Nevada used to be 5 years between draws and I think that this has been 8 years since my last successful draw. August 22 - Sept 6th. My buddy and I packed up my toy hauler and headed out on the 23rd. I knew where I have seen them over the years and we go out looking at ghost mines and visit with locals who live there off the grid. Perfect weather 85 days and 55 nights at about 5000 elevation. We arrived at 11 am and took off quad riding in search of game. We never saw anything and about an hour before sun down we stopped in at an older friends ranch. Over a few beers he told us that the years of drought has eliminated most of the animals and he had not seen an antelope around in months. We were heading back 12 miles to our camp and sure enough a nice buck trotted across the road in front of us. So my buddy got all ready with his 243 win rem 700 SPS varminter. Using a bypod on the quad less than 200 yard chip shot I thought with a sideways perfect standing still shot. Bang, it kicked up dirt under it and it ran off. So we went back and setup paper and beer can targets out to 400 and his scope was off. We bought an identical SPS a dozen years ago and I brought my custom ER Shaw 257 roberts AI 26 inch tack driver. actually they are all tack drivers. dime sized groups bench rest shooting at 200 yards. It was fun just shooting over 100 reloads as the sun went down to lower light.
Day 2: drove 112 miles on the quads starting in the early morning and saw 3 nice bucks during the day in alfalfa fields. My buddy never took a shot even though he was always under 400 yards.
Day 3: we went ghost mine investigating and spent the evening shooting pistols and rifles out to 400 yards.
Day 4: the days of smoke from California forest fires had taken a toll on us and it was so bad that you couldn't see a 1/2 mile. So we packed up to leave. We just got back to paved roads and right along the road is Mr. Buck. Another sub 200 yard chip shot for a 105 ELD X 6mm It was the classic bang flop. You can't see the entrance hole, but the exit was a massive 3 inch diameter exit and pool of blood.
Heavy bodied, rack was chipped up and tips broken off from fighting over the years. I'm 5'10"
Day 2: drove 112 miles on the quads starting in the early morning and saw 3 nice bucks during the day in alfalfa fields. My buddy never took a shot even though he was always under 400 yards.
Day 3: we went ghost mine investigating and spent the evening shooting pistols and rifles out to 400 yards.
Day 4: the days of smoke from California forest fires had taken a toll on us and it was so bad that you couldn't see a 1/2 mile. So we packed up to leave. We just got back to paved roads and right along the road is Mr. Buck. Another sub 200 yard chip shot for a 105 ELD X 6mm It was the classic bang flop. You can't see the entrance hole, but the exit was a massive 3 inch diameter exit and pool of blood.
Heavy bodied, rack was chipped up and tips broken off from fighting over the years. I'm 5'10"
