Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Hey...you got something against Brainerd?!?!?

It really is a nice suburb:)

T zone, nice pics. Thanks for sharing them.

N. Dave nice buck. I have been away from here for a while but I seem to remember you posting about an addition to your cabin? Did I miss it or have you not posted any followup on that? Nothing wrong with a little re-birth of a deer camp?

I look forward to reading many more hunting stories here soon. Good luck everyone.

Ya, that'll do !

Okay then, here is another hunt report.

My dad, daughter Lauren, and I went to Wyoming on an antelope hunt. This year was our 3rd year hunting this ranch.

Day 1: Right away we found one we had seen the year before that Lauren liked. We knew it was the same buck because one horn went forward and had the prong right at the top. The other horn was normal. We then found one that had a really black face that I liked. Back to the goofy buck and Lauren had an opportunity, but it didn't work out. Next to try and find the black faced buck.....but there was this little wet spot on the two-track road. Dad thought, oh, that looks like we could get stuck so I will put one wheel out onto the grass so it doesn't sink. BAD idea. the wheel in the grass sunk and we were left trying to push out a Super Duty. Lots of stuffing rocks, grass, and sticks under the wheel and pushing for all we were worth finally got us out.


By the time we got back to the area the black faced buck was in....no luck. He was gone.

Day 2: Today is the day to put a couple on the stringer. Except there weren't many antelope around. So Lauren and I circled around to a basin on the back side and there were a 20+. Okay, I know where they are gonna run, so back to the truck and position Dad and Lauren. Back to the basin....they were gone. Okay, all the way to the head of the basin and peak over....yep they circled around and are coming at Dad and Lauren from the back side. All the way back to the truck. 200 yards from the truck I hear, BANG!, Bang!.....there go 3 bucks back into the basin....so off I go back into the basin like a ping pong ball. Hard to imagine I know, but they outran me. They slipped over into another basin with a bunch of does. I almost had a 328 yard shot, but they took off before I could get set up.

Back to Dad and Lauren. Dad shot his doe and 5 bucks ran up to within 100 yards of Lauren who shot the biggest one. Yahoo! 2 on the stringer! We quartered Lauren's and then as we were working on Dads, I got to thinking. If I shot one yet today, we could leave tomorrow which would be good for a lot of reasons. So I let them finish and hiked up toward the basin where the group headed. Before I got there, I played cat and mouse with a buck and 2 does. One time I had them at 218 yards, but again, they took off before I could shoot. Then, after a sprint up a big hill, there they were, stopped at 358 yards. Huffing and puffing, I shot and they moved about 30 yards to the left. I shot again at 362 yards and down he went.

For those interested in the particulars, Lauren shot hers with a .243 Ruger American with a Leupold VX3 4.5-14 and 80 gr TTSX at 123 yards. Complete pass through. I shot mine with a 7mm-08 Browning XBolt with a Leupold VX3 4.5-14 with 120 gr TSXs at 358 and 362 yards. One perfect shot; one a couple inches high and couple inches too far back; both pass throughs. For a guy who grew up having to use shotgun/slugs, I was thrilled. That was really, really fun shooting. I think I want to shoot more things with that rifle!

Congrats.

Did you use TSX or TTSX?

TTSX on the .243 and TSX on the 7mm-08. I had found 5 boxes of 7-08 TSXs awhile ago for cheap and snapped them up otherwise I think all the new ones may be TTSXs now??? sure love the bullet performance for each on the 8 that we have harvested over the last few years.

Lol!



There just wasn't time for an addition project this year. Best we could do is a new to us wood stove which I had to rebuild internally (some burned out steel) and a basic rearrangement of beds and furniture .

Congrats on the speed goats. Sounds like a good time.

Well done B-Man family !!

Pics when you can please.

I bought a box of Vortex ammo that was TSX for 223’s. Same thing, they were cheap. The gun didn’t like them much so we just shot targets with em. We hand load the 55gr TTSX and they’re awesome!

