Posted: 01 December 2009 at 16:07 | IP Logged

 My 09 hunting season started out in WY hunting with my Brother Ivan and his 2 youngest boys Robert and Jason. They drew a party tag for wy area 90, one of wyoming's trophy area. Only 125 tags given out. I didn't have a tag but went down to help and just enjoy a unt with them. I was down there for 2 weeks of which 10 days were spent hunting and the rest visiting other relatives. Jason the youngest nephew (30 yrs old) got the first buck on opening morning.

Jasons 5x5 26" wide and 25" tall

 Jason had him on the ground by 10:10 am. We got him field dressed and stashed to pick up on the way out, and continued hunting. All we saw the rest of the day were does and fawns with 2x2s. Most of the 2x2 and 3x3 we saw on the whole hunt had antlers as nice as some of the big 5x5s up here in my part of the country. Wide and tall just didn't have the mass of a mature buck. The second day we hit it hard and while my brother was walking down a smaller draw towards a big deep canyon we saw another hunter on the other side of the canyon. A bit later we heard him shoot 3 times. We watched a lot of deer come out of the canyon. Some does and fawns and small bucks came with in 100 yds of my nephews and I. We finally moved in cause Ivan didn't come out of the canyon. The other hunter had killed a good 5x4 and we helped him and his dad get the buck out to be picked up with a 4 wheeler. Travis and his dad Jerry is from Gilette,WY

Travis and his nice 4x5

We hunted hard every day for the next 7 days with my brother and other nephew passing on some nice bucks looking for the big ones that are known to be in the area. On the eighth day we came upon a bunch of does and fawns with a nice 3x3 with tall but narrow antlers and my brother said the heck with it, times getting short so he shot it.

Ivan's 3x3

The next day we were only going to be able to hunt until around noon as we had to pull camp and head home. Robert finally go on a nice big 2x2 had a good shot and figured he better put some meat in the freezer. So he shot it.

Roberts big 2x2

We got him field dressed and loaded on the quad I was useing

Then headed back to break camp and went home. I had 2 great nephews playing football both varsity and jv, and the last 2 games for each was that weekend. I had never seen them play so it was a lot of fun watching them play. I spent a couple more days visiting and headed home.

  Our season here in montana opened on the 25th of Oct. I didn't get back home until the 27th and just spent a couple of days scouting the area me and Chad and his Marine buddy Justin were going to go after bucks during the rut. I should of keep a journel of the whole hunt but didn't find this blog area until 2 or 3 days before the end of the deer season. I hunted 18 days here just camping and trying to keep up with where a good bunch of does and fawns were at. The bird hunters were so thick on the place we were hunting that it kept the does and fawns moving around pretty good. When I finally found a very nice typical 5x5 they had moved over onto private land that didn't allow hunting.

 Friday Nov 27th found me more concerned with getting meat in the freezer then worrying about antlers. I had 3 tags to fill so I figured I'd better get busy and get something on the ground. I finally got a shot on a good sized Mule deer doe and got her down. Missed the first shot (close shot 120 yards downhill) under her she ran up the other side of the draw, stopped just a bit quartering away and level to me and I hit her just behind the front shoulder and low. Exited just in the front part of her offside shoulder. It was up just enough that it turned her heart to jelly. She rolled down the hill so it was a easy drag to the bottom. I had to use a headlamp to finish dressing her so I didn't get any pictures of her in the field.

Here she is hanging in the garage

That left me with my A tag and Whitetail doe tag to be filled. On Sat we just couldn't get any decent shots on any deer. (I'm pretty picky about my shots, If I'm not comfortable with it I won't take it. I'm a lousy tracker) I don't care for running shots at all. I've never been good at them so I don't take them.

  Sunday morning, the last day of deer season and my nephew and I head over to a friends farm over east of here. He wants some Whaitetails taken off of his place and he doesn't care how many you get. His motto is kill all of them and take the ones you want. That's a lot of farmer and ranchers motto concerning deer around here. We started working around a cattail slough that is dry this time of year. I've never been around that slough that I don't bust up a bunch of deer. We got just a little ways around them and a bunch of does and fawns jumped and ran.. right at the nieghbors house. No shot there. My nephew Chad decided he wanted to go up to a canal that had a lot of cottonwoods and willows on it and walk it, so I told him I would just walk out the slough and then work my way up towards him and may be I would push something out to him. As I was walking the edge of the cattails I saw some more does jump out and run right towards some  cows. I  saw a little buck hobble out behind them and then he stopped and started licking his wound. ( Shot just above the joint on his left hind leg) he was still down in the slough just out of the cattails and had a good bank behind him so I took the shot. That hit him low in the brisket. (I don't think my rifle likes the new loads or I'm jerking the shots. 3 shots later I finally start dressing him out, a small 4x4 , marked the spot on the gps and continue on my way. I'm about half way to where I need to be when my phone rings and it's Chad, We have to get going cause his wife has to go to work and he needs to get home to watch his little boy. So we hurry and meet up and go get my buck loaded and head home to get him hung. ( Of course my camera's batteries are dead).

