wife MADE me take her hunting and then....

07 December 2011, 23:05

hadn't been home 12 hours and was headed out the door again.
this time thou it was my wife sitting in the passenger seat.
we had all the gear with us and were well suited in late season winter clothing.
as we drove up the river i'm retelling the story of the absolute monster of a mule deer
I got to put my hands on the day before,
compliments of our own drummond lindsey and the great guy hunting with him that week.
A classic eastern plains monster.

and after telling my wife the tale, she relays to me that her quarry for the day was going to have to be "a big one and the perfect specimen"
Oh crap, this could be a loonnng hunt.
couple of the good things about hunting with your sweetheart, she prettier than my last 4 or 5 yrs of hunters and she packs a better lunch than i ever would.
we got in amongst them later on in the morning and after a couple mile stalk she was able to get one picked out and tagged and in the back of the truck before dark.
we made it back to the house and did alittle more dressing and you can be the judge of how she did.

OK maybe its alittle early for xmas trees and christmas songs but it earned me some points that I promptly spent and bailed out this morning on a hunt of my own.
there is one area near the ravenr homestead that is still open for elk and i decided to make a swing thru there this morning and see if i couldn't punch my elk tag.
Wyoming game and fish is trying to keep these elk out of the agriculture and its good for any elk with a general tag.
daylight this morning found me glassing the back country and it wasn't long and i picked out 30 head.
i drove down to the ranch and got permission and offered to help feed and chop ice so the manager could go along but he declined and off i went.
driving up and around to the ridge i parked my truck and bailed out with the bear dog.
I made a run down the right side of the ridge as the wind was behind me and figured i'd find
them feeding on the sunlite side.(left side)
sure enough a half mile into the walk I peeked over and located the herd, alittle adjustment and i had them at 230 and punched my elk tag.

Been a hell of a week and its only Wed.
got a cow tag for up the river and thinking of loading ponies here in a few days and sorting that out.
till then enjoy and safe travels

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.