Headed up the mouth of Lolo canyon this morning looking for a buck. It was crisp with lots of fog and moisture in the air as well as on the ground. There has been a lot of rain in this country the past three weeks and the ground is saturated. Makes it pretty easy to move quietly, but it gets a little slick in mocs. Today, however, it was not raining, and in fact turned out to be a very pleasant day.
I had been still hunting for a couple of hours and had not seen a deer yet when I finaly jumped this buck up. He had me pegged befor I spotted him due to his good choice in selecting a bed for the day. I had no chance for a shot.
I had an idea where he might try and cross over the top of the ridge so I decided to try and j-hook him. I dropped further down the side of the ridge and doubled back in the direction he headed in hopes of staying just below his elevation.
About 10 minutes later as I was easing along, I caught movement of a tail flickering above and to the right of me. I moved ahead a few feet in hopes of seeing more of the deer and sure enough, there he was quartering away from me. Except he did not have me pegged this time! He was looking to his left intead of downhill.
The Red Gods were smiling on me today.
I had to shoot off hand due to the uphill angle. I hit him higher than I intended and ended up taking out the top of the left lung and spine. He dropped at the shot and died moments later. He was real healthy and fatter than hell. The feed has been real good this summer and fall compared to years past.
I drug him 150 yards down to a little clearing to take the photos included in this post. A few chunks of rotten pine log provided a shelf that allowed the use of the self timer.
Saw a lot of scrapes today. A few were made just last night. In about 12 days, all hell will break loose with the rut and it coulda been fun had I held off today. However, I am kinda glad to get one befor they get real smelly.
Rifle is a .50 Dickert w/44 inch Colerain bbl and
Chambers Christians Spring lock (this is the same rifle included in last years post). As always, charge was 80 grn 3f. I stepped the distance off and came up with 72 paces/yards.
By the way, I got a buck in 2007 just 200 hundred yards from where I got this buck today. I have included a picture of that buck as well. The rifle used was a .50 Beck copy built by a close friend of mine.
2007 Beck buck
I had been still hunting for a couple of hours and had not seen a deer yet when I finaly jumped this buck up. He had me pegged befor I spotted him due to his good choice in selecting a bed for the day. I had no chance for a shot.
I had an idea where he might try and cross over the top of the ridge so I decided to try and j-hook him. I dropped further down the side of the ridge and doubled back in the direction he headed in hopes of staying just below his elevation.
About 10 minutes later as I was easing along, I caught movement of a tail flickering above and to the right of me. I moved ahead a few feet in hopes of seeing more of the deer and sure enough, there he was quartering away from me. Except he did not have me pegged this time! He was looking to his left intead of downhill.
The Red Gods were smiling on me today. I had to shoot off hand due to the uphill angle. I hit him higher than I intended and ended up taking out the top of the left lung and spine. He dropped at the shot and died moments later. He was real healthy and fatter than hell. The feed has been real good this summer and fall compared to years past.
I drug him 150 yards down to a little clearing to take the photos included in this post. A few chunks of rotten pine log provided a shelf that allowed the use of the self timer.
Saw a lot of scrapes today. A few were made just last night. In about 12 days, all hell will break loose with the rut and it coulda been fun had I held off today. However, I am kinda glad to get one befor they get real smelly.
Rifle is a .50 Dickert w/44 inch Colerain bbl and
Chambers Christians Spring lock (this is the same rifle included in last years post). As always, charge was 80 grn 3f. I stepped the distance off and came up with 72 paces/yards.
By the way, I got a buck in 2007 just 200 hundred yards from where I got this buck today. I have included a picture of that buck as well. The rifle used was a .50 Beck copy built by a close friend of mine.
2007 Beck buck
