ok, i'll try this again (3rd attempt today!)

on 26 october, we set out very early on opening morning and arrived where we wanted to just a few bare minutes after legal hunting hours began. like last year, we went to a nice BMA section north of chinook comprising several hundred acres of prime habitat for both whitetails and mulies:

even better news is that no one else was there.

weather was COLD. i am not sure of the exact temperature, but it was definitely below freezing; snow on the ground and cold wind blowing over that snow made it even colder.

we parked at a parking area and proceeded to walk in. #2 son mike was carrying a savage m110 in .280. i was carrying a herter's mj9 in .308. #3 son billy had stayed behind so that he could attend church for his confirmation studies.

it's an area of prairie up against steep ridges above a creekbed that makes a good bedding area. we like the strategy of spot-and-stalk hutning, and this path affords a good opportunity for that. the going is a bit easier, except for the steep hills around the area; this is a factor for myself and for the 6-year old, roger, who was with us that morning. he is good, knows how to be quiet and stays behind us, and it is always a joy to bring him along as he is very observant and learning to be a good tracker and spotter.

we immediately saw a small group of whitetails, but mike was holding out for a buck and i myself only have a mule B (antlereless) tag for now. the does went off sharply to the north onto some other property, and we proceeded down a winding path around the hills to our creekbed. i had seen deer before going this way and it is possible to come around the side and encounter them still in their beds, so it seemed like a good plan. when we reached the bottom and started working our way up the creekbed, we saw several does in front of us, maybe 150 or 175 yards away, heading at a walk-trot away toward some hills and a fence beyond, maybe another 300 yards. the last doe in the line was a good, large one, so i immediately raised my rifle and fired. i am not good with moving deer, but i led just slightly in front of her and did my best as i didn't think she would stop and would soon start the pogo-stick run that mulies tend to do. when the shot rang out, she immediately stopped for a moment, then headed down into the brushy creek bottom that was close by.

we hadn't heard a hit, but i was very sure that i had hit because she ahd stopped and then immiediately went down into the brush. we worked our way down there, across the creek and to the grassy area where the doe had beed trotting. i sent mike to work around to the left in order to perhaps flank her, flush her out if hiding or find her if she had died. when roger and i got to the spot of the shot, we saw no blood or hair and looked down into the brush where she had gone. there seemed to be no sign of her or of a hit, but we kept looking. before long, we saw her pop up out of the brush maybe 300 yards away and head off over the far ridge. she didn't appear to be wounded, and due to distance and her presenting a rear-end shot, i decided not to try another shot but instead marked well the spot she was at so i could find it when i got there. we searched the brush between our location and where i saw her, looking for any sign of blood (or a dead deer, in case the one that popped out wasn't the same doe), there were a lot of tracks, so it really wasn't viable to try and track her that way, especially with no blood that we could find. we searched through as best we could and found no dead deer and no blood.

when we got to the spot that i had marked, mike joined us, coming from the areas that he had searched without fiinding anything. i saw what i knew to be her tracks and still saw no blood. we followed them a while up enar the ridge and at the top the boys saw her trotting off several hundred yards away on some other property, seemingly without a care in the world. i came to the conclusion that i must have missed her and the reason she had stopped at the shot must have been because the bullet zipped right in front of her and then went into the brush, startling her.

since that area was pretty well searched out by now and roger was starting to complain quite a bit about the cold, i decided to work a couple of other areas back toward the car (did i mention our hutning rig this year is a 1990 ford tempo?). i didn't expect to see much, but there were some good-looking areas that deserved a check. mike wanted to walk across a large open area along an old, unused canal ditch and then work some brushy draws, so i told him i would take roger back and he could meet up with us at the car when he was done.

we went through them and saw nothing, and worked our way up the steep hills again to come up at an area that is at the other end of a wide bend in the creek opposite from where we went down. when we got near the car, we saw four mulie does running right in front of us across our field of vision, maybe 150 yards away. this time they were running rather than trotting; first a house about a half-mile away and then the car was pretty much in the line of fire as they ran right behind it and toward a corner in the properties to cross a fence near where we had parked. once they passed the car and were close to the fence, i picked out the alrgest one and attempted a shot at her before she crossed onto the other property. they were running this time, rather than walking or trotting, and i missed miserably. the  does crossed the fence and went on their merry way.

