rclouse79

I put in for 36c mule deer last year and vowed to never do it again. I thought if I stayed at the lower elevations I would see mostly mulies. After seeing whitetail after whitetail without a single mulie I finally got fed up and left a day early. They are out there, but I sure didn't have any luck finding them.

I like that trick your dad did with his fingers to get a couple extra points. I will have to remember that next deer season. Congrats.

Seriously, the best thing about 36c once you drive as far west as a dirt road will let you go you can get away from everybody by hiking into the mountains. I have been in other units where I thought I would be in the middle of nowhere only to crest a hill and see some fatty on a 4 wheeler driving around. Google earth is your friend.

I think you will have the best results by sitting in your car just across the highway from the three points gun range and glassing south.

One side opinions are worthless, but you can have mine anyways. I bought a tikka .270 and love it. It has been in the kill zone on paper out to 500 yds, and after working up a load I was able to cover up 4 shots with a quarter at 100 yds. I shot a coues at 300 yrds that was facing me head on and the bullet went throught the deer lengthwise and exited. I am shooting 130 grain barnes tipped triple shocks. I don't plan to shoot out to 1000 yrds and have no idea how my gun would perform at that distance.

1 coues dear = 1 plastic Walmart bag full of meat. When my wife picked up my deer from the butcher two years ago the guy laughed when she asked if she needed to back the truck up to his shop to load it up.

You guys are lucky. Those of us that had the October hunt have to face the fact that it is another year of waiting. It reminds me of the feeling I got as a small child when you lay down the night of Christmas day and it sinks in that it is all over. Good luck on your hunts.

Sweet buck. So how many of your shots ended up connecting?

Try moving the position of your eye relative to your scope.

Got this e-mail last week and couldn't stop laughing. Four guys have been going to the same moose camp for many years. Two days before the group is to leave, Ron's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going. Ron's friends are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do. Two days later the three get to the camping site only to find Ron sitting there with a tent set up, firewood gathered, and dinner cooking on the fire. "Dang man, how long you been here, and how did you talk your wife into letting you go?" "Well, I've been here since yesterday." "Yesterday evening, I was sitting in my chair at home and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over my eyes and said. 'guess Who?' I pulled her hands off, and she was wearing a brand new nightie. She took my hand and pulled me to our bedroom. The room had candles and rose petals all over. On the bed she had handcuffs, and ropes! She told me to tie and cuff her to the bed, and I did. And then she said, "Do whatever you want." So, here I am.

I had hiked up and down a couple of good climbs opening day and ended up at a spot I had never been with an hour of light left. It was a rock outcropping on a ridge that had close to a 100 ft vertical drop before hitting a steep slope. I found a nice little flat spot to sit and watch. I was tired of hiking and sweating and decided to stay put until dark. I was watching some does on the other side of the hill 600 yards away. I was just thinking that I didn’t really like the spot when I looked straight down and saw 2 does coming out of some cover. Something in front of them caused them to be on alert. I glassed the area they were looking towards and instantly saw a buck 200 yards away. It is always a magical feeling to see one when you have been looking at does all day and have convinced yourself there are no bucks in the area. I went to grab my gun and bumped my tripod which made a metal clinking noise. When I relocated the deer they were booking it up the other side of the draw. I saw where they were headed and decided to hike along the rim of the big bowl until I was above the draw. I was kicking myself the whole walk over for getting too excited and not being careful. It probably took me 20 minutes to hike over there. I raised my binoculars and instantly saw a buck frozen and staring in my direction. The sight shocked me as I was not actually expecting to locate them again before dark. I ranged him at 300 yards. The spot I was on was pretty steep, and not an ideal setup for a shot. I probably fiddled around for a couple of minutes, and ended up in a semi-prone position. I had to have my feet almost pointing towards the barrel because it was too steep to lay behind the rifle. It felt awkward, but the crosshairs were nice and steady. I put the 300 yard mark on my rapid z recticle a touch low to account for the downhill angle and let her rip. I saw the buck jump in the air right after I shot. I knew daylight was running out so I hurried down to the spot where the buck stood with high hopes. I used my rangefinder back up the hill to where I shot from to make sure I was at 300 yards. I looked down and found blood almost instantly. It was a relief to see him piled up a few yards away. The shot went through his left shoulder and exited his belly right between his rear legs. He is not a monster but he is my best one yet and I was happy with him. I might think twice again before shooting a deer on top of a mountain 2 miles from my truck at dusk. It took me an hour to take care of the deer and get it on my pack and 2 ½ more hours to waddle back to my truck. Although it kicked my butt it was worth it.

Nice pictures. Hope you have better luck next year. I bet your trigger finger is getting itchy after 3 years.

It use to be an air mattress until this last hunting trip. She had a leak and I was "sleeping" on hard truck bed half an hour after I blew it up. I am going with a cheap cot and pad from now on. If the cot breaks you still have the pad.

I bought a .270 to use as my only hunting rifle, and some people said it was not enough gun for elk. I have not shot an elk with it yet, but I was encouraged with its performance on my coues hunt yesterday. I shot a buck facing me through the left shouler and out the back end from 300 yards. I would describe the damage from the 130 grain barnes triple shock bullet as massive. I think your caliber will be fine and using a good quality bullet will seal the deal. I have been impressed with barnes for accuracy and terminal performance. Just wish they were cheaper.

