work with.
I placed the leupold dot about 8 inches in front of the shoulder to allow for the wind drift and pressed the trigger. The 140 AB from the 7-08 hit the buck right through the heart, killing him nearly instantly.
I got up and looked at my phone, it was 2:33 PM.
I was pretty happy with the over-all hunt and how it happened...buck turned out to be a pretty nice one as well, the best I've taken in this unit:
My buddy Monty showed up after the long drive from Arizona to hunt the same unit, and Sunday morning we found a very good buck. He gave us the slip so we decided to come back in the evening. Sure enough, we found the buck again about a mile from where we left him in the morning. This time, we were able to get into shooting range and Monty made good on the opportunity. His best buck out of the 14 he's taken from the area:
The two bucks:
I spent a few days looking over some pronghorn in the area I drew close to home as a 3rd choice. I found one buck that I liked the looks of, and watched him off and on for 3 or 4 days. He would never leave the private he was on, so I gave up on him.
Last Friday I woke up early for a morning hunt and it was just pouring rain. I decided to wait around the house until it stopped or let up. My wife left for work about 8:15 or so. About a minute later she came back into the house telling me rather excitedly to "get a camera!!!". I rounded up the nearest camera and took a picture of this guy off our back deck:
The moose eventually made its way back up toward more appropriate habitat.
The rain let up, so I decided to head out and see if I could turn up anything in the Southern end of the hunting unit. I just barely got into the unit when I glassed up this guy from the county road:
I sent my buddy Monty a text and told him I was going to make a run at this buck. The trouble is, it was just over a mile away and it was flat as a table top. I left the truck at 10:20 AM
My "plan" was to just walk at the herd and when they started getting nervous I would try crawling on my belly from there. I made it about half way before they started getting nervous. I sat down and let them calm a bit. I then just started crawling toward them. I eventually made it to 325 yards after watching them bed. I waited until they stood up, but the wind had really picked up so I elected to pass on the shot and see if they would feed closer. That didn't work well as they fed almost directly away another 100 yards. They eventually bedded again so I continued to crawl. I finally got up to 251 yards from the bedded buck and doe. I waited about 30 more minutes and finally the buck stood up. I was all set with my rifle rested on the lowest strand of a barbed wire fence up against a steel post. Not the greatest rest in the world, but all I had to work with.
I placed the leupold dot about 8 inches in front of the shoulder to allow for the wind drift and pressed the trigger. The 140 AB from the 7-08 hit the buck right through the heart, killing him nearly instantly.
I got up and looked at my phone, it was 2:33 PM.
I was pretty happy with the over-all hunt and how it happened...buck turned out to be a pretty nice one as well, the best I've taken in this unit:
My buddy Monty showed up after the long drive from Arizona to hunt the same unit, and Sunday morning we found a very good buck. He gave us the slip so we decided to come back in the evening. Sure enough, we found the buck again about a mile from where we left him in the morning. This time, we were able to get into shooting range and Monty made good on the opportunity. His best buck out of the 14 he's taken from the area:
The two bucks:
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