Sam;
Good luck on your mule deer hunt. I hope to see buck photos later.
We don't carry rifles when working cows in a corral either, I should have been more clear. The 94 would ride under my leg only when moving a herd from one chunk of mountain to another on the grazing lease.
Most of our part of the world used to be divided into grazing leases and you couldn�t find a mountain in south central BC that didn�t have a cow on it. Since the whole BSE thing, there are a lot less cattle in the hills.
We started to pack rifles in the late �90�s I guess, as it seemed we started to have too many bears that hadn't been trained well enough.
I�ll say right here that I�ve never even come close to needing that old .30-30. However, I�m given to understand we had a grizzly attack one valley over about a week ago where a sow and a couple 2 year old cubs took on a deer hunter out for a stroll.
Two dead bears via what I heard was a .270 was the result.
Around the corrals we work pretty much all on foot, which has been made much easier in the last couple years when my rancher friend recruited a couple Border Collies.
Good luck on your hunt Sam.
Dwayne