Thanks for the review. I am still making due with the old etreks I have had for 10+ years. I will add the new model of GPS to my list of toys I can't afford to buy.

I caught a bad case of the hunting fever this year. I have combined all of the old hunting lists I made of the years, and made one ULTIMATE HUNTING list in excel. I broke up my gear into food, hunting supplies and camping supplies. Within each category I broke up, color coded, and alphabetized items based on if they go in my hunting pack, my plastic bin, clothes bag, or loose in the back of the truck. I have packed all of my gear twice. I compulsively check this web site often enough that I probably need to see a psychiatrist. I hope to shoot a buck half as nice as what a lot of these jr. hunters have been posting. As of 10:00 a.m. this morning: Leave the house for camp- 79 hrs Alarm goes off opening morning- 90 hrs 30 min First minute of legal shooting light - 92 hrs 32 min

Heck, I would be hard pressed to have a packing list. I just get out all my stuff. go yep, nope, maybe... (the only maybe that gets packed every year and has never been opened is rain gear) HAHAHAHA color coding it for what it goes in? Heck no... I would hate to see his garage and pantry... I too would love to see the excel sheet though You would laugh if you saw the dump that is my garage. I need the color coded list so I don't get out in BFE and realize the thing I need is at home in a pile of stuff. The list is on my home computer. I will post it tonight so people can get a good chuckle.

I thought of this post last weekend. We were going down to scout our deer unit and stopped at the gas station in three points. There was a guy in front of me with full arm band tatoos. The majority of the tatooed area was occupied by topless women. I could have guessed it was a food debit card before he pulled it out. It made me a little sick to think that we were buying the dude bacon so he could waste his money on tatoos and God knows what else. The worst part was the little girl standing next to him holding the bacon. Some people are not lucky enough to start out life with much of a chance.

Cool!

I have had Butler Creek flip up scope caps on my rifle for ten years and have loved them. Last year I bought a new scope and outfitted it with Butler Creek covers. The second day of my deer hunt I looked down and saw the cover for the eye piece had completely broken off. I figured it was a fluke since I had good luck with them in the past. I bought a new cover and figured I would be good to go for my elk hunt. Day 2 of the elk hunt the same thing happened. I ended up making some ugly scope cover out of duct tape to protect my beloved scope for the rest of the hunt. I did call the company to complain and they sent me a new one. I was planning to buy Butler Creek covers as a backup for my hunts this year, but after reading the customer reviews I am rethinking that plan. Apparently the majority of people who bought old Butler Creek and new Butler Creek scope caps found the same thing I did. They started to make an absolutely crappy product to save a few pennies. Not a very good business model if you ask me. Has anyone had good luck with other flip up covers? I saw Nightforce made one that was similar in design to the Butler Creek. Leupold makes an aluminum screw in cover that looks awesome (and pricy), but I don't think it would fit my Zeiss scope.

I just had an idea. I am going to wrap the arm with fly tying thread and epoxy the thread after I am done. Maybe I will even put a small bit of paper clip under the thread. If it holds up better I will let everyone know.

I have them closed unless I am set up somewhere and am not moving. My problems have been with the eye piece cover. I think the force from the spring causes the cap to accelerate too much when you open it. The momentum of the lid is too much for the little flimsy plastic arm to stop without breaking. I was trying to think of a way to reinforce the arm before I use it. Maybe mold a piece of a paper clip to the arm and epoxy it for added support. I love the convenience of the things and am sad they are not made like they use to be.

I think they are using a different type of plastic. The small plastic arm that connects the lens cover to the spring mechanism is averaging 2 trips before breaking. My old ones never broke after years of use.

This post caused me to think of an analogy. Like it or not, here she is. 1) You shoot an elk across the canyon and actually see that it has expired. You go to grab your buddy to pack out the animal and come back to see someone else gutting your elk. This is the equivalent of coming home from work and finding some dude giving it to your wife. You should be pissed and most people would not hold it against you if you beat the living tar out of the dude. 2) You shoot an elk and find it 8 hours later still alive. You push the elk off and decide to come back the next day to look for it. The next day you find it some distance away from where you pushed it with somebody gutting it out. This is the equivalent of going on a date with the girl of your dreams. You are panicked when she will not return your phone calls so you start snooping around. After some first rate detective work you find that she is going out with someone else. You find yourself in a very agitated state and feel like beating the other guys face in. Although your feelings are normal and understandable, most people would NOT think that you were justified in taking action against the lucky guy. Bottom line is you didn’t close the deal and somebody else did. As someone posted earlier, there is at least a remote possibility that another hunter shot the same elk that you did which ended up killing it. There is also a possibility that if they hadn’t shot it you never would have found it. IF this were the case, I think it would be better that somebody made good use of the elk, instead of it dying due to an infection some time later. IF they found your elk dead and claimed it, that is not cool. In either case it does not sting nearly as much as it would have because you got another one. Congrats on your harvest, and thanks for the story.

If I have my way there will be one less buck in the unit by the time you start your hunt.