sscoyote
Well-Known Member
By gosh, an honest to goodness mule-ridin' long-range hunter- that's go to be a 1st.
I'm new here too, but welcome to you anyway Slymule!
I'm new here too, but welcome to you anyway Slymule!
That time of year again - Colorado hunt planning
- Thread starter QuietHunter
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QuietHunter
Well-Known Member
Welcome Slymule,
I rarely actually hunt off a horse, just use them to pack things in and out. Opens up a lot of area to us, but it is rare that I actually "hunt" from a pony.
I like the target knob / dial and shoot idea for a couple of reasons. It is more than just a modified holdover approach, and it is applicable to much longer ranges once I get proficient at the "shorter" ranges.
I cannot dispute your love of mules. The only time I have been beaten up the hill with my foxtrotters, it was by a Missouri mule. I am glad you don't use and ATV.
I grew up near Hotchkiss, and have hunted with a few folks from GJ. Currently live in the big city
My current job is in jeopardy so I have been looking for options in the GJ / Montrose area.
I rarely actually hunt off a horse, just use them to pack things in and out. Opens up a lot of area to us, but it is rare that I actually "hunt" from a pony.
I like the target knob / dial and shoot idea for a couple of reasons. It is more than just a modified holdover approach, and it is applicable to much longer ranges once I get proficient at the "shorter" ranges.
I cannot dispute your love of mules. The only time I have been beaten up the hill with my foxtrotters, it was by a Missouri mule. I am glad you don't use and ATV.
I grew up near Hotchkiss, and have hunted with a few folks from GJ. Currently live in the big city
Darryl Cassel
Well-Known Member
Hello Slymule and welcome
I have a friend who lives in Grand Junction and just got rid of his mule after many years. He had two of them as a matter of fact.
Also have a family here in PA that take their mules out to CO every year. they are the Auton family and they hunt the Avalanch area.
Have packed out meat on Mules and Horses and the mule does a fantastic job. They are strong animals.
One time we drug a bear out and that mule was not to fond of that days workout.
Anyway welcome to the forum and sounds like your doing a great job of hunting.
Later
DC
I have a friend who lives in Grand Junction and just got rid of his mule after many years. He had two of them as a matter of fact.
Also have a family here in PA that take their mules out to CO every year. they are the Auton family and they hunt the Avalanch area.
Have packed out meat on Mules and Horses and the mule does a fantastic job. They are strong animals.
One time we drug a bear out and that mule was not to fond of that days workout.
Anyway welcome to the forum and sounds like your doing a great job of hunting.
Later
DC
slymule
Well-Known Member
QuietHunter,
Using the target knobs WILL extend your range, whereas when you have the dots installed your placing a limit on how far you can shoot. I never found this to be a detriment as my abilities to consistently detect where my bullet hit when practising seems to be around 800 yds. anyway, even if I have a spotter beside me. I don't usually have a spotter when hunting so the 800 yard restriction is not that big of a deal - I know I can make a killing shot at 800 yards in field conditions, and I always have the option of riding closer. If I was just going to be setting up a permanent shooting site to hunt from, and knew I was going to have a spotter there with me, then I'd put the target knobs back on my scope, along with adding more dots, and I'd no doubt be shooting a different gun also. With my style of hunting I've found that my setup works better for me. I'll use the mules to ride out from camp before the sun comes up and I'll have me a good area to watch early in the morning where I'll sit for about 3 hours, which is both my patience and my butt limit. If I haven't seen any elk I'll climb back on my mule and start covering alot of country trying to find where their at. I may walk a real promising patch of timber that I come upon or I may ride the rest of the day until the last hour or so of daylight. That last hour will find me sitting once again in a promising location glassing for game. I found having the target knobs had several disadvantages - one being able to carry my gun easily in a scabbard, and the other being alot of times when you spot elk their moving thru the country and not completely stationary. This made for an extra "thing" to have to contend with, so your not just having to range them for distance which is always changing when they're moving, but your often times moving your shooting position to keep them in sight, plus your having to deal with making knob adjustments constantly. I found for myself that it got a little too confusing, just too much to deal with for my style of hunting. If I had the patience to sit in one spot all day long I'd have both the target knobs and the dots, then I'd use the knobs for precise distances between the dots, which I think makes things even easier yet. But to each his own - you gotta go with what works for you.
sscoyote,
Thanks for the warm welcome and yes, I may be one of a kind. I think when God made this child he probably took one look and decided he better not do that again!
