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My friend Roger Wong and I each took a buck and a doe. Roger's went 14 3/4 mine went 12. Now for the story. We landed in Bozeman at around 4 pm on Tuesday the 16th, where I keep a car at a friends house, grabbed some bbq at Famous Dave’s in Bozeman and drove the roughly 4 hours to the ranch which is just south of Roy, MT in the shadow of Black Butte. Enroute a mulie buck ran into the side of the land cruiser while I was doing 65 mph, dented up my door, and tore of the side view mirror. My first kill of the big game season. We arrived around 9:15 pm and were greeted by my good friends Keith and Niki Atcheson. As usual Niki had a variety of snacks out for us to nibble on and a glass of wine. Another hunter arrived, Ron VanNoord of Michigan, and we had a little small talk and Keith discussed the plan for the morning. I have hunted with Keith and Niki many times at this ranch and a typical day starts with a light breakfast, followed by 4 to 5 hours of hunting, a return to camp around 11 am a big brunch of eggs, sausage, pancakes etc., then a return to the field for the afternoon hunt, back to camp at dark where scrumptious hors dourves are served followed by dinner such as stuffed pork tenderloin with peach pie for dessert. We got up the first morning and Roger and I hunted with Keith while Ron hunted with Niki. I quickly learned that antelope are the spookiest animals I have ever hunted. We played a lot of the 450 yard circle shuffle. At one point Keith predicted where they would circle around and we set up about 75 yards from the expected crossing. Keith was spot on with prediction except they passed by at about 40 mph. Later in the morning, we spotted a buck with about 4 does that had fallen out of a group. Keith said he was only an average buck and I said that was fine as I was more interested in the experience than the trophy. We positioned ourselves to intercept them using a small rise in the terrain as cover. The does appeared first followed by the buck angle crossing in front of us. Keith estimated the distance at over 200 but well under 300. I was sighted in dead on at 200. So I set up on my bamboo cross sticks designed for sitting or kneeling and started looking about 25 yards behind the does waiting for the buck to appear. About thirty seconds later the buck came into view and sauntered up behind the does and stopped. I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and squeezed off. I lost sight of the buck under recoil but heard the bullet hit hard. Keith said the buck collapsed…legs yanked out from underneath him. I paced off the distance at 220 of my long steps (which equals 248 yds). The buck was an even 12 inches with worn tips and aged bases. Upon inspection we discovered a through and through wound that clipped the top of the lings and severed the spine. Later that evening, we spotted a nice buck and a ram from a bluff overlooking a field with lots of rolling swales. Roger and Keith made a stalk and Roger took a nice 14 ¾ inch buck. It was really unfair because the buck was pre-occupied. I saw him mount the doe 3 times during Roger and Keith's stalk. Roger was using a 1970s vintage 700 BDL that had been refinshed in oil and I had re-chambered to 300 Hawk. The next morning we looked around but it was very tough to hunt as the winds were gusting to 50 mph. After lunch we switched off guides and Roger and I hunted with Niki Atcheson and we were going to attempt to fill our doe tags. We spotted two does in a cut hay field. We parked and I began a ¼ mile crawl. I first crawled over 200 yards along an irrigation pipe that was covered by grass. When I reached a small rise in the ground that ran the length of the field I rolled over the pipe and crawled another 200 plus yards toward the does. I would crawl 10-15 yards at a time checking the doe’s position. I found the best way to crawl was to place my gun and sticks out in front of me and crawl past them and then reach back and move them a head of me again. The does bedded down and I was able to crawl within about 200 yards and realized the terrain was flat enough and I could take them from the prone position. So I slipped out of my jacket and folded it up in front of me and laid my rifle over it. I could now see clearly that the ‘lopes were looking the other way so I pushed my jacket forward about a yard and then crawled in behind it. I continued this process off and on waiting each time after I moved a yard forward to see if the does had alerted. All in all I probably gained about 24 yards until they both stood up. I immediately lined up on the one on the right and squeezed. The doe collapsed as I heard the bullet strike. I was shooting in about a 25 mile an hour full value wind and my bullet drifted a little far back. The 165 grain 308 Winchester Black Hills Match soft point hit the last rib blew up the liver, traversed the stomach and shattered the off side femur in the rear ham. The doe was taken at 163 long paces or 179 yds. My rifles were my Wiebe custom model 70 with a 24 inch barrel wearing an old Leupold 2.5x8 Vari-X III 140 grain Hornady Interloks over 56.3 grains of IMR 4831 and my custom light weight Remington 700 in 308 Win by Fred Zeglin shooting with Black Hills factory match 165 grain soft points. Later that evening Ron VanNoord returned to camp with a nice 15 1/2 antelope taken with a Ruger 77 in 270 topped by a 4x scope. Ron's shot was lazered at 320 yds. A very tough shot with a 4x power scope. The Hunt was in unit 470 in MT near Roy and in the shadows of Black Butte. Very comfortable accommodations and the meals were outstanding. Keith's wife Niki both guides and is an outstanding chef. To call her a good cook would be an understatement. Below is my new travelling set up for my custom light weight Remington 700 in 308 Win in a Lone Wolf pillar bedded stock. It sports a 22 inch fluted number 2 taper Douglass stainless barrel. The bolt is fluted and the bolt handle is skeletonized. A 2.5x8 matte Leupold Vari X-3 in TRS aluminum rings on XS bases with an integral ghost ring rear sight and green fiber optic front sight. The whole rig weighs 6 1/2 lbs loaded and slinged. All the screws are marked and indexed. I am able to dissemble and re-assemble the rifle with less than a one inch change in point of impact. Mike Legistine actu quod scripsi? Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue. What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | ||
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congratulations, mike - that's a nice area. | |||
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Need soome pics Mike. What about that buck standing along side I 680 Jim "Bwana Umfundi" NRA | |||
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Jim, I saw another nice 3x3 on Hwy 24 eastbound coming out of the Caldecott tunnel Mike Legistine actu quod scripsi? Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue. What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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BTT with Pics Mike Legistine actu quod scripsi? Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue. What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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great job---yea there's some nice bucks right at the Caldecott for sure--chris | |||
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Amazing ain't it? Some of the biggest bucks in my area are hanging out around the river by the Convention Center. We are talking city limits here also. Jim "Bwana Umfundi" NRA | |||
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I hunted in Roy Mt right near where yall did.I love it there.I saw Pronghorn by the thousands,elk,mule deer and whitetailss all the same day.I am hoping to buy some land there.Its an awesome plce to hunt and live. | |||
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Mike, Nice antelope! Congratulations. | |||
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nice pics; saw a GREAT 4 x 4 off of 580, North side, between Dublin and Castro Valley; see more deer here than anywhere else in SFBA, except maybe off of 280 between 92 and Palo Alto... Regards, Craig Nolan Best Regards, Craig Nolan | |||
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Mike, Good work!! Excellent narrative and pix too. You be shootin a fine looking rifle!!! Thanks for the post!!! Don | |||
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one of us |
Great report Mike and congratulations on a fine trophy! NRA Life Member, Band of Bubbas Charter Member, PGCA, DRSS. Shoot & hunt with vintage classics. | |||
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Very nice - congrats! Good Hunting, Tim Herald Worldwide Trophy Adventures tim@trophyadventures.com | |||
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