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Opening Day In Montana |
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CB900F
Administrator Honor, Integrity Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: Eritrea Status: Offline Points: 8857 |
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Posted: 23 October 2016 at 03:02 |
Fella's;
Yesterday, Saturday the 22nd of October, was opening day for the deer/elk rifle season here in Montana. It dawned very cool and cloudy with precipitation threatening. Then the precipitation stopped threatening and actually began precipitating with all the cold wetness it could muster. My son went up onto the ridge behind our place & sat in a ground blind we'd put up on the east end of the ridge. The son-in-law also trekked up there, both of them on foot mind you, and the son-in-law stayed on the west end. However, both of them neglected to give me a clear and understandable description of their intent, so I went across the pavement to the south. I heard them shoot awhile later & figured they'd scored. Both of them are good shots. Perhaps 10 minutes or so later, I heard a spate of shots to my east on a neighbor's land. About this time I then became involved with some personal business that had decided that it could not wait. So there I was, with me bare bum hangin' out, when I fleetingly see a pod of bachelor bucks transit my hunting ground. There were four that I saw, and there may have been one or two more. But, the sighting was for all of maybe 10 seconds, long enough though to discern that atleast one of the bucks was a real keeper. They also crossed a fence that was a property line & that was the end of that. Being cold, wet, but relieved, I took the ATV back to the ranch to help the boys with their deer. Because I expected them both to have filled their tags, I parked the Yamaha & took the truck up the ridge. Keep in mind that it's still dark, cold, very low clouds, and raining. Which meant that my glasses were fogging inside the truck as I drove near, and by, my son. And a minute later, my son-in-law. I had supposed they'd be up on the hill field dressing their kills so I wasn't looking for them down in the hay fields. And gee, I didn't find either one up on the ridge, so down I came. At which time I did see my S-I-L & daughter on the tractor coming my way. He told me to follow the north hay field fence & I'd find my son and his deer, which I did. Greg now had the Yamaha ATV, and a few kind words for his apparently blind father. I then helped him load the doe onto the ATV & then departed via pavement, leaving him to the hay field. Come to find out, my son took about a 300 yard shot & shot over the first deer, then left the blind he'd been in & a minute later shot the doe at about a hundred yards. Eric had taken a little 3X4 buck & then just went to get the tractor. When he returned to the scene of his success with my daughter, he busied himelf getting the buck loaded into the bucket & my daughter popped an onlooker, another small buck. So, two deer in the bucket! I, having returned to the ranch, got warm & ate breakfast. About three PM, I went back to the south & holed up in an ideal spot to get a nice buck. I napped while waiting. But at around 5:30, no deer at all had shown up to help mow the hay field & no sign of them coming either. However, I did spot a small herd grazing very close to the place Greg had shot his doe in the morning. So, I loaded up, drove past the deer, & turned in on the lane to our spring coulee. I parked in the first field, not wanting to get too close & spook the herd. This also put the wind in my face & I knew the herd was grazing & moving toward me. I hiked to the fence line & turned to where the deer would be & followed the wire. This was up & down, fairly steep, and unimproved field. It was a slog. I proceeded this way about three eights to half a mile, stopping to keep my breathing calm & looking sharply. The rolling nature of the terrain meant I could easily find myself in sight with no cover. I spotted a buck at a fence corner & he was the only deer I did see. I moved to my right about 15 yards & steadied up on a 4 inch wooden fence post & looked around. He was it as far as I could tell, so I shot him. Immediately, four does burst out of a little swale that had hidden them from me & pounded downhill to the south. The little buck staggered & went down just out of sight. I hiked to him and looked around, about 400 yards to my right front was a herd of about 20 to 25 deer! They just stood there lookin' back at me. Oh well, that's the way it goes. If I'd passed on the little buck, he'd still have spooked & probably spooked the big herd as well. He's a nice little 2X3 meat deer. I didn't know it, but Eric had watched the shot from the highway to the south. He met me at my truck, rode with me back to the buck & helped me load it. We field dressed it in the dark by headlight. I'll skin it later this morning. So we've all filled out deer tags, now it's on to elk. 900F Edited by CB900F |
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Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
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BEAR
Administrator Joined: 07 September 2013 Location: Appalachian Mtn Status: Offline Points: 13734 |
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to be continued.....
