2000--ANOTHER GREAT PERSONAL
HUNTING SEASON!!
NEBRASKA MUZZLELOADER WHITETAIL
ILLINOIS MUZZLELOADER WHITETAIL
KANSAS SPRING TURKEY
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In late April, I ventured to Kansas for the first time for a spring turkey hunt. This was at the invitation of one of our Kansas clients, Dick Wollenberg. Dick is quite an avid hunter, either actually hunting, or scouting nearly every day of the year. He has taken some really nice whitetails in his home state with a bow! It didn't take long for me to realize that I had missed the "peak turkey rut" (do turkeys really rut?). Anyway, Dick and I had no trouble getting turkeys to gobble at our lonesome hen yelps. They just wouldn't decoy. Our suspicions were confirmed when we walked up on the nesting hen pictured below. I was able to snap a quick picture of her before she made a hasty departure. As you'll note from her clutch of 17 eggs, that she had been bred at least 17 days prior.
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It was still very exciting just hearing the toms gobble in response to our calling! While returning to town from the morning hunt on April 30, we happened to look over into a plowed field we had made a setup on the day before, and there was a great gobbler escorting his hens! He was headed for some timber and Dick knew that we would have a chance to sneak through the timber and ambush this tom. After a 20-minute sneak, I peeked through the last remaining cover to see the tom nervously pacing the plowed field. I quickly raised the shotgun, held slightly high, and let rip the 3 1/2", 12-ga. load of Winchester #5's. Boy, was this a great combination! This gobbler was somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 yards! I was really impressed at the effectiveness of Dick's 3 1/2" 12 ga. I'd never shot a 3 1/2" 12 ga. before. This gobbler is the one pictured at the top. As we returned home from a successful morning hunt, it began to rain in earnest. So much so that is ruined any chance of an evening hunt, as well as a morning hunt the next day. By the way, where I hunted in Kansas, there is a 2-turkey limit. On May 1, Dick had to return to work, leaving me to sleep late through the morning downpour. When Dick didn't return until 5:00 p.m., he wasn't feeling well. I decided to take the rental car out myself and cruise the county roads in the hunting area, in hopes of possibly seeing more turkeys as they fed. Sure enough, I spotted a couple of good toms feeding in a plowed field where 2 strips of timber cornered. As luck would have it, a deep creek bottom ran down one finger of timber. I used this creek bottom to walk down, staying at least 15 feet below the level of the field the turkeys fed in. When I arrived at the corner of the timber, I climbed the bank, and was about to peek my head over, when I heard that familiar "popping" sound a turkey makes when he is about to vacate the area. As I peeked over, there was another great gobbler less than 20 yards from me! I raised the shotgun to my shoulder, pointed towards the gobbler, and in less time than it takes to describe, had my SECOND 10-inch Kansas gobbler! This tom is pictured below. Wow! There's nothing like stalking wild turkeys!! This will definitely sharpen ALL of your hunting skills! I'm convinced that if turkeys had a sense of smell, we'd never be able to get one! These turkeys were both Rio Grande versions. My 6-year-old daughter, Serena, was upset that I didn't take her with me. My plan is to apply for Merriam's turkey in eastern Wyoming for the spring of 2001. I have a rancher friend there that is covered up with them. And it will make a great opportunity for Serena to join me. Of course, she'll be the ripe old age of 7 by then.
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ARIZONA KAIBAB MULE DEER
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This year, I had the unexpected surprise of drawing 1 of only 5 nonresident muzzleloader mule deer tags, to be used in Unit 12B, of northern Arizona! This unit sits smack between the famous Kaibab strip to the south, and the equally-famous Paunsaugunt in Utah to the north. Historically, HUGE BUCKS will migrate from these two areas to winter in my hunting unit! I had the pleasure of hooking up with the two fellows pictured above, both from Page, AZ. On the left is Pete Winn. And on the right is Arliss Miller. Pete is probably one of the most knowledgeable men alive when it comes to Unit 12B in Arizona. He had previously guided 2 people to Desert Bighorn Sheep before my arrival. Arliss had drawn a late rifle tag for Unit 12, and was able to help me and scout for his own hunt that opened 2 days after mine closed. This hunt is VERY contingent on weather! I prayed for snow. You can tell from the picture above, that we certainly got snow. But, it didn't come until the night of November 9..........with my hunt opening on the morning of the 10th. Pete claimed it was the worst "storm" he'd seen in 35 years! I was amazed because where I "normally" hunt in snow, it's not bad until it's pushing up over the front bumper of a Suburban! Anyway, it was certainly enough to read lots and lots of deer sign! Unfortunately, the big bucks were not to be found. The hunt lasted from November 10-15, and it wasn't unusual to see 150-200 deer a day. Several of these were bucks.......just small ones. Not the type of buck this area is famous for! The largest buck we spotted the entire hunt was a 22-24 inch, 4x4. Lots of smaller bucks. It wasn't for lack of effort, as we were in the field before daylight, until well after dark every day! I couldn't have asked for better company, weather, and expectations. The big bucks were just not to be found. I called Pete after Arliss's hunt was over to learn that his hunt did not produce any big buck sightings as well. His hunt ended Thanksgiving weekend. Since this is a major wintering area, I'm sure it is FULL of big bucks from December on. Since I apply every year in Arizona for Deer, Elk, Sheep and Antelope, I'm especially thankful for knowing Pete and his expertise.
