RugerFan
09-29-2012, 11:18 PM
I was hunting caribou off the Dalton Hwy in northern Alaska. There is a 5 mile corridor on either side of the road that is archery only. That makes for a long miserable hike across some aggravating tussock and wet spongy muskeg. After failing to find a legal bull moose earlier, I was willing to do the death march to put down a nice bou and get some meat in the freezer.
I was hoping to use my scoped Ruger .41 mag SBHH loaded with cast (240 gn Keith). I needed to get within 100 yds to make a reasonable shot. Failing that distance, I had my .300 Win mag (j-bullets) lashed to my pack as a backup.
After arriving last Saturday afternoon, I glassed the area and spoke with bow hunters I met along the road. I picked a likely location and headed out on foot Sunday morning. As I approached the 5 mile mark, I spotted a so-so bull with about 25 cows. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I wasn’t seeing as many animals as I had hoped and most of those were cows. A bad wind direction kept the stalk from working out anyway.
A bit later, I spied a few cows hanging out below a hump. I had a good wind and could have gotten within 100 yds. I had a plastic take-down pistol rest in my pack to make the shot even easier. However, I wasn’t quite ready to give up on a bull. Still, I needed to make something happen soon because of the long walk back to the road before dark.
After some more walking I glassed 4 decent bulls trailing a group of cows several hundred yds south of me. They were heading behind a rise, so I hustled over to see if I could get within range as they passed below. As luck would have it, the cows made a 90 degree turn just as I was getting position and passed in front of me with the bulls soon to follow. Unfortunately they were at 200 yds and out of range of my .41 mag. It was 2:45 pm and these were the first shooters I saw. I made the decision to go ahead and take one with the .300 Win mag as I needed to head back before long.
The rifle did it’s job convincingly and the bull I selected was on the ground in short order. It took me 3 days to pack that rascal back to the road. And yes, I’m still sore.
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/wolf913/2012Bou6.jpg
Last load
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/wolf913/2012Bou_Lastpack2.jpg
I was hoping to use my scoped Ruger .41 mag SBHH loaded with cast (240 gn Keith). I needed to get within 100 yds to make a reasonable shot. Failing that distance, I had my .300 Win mag (j-bullets) lashed to my pack as a backup.
After arriving last Saturday afternoon, I glassed the area and spoke with bow hunters I met along the road. I picked a likely location and headed out on foot Sunday morning. As I approached the 5 mile mark, I spotted a so-so bull with about 25 cows. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I wasn’t seeing as many animals as I had hoped and most of those were cows. A bad wind direction kept the stalk from working out anyway.
A bit later, I spied a few cows hanging out below a hump. I had a good wind and could have gotten within 100 yds. I had a plastic take-down pistol rest in my pack to make the shot even easier. However, I wasn’t quite ready to give up on a bull. Still, I needed to make something happen soon because of the long walk back to the road before dark.
After some more walking I glassed 4 decent bulls trailing a group of cows several hundred yds south of me. They were heading behind a rise, so I hustled over to see if I could get within range as they passed below. As luck would have it, the cows made a 90 degree turn just as I was getting position and passed in front of me with the bulls soon to follow. Unfortunately they were at 200 yds and out of range of my .41 mag. It was 2:45 pm and these were the first shooters I saw. I made the decision to go ahead and take one with the .300 Win mag as I needed to head back before long.
The rifle did it’s job convincingly and the bull I selected was on the ground in short order. It took me 3 days to pack that rascal back to the road. And yes, I’m still sore.
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/wolf913/2012Bou6.jpg
Last load
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/wolf913/2012Bou_Lastpack2.jpg