In addition, there have been one or two opportunities where that long range sniper rifle might have come in handy. Oh well. It's a long season.
Monday, July 17, 2006
confessions of a deer sniper
Vassili has been at this deer sniping thing now for ten days, and in that time has had at least four quality opportunities to slay deer, three of which he has flubbed and one of which is where he decided not to kill Bambi's and Faline's mother. You can read the gory details here, you might find some of them mildly amusing. 
In addition, there have been one or two opportunities where that long range sniper rifle might have come in handy. Oh well. It's a long season.
In addition, there have been one or two opportunities where that long range sniper rifle might have come in handy. Oh well. It's a long season.
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9 comments:
So JT catch me up here, what did you ever decide on for a rifle?
Well, it's now down to (pretty much a tie) between CZ, Tikka, and Weatherby. I'm waiting to go back to a store (probably Gander Mtn) that has all three, and spend more time figuring out which one feels the best. Remington still a distant possibility.
Believe it or not, my wife is really pushing me to do this, get the gun etc., and take advantage of the elk trip I'm invited on to Montana in November. Doing that would necessitate skipping my October bird trip this year. Decisions, decisions.
Didn't you skip the bird trip last year?
how about drive to Montana, bring Kate and an aesthetically-pleasing shotgun, and hunt some pheasant after you have the elk cooling? You could even bring along one of your grouse gabfest brothers to share the drive, take care of Kate and do some scouting while you're off slaying elk.
- Path Walker
In regards to day 10 confession, any idea if the muzzle blast, if the muzzle were within inches of you truck's hood, would do anything to your truck's paint job?
- PW
after reading your confessions I'm tempted to ship you a rifle. And a ladder stand.
I hope you get some cooler weather for this business. What's the plan if you get a deer at 9 pm -- do you have ready access to a walk-in cooler to hang it? Word to the wise, remove the hide soon as you can, and split the pelvis.
good luck,
- PW
Ernie: I missed that trip two seasons ago, back when I was working at the animal shelter. Last year I got to go.
PW: thanks for the thoughts--absolutely NO idea about the muzzle blast and the paint job, so tonight when I went out I angled the truck a bit better so that I could use the bed rail as a rest (as it turned out I shot offhand). You definitely had me thinking about that, although the paint on the hood is starting to bubble up in places, so it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Also, the 9pm plan was (and it worked out pretty much according to plan), get the thing gutted asap, get it home and dismembered and partially skinned (mainly the hindquarters, and then into the dedicated deer carcass refrigerator that Wendy let me buy on deer sniping day -1. I hosed it and split the pelvis when I got home, and then got it into the frig. And actually, I'm now glad I shot it at night, because it was much cooler to work on it in the dark, and no flies to speak of. Air temp driving home was 72 degrees. A morning kill could get messy, even though the shooting temps are more comfortable at 6 am.
The other thing I did for cooling was I spread eagled it in the truck bed and bungeed the hind legs to the tiedowns in the corners--I figured it got a nice breeze all the way home, and in fact the hindquarters felt pretty cool when I was hosing her down. From shot to frig was 1.5 hours, next time it should be much quicker.
You're right about the rifle and ladder stand--actually a tower stand would work, it's so open with all these grapes. But there's enough deer that I keep seeing them where I am....
go ahead and send that rifle. I'll pay the postage. :-)
ps. you're welcome to come to Montana if I go, but aren't you due at a woodcock symposium early October? I'm still planning on trying to make that if all goes well.
Dedicated Deer Fridge -- everyone should have one of those. Very nice.
Even if the kids don't have shoes, at least there's meat. Does the winery give you a bottle of red to go with each deer?
MT is definitely not in the cards for me this year, thanks. I'll have to be like the Vicar, and read about it.
- PW
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