Let's hear your story!

[Len Backus]

Let\'s hear your story!

Where are all the stories from this fall's hunts? Come on you guys!

I have one more new story to write about my 525 yard whitetail buck I shot last week on my Wisconsin land but I'm not going to post it if I don't see some of your stories first.

52.5 yards or 525 yards, let's post them!

 

[p dog shooter]

Re: Let\'s hear your story!

Frist day of season watching 735 yards of river. Range finder and rifle ready at 920am 7pt buck steps out just 102 yards away settle in behind bi-pod place first mil dot above cross hair on chest touch her off. Buck ran apox. 70 yards both lungs hit 180 serria match.

 

[Matt Regalia]

Re: Let\'s hear your story!

It was really warm this year, 65 degree opening morning in Maryland. I was watching a nice Sika buck at about 300 yds milling around with 2 does. Just as I was ready to squeeze off they bolted out into the marsh. I was ****ed. What the heck had scared them. Then I saw them. There were two foxes (one red/one grey) fighting in the thicket. As they rolled out into the field about 250 yds out, I cut one loose from the 338 Lapua and smoked both of them. Needless to say those were the only deer I saw all day. Nothing moved on our farm morning or evening.

But at least the farmers chickens and ducks will be alittle happier. So not the longest shot but 250yds on two rolling foxes. I had fun.

Matt

 

[Len Backus]

Re: Let\'s hear your story!

P Dog Shooter

How do you figure wind drift in a case like that? And where are you hunting in Wisconsin?

Matt

I'd trade a pretty good buck for a double on foxes any day.

 

[p dog shooter]

Re: Let\'s hear your story!

No wind that morning I guess you just watch the wave action. Around the hayward area.

 

[PrimeTime]

Re: Let\'s hear your story!

I was set up for my first long range deer hunt just today. I target shoot out to 1,000 yards and have also shot woodchucks out to 500 (best so far). This season I wanted to try my hand at long range deer. Unfortunately, my 2 rifles suitable for the job were both at the gunsmith. My uncle was kind enough to loan me his 1,000 yard target rifle in 7mm Dakota. I set up my portable bench and equipment while it was still dark. Upon sun up, I realized there was someone upm a tree in the area I had planned on shooting into. This area would have allowed shots up to 800 yards. Now, my only hope was a swamp and some grown up fields that offered shots up to 550. Right away, I realized the straight 24 target scope with ultra fine crosshairs wasn't going to work. After a few frustrating attempts to use this scope, it was packed up and put back into the Jeep. My dad had just shot a buck and came over to spot for me. I took his rifle, a sporterized swedish mauser in 6.5x55 with a straight four scope and set up. At 11:30, 3 does ran out into the field and stopped. Thinking that I knew the range (estimated 450), I took 3 shots using the archaic and not so efficient, "hold over" method. Didn't even make them vervous. I grabbed the range finder and they were 350 yards straight away and still standing. I had shot the gun several times at 300 so knew the drop exactly. I picked the biggest doe, held about 10 inches over and dropped her right there with a shot thru the vitals. If I would have taken the time to range them first, I'm sure it would have been a one shot deal. While this can by no means be considered long range, it was my farthest yet and also very eye opening. The load was a 120 grain ballistic tip at 2800 and killed with absolute lethality. The first thing going through my mind was, if I can make that shot with a 8 pound ex-miltary rifle and a 4 power scope with a measly 120 grain bullet, what could I have done with my custom, long range rifles? Hopefully next year I will find out!

 

[Lynn30.06]

Let\'s hear your story!

Where are all the stories from this fall's hunts? Come on you guys!

I have one more new story to write about my 525 yard whitetail buck I shot last week on my Wisconsin land but I'm not going to post it if I don't see some of your stories first.

52.5 yards or 525 yards, let's post them!

I'm new to this site. How and where do I post my hunting story?

