Foto Joe
10-26-2014, 09:49 AM
After having spent the last four months developing a decent hunting load for my Henry 30-30 and settling on 27.5 gr of IMR 4895 I finalized the testing yesterday morning around 0715 at 40 yards. Having spent two days humping the hills and gullies while dodging our wonderfully camouflaged Wyoming cactus my brother and I pulled into a spot just before sunrise where we'd seen a few mulies the morning before but way out of range for a 30-30 with a 2 1/2 power Weaver scope on it.
As we pulled in Mike spotted an imaginary deer in the sage brush at about 100 yards and pulled up his glasses to have a look. I opened the door and was sitting there staring in the general direction that he was glassing with my foot out the door still sipping on my coffee and trying to decide whether or not I really wanted to hump out through the sage and cactus to find a better vantage point (I'm still working on getting the last cactus spine out of my palm from the day before). After about a minute I hear a sound behind me and turn to see over 20 or more of what I for an instant thought were actually elk. As I wrapped my head around the fact that they were indeed mulies and BIG ones I reached for the Henry and brought it up on one of the trailing does who at that time made the fatal mistake of stopping to see what that bright orange camo thing was.
Now keep in mind I don't consider myself a "Road Hunter" by any means but when a 160-175 pound mule deer makes the mistake of stopping for a breather right in front of me I find it pretty difficult to pass on sending one her way. As it was it was a front quartering shot and she caught the boolit right behind the left shoulder and it passed out just through the edge of her diaphragm saving me from a messing field dressing or destroying any meat.
As my brother watched her drop in his rear view mirror he says "Well as far as I'm concerned, the closer to the truck the bigger the trophy."
As we pulled in Mike spotted an imaginary deer in the sage brush at about 100 yards and pulled up his glasses to have a look. I opened the door and was sitting there staring in the general direction that he was glassing with my foot out the door still sipping on my coffee and trying to decide whether or not I really wanted to hump out through the sage and cactus to find a better vantage point (I'm still working on getting the last cactus spine out of my palm from the day before). After about a minute I hear a sound behind me and turn to see over 20 or more of what I for an instant thought were actually elk. As I wrapped my head around the fact that they were indeed mulies and BIG ones I reached for the Henry and brought it up on one of the trailing does who at that time made the fatal mistake of stopping to see what that bright orange camo thing was.
Now keep in mind I don't consider myself a "Road Hunter" by any means but when a 160-175 pound mule deer makes the mistake of stopping for a breather right in front of me I find it pretty difficult to pass on sending one her way. As it was it was a front quartering shot and she caught the boolit right behind the left shoulder and it passed out just through the edge of her diaphragm saving me from a messing field dressing or destroying any meat.
As my brother watched her drop in his rear view mirror he says "Well as far as I'm concerned, the closer to the truck the bigger the trophy."