roger and i sat in the car and played hangman for the next hour or so until mike got back. he said that he hadn't seen anything, and looked colder than a polar bear's left testicle in january. so we started up the car and drove to another parking spot a mile or so away while mike warmed up and we talked strategy. we planned to park at the other spot and walk in and work another area where we had seen many deer before - with two of us working it, we figured we could cover a lot of territory.

when we got there, the wind was picking up and it seemed even colder. roger starting whining about the cold and begged to stay behind, so mike went solo in the direction that looked to have the best chance for deer. an hour and a half or so later, he came back, saying that he ahd seen a few does but no bucks. it was close to noon so we decided to go in to town, get some hot lunch and get billy for an afternoon hunt.

when we got there, melissa and biilly were engaged in tearing up the dining room carpet, which was pretty grungy anyway, and she showed me the hardwood beneath. we spent some of the afternoon clearing out the carpet and cleaning cleaning the floor and re-arranging the dining table, piano etc. as a beginning to the refinishing project (see my thread in the DIY section).

the boys and i went out again later in the afternoon. the wind was still whipping pretty good and we only had the two rifles between us (i shamefully have no ammo for the 7x57 - long story) and i elected not to bring the .30/30 since the country is pretty open and the shots seem to be, on the norm, longer. like last year, i decided to give the boys an opportunity to tag out first, so they went to work a good area at the right time of day that usually produces. it was about 1630 and before the time change, so nearly an hour-and-a-half left for some decent hunting.

meanwhile, roger and i got into a conversation with an older pheasant hunter form utah who had just come up from hunting the fields off to the south of where we parked.  he had gotten a nice pheasant rooster, but his dog, a beautiful german shorthaired pointer, had also gotten into a porcupine. he didn't have anything with him to remove the quills and asked us if we had anything, and we looked and found a pair of forceps in a first-aid kit. while he removed the quills from the squirming dog, he told us how he hadn't been pheasant hunting in several years (i think it was 11 years, close to a dozen) and was just happy as a clam in the sand to be out hunting here. he was thankful for the BMA project and very happy with his pheasant that he and his dog had bagged.

after the quills around (and in!) her mouth were extracted (there were a couple that broke off and he couldn't get), he proceeded to photograph the pheasant, whose colors were really looking good in the sundown. he also got a few of the shotgun and the dog and then, with the aid of a tripod, got a few poses of himself, the shotgun and the dog with the pheasant. with the sunset in the backgground, i am sure that they turned out to be very good pix.

we talked some more and watched the boys on the far side of the coulee maybe 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile away. we heard a shot but didn't see any deer, but the boys started tracking off in another direction up a draw. after about half an hour we could see in the fading light that they were on their way back, sans deer. the pheasant hunter thanked me for the use of the forceps and went on his way, and before long the boys made it back to the parking area. i asked about the shot and as it turned out billy took a shot and was pretty sure he had missed because it was an off-hand standing shot at a moving deer pretty far away, but they went and followed it up anyway and found no sign of a hit. i congratulated them on the follow-up and we headed back into town as it got dark.

all-in-all, an unproductive, but interesting day full of good things. there seems to be a good population of deer here of both species and i expect to start seeing bucks there soon. if the oens we saw and heard about last year are any indication, things looks good for some great opportunities.

in the last 3 weeks, three deer down, including one for my dad.

i might need to correct some information later and will definitely add pix, but as of now:

1NOV08 - small mulie buck that was used to fill my B (antlerless) tag. shot at about 150 yards on a downslope with 140-grain nosler solid base on top of federal factory ammo out of a savage m110 in .280 remington. shot went in near a front shoulder, rendering most of it useless, and out the ribcage, blowing a hole that was bigger than expected.

between that and the bloodshot meat throughout even the good front quarter (we were able to save it but had to get rid of a lot of blood jelly) AND a subsequent experience described below when billy tagged his deer, i am beginning to suspect that 150 grain bullets might be better for the .280 (possibly less-violent expansion) than the 140.

i was very impressed with the accuracy. one lung was destroyed and the heart was literally spit in half down to the base. lucky he was relatively small because it was a hell of a drag, close to a mile, at least half of which was uphill with a steep slope! he's all in the freezer now. this was shot at the BMA area mentioned above.