WYOMING WARBIRD WHITETAIL
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I had the pleasure of having John Lazzeroni, the gun maker from Tucson, AZ, hunt with me here in Alaska for the second year in a row. After his second trip with me, John decided to "gift" me with a Sako, TRG-S rifle, chambered in his .308 WARBIRD caliber. He also threw in a mounted, Burris 4-14X scope, which included mil-dot reticules!! Pretty nice, huh!! I told John that if he could get it to me in time, I would use it on a Wyoming whitetail hunt I'd been drawn for. John did, and I was able to spend the necessary time at the range prior to the hunt. If you haven't heard about the Lazzeroni line-up of proprietary, smoking-fast calibers, you can check them all out at his website at lazzeroni.com. For example, the .308 WARBIRD is the first 30 caliber cartridge to move a bullet in excess of 4,000 feet per second!! This isn't a misprint! Of course, out of my Sako, I was "only" able to chronograph a measly 3,800 fps! This is done with the Barnes, 130-grain bullet, that John electroplate lubricates. With my Sako .308 WARBIRD sighted in 2 inches high at 100 yards, it is dead on at 300, 6 inches low at 400, and 17 inches low at 500 yards!! Compare that with your favorite rifle that you used to think shot flat! Anyway.......on to the hunt! For starters, the deer tag I'd drawn was a "leftover" license. What this means in Wyoming is you didn't draw the license you really wanted, and had to settle for this one as a last resort. This is the second year in a row this has happened to me. Because of the many great friends and contacts, I was able to put together a great hunt in an area I'd never hunted. With the help of Leon Walker and Rusty Hiser, I began my hunt the day after Thanksgiving. Since these 2 were off work for the long weekend, the plan was for them to take me around, introducing me to various ranchers, and securing as much permission as possible to hunt. I had until November 30, the last day of the season. Leon and Rusty were itching to see something shot with the .308 WARBIRD. I wanted to shoot something with it, too, but would not shoot just any buck with a full week to hunt. As it turned out, on Sunday, the 3rd day of my hunt, we had just finished securing permission from the last rancher in a huge valley, when I spotted the buck above........at NOON! He was rutting a doe, and was smack in the middle of the sagebrush! Not your typical whitetail country. I've learned from years of hunting this country that these whitetail will show up in the least expected areas. Anyway, after throwing the spotting scope on this buck, I determined that if I could get within range, I'd be happy with him. We were viewing the buck from 3/4 mile distance. We figured that if we could use the nearby creek drainage for cover, we should be able to make it to the hill across from where the deer was headed. If you'll look in the "terrain" picture below, the hill is located about the center of the picture. The buck was on the sagebrush covered hillside to the right. The stalk went off as planned with one slight hitch. By the time we arrived at our hill, belly crawled the last several yards, and peeked over, the buck had bedded down with his girlfriend. I estimated the range at 400 yards +/-. Add to the fact that the wind was a left crosswind at approximately 35-40 mph, and I wasn't willing to attempt to shoot at him while bedded. So...........a mere 3 1/2 hours later, my buck stood up and resumed his courtship with his girlfriend. Having shot the WARBIRD at our local range out to 550 yards, I was very familiar with the rifle. However, I hadn't done any practicing with that kind of crosswind! I had a lot of time to think about the shot, and decided to hold on his butt while he faced downwind. This was based on my guesstimation of half the "normal" drift due to the speed of this cartridge. Also, knowing that the bullet would only drop 6 inches at that range, I just held that much over the lung area. I didn't have to hold ANY daylight over the buck. At the crack of the first shot, the buck showed to be hit. He turned and face the opposite direction, and I shot a second time, reversing the hold into the wind. The second shot wasn't necessary as it turned out. Both shots were within 6 inches of each other!! The WARBIRD SPOKE and the results were impressive!! When you consider this cartridge, with the 130-grain Barnes bullet, doesn't even drop the depth of a deer at 500 YARDS, it can be a great confidence booster........especially on a calm day!! The bullet's exit wound was very impressive as well.........just as John said it would be. Both exit holes were about the size of a silver dollar! As for the "trophy" status of my buck......this area of Wyoming is not known for producing large, outsized whitetail bucks. In 3 days of hunting, we had spotted in excess of 40 bucks! This was only the 2nd 5-pointer (10-point eastern count) that we'd seen. I had turned down many 4-point (8-point eastern count) bucks, considering a few of them good last day bucks. Knowing what I knew, just getting a respective 5-point buck would be better than "average" for the area. Thus my decision to take the buck I did when I did. I'm very thankful to Leon (pictured right, below) and Rusty. In those short 3 days, they had gotten me permission to hunt on upwards of 100,000 acres! And all for not one dime in any fees! On top of that, as soon as the congratulatory handshakes and pictures were taken, they each grabbed a side and "volunteered" to drag my buck the half mile or so to the rig. Of course, I promised that I'd get at least one picture of them dragging my deer on the way back. I just made sure I didn't take any pictures until we were only 100 yards or so from my rig. I kept telling them that I wanted to have some snow in the picture. People love to have their picture taken! Hey! I did gut my own deer.........If all goes as "planned" in 2001, I should be hunting my usual Wyoming hotspot for whitetail, chasing much bigger bucks! We'll see..........