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Irish Bird Dog
.416 Rigby Too many Joined: 01 March 2009 Location: Midwest Status: Offline Points: 5511 |
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bravo to the "ranch" crew for a successful first day hunt. good story too but lacks the neat pics we get from d4570!
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Irish Bird Dog
NRA Life/Endowment 2nd Amendment Supporter |
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Wing master
Administrator AKA StraightShooter Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 7481 |
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Congratulations to all of you. Meat in the freezer.
Wing master |
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I have always considered myself to be quite the bullshitter, But ocasionally it is nice to sit back and listen to a true professional......So, Carry on.
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BEAR
Administrator Joined: 07 September 2013 Location: Appalachian Mtn Status: Offline Points: 13734 |
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Congratulations. seems like more than a full day for
the whole family. |
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TasunkaWitko
Administrator aka The Gipper Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: Chinook Montana Status: Offline Points: 14749 |
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Weidmanns Heil to everyone!
Very good story - waiting to see how it goes with the elk. No tag for me until next week - |
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TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana
Helfen, Wehren, Heilen Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen |
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CB900F
Administrator Honor, Integrity Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: Eritrea Status: Offline Points: 8857 |
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Taz;
Why not? There's got to be a story there. 900F |
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Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
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TasunkaWitko
Administrator aka The Gipper Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: Chinook Montana Status: Offline Points: 14749 |
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Unfortunately, no story...just bad planning. Need to wait for PayDay!
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TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana
Helfen, Wehren, Heilen Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen |
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d4570
.416 Rigby Joined: 27 January 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 9403 |
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Nice.
Much less expensive then our hunt, and more game. Photo bucket is down for repairs so no pics or story for now. let me just say a 80 gr TTS at 3800 fps out of the six is way plenty for a 4x3 mule deer at a 1/4 mile... Good job CB. TasunkaWitko I always save $200 from out tax refund for my licenses and tags. |
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Remember: Four boxes keep us free ,the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, AND the cartridge box
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Tikkabuck
Administrator **Robert E. Lee IV ** Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8740 |
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Pretty awesome story.What did you shoot yours with this time around ?
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God,Mother,Country,and Hot Rods. Done with political crap.LOL
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CB900F
Administrator Honor, Integrity Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: Eritrea Status: Offline Points: 8857 |
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Tikka;
Since I took the bear with the 6.5 Swede, & the weather was crappy, I used my Tikka blue/syn .30-06. That gun wears a Leupold MKII tactical scope with a mil-dot reticle. And that scope is when I found out that Loopy thinks that vertical adjustments should be twice what horizontal adjustment increments are. In other words, at a hundred yards, half-inch up or down, quarter inch side to side. Makes it damned hard to get it right on the money for sight-in. Which is why I went to Zeiss for serious glass. 900F |
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Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
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jsgbearpaws1
.416 Rigby Joined: 02 March 2013 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3599 |
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Sounds like an eventful day!
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...oh yeah! thats gonna hurt!
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samchap
.416 Rigby Honor, Integrity Joined: 12 August 2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1781 |
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A most excellent family deer tale. Really enjoyed reading
it. |
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samchap - Waldoboro, ME
Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday. |
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CB900F
Administrator Honor, Integrity Joined: 10 June 2003 Location: Eritrea Status: Offline Points: 8857 |
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I thank you all for the kind words.
900F |
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Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!!
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bachekermooni
.223 Remington Joined: 18 April 2016 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 63 |
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CB, Great job. Hoping you are saving the back strap for me MN
opener next weekend. Maybe I can share a deer story as well. May your bullets hit where you aim. |
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Do It Right The FIRST Time.
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