2007 will be a year to remember for several reasons. My buddy couldn't make the trip to Idaho this year so we were left with hunting Washington. Warm weather, no rain or snow to speak of made things kinda rough. Again it came down to the last day for the regular season.
Got this guy on the last afternoon. Range was only 318 yards but the shot was not overly easy as all we could see was about 6 inches of his neck and his head. Had an absolutely rock solid rest and the buck was standing behind some sagebrush and was totally relaxed and calm. At this range I knew without a doubt that the bullet would hit within 1/2" of where the crosshairs were when the shot broke. With a slight uphill and quartering angle the WC entered where his neck and head joined and came out his offside jaw. He was dead and limp before he hit the ground. At the shot it actually flung his head and neck around against his body and he just sucked up into a ball and fell in his tracks up against the sagebrush he was standing behind.
This is a pic taken with a cell phone where he dropped. I'd forgotten my good camera but always have the cell for emergency use. You can see the exit hole.
This is a little better picture taken during skinning. Unfortunately this is an average sized deer for around here.
This is a shot taken from Google Earth showing the shot. He was up and to the left in some country that a smart hunter might not have been in although once he was at the truck it wasn't all that bad.
This is another shot of the exit spot.
Elk season was some more of the above mentioned deer season weather. Temps close to 60 degrees at times and dusty.
Opening day of elk season this year I had 3 legal bulls standing in a herd of about 75 elk at 485 yards. I also knew that the elk had been running, and were very agitated and disturbed. Their body language along with the position of the other animals in the herd and what I knew they’d been through dictated that I lay there and watch 3 beautiful bulls depart the ridge top I’d been watching them on. Being able to kill a bull was a given, knowing that a cow or other bull may have been wounded dictated the shot should not be taken. The range was a chip shot, the conditions were a deal breaker for me. I also can say that on that first day of hunting season this year, to my knowledge, 7 elk were shot and left to lay and rot in an area of 1 square mile or slightly less. They included 3 legal bulls, 2 illegal bulls and 2 cows. It makes me sick to see stuff like that, knowing what happened and how and why the animals were killed and left to lay and rot. These illegal animals were killed from the same herd that I passed the shot on the 3 bulls. Had the other 7, or more, would be hunters/shooters done the same there would still be a lot of beautiful animals remaining to be hunted. A hunter witnessed a man and his son, through binoculars, kill an illegal bull, take some prime meat and put it in their packs and leave. He called the game wardens and by the time they showed up the two were long gone.
This is another cell phone shot of an illegal bull I found 2 days after he'd been shot and left to rot.
Last week we went up north around Collville and Chewelah for some late season whitetail hunting. Rain and fog all of the time we were there. Saw a few but no luck. However.....we did get to see this guy. Sorry about the quality of the pic but it was really foggy and raining at the time. We haven't had moose around here for too long but in some areas they are really doing well.
Even though normal elk season is over, my buddy and I have a damage control cow elk permit that is good through January so there's still hope for the elk meat in the freezer situation.
2007 Some good, some bad and some UGLY......so far
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