Me with my 4x4 whitetail buck

 Now it's getting down to the last few hours of the season and I need to fill my WT doe tag.  I really depend on the meat and love it to boot. So Chad and I head out to the ranch we've been hunting all season and sneak in on a little ridge above some willows where we know is a place that whitails bed. We put ourselves between the bedding area and the feeding area and wait. Just as the sun goes down 2 deer come out of the willows and start nibbleing on some grass waiting for it to get darker to head to the main feeding area. They look like 2 fawns so we're hoping that mama will be coming out soon as it's starting to get hard to see them. We finally decide that if we're going to fill our tags then we had better shoot. I had my shooting sticks but Chad didn't have any so we decided that Chad would shoot first and I would shoot mine right behind him. He shot and I shot he missed and ine went down, Chad racked another round and took a running shot and head over tea kettle she went. We started down to get them dressed out and Chad's is trying to get back up, so I handed him my shooting sticks and he put one in her head. We get on down there and I can't find mine, and then I hear noises coming from the willows and I take off towards it and catch up with her dragging her back end thru the willows I get close enough and put one in her head and drag here out to where Chad's is at. It turns out that they were 2 yearling does and not fawns. I still have trouble telling the difference between whitetail does and fawns unless they are side by side. Get out the head lamp and get both of them dressed out. That was cutting it kind of close but at least I'll have some meat in the freezer.

My whitetail doe

I'm shooting a Win model 70 XTR in 30-06

Berger 155 grain VLDs with 57.5 grs of IMR 4350

I'm not sure about them. This is the first year I've used them.

Well it's a lot of rambling but that's how my deer season went this year. Not one bit happy with my shooting but will take care of that next summer. Thanks for reading. Any Questions ask away. Randy

Posted: 02 December 2009 at 02:56 | IP Logged

hey, randy -

a great account of some memorable hunts; congratulations! we had a little bit less luck, althoough i did manage to kill a young whitetail buck in the last few minutes of the last day of the season. unfortunately, my weapon was a 96 dodge grand caravan. i'll tell more about that as soon as i have time.

if you're headed to the range and want some company, let me know any time!

Posted: 02 December 2009 at 16:36 | IP Logged

Millirond;

Nice account, thank you for taking the time to write it down & post it here.

I've been shootin' the .30-06 for a while now & have long since found that one of the standard 150 grain bullets & IMR4350 go together very well.  I use Winchester brass & CCI primers, start the powder charge at 58.6 grains & then work up .2 grains at a time & shoot 5 shot groups.  You'll almost certainly find an accuracy node in there.  I regard 60 grains as an absolute max in the ought-6.

My current load, and it can change with both powder lots and bullet lots over time, is 59.8 gr of IMR4350 with the Hornady #3031 150 grain flat base spire point on top.

900F

Posted: 03 December 2009 at 06:15 | IP Logged

 Thanks guys. I wish I would of kept a journal of the whole hunt seperate and than posted it here, but like I said I just found this part of the forum. Next year. Also I have to try and remember to get pictures in the field. I'm going to go back out to the same area we hunted for coyotes so I'll try to get some pictures of the area. Seems like when I go to take pic the batteries are dead.

Ron---"unfortunately, my weapon was a 96 dodge grand caravan"

I know the feeling. The night before my nephews buddie was suppose to fly home I went out to visit with him and tell him bye, and I hit a good 5x5 WT out on clear creek rd. He was the best WT I had seen all season. Thank god for grill gaurds. 79 f-250 they made them tough. No real damage to the pick-up but can't say the same for the deer.

CB---thanks for the info. When I got these bullets I didn't have a lot of time to work up a good load, plus I couldn't find any info for reloading them. I ended up useing my hornady book and started there. I'll get a load worked up next spring. Plus I'm going to do a lot of shooting at the range but not as much on the bench. I think I've gotten so used to useing the bench and my shooting sticks I've forgotten how to shoot offhand.