23NOV08 - on a nearby BMA, my dad and billy each tagged very large mulie does; billy's was slightly bigger, but both were the size of decent bucks, i am guessing very close to 200 lbs on the hoof, but that would be just as guess. (rob, if you remember the doe we got near your place in 2004 - using her for comparison, my dad's was a little bigger and billy's made her look like a teenage girl).

both shots were broadside, through-and-through rib cage shots at about 125 yards, with my dad's blowing a lung and exiting just forward of the gut on the opposite side. he was shooting an early 70's vintage remington m700 adl in .30/06 with 150-grain ammo that i had helped him load using IMR something (3031?) and 150-grain core-lokts. on top of this venerable rifle is a cheap 4x tasco that has been sitting there since at least the early 80s. .30-cal hole going in and a slightly bigger one going out, no problems there.

due to an ammo SNAFU, billy's was also taken with the above-mentioned savage in .280. instant heart/lung kill and no complaints about that. the bullet went in one side of the rib cage, made it's mess, and somewhere in there lost its core (this doesn't bother me because the bullet did its job where it was supposed to). the core must have ended up somewhere in the gutpile; the jacket and base continued through in a straight line, penetrated the offside ribcage and was found later under the hide when we hung her up. except for the missing core, it looked like perfect expansion and would have been a beautiful mushroom, i think. we'll weigh the bullet and see what the retained weight was.

neither deer was hit in any bone (including ribs) and there was not an ounce of meat wasted.

these girls were both very heavy and will do a great job of filling the freezer. both drags were easy, less than a half-mile on mostly-level ground near an alfalfa field (they are going to taste VERY good!) with my dad and i dragging his and mike and bill dragging bill's. roger was along for the hunt and did a good job holding barbed wire during fence crossings, carrying one of the rifles on his shoulder and even helped drag a deer a little ways up a small rise.

mike has been holding out for a good buck and will have friday, saturday and sunday to get him. he saw two nice ones yesterday but one was running straight away doing the mule-deer pogo hop and the other was facing straight forward at a pretty good distance against some heavy brush and mike only had a head or a less-likely chance at a brisket shot; neither situation was ideal and he wisely passed up both of them. he's looking forward to giving the .280 a workout this coming weekend, the last of the season.

my oldest son, joe, is coming home this weekend from the job corps for thanksgiving and i'm going to buy him a tag. he likes the .30/30 and will most likely use that, but i still have a few rounds of .308 and he might choose that instead. between him and mike, that will be two more deer for a total of five. i don't think we'll need any more but we'll talk about it when joe gets here and i might pick up an A tag (either sex, either species) and see if we can add to the total. i'd been holding off on it due to our financial situation and a desire to see all of my kids tag out first, but the return in meat would probably be worth it. we'll see ~

after that, we're going to be loading a LOT of ammo!

pictures, a map etc. to follow.

here's the area we hunted on sunday, 23NOV08:

since i don't have enough spare cash to buy a new camera these days, the kids took my place in some pictures with the deer. pictured below are mike and bill with the deer i tagged, a small mulie buck for a B (antlerless) tag. please note that this was the day after halloween, and it looks like billy's hair is still white from his evening out before:

mike takes things a bit more seriously:

here we have the bigger of the two does taken on 23NOV. billy couldn't lift her very well, so mike gave it a try:

here's mike out on the town with the girls:

I didnt wanna go

season's over for us with a pretty darn good ending. i'll post the stories and pictures as soon as i can, but my oldest son, joe, got a nice, good-sized mature doe yesterday and mike tagged his smaller doe in the last minutes of today.

all shots kills this year were one-shot and all animals were very fat. it's been a good year and we're looking forward to the good eats!