 

[RogerPA]

After months of worrying if my Alaskan moose hunt was even going to happen due to Covid, September 1st found me on 3 different flights from Pennsylvania to Fairbanks, Alaska. I could go on and on with the details, but I'll fast-forward to September 5th. After hiking, glassing, cow calling, and then hiking some more, about 1:00pm my guide and I reached the ridge above our tent camp. There we overlooked a long valley that ran east to west for a couple of miles, and nearly 1000 yards to the opposite ridge. On the first cow call from our new perch, almost instantly a big bull emerged at about 500 yards. He was moving through the head-high brush from west to east, and with the wind in his face. Billy, my guide, quickly interrupted the bulls movement as an attempt to get downwind of the cow he expected to see and smell. We made a fast decision to back up a bit and loop to the ridge line on the eastern end of the valley, effectively getting us downwind of the area the bull was heading. Once settled into our new lookout we began glassing the valley below us. With the sun poking in and out of the clouds, during one of the moments it lit up the brush below us, Billy spotted a flick of antler. The bull was bedded about 200 yards below us! After about half-an-hour he stood. Billy made one low volume cow call and the bull started towards us. Billy now had the opportunity to clearly judge him and pretty quickly told me the bull was indeed a shooter. At only 160 yards he cleared the brush and turned broadside to me. The crosshairs quickly settled behind his shoulder, and the 33 Nosler sent a 225 grain Accubond on its way. The echo was still bouncing around the valley when he tipped over. After maybe 30 seconds he struggled to get back on his feet. The brush he fell in was too high for another clear shot, but thankfully after another 20 or 30 seconds he fell again. That was it! The Accubond performed perfectly, passing through both lungs and exiting behind the off-side shoulder. As a postscript, Billy and I returned to the kill site 4 days later, thinking maybe a bear or a wolf might be working the gut pile. Sitting in the exact spot I was sitting when I shot the moose for about an hour, believe it or not, a big gray wolf suddenly appears. Again, 160 yards, and "bang"! At the angle he stood, a neck shot seemed the most logical. Needless to say, the 225 grain Accubond was a bit of overkill, but it did the job. I can only thank God for giving me the opportunity to go on such a fabulous hunt, for providing Alaska's endless beauty, and for hooking me up with such a great outfitter and guide!

 

[adk hunter]

The whole year has been upside down and weather no exception here in rural NY. Everyone from the city fled from covid to their summer homes...yup just great. Lost my Dad in June and my mother into the early dementia unit a few months later. Worked every weekend from March to October to tear down and rebuild camp. Early snow then 70 degrees pre rut had everything with fur nocturnal. The best weekend of the rut found us 3 miles deep in the lowest area possible. I step on a bear and he flys by my best friend. He hits him hard but he is at the watch line in seconds. A young college age guest finished him off. Awesome!!! I walk down. Oh NOOOOO! Dressed 380# and 6 1/2 hours later we are completely spent. Called town for pizza and extra beer. Great celebration that night and slept in on Sunday. I really hurt Tuesday more than the day after. Season closes the 6th. Smoking a few bear roast Saturday but may have tag soup too...

 

[Lynn30.06]

I'm new to this site. How and where do I post my hunting story?

After months of worrying if my Alaskan moose hunt was even going to happen due to Covid, September 1st found me on 3 different flights from Pennsylvania to Fairbanks, Alaska. I could go on and on with the details, but I'll fast-forward to September 5th. After hiking, glassing, cow calling, and then hiking some more, about 1:00pm my guide and I reached the ridge above our tent camp. There we overlooked a long valley that ran east to west for a couple of miles, and nearly 1000 yards to the opposite ridge. On the first cow call from our new perch, almost instantly a big bull emerged at about 500 yards. He was moving through the head-high brush from west to east, and with the wind in his face. Billy, my guide, quickly interrupted the bulls movement as an attempt to get downwind of the cow he expected to see and smell. We made a fast decision to back up a bit and loop to the ridge line on the eastern end of the valley, effectively getting us downwind of the area the bull was heading. Once settled into our new lookout we began glassing the valley below us. With the sun poking in and out of the clouds, during one of the moments it lit up the brush below us, Billy spotted a flick of antler. The bull was bedded about 200 yards below us! After about half-an-hour he stood. Billy made one low volume cow call and the bull started towards us. Billy now had the opportunity to clearly judge him and pretty quickly told me the bull was indeed a shooter. At only 160 yards he cleared the brush and turned broadside to me. The crosshairs quickly settled behind his shoulder, and the 33 Nosler sent a 225 grain Accubond on its way. The echo was still bouncing around the valley when he tipped over. After maybe 30 seconds he struggled to get back on his feet. The brush he fell in was too high for another clear shot, but thankfully after another 20 or 30 seconds he fell again. That was it! The Accubond performed perfectly, passing through both lungs and exiting behind the off-side shoulder. As a postscript, Billy and I returned to the kill site 4 days later, thinking maybe a bear or a wolf might be working the gut pile. Sitting in the exact spot I was sitting when I shot the moose for about an hour, believe it or not, a big gray wolf suddenly appears. Again, 160 yards, and "bang"! At the angle he stood, a neck shot seemed the most logical. Needless to say, the 225 grain Accubond was a bit of overkill, but it did the job. I can only thank God for giving me the opportunity to go on such a fabulous hunt, for providing Alaska's endless beauty, and for hooking me up with such a great outfitter and guide!View attachment 229817View attachment 229818View attachment 229819

I'm new to this site and was wondering how and where you posted your story. I have a story also and can't figure out how to do it.

