It's funny how an off-the-cuff comment can sometimes open doors and produce opportunities. We were invited to a wedding in the end of March. Someone said to another, "put that on your calendar so you won't be trying to turkey hunt". A lady came over. She asked, "you hunt turkeys"? "Uh, yeah", we replied. She went on to say she owns a ranch that has been abandoned for the past 4-years. It used to be a cattle operation and was maintained and had a Foreman there every day. She said there "used to be" a lot of turkeys. She went on ... "I've leased the place, long term, to a solar farm company. They are going to clear the property down to the dirt, even knock down the house and barn". My only response was, "When"? She said in about 10-months, but we are welcome to go look for turkey. But she continued. "There's big ranches on 3-sides and the Highway runs across the front. A lot of interesting animals come from those ranches now, looking for a safe, thick area to hide out". "Like what", someone else asked. Axis deer, Aoudad, Elk, Blackbuck. Well, I made plans to look for turkeys.
I set out my cameras and I had a little corn-feeder in the truck. My plan was to find a potential roost spot, set up a camera and feeder nearby and go home to monitor if any turkeys were using the area. The lady said there was an old rifle-range in the front, so I grabbed a rifle in case I felt like shooting. I was going to Texas anyway to check on our other house. Upon arrival I went to the spot that aerial view maps showed to be likely. There was one turkey track in the recently dampened soil. I set up the camera and feeder. I thought I'd call for a while so I dug through my bag for a call. Nada. I forgot my turkey calls.
I loaded my rifle and decided to go for a long walk. BTW, you can shoot turkeys with a rifle although that's not what I had in mind. A 4:30PM I set out along a game trail. I had my HECS suit that I really believe in for turkey hunting, but I put it under my more traditional attire for the walk. The HECS technology works either way, but I was not camo this way. One thing I noticed was that where there was low spots with dark dirt my footsteps fell silent and sunk in slightly. On gray, drier ground my feet fell hard and picked up a little puff of dust.
Around a mile later an animal stood up to my left. It was obscured by heavy brush but appeared to be a spike elk. Instead of my mind saying, "get the gun up" my thoughts were "wow they didn't drop antlers yet". Further along I spotted another larger animal that moved swiftly away from me. I am sure it was an elk too, but I did not see if it had antlers or not. I was amazed at how silently he crossed through a patch of blue-bonnets when it seemed like every one of my footsteps was thunder. I was angling across the compass to make a sort-of circle when I saw an animal on the ground. Sneaking further I felt sweat running and thought I got a whiff of my body odor. At around 50-yards, 7 cow elk stood up and walked to a spot under the trees around 75-yards from me. I could hear the wind and feel the breeze on my face so I knew I couldn't get closer. I watched for a while and they moved off. I thought, "this is awful far from the truck to deal with an elk with only an hour or so of light left". I curved back on my circle.
With a blank mind taking in the red birds fluttering and the clouds moving rapidly overhead I was jostled to a conscious state when a flash of white caught me attention and snapped me out of my trance. White? I eased closer and closer. Too small for a cow. A snow goose? A crane? No. What could be white and moving through the woods? One step at a time, using my leg muscles to ease down every step in silence I moved closer. Somewhere around the 75-yard mark the animal moved from behind a little incline and I could see it was a deer. Back behind the incline only its head was visible. I moved closer. After what seemed like hours, but really was about 15-minutes, I settled down by a bush expecting the animal to cross from my left to right. A few minutes later it came over the rise and stood facing me. Well that's not what I expected. I just shot this rifle a few days ago. I learned that it likes thinner patches than what I wanted it to. With 80 grains of 3F Swiss, a .015 patch with mink oil and a .570 ball the rifle was shooting golf-ball sized groups at 50-yards and baseball sized groups at 100 yards. Someone, over 150-years ago thought it was a good idea to add a second folding leaf rear sight that is marked 300. I choose to ignore that bit of optimism.
