Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Pretty Good Season So Far

I started off this year in Wyoming for mule deer, I scouted for two days before the season and had my eye on a nice 4x4 but unfortunately at first light he crossed a road and someone driving down the road got out and shot him before he got to me. I was about 3/4 mile off the road over looking a draw he was using to access his bedding area.
After that I slowly hunted back towards the end of the BLM I was on and ran into 6 does. Shortly after seeing the does I spotted another deer down in a coolie, when I looked through the binos I could see he was a nice spike muley so I got prone and ranged him at 240 yards. He went up the coolie and out of sight but then popped out about 20-40 yards further. He saw me and looked a little nervous so I put a 140 vld right in the crease behind his shoulder and he went straight down.
I got him quartered up and on ice in the cooler within 2 hours. The 120 lb deer made for a one trip pack out.




I had two antelope tags in a different unit about 60 miles away so I headed up that way to some land I had picked out. Within about 3 hours I spotted a group with a decent buck, I got within 180 yards of them and shot this guy he also went straight down.




The does moved off a little and this mature doe was facing me at about 240 yards so I put the shot between her right shoulder and the brisket. I quartered up these two and made two trips to the truck to get the meat on ice.




Two weeks later was the opener here in Idaho I went to a spot I had been scouting since august. There was a nice bachelor group in this area with a really nice 4x4 and a few younger bucks. While I was walking in I spotted this guy coming out of a creek bottom, I think he heard or saw me and was leaving the area. I was up on a little knob looking over the draw he was in onto another knob about 1/2 mile away. I heard some rocks rolling and thought there was a deer somewhere but could not see it. I started heading down toward the draw so I could access the next knob when I spotted him going up the very knob I was heading toward. I was on a down hill side hill trajectory and he was above me going up. I ranged him at 260 yards but had a hard time getting steady with the situation I was in. I got my pack on the ground and put the bipod on the bag, then leveled the rifle. My body was contorted due to me heading down hill and being on the side with him above me quite a bit. Once I got comfortable he was hard quartering away and I put the reticle just in front of his rear quarter or just behind his shoulder which was only a couple inches due to the angle. Pulled the trigger and saw the impact through the scope, exactly where I was aiming. He hunched up and bounded about 20 yards then flipped head over heals and was down. He ended up being a really nice 3x2 with 4 brow tines.







Rifle is an RBros from Elma WA in 6.5 Creedmoor shooting 140 berger VLD's at 2850. Rogue action, Jewell trigger, EH-1 stock and 26" Broughton barrel.

Congrats on a great season!!!

Just curious why the switch from the nf to the leupold?

Just wanted to try it out and see if the weight made any difference in the field. I really like the vx6 but the NF is back on there now for good. I didn't notice the weight savings especially with the " gunbearer " set up on my pack.
Nice thing about a rail, easy to switch scopes and retain zero. Of course I always check before heading into the field.

Remind me not to look nervous around you. Congrats on the success so far.

Very nice! Wish I could draw a speedgoat tag

The antelope tags were left over tags in a crappy unit.

Only tag I have left is an Oregon west coast blacktail tag. I have never hunted Oregon so if anyone has any tips for that area please PM me. I will be there nov 2-6 to hopefully catch a little rut activity.

Thanks, Gary

The gunbearer setup does reduce the impact of rifle weight a lot while allowing quick deployment. Good season.

Congrats! You are having quite the season already. Great pics, thanks for posting.

Looks like the 6.5 Creed is doing well for you. Nice shooting.

Excellent work; there is nothing like a nice full freezer of clean meat!

Great shooting too.... That Creedmoor and you make a great team.

Thanks for sharing,

Efw

Nice....well done and congrats. What unit was the Idaho mulie in?