Nice story telling, Ron.  Like the real life maps, too.  Sounds like the freezer filled up nicely.  Look forward to the end of season wrap-up.

The 140 gr. Ballistic Tip's are what you're using in the .280, is that correct?  If you like the velocity and trajectory of the 140's you may consider a switch over to the 140 AccuBond.  All the same ballistic attributes as the BT.  I've found that bonded core does hold the bullet together much better.  Still a devastating wound channel but less blood shot meat.  I've used this bullet in the .280 AI and the 7mmRum.  Might be a consideration for next summers load development getting ready for the 2009 big game season.

Anyway, nice job to you and the boys. 

swampshooter - i'll keep those prohunters in mind for my 7x57 as i am a big fan of the 7x57 and the pro-hunter. should be a good combination that might also be worth a look for the .280.

korey - the .280 was shooting factory federal premium ammo with some sort of nosler PSP. the box listed it as a "nosler solid-base" but i am not familiar enough with nosler pills to know exactly what this is. i'll do some research and see if i can find out. your suggestion of the accubond might be a good one as i am impressed with the fast-opening properties of the 140-grain. the younger doe that mike took on saturday was about a 200-yard offhand shot and unfortunately was a gut shot, but due to the quick expansion (shock?) she went down very fast and stayed down in spite of no heart/lung damage. once we got her cleaned up inside it was easy to see that there was good expansion that must have churned her up pretty good.

finally, as promised - here are the pictures, which pretty much tell the story....

set out on friday, 28nov08 in afternoon - here's a picture of the hunting wagon

 - signing in for BMA access

 - looks pretty empty....

 - until you start to go down into the coulee

- these small patches can hold very nice deer

 - part of the coulee we were hunting in...looking northeast

- part of the coulee we were hunting in...looking south

- part of the coulee we were hunting in...looking southeast

- in front of the dam - dry reservoir over the top - note irrigation pipe coming out from dam

- mike and joe set off on their hunt

- sucess! joe's 2008 mule deer doe - hard to prepare for a good picture in the dark!

- field dressing complete - set to drag back to van

 - do we REALLY have to stop for a picture

 - one more for posterity - unfortunately in the dark the bottom got a little cut off

 - keeping the wife happy - no blood to clean up!

- snug and tucked in for the ride home

 - got home just in time to see 'the parade of lights' manqaged to get a few pictures that turned out

- this is what we do in montana for fun in winter

- too cold for muddin' - wait till next summer

- not sure what the daddy golf cart mated with to produce this....

 - parade or child abuse - you decide

- this one turned out kind of neat

 - no montana event is complete without some kind of beer - even if it is budweiser

- even the classic cars are 4-wheelers

 - just in case anyone got hurt....

 - or started a fire

 - even the fire chief got into the act

getting back to business......

 - washing out the cavity

- exit - this is why i like .308s using 150-grn PSPs - with a ribcage shot, you get death without the destruction

 - through-and-through - one shot kill - no meat wasted - herters mj9 in .308 w/150-grn federal factory load - 125 yards

 - the easy way to get a grip for dragging deer!

 - removing tenderloins - too many people neglect these!

 - cutting underneath tenderloins....

 - through-and-through with qaurter for comparision

we drove out to my parents' place to hang the deer in the old shed with the others....

 - no, it's not going to fall down; it just looks like it is....

 - keeping the cavity open to cool overnight

 - the best way i've found to hang deer

 - simply drill a pilot hole....

 - screw in the hook....

 - hoist her up (mike is wishing i would drop the camera and help!)....

 - and hook her on...repeat for other leg

 - about then we really noticed unusually-small ears for a mulie. most likely tips were frozen off, but perhaps a cross-breed with whitetail? you decide....

 - one final picture for the books

 - closing up shed - stay out cats dog!

 - on saturday, 29NOV08, mike went off in search of his deer - he ended up with small mulie doe shot at around 200 yards with a savage m110 in .280 rem (140-grn fed prem load w/nosler flat-base PSPs).