 

[RogerPA]

Lynn30.06,
At the bottom of the page there a box with the notation: "Write your reply....". Just move your cursor into this area and type away. Look forward to seeing your story!

 

[Lynn30.06]

My husband is Jeff who's name on this site is Nuclear worker. I know he posted about our three unsuccessful previous tries at getting a branch antler bull. Well we finally got one and here's our success story.
We met our outfitter Lee Livingston and our guide Jason at the trail head along wit the other hunters, guides and camp personnel. Jeff had requested a mule instead of a horse because he has had bad luck on past hunts with horses. We left the trail head at 9:00am with 18 horses and mules for the 6 1/2 hour ride into camp. We traveled through some of the most beautiful and scary country you can imagine. I wouldn't think your a** could stay puckered for that long! There is one section of the trail they call the cat walk. It's about 12 inches wide. You can touch the uphill side without bending over and the downhill side is extremely steep and about 1000 feet down to the river below. We had 30 mph winds that day and it was throwing gravel and sand off the hill and Jeff's mule was doing a tap dance on the cat walk because of it. We finally made it into camp which is at about 8000 ft at around 4:00pm. We got settled into our tent and started glassing the ridges around us. We saw three cows on on a ridge across the river from camp. There was a huge rock knob at about 11,000 ft across the valley and our guide Jason said that it was called the "bull pen" and that is where we were going tomorrow.

We left camp at about 6:30am the next morning and headed for the bullpen. We tied our horses at about 9500 ft and had to climb the rest of the way. Now we have been training for 5 months doing 1000's of flights of steps and miles of hiking with full back packs and gear. Nothing can prepare you for the thin air!! We are both 56 and our guide was 35 and 6'6 with 4' long legs. He was always waiting for us. We finally got up to the bull pen and in the valley to the east a bull bugled! We started working our way that direction. He had at least 50 cows with him. We never saw the herd bull. The cows made it very difficult to move in on him. They headed up another draw so Jason said if we can make it around a huge rock outcropping maybe we could catch the bull at the top of the pass. We tried but by the time we made the climb he had already passed over and all we saw were cows. On the way back down to our horses that day we had grizzly tracks on top of our tracks in the mud as it had snowed, sleeted or rained all day. We walked our horses back down to the main trail as it was too steep and slippery to ride. When we got back to camp one hunter had missed a bull at 400 yards and another one had taken a big 5x5. His partner had seen 5 bulls including 2 big 6x6's fighting which he missed at 150 yards! He also missed another one and finally got a small 5x5 at the end of the day. We thought here we go again! Two guys are done already and had seen multiple bulls and we saw nothing!

The next morning we headed for the area they were at the day before because of all the bulls they saw. We couldn't take our horses as high as we wanted because at the top of the ridge was an elk carcass from yesterday. Although there were ravens and an eagle on the carcass we made a wide berth around it because of possible grizzlies. Jason said he didn't think a bear was there because he wouldn't share with the birds but we didn't want to chance it. As we worked our way through the nightmare of downed timber from a forest fire in 2018 we heard another bull bugle. We had to go past the other carcass from yesterday but saw no bears. By late afternoon we were about 3 1/2 miles from the horses when Jason spotted 2 bulls at 150 yards in the timber. Now my husband Jeff and I flip a coin at the start of our hunts to see who shoots first every day. It was Jeff's turn and as this was our 4th hunt we decided before we got there that we were going to take the first branch antler bull we saw. Well the 2 bulls were small so Jeff tried talking me into taking the shot because it was his turn to shoot first that day. I was having no part of it! I said "it's your turn so take the shot." All he could see was part of his shoulder and behind his shoulder quartering towards him and the trees. He had no place to rest his gun so he got down on his knee and touched one off! Jason said you hit him him but he didn't move so he put another one in him. After shooting again he took one step forward and fell. The other bull which was a 4x4 ran off about 40 yards and stopped. Jason started cow calling and it started coming back. They told me to shoot it if I wanted. I got down and put the crosshairs on its neck because he was facing straight at me. I decided I didn't like the shot and wanted to wait for a chance at bigger bull now that we had meat. We quartered it up and Jeff carried the quarters about 150 yards up hill from the carcass because we were going to have to wait until morning to come back and get it. It had been snowing on and off all day and on the way back to our horses there were grizzly tracks in the snow next to ours!

