dmurphy317

Left last Friday and got back last night from their youth deer hunt. We had perfecttent campingweather with mid 60's to low 70's for highs and upper 30's for lows, no rain and only a little wind. Checked out several new areas in our search for the elusive mule deer bucks that are reported to be in several pockets within unit 15 here in NM, the only one we found was shot by a young man about 10 min before we showed up, I knew we shouldn't of stopped to go to the restroom. [:@]

Anyway, since it was my kid's hunt I allowed them to determine most of the schedule and tried to keep them motivated instead of burned out. I had to balance the hunting time with some school work they needed to finish while we were out there. We did see some pretty country and a lot of elk, which is good because I go back in just over 2 weeks for my bull hunt. I saw at least 3 or 4 bulls that were 6x6 or bigger, even had one in camp Sunday night about 300 yards from our campsite, we didn't get much sleep that night because of his bugeling.

We did try something different when it was time to unload the guns before heading home that impressed me. I took the kids to a spot that had some cliffs. I checked the distance with my range finder and it was exactly 380 yards to a specific marker on the cliff face. Both boys took turns shooting one shot at the spot using the ballistic reticle in their scopes, third mark down is suppose to be close to 360 yards with the 200SW and 100gr of BH209 (approx 1925 fps) loads they were using. Both shots were taken off hand while I watched through my bino's. My 17yo hit dead center horz. and about 2 feet high, my 15yo hit 1 foot high and 1 foot left, both felt pretty good about the shots before I told them how they did. To say the least I was impressed, I'm not sure I could have done that well. It also helped confirm the setup I have on the scopes. I would never take a shot like that on game but the load should be good to around 250 yards.

I will post some pictures of the areaas soon as I get a chance to upload them.

cayugad

Well it sounds like you had a great time. Its a shame you did not score with some mule deer venison, but I think the you understand the real importance of the hunt was the time spend with your sons in the great outdoors. Good luck in your elk hunt. Go shoot a big one..

Indiana SmokePole

Murph

Sounds like you guys had a fantastic hunt even if you didn't take anything , as time with our children are more presious than anything ! and this will be something that none of you will ever forget.

dmurphy317

Thanks, I did try to make it more about them and their experience.

Here is a picture of the boys standing by a huge Aspen we found next to a large open area that had lots of water. Aaron (17) is on the left, he is 6'-8". Jacob (15)is on the right and 6'-1". All three trunks are growing from the same stump, I didn't have any way of measuring it but it appears to be at least 3' in diameter at the base and is at least 80' tall.



In this picture there is an elk, upper left quadrant. I could not get it to crop and resize.



The next two are from atop Fox mountain at 9200 feet.





The Last one is from a senic overlook and shows some of the ruggedness of the area.



This is just a cheap3.1 camera that I carry with me so I don't mess up my better camera, sorry for the low quality. Hopefully you get an idea of the area.

cayugad

Great pictures... thanks.

saxman1

Great pictures and fine lookig boys
The one on the right could pass for my son.
He grins the same way.

Always a good time hunting with the kids
I will take my daughter after school tomorrow.