Using the target knobs WILL extend your range, whereas when you have the dots installed your placing a limit on how far you can shoot. I never found this to be a detriment as my abilities to consistently detect where my bullet hit when practising seems to be around 800 yds. anyway, even if I have a spotter beside me. I don't usually have a spotter when hunting so the 800 yard restriction is not that big of a deal - I know I can make a killing shot at 800 yards in field conditions, and I always have the option of riding closer. If I was just going to be setting up a permanent shooting site to hunt from, and knew I was going to have a spotter there with me, then I'd put the target knobs back on my scope, along with adding more dots, and I'd no doubt be shooting a different gun also. With my style of hunting I've found that my setup works better for me. I'll use the mules to ride out from camp before the sun comes up and I'll have me a good area to watch early in the morning where I'll sit for about 3 hours, which is both my patience and my butt limit. If I haven't seen any elk I'll climb back on my mule and start covering alot of country trying to find where their at. I may walk a real promising patch of timber that I come upon or I may ride the rest of the day until the last hour or so of daylight. That last hour will find me sitting once again in a promising location glassing for game. I found having the target knobs had several disadvantages - one being able to carry my gun easily in a scabbard, and the other being alot of times when you spot elk their moving thru the country and not completely stationary. This made for an extra "thing" to have to contend with, so your not just having to range them for distance which is always changing when they're moving, but your often times moving your shooting position to keep them in sight, plus your having to deal with making knob adjustments constantly. I found for myself that it got a little too confusing, just too much to deal with for my style of hunting. If I had the patience to sit in one spot all day long I'd have both the target knobs and the dots, then I'd use the knobs for precise distances between the dots, which I think makes things even easier yet. But to each his own - you gotta go with what works for you.
sscoyote,
Thanks for the warm welcome and yes, I may be one of a kind. I think when God made this child he probably took one look and decided he better not do that again!
slymule
Well-Known Member
Darryl,
Thanks for the welcome and I'm betting I know your friend here in Grand Junction. Don't think theres many people in the area that have mules that I don't know. See, I'm a stay at home dad for my two boys (ages 4 and 6) and I buy and sell mules so most people in the area know who I am. In fact, most of the mule dealers in the country know who I am and vice versa - its often times a small world when your talking about mules. Let me make a guess, you said your friend "used to have...and just got rid...and had two of them..." - his name isn't R.V. Parker by any chance? If it is, I bought his last mule. Just curious.
Thanks for the welcome and I'm betting I know your friend here in Grand Junction. Don't think theres many people in the area that have mules that I don't know. See, I'm a stay at home dad for my two boys (ages 4 and 6) and I buy and sell mules so most people in the area know who I am. In fact, most of the mule dealers in the country know who I am and vice versa - its often times a small world when your talking about mules. Let me make a guess, you said your friend "used to have...and just got rid...and had two of them..." - his name isn't R.V. Parker by any chance? If it is, I bought his last mule. Just curious.
sscoyote
Well-Known Member
Slymule, my partner, XPHunter + i just joined this site also. We are backpack single shot pistol hunters (for portability). We have hunted the same spot close to Bayfield for about 10 yrs. now and have graduated from the factory rigs to benchrest-type pistols chambered in big cartridges (mine's a 6.5-284 Win, and my partner shoots a .284 Win., + 7.82 Patriot). We have been spot and stalk hunters for years now. Not many guys get into the spots we hunt, and our glassing experience has taught us to look into north and west facing slopes for bedded animals, which is where we get some action during midday. One spot we hunt is a knife ridge that drops into a shallow canyon and rises again to a steep, sparsely-treed north facing slope. There are always (almost) elk on this slope (a travel route that takes them from 1 basin to another), and it's about 5-700 yds. across. We have been into this long-range stuff for several years now, and i think our practice and techniques will allow us to reach across that canyon with our XP's to take some of these animals in good conditions. Of course the big question is going to be bullet performance, and we are researching different bullets to find a controlled expansion bullet that will expand well at these lower impact velocities. My partner is getting around 3000 with various 150 gr. bullets, and i'm obtaining 2900 with 129's. Unfortunately shooting from prone causes eye relief problems with the 3-12X Burris LER's we're using. But i think we can work around this with custom bases, or maybe rear grip stocks, possibly longer eye relief rifle scopes (though i doubt that's going to work on his Patriot). I guess we'll see, but we're motivated and resourceful so i think we'll find a way. Any ideas?
slymule
Well-Known Member
sscoyote,
Your asking me for any ideas? LOL, man I don't know jack about high powered benchrest pistols that push 150gr. bullets at 3000fps. And here I've been thinking my Redhawk was 'smokin' cause she's loaded with 320gr. hardcast bullets doing 1440fps - I'd be afraid to shoot something like you've got! Sorry, but I'm not much of a pistolero. I just carry one for personal protection and in case I need to shoot my mule if it happened to ever break a leg. As far as your eye relief problem while shooting those pistols in a prone position - maybe you should try using a rifle instead! ROFLMAO....sorry I couldn't help myself.
