Cav1
Well-known member
For better than 20 years I had an old CVA .50-caliber Hawken replica an old friend gave me that I had never even shot. So I got it out this summer and got to shooting it with a friend who's big into blackpowder and rendezvous. I still had my deer "A" tag leftover from general rifle season, so I went out Sunday afternoon with the smokepole to try and find a nice buck in the rut during this late season.
I went to a local Block Management Area that's on top of a large, flat irrigated bench covered with hayfields and grain stubble. It was covered with whitetails, mulies, and a small herd of elk. With the spotter I saw the nicest mulie buck I've seen in years. So I scuttled up the irrigation ditch to a center pivot...the buck was bedded in the wide open near the end of the pivot. I was literally crawling on my belly from wheel to wheel up the pivot to get within range when the owner's grandson showed up on a snowmobile joy-riding all over the top of the bench for the better part of an hour and blowing all the deer and elk out the far end. Oh well, it is their land, and I supposed if I was a youngster with a snowmobile and 30-odd sections of family ranch to ride it on...
Back at the truck, I could see a good 40 whitetails, including a decent 5-point, crossing the field from the river bottom to the grain stubble. Back on my belly I went, crawling underneath the fence and through the snow and sagebrush to intercept and get within range. I set up in a little patch of willows and got ready. The deer were already across the fence onto the BMA and I was just waiting as they meandered across and closed the range. Naturally, when there was about 20 minutes of shooting light left, someone in a big noisy Diesel pickup with the radio blaring so loud I could hear it decided to cruise up and down the ranch road atop the bench. Sure enough, that blew all those deer out and back into the river bottom timber.
So, thus far, just from this first trip, I have to say late muzzleloader season is pretty much just the same as general rifle season.
I went to a local Block Management Area that's on top of a large, flat irrigated bench covered with hayfields and grain stubble. It was covered with whitetails, mulies, and a small herd of elk. With the spotter I saw the nicest mulie buck I've seen in years. So I scuttled up the irrigation ditch to a center pivot...the buck was bedded in the wide open near the end of the pivot. I was literally crawling on my belly from wheel to wheel up the pivot to get within range when the owner's grandson showed up on a snowmobile joy-riding all over the top of the bench for the better part of an hour and blowing all the deer and elk out the far end. Oh well, it is their land, and I supposed if I was a youngster with a snowmobile and 30-odd sections of family ranch to ride it on...
Back at the truck, I could see a good 40 whitetails, including a decent 5-point, crossing the field from the river bottom to the grain stubble. Back on my belly I went, crawling underneath the fence and through the snow and sagebrush to intercept and get within range. I set up in a little patch of willows and got ready. The deer were already across the fence onto the BMA and I was just waiting as they meandered across and closed the range. Naturally, when there was about 20 minutes of shooting light left, someone in a big noisy Diesel pickup with the radio blaring so loud I could hear it decided to cruise up and down the ranch road atop the bench. Sure enough, that blew all those deer out and back into the river bottom timber.
So, thus far, just from this first trip, I have to say late muzzleloader season is pretty much just the same as general rifle season.
