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I came back from my final late season deer hunt last night. Didn't get anything but it was absolutely gorgeous out there. It occurred to me that the places that I return to year after year are really beautiful places. This is a view from the top of the ridge I was on. My early season hunting area is the center yellow patch at the skyline of the distant ridge. It is 25 miles as the crow flies according to Google Earth.
I did see two bucks further down the ridge. One was a real good buck for this country and the other was a good sized forkhorn. They were out of range. I saw the big one following a doe at 667 yards according to Leica. He went into the brush and over the side. After I saw him I thought I ought to go down there because a lot of time there will be another smaller buck hanging around the big boy. I was tired and my knee was hurting so I didn't go down. We are going to backpack to the bottom of the Grand Canyon next week and I didn't want to cripple myself up. Anyway, sure enough, the forkhorn popped out and went up and over into the brush. So they were there and I was happy to see them but didn't bring one to bag.
I have a range finder now so I ranged several places where I had killed bucks in the past to see how my yardage estimates were. I can generally get within 100 yards which is to say my estimations are pretty lousy. One buck I didn't think would have been over 150 yards turned out to be 250. One that I thought was 60 or 80 was 120 yards. One that I figured was 200 yards was really around 300 yards. The buck that I killed last year with the 356 Winchester and a cast bullet was around 260 yards. I had thought it was about 200. So leverguns with cast bullets are short range rifles? Now I am going to have to shoot it at 300 yards to see how much it drops. The buck was going up hill so I lead him and held high too. I did hit him lower and further back than I like but it was in the boiler room so it was all good.
Last edited by Marc on Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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I too closed out my season today. I never made it to D-13, that's on the list for next year. I feel I must at least drive through it before trying to hunt it. Between A-zone and D-11 seasons, I saw 0 bucks and about 20 does. Today I hiked in to where I got a buck two years ago, and climbed up high. While waiting I heard shots coming from the trailhead. On the way home, sure enough I found blood on the road about 300 yards from the trailhead. Somebody did it the smart way, while I tried to do it the hard way (and failed).
Hey, I need one of those rangefinders, too. Good deal.
"I'll tell you what living is. You get up when you feel like it. You fry yourself some eggs. You see what kind of a day it is."
Here are two more shots from the ridge. It was exceptionally clear this trip. The wind had blown hard all night and it cleaned out the haze that usually covers the San Joaquin valley. This has been the windiest and warmest late deer season that I remember.
This is looking at the Caliente Range. Caliente means hot in Spanish and if you happen to be there in August you will know why it is called that.
This is looking at the Temblor Range. The San Andreas fault runs up the valley between the Temblors and the Calientes.
El Chivo, that's the way it goes. I went into a new area two weeks ago. When I got there two friends were in the parking lot ready to go in. They had never been there either. I was going to camp so I went up the hiking trail which runs up the bottom of the canyon to a campground. When I got to the campground I heard two shots up on top. Yep, my two buddies went up the ridge right above me and kicked out a buck and killed him. Did I ever tell you that I hate canyon bottoms?
That looks like some excellent coyote country. I hunt country out by Lake Paris that looks a lot like that. Oh well 33 months and I will be back hunting dogs out there again.
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
