Well we got our season off to a good start with a 3 day hunt to a family members ranch in the Smith River Valley. The first evening mMy son was able to kill his first deer a nice little whitetail doe. He missed her on the first shot but she walked back to us after running out in to the field. He took her with his new Savage 7mm-08 at 150 yards on the second shot at the first live animal he's pulled the trigger on.
Josh, his doe, and new rifle.
We let her lay out in the field and I snuck back down the river bank and took my own doe that went over to see why her friend laid down for a nap. My Winchester Model 70 Black Shadow in 300 Win Mag made another one shot kill @ 200+ yards. My rifle is lovingly called "my b!+ch" by my wife and friends because every year it's still right on when go sight in and with the plane jane Remington Core-Lokt 180 grain rounds it shoots (for me) under an inch at 225 yards (my zero). I have taken deer and elk at over 400 yards with an off the shelf rifle, scope, and standard factory ammunition.
We hunted for bucks the next day with my son getting first dibs. My wife got a couple of shots trying to fill her doe tag but the wind was blowing pretty good and the area we were hunting had been pressured quite a bit by other family members so running shots were the standard. She was just happy to get the scope on them and pull the trigger. Taking high pressure shots has been her Nemesis for years and I think she is over coming it. Frustrated at missing or not pulling the trigger she was still smiling. We were unable to find any quality whitetail bucks or really impressive mule deer until the early evening. On our way to the field where Josh and I took our does, My wife's cousin's husband Shane had me stop to glass a rim rock ridge. We spotted a muley buck that looked heavy and tall so we made a stalk. We got to with in 50 yards of him before he jumped up. Josh made a great shot at him, missing right over his back. I was proud that he got the deer in the scope and got the shot off. The deer was not as lucky when Shane pulled the trigger. He had an advantage though as he had been shooting coyotes all day that we had been spotting on the ridges and in the coulee's and was on his game. We drug him down the hill to the truck and made our way to the doe field right at last light. We weren't able to get any "easy" shots this night. My wife made a long shot (for her) on a doe and shot right (more on this later) and was down on herself but after a hot shower and then a good dinner and a couple of drinks with our family she was ready to try again the next day.
Sunday we tried for elk but know there were lots of deer where we were headed so it was a multi species day. No elk showed their faces but there were multiple chances for mule deer for my son. He got to do lots of shooting but wasn't able to connect on any bucks. With my wife's cousin making lunch for us, we made our way back to the ranch. After relaxing and now with full bellies, we headed back to the doe field for one last shot at filling Susie's doe tag before we had to go home. We got to the field and there were already deer out feeding. Susie and I tried to make a stalk on some does feeding out of sight in a little roll in the field but deer in another part of the blew out and took all of the deer in the field out with them. We made a plan for Susie and I to sit by the pivot point and for the rest of the party to walk back to the truck so the deer thought that we gave up and left. Our plan worked as deer feed to within 175 yards of us. As the deer were walking in to range I had her practice dry firing on the doe she chose to take. Susie decided to use my 300 since she could use the Harris bi-pod to sit up and shoot. She said she was always off the deer when the trigger broke. I watched her as she made a dry fire shot and noticed some thing that would really change her shooting. She was pulling on the trigger too high causing the rifle to torque to the right when the trigger broke. I showed here how she needed to get on the trigger so she was making a lateral squeeze on the trigger. After we made these changes she said not only was the trigger easier to squeeze but the sight picture didn't move when she broke the trigger. With new found confidence, she loaded a 180 Remington into the chamber and got ready to make her shot. When the trigger broke this time, the doe dropped with a great shoulder shot.
After cleaning her deer and antelope for the last 5 years, I told her it was time to learn how to gut a deer. She agreed to give it a try and got bloody!
My wife can now gut her own deer!
We had a great weekend with our family and will be back for an end of the season hunt. This one will be in the snow since they have 24" of fresh powder in their yard from the storm! I hope the elk are moving in to the low lands and we can get both Susie and Josh their first elk!
Jay