Jack made an awesome shot, was great seeing you guys again, I wish I would have had more time to hangout!

It was great to see you guys too. Next year we should be able to have a bit more time to hang out. But you’re a busy man!!

Congratulations to your son and you TZone.
Great times and great photos! Thanks for sharing.
That is a really nice rig that you got for your son including the bog pod.
I need one of those myself.
Hugh

Thanks Hugh.

I want to make it VERY clear Incase he’s reading this...that rig isn’t his. He just got to use it!

He has a Ruger American .223 and a 7600 30-06. I’ll be hanging onto that little Kimber Montana thank you very much.

The Bog-Pod is great. It’s light weight, extends quickly, and is rock solid when you need it. I used Ryan’s last year. I think it’s an essential part of our gear out there. Here in a “hub style” blind too.

This is an attempt to post our elk pictures.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/14235270#Post14235270


Well that failed.

The rest of the story.

Half way to Rapid City on the way out we got a call from my Nephew telling us my sister had a stroke and was going into surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain. Nothing we could do so on we went. Got to Triangle X the next day and Lucas, one of the ranch managers, and our guide. Ask if we minded hunting from the ranch for a couple of day as the elk were not coming out of Yellowstone. We said sure. The next morning after getting to the trailhead we started up the mountain. Just before sunrise we approached a large meadow and saw 10 elk crossing. All bulls. Wife and I saw 7 of them about 1000 yards out. We worked our way around trying to get ahead of them but never could. We did come across 8 or so mule deer does.

We worked our way to a high point over the next several hrs. and had a nice view of a lot of good looking country. Had our lunch there and glassed for a few hrs. Did see one Mule deer buck come out a feed in the big meadow about a mile away. About 2pm we started working the clearing back towards the big meadow. At the big meadow sat and watched the area we thought the bulls might come out. No luck.

Started back down the Meadow a spotted a bull about 600 yards out. Too far for the a shot. That bull just paced us all the way down the meadow never letting us get closer than 600 yards.

We worked into the trees at the end of the meadow a cut some fresh elk track and grizzly in the elk tracks. Followed the down the trail to some fresh beds. Short time later as we neared another clearing we tied up the horses and went on foot. At the clearing we found the elk feeding. About 12 or so cow and one bull. Bull was 400 yards out and the wife made a good shot and elk was down. We kept a sharp lookout while dressing out the elk as we knew the bear was in the area. Halfway through taking care of her elk two other bulls walk out about 400 yards away. I shot right over ones back, was really less than 300, and I held for 400. They walked back into the trees and we finished with the elk.

We got on the horses and started for home. About 200 yards down the clearing Lucas say "they are back" They were now 200 yards away and it was starting to get dark. I got off the horse took my rifle kneeled down and Lucas said the one on the left is the one you shot at before so I put the crosshairs on him and bang flop. Now we had another elk. We took care of him with light from our headlamps. Then the ride out in the dark.

On the way back to the ranch we told Lucas about my sister and that we would be cutting the trip short. All in all a great trip. My cousin and his wife arrived at the ranch, we were going to be hunting with them. They went to camp as we started home. Got word that She got her first elk last Wed. A nice 6x6.

I’m very sorry to hear about your sister Terry. Her and her family will be in our prayers.

I’m glad you guys were able to make the best of the hunt and get some meet for the freezer.

Prayers sent TJAY and congrats on successful hunt.

Jack and I made it to WI to mess around a bit and see whats running around. It has been about 3 weeks since we made it out there. We fine tuned a spot for him to put up his new ladder stand. I think we did OK there. We brushed in my ground blind we have up on the "Hill Side." and we pulled the SD cards on the "Double Ladder."

We haven't had much luck with seeing bucks during the season that we find on the trail cams. But, this year there seems to be a lot more "nice" bucks on the cams we have out. There are still some spikes 'n forks, but there are quite a few more racks than past years.

Here are a few of them.

I'll try to get some better pics up instead of a pic of a pic. Sorry about that.