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NEBRASKA MUZZLELOADER WHITETAIL
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Seems each year I'll have a "sleeper" or surprise state or set of hunting circumstances. This year was no different, with Nebraska providing the GREAT 158-POINT gross B&C whitetail!! Nebraska was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I'm familiar with the Nebraska regulations having followed them for several years. Since I had planned to hunt eastern Wyoming as late as November 30, the date my hunt there ended, I thought I might as well consider the muzzleloader statewide deer hunt that's held every year in Nebraska the entire month of December. Further checking with the Nebraska Fish & Game revealed that not only are the licenses sold across the counter, unlimited, and are good statewide, I can purchase, AND PRINT them over the Internet. Add to the fact that I can buy 2 licenses good for either mule deer or whitetail, they are reasonably priced at $150/each, and I had the makings of a great opportunity to add Nebraska to my 2000 hunts. The only thing I needed to confirm was if my eastern Wyoming/Western Nebraska contacts were such that I could gain permission to hunt the private lands involved with a hunt like this. I was overwhelmed when a couple of phone calls resulting a snowball effect that wound up netting me in excess of 100,000 acres of private ranch land to hunt! WOW! Again, all this for no $$! I only had 3 days to hunt, December 2-4, because I had to catch a plane for Illinois on December 6, from Salt Lake City, UT. I knew it would take me all day to drive from Nebraska to Utah on the 5th. December 2 was the opening day, and it found me glassing a great mule deer within a couple hours of daylight. He is pictured at the end of this. You can see him on the horizon, as well as bedded in the sagebrush. This buck is a real beauty! He is in the 28-30 inch class, high-horned, and massive. I turned him down, leaving him in his bed, because I was supposed to meet a fellow at noon who had taken off work early to escort me to a couple of different ranches the rest of that day and the next. I figured I could always return to this ranch on Monday, my last day to hunt, and find him again, considering I was the only one hunting the ranch. I spent the rest of opening day, and all of the next looking at some really great country, and many deer. I even m..m...mm...mmm...mmmmissed (I know it's hard to believe, Mildred, but about once every 10 leap years I'll miss something) a nice, heavy-horned 4-point mule deer. Even went back the next morning to see if I could find him again, but, of course, such was not to be. So, Monday morning I returned to the ranch where I had bedded the big mulie a couple of days earlier, and set up with my "big-eye" (20-60X Swarovski Spotting Scope) in hopes of finding the buck with his girlfriends. After an hour or so of intense glassing, with no mule deer in sight, I happened to catch the antlers of the above whitetail! Wow, was I surprised! I even asked myself where in the world this guy had come from? He was with a hot doe, which turned out to be the death of him. I watched him bed. Around noon, I began a stalk which ended 3 hours later. It also included much cactus stuck into my left side from knee to elbow. I probably belly-crawled the last 150 yards in order to close the distance on this buck to 250 yards. I was out of cover,and feeling the squeeze of only about a good 1 1/2 hours of daylight, and this hunt would be in the books. At 4:00 p.m. the buck rose from his bed, and immediately rooted his girlfriend out of bed, so he could commence more courtship. There happened to be a forked-horned antagonizer buck in the area. There always seems to be one like this nearby, just to keep the mature bucks on their toes. At one point, this big buck chased the little buck within 130 yards of my position, only to wheel around and return to the doe faster than I could draw a bead on him. Shortly after rejoining his girlfriend, she acted as if she was going to feed away from me. Sensing more urgency, I ranged him with the laser range finder at 200 yards, set my sight accordingly, and sailed a 600-grain Super Slug at him chased by blinding fire and smoke. As the smoke cleared, I noticed he was on his feet yet, causing me to roll on my back, reload and get ready for what I thought could have been a miss. However, as soon as I relocated him in my binoculars, his legs were buckling, and he went down for the count. Predictably, the small buck immediately took over the doe, chasing her over the hill with a big smile on his face, and looking back as if thanking me.
