Journeyman
Lil-Rokslider
I've told the story a couple times now but almost exactly a year ago, with my trusty 270 in hand, I watched a pretty good looking 5x5 bull feed on a hillside opposite me at 650 yards. He fed there for half an hour while I tried to close the gap but with all the open space between us I couldn't get into what I felt was my effective range before he decided he was full and headed up over the saddle to meet his buddies to bed up on private ground.
That was my only real opportunity at a bull last year and my tag ended up going unfilled. That one experience set me on a path to build my shooting skills and extend my effective range. I took the advice of many on this forum and got a Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creed and an LRHS 3-12. That led me to a great group of long range shooters in my area, which turned into shooting many field practical/PRS type matches and sending somewhere in the neighborhood of 4500 rounds down range in the last year.
By the time rifle season rolled around I'd already had my smith spin up a 6.5x55 wildcat on a T3 action and I'd worked up a load pushing the 147 ELD-M's at 2850. Fortunately I'd shot a bull during archery season while my brother was in Montana hunting with me so my rifle season was set to revolve around my 2 antelope tags and general deer tag.
Archery Bull pic for fun
I headed off east the weekend after the opener in search of a buck and doe antelope. I was nervous because the 700 district got hit pretty hard last winter and I hadn't seen much in the way of antelope on previous trips. I ended up doing a big loop and found antelope just about everywhere I went in addition to some new mule deer spots.
Day one I found a good sized herd of Antelope with a good buck a few miles from the truck and they bedded up at 990 yards from me. The wind was quartering from over my left shoulder at about 15 mph so I decided to wait them out as I was close to a watering hole that I figured they'd come back to but just as I settled in to wait them out, another small group of goats came over the ridge to my right with a little buck right at 700. While I built my position and confirmed my dope, he moved in to 655 where I pulled the trigger. The first shot went through both shoulders and the buck sat back on his haunches. I hit him again and he dropped.
My favorite part, which I've never experience on an animal before, was watching the trace of the bullet and seeing the impact send shockwaves across the hide. All the practice had paid off and I was truly able to enjoy the shot.
I drove a few hundred more miles that weekend exploring new country and ended up taking a doe at 486 which I forgot to take pictures of.
Since then I've been chasing mulies pretty hard hoping to find a mature buck.
I had a great time hunting with some new and old friends. I saw tons of bucks but none that had me ready to fill my last tag and end my season.
Cue this past weekend. The rut was rolling but the season was running short. I'd made plans to hunt the weekend with a few buddies. My friend Rob and I were going to team up. He had a deer and elk tag left so we were hoping for an elk for him and I was still holding out for a mature buck. Friday afternoon was a bit of a bust as a weather system moved in and we had little more than 100 yards of visibility through the clouds and snow from the top of the ridge that we'd climbed.
We woke on Saturday morning to temps around 10 and sketchy roads so we took our time on the drive. We actually tried a new spot to both of us. We climbed a ridge to a glassing spot where we were able to look over a large area. I set up the 15's and we enjoyed watching all the deer as the rut was in full effect. Things settled down around noon but we continued to glass and tried to stay warm while waiting for the action to pick back up as sunset approached.
It was about 3:45. I was scanning through the area with the 15's again, having not seen a deer for a few hours we figured it was just a matter of time before they started moving again. As I got to a nice looking bench that I'd had a good feeling about all day, I see 3 does feeding out from the trees followed by a buck. All I could say to Rob was, "Good buck" over and over while I collapsed my tripod and prepped it to use as front support for my rifle.
I got my position dialed in, rifle locked into the tripod with a pack for rear support. I looked over the buck again though I knew this was a buck I'd be happy to fill my tag with, got a range, dialed my dope and waited for a good shot opportunity. The buck was originally at 830 yards but he and the does were feeding straight towards us and I didn't want to take a frontal at that range. He followed one of the does behind a tree and as they came out from behind it he was at 770 and quartered slightly towards me. I adjusted my dope, settled my crosshairs and sent my shot. I was able to see the impact and it was higher than I wanted and hit him in the spine. I realized I hadn't adjusted the DA in my solver since early that morning and it had come up considerably as the day had warmed making my bullet shoot flatter than I'd anticipated.
The buck had dropped and slid in to 730 but was still trying to get up with his front legs. I adjusted dope again, accounting for the change in DA this time and sent another round which finished him instantly this time. The great thing about this story was Rob was the one who was with me last year when I wasn't able to shoot the bull at 650. It felt so good to have all the hard work pay off on a nice mature buck.
A bonus for the day, while walking up to my buck and the sun setting, another nice 3x3 with a couple kickers and a triple eye-guard walked out at 150 yards and Rob filled his tag as well.
