Interesting scouting trip

[Guy Miner]

Spent the day scouting our whitetail deer hunting area here in Washington, with my youngest son. We found evidence of, and heard many tales of several bears in the area, one of them a real monster by the trail cam photo.

I know Remingtonman2506 has taken bear easily with his quarter bore, but I'm still more comfortable with a bigger bullet for bear.

My son and I were thinking 6mm & .25-06 for this whitetail hunt, but... We're now thinking .30 cal rifles - after all they did real well last year on our November whitetail hunt - and give more bullet weight & diameter should a bear show up... Not real sure yet. I'm not eager to set aside the .25-06 after such stellar performance in Wyoming, but... I do happen to have a few .30 cal rifles hanging around, sort of under-employed right now.

BTW - while we were scouting, we didn't see any whitetail bucks, but we did see whitetail does, and mule deer does & bucks. At one point we had three mule deer bucks in view at the same time, all within easy rifle shot range! Two were shooters and the other needs another year. It was pretty cool, though mule deer season is now closed.

Next weekend is coming fast... Stay with the 6mm & .25-06 or bump up to the .30 cal rifles? Likely a .30-06 and my .308 Win...

What do you say?

Guy

 

[FOTIS]

Shot placement Guy----as you know already!

 

[DrMike]

I do like the thirty calibre cartridges when things begin to go south on a hunt. That can happen rather quickly with bear.

 

[Too Tall]

The Green Machine, for you and the '06 for the boy. Then you don't have to worry about the meat eaters around.

 

[Guy Miner]

TT - that is what we carried last year for whitetail, and things worked out well, no doubt.

My son used that .30-06 in 2010 on bear, 2011 on his whitetail buck, and now wants to use it again this season. I think I may have lost that rifle to him... Dang!

I think the .30 cal decision has been made overnight. It just seems like a good idea. Lots of thick cover the bear-critters can get to after they've been hit, and I like the idea of a bigger exit wound and a lot of blood leaking out.

Seriously - after yesterday's scouting trip & talking to folks in the area, I think we've got as much chance of this becoming a bear hunt as we do of tagging a legal buck!

Found some fresh elk tracks too - but the season there closed yesterday. Phooey.

Guy

 

[6mm Remington]

I hear your Ruger #1 calling it's name Guy for this hunt! That and the grand old 30-06 for your son.

 

[Guy Miner]

Hunting with some new fellows this year - if I show up for a whitetail hunt with my .375 they won't wonder if I'm nuts, they'll know it...

Or they'll think I've been hanging out with Fotis too much... :grin:

Three days - it's just not enough to do the hunt justice, but I'm running out of time for more 2012 hunting adventures.

Priorities are:

4 pt (western count) whitetail buck for my son (4 pt minimum area)
4 pt buck for me

Then... any bear, cougar or coyote that crosses our path! We saw tracks of all those yesterday and heard of wolves in the area too. The wolves are still not legal for hunters to shoot here in Washington.

I'd love to spend a week there, hunting... Could if my son didn't have to be back to college on Tuesday morning. Ah well, we'll do the best we can over the long weekend. The late whitetail season opens Saturday morning.

Don't know why for sure, but I left my camera in the truck when we took a little hike up a ridge yesterday and found the small mule deer herd bedded down. Three bucks and maybe six or seven does & fawns. Real nice. One of the two larger bucks stood up and was watching us from maybe 100 yards away. He was right on the ridgeline, and it would have made a great photo of a young, healthy buck in the wild. I'm thinking he was a 3x3, roughly.

Guy

 

[JD338]

Guy,

Bears are not that hard to kill if you hit them right. Your 25-06 loaded up with a 115 gr PT would do the job on a bear.
Having said that, that about the 375 H&H loaded up with a 260 gr AB? :wink:

JD338

 

[Guy Miner]

Yeah JD - I'm not that worried about killing them - but the doggone things have a tendency to run off a bit if not killed right away... I like the idea of opening up good size holes on each side of the bear. No bear expert here though, which is likely why I'm leaning more towards the .30's than our .24 & .25 cal rifles.

Yeah, I think the .25-06 with the 115 Nosler Partitions would be just fine though.

The .375? Good Grief! Bear, sure. But a poor little whitetail buck? Dang... Would be kind of fun though. :grin:

 

[DrMike]

The .375? Good Grief! Bear, sure. But a poor little whitetail buck? Dang... Would be kind of fun though. :grin:

Well, your .375 isn't that much different from my 9.3X64 loaded with a 250 grain AccuBond. The whitetail buck I dropped a couple of weeks ago hit the ground so fast I thought he was vaporized. That big ol' bullet didn't shoot up a lot of meat, either.

 

[Guy Miner]

Good point Mike - and - this afternoon young John and I headed over to the rifle range for a little practice. He brought along the ancient .30-06 that he shoots well. Today it put 3 hits in less than 3/4" from 100 yards, shooting off a fully extended tall Harris bipod while the young man sat on the ground. Not bad for a somewhat wobbly platform! Nosler 165's of course, over H4350, my standard '06 load.

I did fine with the .25-06, but then for some reason hauled out the .375 Number One and put a couple of 260 gr Noslers smack in the bull, almost touching. Shot them from sitting with no support whatsoever. No shooting sticks, no bipod, not even a sling to steady the rifle. This Number One and I just plain get along real well. I won't be surprised if it travels across the state to hunt whitetail with me... Ah well... Perhaps we'll run into a bear, which sort of justifies the bigger cartridge... Kind of. Maybe.... :grin:

Heading out tomorrow for a few days. May be able to check in via my phone.

Guy

 

[Vince]

Guy, If you shoot the .375 well then, use it.
Accuracy is most critical, another way of saying, "bullet placement."

 

[CatskillCrawler]

If you're seeing doe in early November there are bucks nearby.

 

[Too Tall]

The 'Green Machine' and him get along good, too. Cold bore bulls eye, I seen the picture.