My best guess is that I am about a 10-minute walk from where I parked. I settle the sights on the chest where the neck meets and I squeeze the trigger. The white spot disappears and then re-appears on the ground under the puff of smoke, right under where it was standing. The ball flew true.
This ended up being a white fallow deer doe, around 220-pounds.
The rifle is an 1843 Purdey. It started life as a fowler and was returned to the factory for conversion to a rifle in 1865. The octagon to round, double wedding ring damascus barrel was lined with rifling, and sights were installed. This is the first game I have taken with this rifle.
I set out my cameras and I had a little corn-feeder in the truck. My plan was to find a potential roost spot, set up a camera and feeder nearby and go home to monitor if any turkeys were using the area. The lady said there was an old rifle-range in the front, so I grabbed a rifle in case I felt like shooting. I was going to Texas anyway to check on our other house. Upon arrival I went to the spot that aerial view maps showed to be likely. There was one turkey track in the recently dampened soil. I set up the camera and feeder. I thought I'd call for a while so I dug through my bag for a call. Nada. I forgot my turkey calls.
I loaded my rifle and decided to go for a long walk. BTW, you can shoot turkeys with a rifle although that's not what I had in mind. A 4:30PM I set out along a game trail. I had my HECS suit that I really believe in for turkey hunting, but I put it under my more traditional attire for the walk. The HECS technology works either way, but I was not camo this way. One thing I noticed was that where there was low spots with dark dirt my footsteps fell silent and sunk in slightly. On gray, drier ground my feet fell hard and picked up a little puff of dust.
Around a mile later an animal stood up to my left. It was obscured by heavy brush but appeared to be a spike elk. Instead of my mind saying, "get the gun up" my thoughts were "wow they didn't drop antlers yet". Further along I spotted another larger animal that moved swiftly away from me. I am sure it was an elk too, but I did not see if it had antlers or not. I was amazed at how silently he crossed through a patch of blue-bonnets when it seemed like every one of my footsteps was thunder. I was angling across the compass to make a sort-of circle when I saw an animal on the ground. Sneaking further I felt sweat running and thought I got a whiff of my body odor. At around 50-yards, 7 cow elk stood up and walked to a spot under the trees around 75-yards from me. I could hear the wind and feel the breeze on my face so I knew I couldn't get closer. I watched for a while and they moved off. I thought, "this is awful far from the truck to deal with an elk with only an hour or so of light left". I curved back on my circle.
With a blank mind taking in the red birds fluttering and the clouds moving rapidly overhead I was jostled to a conscious state when a flash of white caught me attention and snapped me out of my trance. White? I eased closer and closer. Too small for a cow. A snow goose? A crane? No. What could be white and moving through the woods? One step at a time, using my leg muscles to ease down every step in silence I moved closer. Somewhere around the 75-yard mark the animal moved from behind a little incline and I could see it was a deer. Back behind the incline only its head was visible. I moved closer. After what seemed like hours, but really was about 15-minutes, I settled down by a bush expecting the animal to cross from my left to right. A few minutes later it came over the rise and stood facing me. Well that's not what I expected. I just shot this rifle a few days ago. I learned that it likes thinner patches than what I wanted it to. With 80 grains of 3F Swiss, a .015 patch with mink oil and a .570 ball the rifle was shooting golf-ball sized groups at 50-yards and baseball sized groups at 100 yards. Someone, over 150-years ago thought it was a good idea to add a second folding leaf rear sight that is marked 300. I choose to ignore that bit of optimism.
My best guess is that I am about a 10-minute walk from where I parked. I settle the sights on the chest where the neck meets and I squeeze the trigger. The white spot disappears and then re-appears on the ground under the puff of smoke, right under where it was standing. The ball flew true.
This ended up being a white fallow deer doe, around 220-pounds.
The rifle is an 1843 Purdey. It started life as a fowler and was returned to the factory for conversion to a rifle in 1865. The octagon to round, double wedding ring damascus barrel was lined with rifling, and sights were installed. This is the first game I have taken with this rifle.