The next morning my back was really hurting. I've had two back surgeries and have rods in my back and after the day yesterday I was pretty sore so after a heated conversation Jeff convinced me to stay in camp in the morning while they went back to get Jeff's bull off the mountain. I felt really bummed for not going along. When they went back for the meat and got close to the carcass the birds were in the trees and not on the carcass. You couldn't see the carcass because it was over the ridge top but Jason felt there was probably a bear on it because the birds were in the trees waiting. They finally made it back to Jeff's bull and loaded it on the pack mule and headed back to camp. By the time they got back two other hunters in camp had both shot bulls. Now I really was frustrated and not very happy because I felt I wasted a morning and I was the only one in camp who didn't get one! We decided we would go out and glass that afternoon to see if we could spot something for the next day. It was already mid afternoon so we climbed a ridge not far from camp and sat down to glass. About 45 minuets into glassing Jeff spotted an elk about 1 mile away in a grass clearing. With his 10x40 binos he couldn't see horns so he described to Jason where he was and with his bigger binos he was able to see horns. He felt we could make it there by 5:15 so off we went down the mountain, across the river and up the other side. The closest we could get was 770 yards. Turns out there were three bulls. Two small ones and we couldn't get a good look at the third one so we climbed back off the ridge to maneuver closer. Jason finally got a good look at the third bull and he was a big one but he didn't want to tell me so I didn't get nervous. We set up at 400 yards and Jeff called out the dope for me to adjust my scope. Jason didn't like the shot because we would only get one so we moved to the left and set up at 380 yards and I redialed my scope. We moved left a couple more times trying for a better shot. We were at the bottom of the ridge with an extreme angle up shot. We had lost sight of the other 2 bulls and were afraid they would bust us so we moved and set up two more times until we finally found an opening in the trees where I could get a second shot if needed. He was at 353 yards so Jeff told me my dope and I went up 14 clicks and when he steps out I could take him. When he finally stepped out and I went to take the shot after moving multiple times and redialing my scope over and over I was a little frazzled and forgot to take my safety off! As soon as I realized it I flipped it off but had to calm myself down again to shoot. Finally I touched one off and bull down!!!! He had taken a few leaps down hill and buried his horns under a downfall. When we finally got to him it was almost completely dark. He was a huge 6x6!!! I never could have imagined I'd get one like this!!! Once in a lifetime bull! We had left our gear with the horses so we only had one headlamp. Jason started to quarter it up and I took bear guard duty with my 10mm pistol. As Jason got the quarters off, Jeff carried them 150 yards down the incredibly steep ridge. After four trips of hauling the quarters down Jeff was wiped out! Now we had about a mile back to the horses with one headlamp in grizz country! We made it back to the horses and camp with no problems. Everyone congratulated me because I had taken the biggest bull in camp!!! The next day we went back and packed it out in the daylight. There was no bear sign at least.

You would think the adventure would end there but oh no! We left Cody the next afternoon and had to go through the mountains in an ice storm with fog so thick you couldn't see 40 feet in front of you. By now our a**** were so used to being puckered form the horse rides and grizzlies at least it didn't hurt! We ended up driving all the way back to Wisconsin in snow, sleet, fog, rain and high winds! I guess it make a fitting end to an amazing trip. Again we would like to thank Lee Livingston for a great camp. And thanks to our guide Jason, the other guide Paul for helping get our elk out, Justine the camp cook for the great food and April the camp wrangler for having our animals ready each morning. After four hunts we finally did it! We both got our branch antler bulls! After all the hard work we put in I couldn't have asked for a better trip! Here's to more adventures and memories to last a lifetime!!! I feel so lucky that we can both share these memories together!

 

[Send it 284]

I'm new to this site. How and where do I post my hunting story?

Holy freaking 19 year old thread revival!
I was in high-school when this thing was started...

 

[M77Fan]

Great job telling this story Lynn! Nice to read both sides of the tale. What a great adventure and great bull. Nothing like having it all come together. Sounds like you got real elk weather to go with it. Perfect trip I would say.