I'm afraid your asking the wrong guy when it comes to pistols....but I'm flattered anyway.
Your asking me for any ideas? LOL, man I don't know jack about high powered benchrest pistols that push 150gr. bullets at 3000fps. And here I've been thinking my Redhawk was 'smokin' cause she's loaded with 320gr. hardcast bullets doing 1440fps - I'd be afraid to shoot something like you've got! Sorry, but I'm not much of a pistolero. I just carry one for personal protection and in case I need to shoot my mule if it happened to ever break a leg. As far as your eye relief problem while shooting those pistols in a prone position - maybe you should try using a rifle instead! ROFLMAO....sorry I couldn't help myself.
Ernie
SPONSOR
slymule,
You don't give yourself enough credit. These XP's are not that hard on you. sscoyote has a tougher time than I do because his stature is somewhat shorter than mine. Even at that, I wish someone made a high quality scope whose eye-relief would be somewhere in between a typical rifle scope and the Long-Eye-Relief pistol scope.
Why not a rifle? I prefer the specialty handguns. They are more challenging for me, plus they are lighter and more compact.
You don't give yourself enough credit. These XP's are not that hard on you. sscoyote has a tougher time than I do because his stature is somewhat shorter than mine. Even at that, I wish someone made a high quality scope whose eye-relief would be somewhere in between a typical rifle scope and the Long-Eye-Relief pistol scope.
Why not a rifle? I prefer the specialty handguns. They are more challenging for me, plus they are lighter and more compact.
W
*WyoWhisper*
Guest
Well, let me add this to the thread..
1st off , I havn't been beat up a hill yet... so I won't say mules are better.. they are good but my Foxtrotter cross won't let me say they're better ( he's funny like that )
Second, I have a 3.5-15X50mm NXS now.. I havn't had any prolbems with the target turrets.. I hunt deer most of the time .. and I am set well be fore 1st light with everything out and ready... second thing is .. that I am having a scabbard made for my new gun... I figure ( after some encouragement here ) If you're gonna spend all that money on a rifle and scope, why not get a scabbard that fits the rifle made too....
Ok, I gotta go tell Dusty ( foxtrotter cross ) that Slymule is coming to Wyo to challenge us up a hill...
1st off , I havn't been beat up a hill yet... so I won't say mules are better.. they are good but my Foxtrotter cross won't let me say they're better ( he's funny like that )
Second, I have a 3.5-15X50mm NXS now.. I havn't had any prolbems with the target turrets.. I hunt deer most of the time .. and I am set well be fore 1st light with everything out and ready... second thing is .. that I am having a scabbard made for my new gun... I figure ( after some encouragement here ) If you're gonna spend all that money on a rifle and scope, why not get a scabbard that fits the rifle made too....
Ok, I gotta go tell Dusty ( foxtrotter cross ) that Slymule is coming to Wyo to challenge us up a hill...
slymule
Well-Known Member
Whoa there, lets not get your panties in a bunch now. Who said I'm heading to Wyoming and challenging anybody? QuietHunter was the one that made the comment that his Foxtrotter was only beat up the hill once and it was by a Missouri mule - he said it, not me. Now I'd be the last one to dispute what he said, because no one needs to tell me what a fast walking mule is capable of doing in the mountains, I know I've owned too many of them. So WyoWhisper you can go out and tell ol' Dusty he can rest easy now and not to worry, I won't be bringing some mean ol' mule out to spank his butt and make him look bad.
To tell you the truth I don't even like a fast walking mule to hunt on, you just miss seeing too much game when your haulin' *** down the trail. I like one that'll take it easy and go wherever I point it, can climb like a mountain goat, will stand quietly while I'm shooting, won't panic in a bad situation, and most importantly can spot game 5 minutes before I do. Thats my idea of a good hunting mule.
Now as far as the target knobs go, I never had any problems with mine either - they worked just fine. Rather it was my stinkin' scabbard that gave me fits cause I couldn't get my gun out of it quickly because the darn knobs stuck out so far. Now if I could of found a scabbard that would of worked with them on, they'd probably still be on my scope today. But even if they were I probably wouldn't use them all that much, because for my style of hunting the dot system works out better.
So calm down, rest easy, and don't let yourself get all lathered up.
To tell you the truth I don't even like a fast walking mule to hunt on, you just miss seeing too much game when your haulin' *** down the trail. I like one that'll take it easy and go wherever I point it, can climb like a mountain goat, will stand quietly while I'm shooting, won't panic in a bad situation, and most importantly can spot game 5 minutes before I do. Thats my idea of a good hunting mule.