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at the terminal devastation my enhanced 600-grain muzzleloader slug inflicts. This is a 1-inch exit wound .................at 200 yards! |
My next set of challenges came with the fact that daylight had quick evaporated. It was too late to drive the deer to the nearest check station, located in Scotts Bluff, NE. Nebraska has this stupid law requiring all deer to be checked into a check station. Checking the deer in was not my real crisis......it was the fact that the state requires you to leave the head "naturally" attached to the carcass when checking it in. So, if you are wondering why the deer in the above pictures looks like he could pose himself, it's because it's the morning after I shot him, and after I had driven him to Scotts Bluff, before I could even slow down long enough to snap any pictures, much less skin, cape, etc., etc. I would have liked to have been able to do this the night before, offering me the opportunity to leave the area for Salt Lake City at a reasonable early morning start. However, due to the status of such a buck, the efforts were worth it, and I was on my way to Salt Lake at 1:30 p.m. Due to the above challenges, I elected not to put my "huntin' costume" back on for pictures. I plan on keeping Nebraska in my hunting plans in the future. The best part is............the one fellow that works for a huge rancher says that by next year, he'll have much more ground for me to hunt!!
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ILLINOIS MUZZLELOADER WHITETAIL
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After my LONG drive to Salt Lake City on the 5th, I was glad to go to sleep at midnight! I boarded a plane for Illinois early the morning of the 6th, loaded with great anticipation! I was hunting a new ranch in Illinois. This family is a real cattle family, running a 2,000-head cow operation on approximately 14,000 acres! 14,000 acres in Illinois is equivalent to 50,000 acres out west! When I travelled through Minneapolis, I was really charged! Lots of snow and cold......just the medicine for a great post-rut whitetail muzzleloader hunt. However, by the time I reached my destination in Illinois, there was no snow to be found. It was moderately cool. The bucks pictured above, and again below are indicative of the great potential this ranch has. All one has to do is listen to the sightings of the huge bucks seen during the earlier bow season. One week prior to my arrival, the rancher's son had taken a HUGE 4-point (8-point eastern count) that grossed in the 170's!! For those of you that know what it takes for a 10-point eastern count buck to score 170, the minimum for Boone & Crockett, just imagine how big an 8-point would have to be!! Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture of the frozen head before the taxidermist came for it. With the muzzleloader season being only 3 days long, I definitely felt the squeeze. Add to this the fact that walking on the 6-inch deep fallen leaves sounded like walking on Captain Crunch cereal, and you'll know how challenging this hunt was. I didn't see any bucks until the 3rd, and final day. And they were spotted from the road as I drove to different stands. This was still a GREAT hunt, as they all are! I had great hosts and new friends, had 3,000 acres all to myself, and couldn't go ANYWHERE without seeing the results of rampant buck activity from the previous rut! Trees, make that power poles, were rubbed everywhere. And scrapes were just as abundant! I know this region, and know fully-well the HUGE bucks that roam this area. I really wish I'd had some snow. By the way.........at the end of the season Sunday evening, driving back to the ranch, the radio was warning of "winter storm warnings" all over the part of Illinois I had hunted. Wouldn't it just figure..........on the way to the airport the next morning, the usual 1-hour drive took an extra 1/2 hour due to the falling snow!!!! Then, all I heard about for the next week or so on the national news was how Illinois was digging themselves out of the winter snow storm. Boy! I wish it had just snowed 2 days before I arrived. That's huntin'.........I'll be back!
