Harvest Report

this has been a hell of a year for hunting for me. first day rifle season i take my 12yr old daughter on her 1st hunting trip EVER, just to find out the land i've hunted the last 20 some yrs has been posted no hunting. i was there 2 day before checking things out and nothing had been posted. come 2 find out some a$$hole last year who was hunting it messed it up for everyone.like 2 get my hands on the little SOB. so ive been runing around the last 10/15 days trying places to hunt. on top it all the computer been had jimmy rig on up. all with some other things it's been a hell of a year.

there is a loop hole getting around the land that is posted onto some land that i'm aloud to hunt so maybe these weekend will be diffrent. big bucks in the area.

Got a nice mule deer doe this afternoon at 330 yards. She was with three other does, a fawn and two decent bucks. I only had a tag for a doe so just picked the fattest one. That was after looking for elk all day and seeing only one in really thick cover. I never could get a shot so just started hiking out and figured later in the day I'd run into some deer down low. The landowner heard the shot (this is a FWP block management site) and came trundling up on his Razor so I didn't even have to carry the deer out. I am touched by the kindness some of these folks extend. 

A short but productive hunt this year with the boys.  My son, son-in-law and myself could only squeeze in the Monday-Tuesday for hunting this year.  The other guys are still up at the camp, lucky beggars.

 

Monday, son-in-law and I pushed a spike buck out to my son, 1 shot and meat on the rack.  Tuesday I was dogging a long point with a big hemlock swamp and pushed a very big 6 pointer past my son.  This guy was in high gear through the hardwoods though only about 35 yds away, ideal for the short barreled Puma.  4 shots and another for the rack.  The boys do not like walking the big swamp but I believe they will be more interested now.

 

Using Speer Gold Dot HP 300 grain in the Puma.  Ammo worked perfect as you will see in the pic.  On the spike, it entered through a rib, took out the lungs, broke the off-side shoulder, hit a maple tree on exiting and ricocheted almost back to the watch.  I found it just by luck laying on top of the leaves.

 

The 6 pointer is one of the bigger deer we have shot in terms of body size, all out of proportion for being only a 6 point.  Live body weight is up around 300lbs and it was all we could do for 4 guys to get him up to the rack ( I will weigh him on the butchers scale when I get a chance).  28” around the neck and 20” from shoulder to brisket.  2 shots missed or hit trees, 1st hit was a bit high behind the shoulder but would have done the job but since he was still running strong Aaron shot again.  4^th shot hit hin in the rear end up through the chest and broke a front leg on the way out.  I am very impressed with the Speer performance.

 

Apologise for the pics but did not have a camera with me at the site so had to wait until we brought him back.

 

 

 

 

454 Casull.

wow thats a big body deer nice stuff craig!!!