It was a fantastic end to the season as we quartered both of our bucks in the dark and walked out with heavy packs in some pretty heavy griz country giving us another great story to embellish when we tell our grandkids once we're too old to do this stuff anymore.
That was my only real opportunity at a bull last year and my tag ended up going unfilled. That one experience set me on a path to build my shooting skills and extend my effective range. I took the advice of many on this forum and got a Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creed and an LRHS 3-12. That led me to a great group of long range shooters in my area, which turned into shooting many field practical/PRS type matches and sending somewhere in the neighborhood of 4500 rounds down range in the last year.
By the time rifle season rolled around I'd already had my smith spin up a 6.5x55 wildcat on a T3 action and I'd worked up a load pushing the 147 ELD-M's at 2850. Fortunately I'd shot a bull during archery season while my brother was in Montana hunting with me so my rifle season was set to revolve around my 2 antelope tags and general deer tag.
Archery Bull pic for fun
I headed off east the weekend after the opener in search of a buck and doe antelope. I was nervous because the 700 district got hit pretty hard last winter and I hadn't seen much in the way of antelope on previous trips. I ended up doing a big loop and found antelope just about everywhere I went in addition to some new mule deer spots.
Day one I found a good sized herd of Antelope with a good buck a few miles from the truck and they bedded up at 990 yards from me. The wind was quartering from over my left shoulder at about 15 mph so I decided to wait them out as I was close to a watering hole that I figured they'd come back to but just as I settled in to wait them out, another small group of goats came over the ridge to my right with a little buck right at 700. While I built my position and confirmed my dope, he moved in to 655 where I pulled the trigger. The first shot went through both shoulders and the buck sat back on his haunches. I hit him again and he dropped.
My favorite part, which I've never experience on an animal before, was watching the trace of the bullet and seeing the impact send shockwaves across the hide. All the practice had paid off and I was truly able to enjoy the shot.
I drove a few hundred more miles that weekend exploring new country and ended up taking a doe at 486 which I forgot to take pictures of.
Since then I've been chasing mulies pretty hard hoping to find a mature buck.
I had a great time hunting with some new and old friends. I saw tons of bucks but none that had me ready to fill my last tag and end my season.
Cue this past weekend. The rut was rolling but the season was running short. I'd made plans to hunt the weekend with a few buddies. My friend Rob and I were going to team up. He had a deer and elk tag left so we were hoping for an elk for him and I was still holding out for a mature buck. Friday afternoon was a bit of a bust as a weather system moved in and we had little more than 100 yards of visibility through the clouds and snow from the top of the ridge that we'd climbed.
We woke on Saturday morning to temps around 10 and sketchy roads so we took our time on the drive. We actually tried a new spot to both of us. We climbed a ridge to a glassing spot where we were able to look over a large area. I set up the 15's and we enjoyed watching all the deer as the rut was in full effect. Things settled down around noon but we continued to glass and tried to stay warm while waiting for the action to pick back up as sunset approached.
It was about 3:45. I was scanning through the area with the 15's again, having not seen a deer for a few hours we figured it was just a matter of time before they started moving again. As I got to a nice looking bench that I'd had a good feeling about all day, I see 3 does feeding out from the trees followed by a buck. All I could say to Rob was, "Good buck" over and over while I collapsed my tripod and prepped it to use as front support for my rifle.
I got my position dialed in, rifle locked into the tripod with a pack for rear support. I looked over the buck again though I knew this was a buck I'd be happy to fill my tag with, got a range, dialed my dope and waited for a good shot opportunity. The buck was originally at 830 yards but he and the does were feeding straight towards us and I didn't want to take a frontal at that range. He followed one of the does behind a tree and as they came out from behind it he was at 770 and quartered slightly towards me. I adjusted my dope, settled my crosshairs and sent my shot. I was able to see the impact and it was higher than I wanted and hit him in the spine. I realized I hadn't adjusted the DA in my solver since early that morning and it had come up considerably as the day had warmed making my bullet shoot flatter than I'd anticipated.
The buck had dropped and slid in to 730 but was still trying to get up with his front legs. I adjusted dope again, accounting for the change in DA this time and sent another round which finished him instantly this time. The great thing about this story was Rob was the one who was with me last year when I wasn't able to shoot the bull at 650. It felt so good to have all the hard work pay off on a nice mature buck.
A bonus for the day, while walking up to my buck and the sun setting, another nice 3x3 with a couple kickers and a triple eye-guard walked out at 150 yards and Rob filled his tag as well.
It was a fantastic end to the season as we quartered both of our bucks in the dark and walked out with heavy packs in some pretty heavy griz country giving us another great story to embellish when we tell our grandkids once we're too old to do this stuff anymore.