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IDAHO MULE DEER BOWHUNT
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For what Illinois lacked in snow, Idaho made up for it......BIG TIME!! Last year, during this same bowhunt, the extreme lack of snow in this Idaho unit kept me from even seeing any trophy class bucks! The picture above is of a buck that was taken 2 days before my arrival, on a hill above Cid Cellan's farm house! The guys in this group saw 25 bucks in one day! Talk about being jacked for a hunt! The buck above is a 28-inch wide deer, with great mass! There was enough snow this year to get my Suburban stuck more times than I care to admit. Of course, this is a good sign that there is enough snow to drive not only numbers of deer into this winter range, but, good bucks! I began hunting on December 12th. It was the evening of the 14th before I saw a truly great buck. He was 32-34 inches wide, with 7 points on a side, including brow tines! He was very high, and had great mass! A truly great deer! Only trouble was, he was smack in the middle of 58 other deer! Does and various other-sized bucks. I was unable to get any closer than 200 yards before running out of cover. However, I knew the hunt was on, and I wouldn't mind one bit dedicating the remaining days of my hunt to this great buck! As luck (all bad) would have it, by 6:15 the next morning, it was plenty dark, and I was plenty stuck! More snow had come overnight, and the winds were in excess of 50 mph! Of course, where I got stuck there isn't anyone or anything for MILES around! And to add insult to injury, like a dummy, I wait until I'm bumper deep in snow BEFORE deciding to use my 4 tire chains I carry with me.All I had to do was spend the next 1 1/2 hours jacking EACH wheel up, installing the respective tire chain, and making snow angels UNDER my Suburban, trying to clear away the snow. Oh yea............did I tell you I didn't have a shovel with me???? You'd think this was the first time I'd driven in snow before. By the time I dug out and chained up, I decided this was a day I needed to spend in town visiting with old friends. Being the good Samaritan that I am, while I had my chains installed, I broke the trail into another fellow's house who I knew would be snowbound if I hadn't. After visiting with him, catching my breath, I headed to town.No sooner had I changed out of my huntin' costume and into my visiting clothes, Larry, my friend where I stay, told me that Cid and Wade were on the cell phone, asking for help. They were stuck! I picked the phone up and told Cid that I thought I was the stupidest person in Idaho for trying to drive in these conditions.I told him that this phone call proved that I was the 3rd stupidest person in Idaho that day. So, back into my wools I jumped, and back to the end of the county road where the plow had quit plowing. It's there that I re-installed my chains, before plowing off into the same road I was stuck on a few hours earlier. Sure enough, Cid and Wade had made it a grand total of approximately 1/2 mile farther than I had!!! They didn't have chains, shovel, warm clothing or food! Course, I already knew they didn't have a lick of sense either. They said they were worried about my safety and well being. I knew better!! They just wanted to get a look at the great buck I described to them the night before! Needless to say, they didn't get to see him!! No worry.......Cid has seen more huge bucks, as well as taken more huge bucks on his farm than I'll kill in a lifetime! Those are his bucks at the end of this. With Friday weathered out, I was left with only 1 full day of hunting left. Saturday was not to be a disappointment! I returned to the same area I'd spotted the buck 2 days earlier, relocated him, and spent the rest of the day trying to get within bow range. During this day of mule deer education, I saw no less than 500 deer, 30 of which were bucks, including the big boy! And about 6 other bucks would have been impossible to turn down! What I found was the perfect spot to sit, while hundreds of mule deer filed back and forth all day! The only downside was that I didn't find it until late in the afternoon! It was well after dark before I even headed for my Suburban. What a great day it had been hunting mule deer! It was too bad that I wouldn't have enough time available the next day to return to the same spot. I had a plane to catch back home to Alaska at 3:30 p.m. I'd been gone since the night before Thanksgiving, and was ready to see my family. I did manage to see approximately 100 deer the following morning, just outside town, from the Suburban. One really great buck, 4 big points on the right side, and a club growing out of the left! I can't wait till next year! Assuming we have similar conditions, at the same time, I know where I'll head right away! I figure that if I'd had one more full day of hunting, I could have sat at my new-found hotspot, and, more than likely, had shots at several real trophy class bucks in the 27-34 inch class! Next year...........
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