you guys might like this, story,
back in the early 1980s Id flown out to California to meet a buddy to hunt mule deer,we met at the airport in Sacramento and we loaded up my back-pack and rifle case, (one secret you learn quickly is too travel as lightly equipped as you can, too make transporting the basic gear easier on you physically) and after loading his rented pick-up, we drove strait out to the hunt area, about 6-7 hours drive time, too north of LIKELY cal.
It had been a hard tiring day and not much of interest had happened yet, we were both dead tired when we made camp, that night, before having driven up from Sacramento the day before,we spent an exceedingly cold night as I had purchased a SEARS sleeping bag that was rated at o'DEG F ,
but found it totally inadequate , and spent the night needing to wear my parka and down vest in the sleeping bag, so I was uncomfortable and cold, after the second night sleeping like that we drove into redding cal.
a couple hours away,and I purchase a north face expedition style sleeping bag, before returning too hunt, that better quality sleeping cost me much more than I made in a weeks wages at the time.
, Sal and Id gotten up at pre-dawn on opening day and made some coffee mixed with coco over a small camp fire in a old well used stainless coffee pot, Id poured myself a cup in a well used stainless steel coffee cup and tried not to burn myself, holding and drinking it as the feeble light of dawn, faintly lit the far canyon and mountain, ridges and Id thrown a package of granola bars in my back pack.
my hunting partner , SAL,wanted too rush up the one local dirt access road, and get down into the next drainage that was 4 miles away according to the topo maps of the area.
http://images.summitpost.org/original/607108.JPG
but I was not feeling that great due to altitude sickness so I suggested he go ahead and Id catch up later. (altitude sickness will kick most people who live at lower elevations ASS big time if you don,t relax drink plenty of water and take a few aspirin every few hours until your body adapts and that frequently takes two or three days ).
If he left the access road I told him to write a brief note and place it in a plastic bag in the center of the access road with a rock on it so Id get the info as I followed later behind him.
I shouldered my browning BLR in 358 win on its leather shoulder sling and pulled my green & black flannel shirt up and zipped my down vest closed due to the cold and altitude, and looked around at the tent pitched next to the rented truck.
(BTW a 358 BLR loaded with speer 250 grain bullets over a charge of 44 grains of IMR 4064 and a federal 215 mag primer is a damn effective deer load Id used for years, I sight it in 3.5" high at 100 yards and its near dead on at 200 and about 11" low at three hundred yards and despite all the magazine articles you read mule deer are considerably larger than most southern white tail but the ranges still tend to be under 300 yards)
(yes a 270 win loaded with a boat tail 150 grain bullet would be a better choice but at the time I only owned that BLR for deer hunting
,as my browning 78 single shot and ruger single shot rifles were not available at that time)
I was in the Warner wilderness, north and east of likely California. hunting mule deer on one of my first mule deer hunts. I started walking up the access road ,into the hunt area, a narrow two track long ago abandoned by anyone but the forest service, because vehicular traffic was not allowed past the gate where I,d camped, at the edge of the trail into mill creek drainage.
I could see my breath,hang in clouds, as I struggled to breath at the elevation , both conditions were a bit novel for a guy from Florida.
I walked slowly trying not to make noise or kick the dry dusty reddish soil or step on the conifer branches, as I walked into the hunt area, the trees ranged from basically twisted brush resembling drift wood too
occasionally massive sequoia or red woods towering far higher than any trees Id ever seen before,as I progressed from the open meadows, thru rolling hills where the larger trees seemed to grow mostly in larger related clumps extending over several acres, where they blocked most of the dim light at dawn and the area seemed darker than it should, as I slowly advanced up the access road in a steady climb higher up into a wooded ridge, it took several hours to cover about two miles, because I glassed constantly and rarely moved more than a few dozen yards at a time before stopping to glass the surrounding area, both because it was hard to breath, at the altitude and the fact I was trying very hard to cover ground silently.
there was patches of old dirty snow that was mostly melted, dust from the reddish soil kicked up by little dust devils coated the snow with a red tinge, but the very low humidity, seemed to dry the snow as it turned to water before the liquid even could spread more than a fraction of an inch from those snow patches on the dry reddish powdery soil.
after traveling about two miles I decided to sit on a branch of a long ago fallen sequoia and rest looking over a long narrow slope, that was mostly a gully that dropped slowly away from my location at about a 120 degree angle from the access road, and Id found I was very tired , and I felt like I was hung over, and had the flue, (altitude sickness) so Id sat there for several hours that morning, and after getting up about 11 am, and hunting the wooded ridge un-successfully most of the day, but seeing consistent very fresh deer tracks Id found myself back at the same location , on my slow return to the camp site,at about 4-to-5 pm, as the sun started to drop in the afternoon sky.
