cal30_sniper
Lil-Rokslider
After growing up in Texas (whitetail blind harvesting), and years in the coastal Carolinas and Virginia competing with dog hunters for slightly larger than dog sized white tails, I finally got the right combo of events together to fill my first public land western tag.
Unsuccessful Colorado black bear and mule deer rifle hunts in 2020, followed up by another unsuccessful NM muzzleloader elk hunt earlier in 2021 added a lot of gravity to long awaited success in Colorado 3rd Rifle last year.
I’ve had a blast on all of these hunts, but this one had already been particularly memorable. The weather and country had been beautiful, and while deer density was extremely sparse, so was the hunting pressure. Two days earlier I’d even ended up glassing a mountain Lion paralleling me cross canyon (between me and camp, and well on towards evening), leading to a long detour through the early night hours back via another, much rougher canyon. Not a great evening to leave the pistol behind...
I moved to a different location on day 4 after only seeing a few deer on private. I had been glassing and snoozing in a canyon head just off of some alfalfa fields with a little running water all afternoon, and spotted him cross canyon while moseying towards another final glassing location for the evening further down canyon. He’d already spotted me, but I was able to get into an improvised shooting position slowly and smoothly enough that he didn’t break from his bed.
One 140gr Accubond at 246 yards from a 1952 Husqvarna 640 in .270 Win anchored him about 30 minutes before sunset. It took until after dark to get him skinned and quartered (my first solo job without assistance from hanging a carcass), and two long pack outs in the dark to get everything out of the canyon and back to camp.
It was 11 degrees that night, and after a spending what was left of it on the roof of my suburban, he was blocks of ice ready for the cooler. After that, it was miles rolling by heading south again, and a lot of good hatch green chili stew recipes to follow.
One might wonder why it took so long to post, or even why bother at this point. Perhaps it’s that time of year again. With tags in my pocket for both NM and CO this year, I’m looking forward to firing up the truck, shouldering a pack, and getting the heck away from civilization again for a week here and there. Successes or not, I know there are more good times to come.
Unsuccessful Colorado black bear and mule deer rifle hunts in 2020, followed up by another unsuccessful NM muzzleloader elk hunt earlier in 2021 added a lot of gravity to long awaited success in Colorado 3rd Rifle last year.
I’ve had a blast on all of these hunts, but this one had already been particularly memorable. The weather and country had been beautiful, and while deer density was extremely sparse, so was the hunting pressure. Two days earlier I’d even ended up glassing a mountain Lion paralleling me cross canyon (between me and camp, and well on towards evening), leading to a long detour through the early night hours back via another, much rougher canyon. Not a great evening to leave the pistol behind...
I moved to a different location on day 4 after only seeing a few deer on private. I had been glassing and snoozing in a canyon head just off of some alfalfa fields with a little running water all afternoon, and spotted him cross canyon while moseying towards another final glassing location for the evening further down canyon. He’d already spotted me, but I was able to get into an improvised shooting position slowly and smoothly enough that he didn’t break from his bed.
One 140gr Accubond at 246 yards from a 1952 Husqvarna 640 in .270 Win anchored him about 30 minutes before sunset. It took until after dark to get him skinned and quartered (my first solo job without assistance from hanging a carcass), and two long pack outs in the dark to get everything out of the canyon and back to camp.
It was 11 degrees that night, and after a spending what was left of it on the roof of my suburban, he was blocks of ice ready for the cooler. After that, it was miles rolling by heading south again, and a lot of good hatch green chili stew recipes to follow.
One might wonder why it took so long to post, or even why bother at this point. Perhaps it’s that time of year again. With tags in my pocket for both NM and CO this year, I’m looking forward to firing up the truck, shouldering a pack, and getting the heck away from civilization again for a week here and there. Successes or not, I know there are more good times to come.
