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Blacktail Deer -Early Season PLM Hunt in Humboldt, County
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Hunting up at the Diamond C this week. The plan was to try and take a buck with my bow, however, I'm always willing to pull out the rifle when there is a buck that we simply want to take 'by any means necessary' right now! On Dylan's ranch that's not an unusual circumstance and pretty much what happened.

Wednesday I had a couple close bow opportunities. First with a bedded 3x3 that by the time I decided to get serious wisely evacuated the area. Later that night we came on a band of pigs and got to 50 yards. There were two black sows with a bunch of little ones. I found a lane in between the low branches of the oak we were under and put my 50 pin on one of the sows. My arrow sailed just over her back and they milled for a few seconds and then scrambled off. The next morning I shot three arrows at 50 on Dylan's range and they grouped six inches high! Adjusted the pin and was good to go.

Thursday morning it was foggy up top. We weren't seeing many deer out below and headed up there just as it was breaking up. Dylan had been guiding a very accomplished bow hunter before I arrived that tried for a big buck up here they named 'Hightower'. He was pretty smart and they could not get within 100 yards of him.

It turns out he was the same buck standing next to my 5x7 last year when I shot him. After the 5x7 dropped he just stood there for the longest time and without the 5x7 next to him Dylan and I realized what a great buck he was too. In fact I was just about to shoot him when he moved off. We agreed if we had a chance at him we'd just pull out the rifle.



Well Thursday morning when we were checking out the ranch up top we came on a buck and a doe in the middle of a big clearing with no cover at all. We got up to a big oak tree. When he picked his head up I could see he was the tallest buck I'd ever seen. Dylan confirmed it was Hightower. The wind was wrong and the doe next to him had already busted us so we didn't have a lot of time. Dylan handed me my Sako 30.06 and I jacked a round. He was about 120 yards and fell dead at the shot.



Was using the new Hornady Superformance ammo with a 150gr SST. I recovered the bullet from just under the hide on the offside. These shoot great through the Sako and it's great to see they perform so well in the field too. The expanded bullet is actually wider than the .410" three shot group from my 'zero check' preparing for the hunt.



Thursday night we headed back out to hunt the pigs. We found that same band not far from a pond in a grassy clearing. We were able to sneak through the woods and get to about 30 yards as they fed towards us. I was able to shoot two of the smaller ones pretty quickly. They didn't really spook and one of the larger black sows came right back into the middle of the field by us at 40 yards and I made a good shot on her as well. Having Dylan next to me with his Leica range finding binoculars made it seem easy. I really like my Hoyt Carbon Element bow. I will try again for my second bow buck when I return in November.
 
Posts: 161 | Location: La Honda, California | Registered: 22 August 2002Reply With Quote
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Very nice buck


Mike

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.
 
Posts: 10136 | Location: Loving retirement in Boise, ID | Registered: 16 December 2003Reply With Quote
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Congrats, Dylan does a nice job.
 
Posts: 633 | Location: California | Registered: 25 June 2005Reply With Quote
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So if you want to shoot a decent 3x3 or 4x4 its $6250? Then $200 PER INCH over 130 b&c?

I need to go into the outfitting business!


Zinfandel and venison are GOOD!
 
Posts: 51 | Location: Mendocino County California | Registered: 26 January 2010Reply With Quote
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CHWine, yes it's in the link. My class buck was 4250. It's 6250 for a buck over 130.
 
Posts: 161 | Location: La Honda, California | Registered: 22 August 2002Reply With Quote
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Nice buck. Congrats.
 
Posts: 1851 | Registered: 12 May 2009Reply With Quote
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