Id seen several does and a few small bucks. I was enjoying the peace and quite that was only broken when the wind blew in gusts that you could hear coming long before they arrived and you felt the air move as the area was sparsely covered with a dried out plant, that closely resembled tobacco, that rustled loudly in any wind , sounding almost like tin-foil or plastic wrap being crinkled as the breeze moved the large dry half frozen leaves.
I was content to rest as the headache (altitude sickness)was just manageable, (I learned to drink a great deal of water and take aspirin and take any exercise easy the first few days in the mountains )
I was considering getting up and slowly trudging back to camp as after about 9 hours , as hot coffee sounded very good, when movement caught my eye far down hill, the deer were at least 600 yards distant when I first noticed them, moving in and out of aspen clumps, it was a group of deer , slowly ascending the gully, and oak brush.
I watched as they got closer, they were in no hurry and it looked like shooting light might be gone before they got into range and I was not really keen on dressing a deer in the dark either.
they came on slowly and they were within about 90 yards , moving thru scattered brush, and scrub oak before I could get a good look at the only buck, a small tine 4x4 mule deer,that had a wide rather spindly rack , that lacked mass but it was easily 22"-24" wide which looked huge to a guy from Florida used to Florida white tail deer.
I was studying the mule deer,thru my 2x 7x scope on the 358 win, as he approached and I was wondering where SAL was as Id seen no notes, heard no shots all day , and Id seen his boot prints over mine headed back to camp, near where I was seated hours before. the mule deer got into about 60 yards and Id decided not to shoot as he was not that impressive and the thought of dressing him and dragging Im back to camp without SALS help in the dark was not all that comforting, when I heard a rifle shot! the deer spun and started to run but made a full 360 degree turn when a second rifle shot dropped him, on the spot.....it was Sal, he had come up the road looking for me, seen the deer and shot it with his 257 Roberts carbine, from a range of about 300 yards, it was a huge surprise to Sal when he saw me stand up next to the fallen sequoia , it was not till I stood up that he even knew I was in the area.
as soon as he saw me and noticed my proximity to the deer he apologized, as he assumed I was about to shoot it myself!
and he knew my habit of always letting a deer get as close as possible and holding fire as long as the distance was being reduced ...but I assured him Id given up any desire to shoot the deer and after we spent the next few hours dressing and dragging the deer back to camp, he grudgingly agreed that I had a good deal more common sense that he did, (mostly due to the altitude and how hard it was to drag a 170 lb deer even down hill on an old access dirt road.
I was impressed with SALs ability to hit and kill a deer shooting off hand,( but leaning on a tree trunk for support,) at 300 yards with the 257 Roberts and the rifle did kill the mule deer (the second shot was probably not required as both hit the deers lungs) but I was not overly impressed with his bullet choice as he had selected an 87 grain bullet that failed to exit. in fact the bullets seemed to shared on impact destroying the lungs, but not penetrating deeply, the cartridges he had were loaded over a stiff load of H4350, as it gave very high velocity and a flat trajectory, but less than impressive penetration. I think that was the longest shot SAL ever made on a mule deer.
but I talked with him several years later and he had swapped to 100 grain speer bullets and stated he had gotten much better penetration on subsequent mule deer hunts
http://www.papermapsonline.com/home/Nor ... rness.aspx
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/modoc/recreation/trails.shtml
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/modoc/recreatio ... ndex.shtml
--Drink water- and gator aid , force yourself even if not thirsty,-Start several days or a week BEFORE you arrive at altitude. Most folks--especially those who work at more sedentary professions--don't drink enough water/liquids to begin with.
--Don't drink alcohol.
--Start taking 2-3 aspirin each day several days before you arrive at altitude.
--As mentioned, bring Rolaids. At the first sign of feeling just a tiny bit queasy, take some.
--Try to avoid heavy exertion for the first day or two at altitude.
--Folks with high blood pressure are more likely to get altitude sickness, so keep that in mind for you and your partners.
--Drink water.......
the first time I went out of state to hunt (california)
I bought a decent rifle case,
to make it easy to find in case there were several hunters with similar cases
I painted mine in
ALTERNATING
HOT PINK
SKY BLUE
BLOOD RED
ELECTRIC GREEN
PASSION PURPLE
AND
HAZARD ORANGE
3" wide STRIPES
needless to say it stood out from the other luggage cases
as the case was 57 inches long there were about three of each color stripe
while I waiting to board the plane I see the guys loading luggage on the plane DELIBERATELY drop several rifle cases off the conveyor belt, by pushing them off the edge with their feet , then picking them up and throwing them back on the conveyor belt, where most fell off a second or third time before they go loaded in the planes cargo section, I was REALLY PISSED and complained immediately and was told they would look into that..with a stupid smile from the boarding girl I complained too!
I never heard a word from the air lines about this later, it was the LAST time I flew with firearms
btw CALIFORNIA changed the hunting regulations considerably in the mid 1980s ,
making it very difficult to hunt the areas you wanted to hunt, raising licence costs,
and generally making hunting far more difficult