Now as far as the target knobs go, I never had any problems with mine either - they worked just fine. Rather it was my stinkin' scabbard that gave me fits cause I couldn't get my gun out of it quickly because the darn knobs stuck out so far. Now if I could of found a scabbard that would of worked with them on, they'd probably still be on my scope today. But even if they were I probably wouldn't use them all that much, because for my style of hunting the dot system works out better.
So calm down, rest easy, and don't let yourself get all lathered up.
W
*WyoWhisper*
Guest
whew.. I'll tell Dusty to ease up on the alfalfa... man and he just started training again too.. oh well...
Even though he is a real fast walking son of a buck he honeslty seems to know when we are hunting, or when we are close to game he kinda settles down and sneaks... he most always spots stuff before me.. ( don't tell the clients that ) I wouldn't trade him or sell him for nothin.. to many good times and tough hunts between us.. and I couldn't have done it without him..!!
as for the scabbard.. I am having one made to fit the turrets... not cheap but will be molded much like that of a carry holster.. should be kinda neat!!
Even though he is a real fast walking son of a buck he honeslty seems to know when we are hunting, or when we are close to game he kinda settles down and sneaks... he most always spots stuff before me.. ( don't tell the clients that ) I wouldn't trade him or sell him for nothin.. to many good times and tough hunts between us.. and I couldn't have done it without him..!!
as for the scabbard.. I am having one made to fit the turrets... not cheap but will be molded much like that of a carry holster.. should be kinda neat!!
QuietHunter
Well-Known Member
Don't worry about me switching over to mules. While I understand their virtues, I think I just plain look better on a horse
Can you imagine the Marlboro man on one of those mules? I bet Wyo can come up with a good story there with his literary gift.
Slymule, I grew up on stories of good mules and horses. Know a guy who retired from the Forest Service out of Delta who used to swear by his mules - while my Father-In-Law would swear next to them
Great story about a mule with a pack on fire coming down Dominguez canyon that makes me lagh everytime I hear it.
Do you know the one-legged man in Fruita who trains cutting horses? My Father-In-Law helped him with his sheep hunt a few years ago. I have a hunting buddy with the FWS in GJ who has some acreage up Kannah Creek and really needs to get some horses of his own before he is relegated to backpacking in. Maybe you can hook him up.
BTW, The time we got out paced by a mule, it was because I was packing a slow horse and my arm would not stretch. I think Doc could take him if he was solo.
I am pretty much decided on what I plan to buy for a scope. I hate to sound like a wannabe, but I am just waiting for all the pieces to come together for my gun.
Slymule, I grew up on stories of good mules and horses. Know a guy who retired from the Forest Service out of Delta who used to swear by his mules - while my Father-In-Law would swear next to them
Do you know the one-legged man in Fruita who trains cutting horses? My Father-In-Law helped him with his sheep hunt a few years ago. I have a hunting buddy with the FWS in GJ who has some acreage up Kannah Creek and really needs to get some horses of his own before he is relegated to backpacking in. Maybe you can hook him up.
BTW, The time we got out paced by a mule, it was because I was packing a slow horse and my arm would not stretch. I think Doc could take him if he was solo.
I am pretty much decided on what I plan to buy for a scope. I hate to sound like a wannabe, but I am just waiting for all the pieces to come together for my gun.
W
*WyoWhisper*
Guest
HAHAH..
I can see it now...
In the deep purple morn... a soft amber glow rises from the east.... Cookie throws another log on the fire and the bitter coffee begins to boil... a dark firgure arises from a dusty bed roll, his deep sunken eyes deep blood red with wearyness.... dark shadows outline his rugged face.... he chugs down the dark, thick adrenalin juice and stairs towards the meadows..... time to wrangle the herd.... gotta make 30 miles today.... no time to loose, his battered and aching joints tell him a bad storm is brewin' from the south...
He swagers the the picket line were his top mount awaits his driver....
Just then this tall, chisled mans eyes give off a horrified gaze as the silent, crisp morning air is shattered by... HEEE HAW.... HEEE HAW.....
HAHAHA can you imagine...
I can see it now...
In the deep purple morn... a soft amber glow rises from the east.... Cookie throws another log on the fire and the bitter coffee begins to boil... a dark firgure arises from a dusty bed roll, his deep sunken eyes deep blood red with wearyness.... dark shadows outline his rugged face.... he chugs down the dark, thick adrenalin juice and stairs towards the meadows..... time to wrangle the herd.... gotta make 30 miles today.... no time to loose, his battered and aching joints tell him a bad storm is brewin' from the south...
He swagers the the picket line were his top mount awaits his driver....
Just then this tall, chisled mans eyes give off a horrified gaze as the silent, crisp morning air is shattered by... HEEE HAW.... HEEE HAW.....
HAHAHA can you imagine...
QuietHunter
Well-Known Member
ROFLMAO!
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