Mountaineer’s Firearm Season

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   Having been bowhunting a few times this year, I had my firearms season strategy fairly well ironed out.  I had permission to hunt an adjacent farm as well as our own and thought that I could use other hunter’s pressure to my advantage.  In a nutshell, my strategy was to work my way into our property by hunting the adjacent property fringes and gradually work my way towards the core of our property.  The adjacent property was fallow pasture and shrub covered hills and valleys.  Our property was more well maintained with the open ground being more open and the forested areas being more mature – a good mix.

1^st Day Morning
I decided that the first place I’d hunt would be an observation stand that I had put up that overlooked a LOT of ground including two or three valleys that served as an escape corridor to the sanctuaries on our property.  This adjacent property was sure to have more hunting pressure I could use to my advantage.  For this type of hunting I used my long range rig.  Remington 700 Sendero Stainless Fluted chambered in 7 mm Remington Ultra Mag with a 6.5-24X Sightron SII Mil-Dot with target turrets.  Fodder for this rifle was a 162 gr. Hornady A-Max sitting on top of fairly mild 89.7 grains of H-1000 primed by Federal GM215 Match Magnum primers in Remington Cases.  Although muzzle velocity was “only” around 3100 fps, this load proved very accurate in the past and had allowed me to build confidence over several distances. 

I didn’t see many deer at first other than some does that crossed into the draw to the left (west) and on the slopes to the north.  Finally, a doe and buck grunted immediately below my stand.  I finally caught sight of him as he ate hickory nuts with his girlfriend.  Merely 50 yards away, I could tell he was no shooter.  He became known as the “no brow tines 8 pointer” in other words a 6 pointer who would’ve been an 8 had he had brow tines (eastern count).  They ate and played for nearly an hour at distances as close as 30 yards!  Not a distance requiring the armament I had!  They were safe.  Later, I saw a number of deer feeding in the fields to the northeast.  A good buck came by to check out the does and I knew he was going to be a shooter.  As he lazily walked out the field toward a draw I got a good look at him from behind – rack wider than the body, tines long as ears, a good buck!  I then lasered the spot I hoped he would walk out into – 620 yards!  Wow, that is a ways and as I made the necessary adjustments, he dropped into the draw.  Though I waited and waited for him to pop up the other side, he didn’t.  He must have turned and went into the sanctuary of brush in the bottoms.  Dang!  Oh well, it was good to see him!

Though I stayed in the stand till about 11:00 AM, I didn’t see anything worth shooting so off to camp for some breakfast.

1^st Day Evening
At about 2:00 PM, I headed back out and sat up in a treestand along the creekline edge of a valley which again lead from the adjacent property to ours.

This time I was packing the Winchester Model 70 30-06 with it’s Douglas 26 inch barrel stuffed with 165 gr. Nosler Partitions and 57.5 grains of W-760 that ran about 2950 fps, near 300 mag velocity.  Sitting on top was a Leupold VX III 3.5-10X that would allow plenty of light on this evening hunt.  I was hoping that the deer would feed up through the valley as they so often do and give me a chance to look over a good buck.  The weather was warm now, not very good for deer hunting and the deer didn’t move until last light.  I did manage to see a few does and kept thinking that some fresh venison would be a nice addition to the camp supper (though we had been eating venison from last year in some form all day – sausage, roasts, tenderloin, etc.) but I also kept thinking that a lovestruck buck might come out to investigate so patience prevailed and no deer taken this evening.

2^nd Day Morning
I returned to the stand location I had hunted the evening before.  The weather was unseasonably warm.  Though comfortable, I knew this was going to make hunting horrible.  I was right.  Over four hours in a stand produced no deer at all.  I climbed down and took my stand with me figuring I might need it later.

2^nd Day Evening
Again, I had set up near a well known doe feeding area.  This stand was along a creek that overlooked a hay and clover field

The problem was getting there as it took a good bit of “settling time” for the deer.  As such, I was in my stand at 3:00 PM and was resolved to sit there till dark.  My plan worked as I sat and watched two fawns come in and feed and at the very last light a mature doe walked out – obviously cautious.  She never busted me and as light was fading fast I had to make a decision on whether or not to harvest her.  The Winchester Model 70 30-06 with 26 inch Douglas barrel was topped with a Leupold VXIII 3.5-10X-40 mm but the crosshairs were getting ever more hard to see though I could see the doe just fine through the lens.  It was now that I had to decide whether or not to shoot.  I opted to do just that.  I settled the crosshairs on the base of her neck and let loose a 165 grain Nosler Partition.  Bang, flop.  At 75 yards, it was deadly, severing her spine and taking out the top of the opposite shoulder due to the angle of the shot.  It was good to have my first “semi-custom” rifle get bloodied again.  I can’t even guess how many game animals this rifle had taken in the past, well over 30 I’d guess.  Like I told the guys in camp, “it’s baaaaack!”  Sorry, didn't get any pics of this doe.

3^rd Day morning
Finally the weather broke and I knew deer would be moving.  This morning, I opted to hunt “the woods” instead of the more open areas.  Getting on location at about 45 minutes before light, I had bumped a few deer out in the field on my way in but there’d be plenty of time for things to “settle.”  This location is “busy” with terrain features that deer like to use.  Halfway down the spur I have a blind placed on the edge of a thicket.  From here, I could see deer skylined on the edge of the field I had walked through, intercept deer traveling along the bench from the adjacent drainages and see deer come up the spur from their bedding thicket behind me.  In short, a good spot.  

Today, I had opted to go “old school” and use a factory stocked Winchester 94 AE 30-30 with open sights.  Like the doe I took with my 30-06, it had been a long time since I had taken any deer with an open sighted firearm and never had I taken one with a 30-30.  Today was the day I thought.  The blind I was in was cold and I anxiously awaited the suns warmth.  Standing inside the blind every so often to get circulation up (about every 45 minutes) I  took notice of the surrounding shooting lanes when to my surprise I noticed a good buck cold trailing along the edge of the field but nothing I could do could get him to stop.  Dang!  Shortly thereafter, a doe came out at about 100 yards and I was planning to take her but she was curiously watching her backtrail.  I knew something had to be following.  Sure enough a decent little 6 pointer came out but not quite the caliber of buck I was hoping for so he got a passing over.  Then after him came two more fawns.  All came quartering towards me and the thicket behind me.  I lost them but about 15 minutes later heard the same pack coming up from behind and at a distance of about 5 yards the big doe popped out.  The shooting lane was too narrow for the amount of time I had so she was passed over.  The pack moved on and I was contently watching for more deer.  About an hour later, a big doe and her two fawns came along the shelf I was one and I was resolved to take the big doe.  At about bow range, 40 yards, I cocked the hammer of the “gun that won the west” and waited for the shot.  Naturally, the doe stopped behind a tree covering her vitals with only her neck showing.  She started to get nervous and though there was no wind, the thermals were probably drifting my scent up to her.  Knowing she’d bound away, I aimed carefully at her neck and let loose a 170 grain flat nosed Speer of old.  It found its mark and the doe rolled downhill nearly into my lap.  The fawns just stood there and finally bound away when I got out of the blind.  A few pictures, a field dressing job and a return trip with the Yamaha Kodiak 450 (unlike many I don’t hunt from vehicles but do use them for access and recovery) my second deer of the year was on the ground. 