Quiet Morn at the Range, all alone, and then (get that finger off the trigger, boy !)

[kodiakrain]

Thought this might be interesting, for the shooters

Considering the recent discussions about Craziness at the Range, and Crowding, etc.

I'm sending 58 gr VMax's down range, amazed by the new Tikka .243,
and enjoying a quiet day with nobody else out there making any noise,
when suddenly the range "Goes Cold,"

Get that finger off the trigger now,.....



yep, that's a Blacktail, strolling down out of the woods, apparently not bothered by Range Crowding at all in Kodiak

Looking Fat, for a yearling (I think anyway) was hanging behind a Big Doe, this one,
Now, ya gotta admit, if the freezer wasn't full already,......
Nah, no poacher in me, but it was sure fun, to hold the crosshairs on the sweet spot and imagine how easy it would be,.....:shot:



and here's the younger fawn, following Mama across the Rifle Range,

with nary a care in the world,.... anybody else had something like this happen ??



Well, if nothing else, the Blacktails are looking pretty healthy this spring,
and, for myself, after a month on the road, San Diego, Anchorage, etc.

This morning was sure a nice "Welcome Home to Kodiak,"

[LuJon]

Pretty cool!! Never had something like that with "big game". One time as a kid wondering out w/ the old man down near the little su grouse hunting we spotted a pop can off in the brush and decided to do some plinking. Emptied a mag into it with the old marlin .22 then went to retrieve it. When I bent down to pick it up a covey of grouse exploded from the brush all around it. Pretty funny at the time since we had been looking for grouse all day with no luck, hence the decision to do some plinking in the first place!

BTW, in that first pic is that a deer behind the tire backstop as well?

[kodiakrain]

Yeah, Good Eye LJ,
I kinda screwed that up, waited too long to change it,

the "fat looking yearling," is actually the Mama, strolling down in photo 1&2

the yearling fawn was standing right up behind the targets there for a while

Fawn did look pretty well fed as you can see in photo 3

[LuJon]

Man I have to get out there to hunt with you.... Oh wait, that's already on the books! Man if wasn't for August sheep in the brooks I would be wishing it was Oct!

[LuJon]

I can't say I have never put the crosshairs on an animal (bolt open of course) and tried to will it to be legal.

Sort of look at it like counting coup


sublegal bull, one of a bunch of not-legal bulls that I mentioned in another thread.

[Darreld Walton]

We were headed in to set up an base camp for elk, deer having ended the evening before, when across a meadow about three hundred yards out, was a HUGE mule deer buck. Now definitely NOT legal to shoot. His right antler was bent clear over the bridge of his nose, and was intertwined with the other antler. Heckuva temptation, but I enjoy my hunting rights, and don't need a judge interferring more than necessary.

[sayak]

A similar thing happened to my son and I last summer. We were sighting in at our "range" on targets we had previously set up. The targets were on a small rise about 150 yards beyond us, and we were on another small rise with our bench. The ground in between is typical old gravel pit with patches of willow here and there. We had just finished and were putting away our gear, when a cow moose decided to finish her siesta and rose up out of some willows about 50 yards in front of us. I wonder what she thought about all those bullets whizzing by.

[323]

We were qualifying in Ft Huachcua and we had a bunch of Illegals running behind the 300 meter range does that count? Anyhow they shut the range down and we sat out there for a good 3-4 hours while the M.P's and Border patrol policed them up.

[LuJon]

We were qualifying in Ft Huachcua and we had a bunch of Illegals running behind the 300 meter range does that count? Anyhow they shut the range down and we sat out there for a good 3-4 hours while the M.P's and Border patrol policed them up.

hmmm, I thought coyote's were no limit no closed season down there. Seems like you missed a golden opportunity!

[323]

Yeah I guess we did. I guess they will do anything to get into America even run through a hot range with actual firing going on LOL

[tyrex13]

There's always moose hanging around Snowshoe Gun Club in Kenai. I think they think they are safer there around the guns and bullets than out in the woods with the bears...

[kodiakrain]

We had just finished and were putting away our gear, when a cow moose decided to finish her siesta and rose up out of some willows about 50 yards in front of us. I wonder what she thought about all those bullets whizzing by.

This was actually the second time this winter, I have watched a couple deer while hot on the range, must be a gametrail coming right down from behind that target area.

The last time, (didn't have a camera with me, thought aww, this'll never happen again)
they were hanging around for so long,browsing around for something to eat, in January,
that I finally started firing after they cleared out to the side of my targets, and they surprisingly didn't react to the gunshots at all.

Of course, I wasn't moving much at the bench, not much to alarm them, but I was thinking they would take off at the first gunshot, ??

Didn't seem to mind, bullets whizzing by, or the sound of the muzzle end blast at all ??
Slowly ambled on after several shots

[LuJon]

You should go back this fall in full camo and set up one of those fancy double-bull blinds that Mike Waddell is always talking about. Bet you don't see anything then!!

[gogoalie]

Ya didn't see the deer with the regulations book their back pocket???

[HuntKodiak]

That's cool. I see tracks out there all the time, and I just figured they were strolling around at night. Not always so apparently. You're spot on about their health this spring. I haven't seen one in poor health, and I've seen a good population of yearlings running with the does. Good sign for the future.

I was sitting at the same bench as you about a month or so ago, and I stopped shooting because a snowshoe hare popped out in the range and started to zig zag down the range at me. I couldn't believe it. That thing jogged right by me at about 4 feet and ran out through the open fence door! Made me just laugh and shake my head.