KT's Outdoor Journal

[Kt29]

Update to my journal. Oct.1 left for my son Chris's place in north Idaho and arrived that evening.
Oct. 2&3-Weather was very rainy, cool and windy. Mostly visited and split firewood. To wet and rainy to go out hunting, for me anyways.
Oct.4- went to leave the dogs out at daylight. Looked out and spotted a deer by the wood pile. Turns out it was a very tame deer. Chris said it had been hanging out around his place for better than a year. It has absolutely no fear of humans. I sure hope the young lady survives the upcoming deer season. What a treat to see her. Rest of day, cold windy and rainy. Took a trip to Sportsman Warehouse and stocked up on some goodies there.
Oct. 5-Weather looked as if it was clearing for the day. Chris decided it was a good day to go look for a bear. Got our gear loaded up and headed out about 10:00. Headed up to Priest River. Crossed the river and headed into Fox Creek. He had heard this was a good area to find a bear. At the lower end of Fox Creek, we stopped and put up a target so that he could shoot his rifle alittle, as he hadn't had any time off to go out and shoot it. Also he wanted to shoot some of the new loads I had developed for his 300 WSM. After 6 rounds the rifle was dialed in and ready to go. As we drove into the bermed off logging road to shoot the rifle, was a cow moose feeding along the road. Before I could get my camera out, it disappeared into the woods. The day was cloudy, overcast and cool. Just perfect. Followed an old logging road that wound its way to the top of the ridge. This country is extremely steep and rugged and the brush in the old clearcuts is getting pretty high. Almost impossible to glass the sidehills from the bottom. Best bet was to get as high as we could to glass. After about an hour of glassing old stumps and such, Chris said he was pretty sure he saw a bear. It was about 400 yards down the ridge ripping up an old log. Man was he excited and so was I. After watching it for awhile, we determined that it was not a sow with cubs as that would be illegal to shoot, and who would want to shoot it anyways. Made a plan to get down the ridge and as close as we good. Was a good plan to a point. The down side was the heavy brush. Once you got into it, was hard to see anything. Finally worked our way down the ridge aways onto a small knob. From there you could still see the bear. I lasered it at 290 yards. With all this brush, that was about as close as we were going to get. We sat for awhile and watched the bear as Chris worked to gather his composure. He was really excited. Finally he got a good rest and squeesed off a shot.
The bear never knew what hit him. What a great shot it was. I sat on the knob and watched as he worked his way down to the bear. Had to give him hand directions as he couldn't see over the brush. Finally he made it down to the bear. What a great feeling it was to see him with his first bear. We've had alot of great memorable hunts together and this is another to remember. I sure hope we have alot more. Was a bugger getting it back up to the road. It wasn't the biggest bear in the world, but it was well earned by the time we got it out. This is tough country to hunt and spotting bears is anything but routine, so we felt like this was a pretty special day. And it was.
Oct. 6-Decided I would stay home today and cut up the bear. So Chris's mom volunteered to go along with him to see if they could get a turkey.
They left about 10:00 also and headed up north. Just about the time I was finishing cutting up the bear, I heard them coming back. More smiles on their faces. They had a half a load of buckskin larch that they had cut, one ruffed grouse and a hen turkey. They had shot the grouse on their way up the mountain and on the way back, Chris spotted the hen turkey. He made a sneak on it and decked it with his old double 20 ga. that I gave him years ago. What a great old shotgun that is, and certainly potent enough for a turkey. He made a nice head shot using 3" number 5's. After we got the birds cleaned and the bear meat put away, it was time to celebrate with a good cigar and a few beers. What a great weekend it had been. His mom was especially excited with the outcome as this was the first time she had ever gone along with him hunting.
Oct. 8- Left north Idaho and headed back home. Made it late that evening. It was a great trip.
Today Oct. 9- Finally recovered from our long drive back from Idaho. Decided Dakota needed to get out and get back into the bird hunting mode. Nice cool clear day today. Left house at 2:00 this afternoon and headed south. Dakota was fired up and ready to go. Right off the bat we were into birds. The first two birds she put up were roosters. They'll have to wait till this coming weekend when that season opens. Then she was into the sharptails. Man what a nice field. Must have been 20 grouse scattered through this small field. My shooting wasn't all that great today. Couldn't hit anything on the first shot. No problem most of the time with the second shot. Got two birds out of this field. Should have easily had my limit. Missed several birds completely. Got alot of shooting in though, and that's what I like. Dakota did an excellent job putting up the birds and retrieving. She also put up 5 or 6 more pheasants in this field. On the walk back to the truck, she got really birdy once more. She worked quite along time looking for this bird. Several times I was ready to call her off, but I've started to learn that when she is this birdy, there is a bird somewheres close. And after about 5 minutes of looking, she put up the sharptail. As usually, I got it on the second shot and she retrieved it. A weeks lay off hadn't hurt her performance at all. This was by far our best day hunting together. She worked nice and close today, and obeyed her commands also very well. She will be 8 months old this weekend when pheasant season opens. I'm really getting attached to her. What a great little pup and another great day in the field.
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[Kt29]

Went to shooting range early this morning. Just a perfect morning to shoot. Clear blue skies, 35 degrees and absolutely no wind. I real rarity on the prairies and a morning one needs to take advantage of. Brought along my old Mauser 06 and my Ruger .257 Roberts. The old Mauser is my backup deer rifle. Mauser still shooting good at 100 yards with 150 grain Prohunters and real good at 300 yards. Didn't have to make any adjustments on it. Still trying to work up a good load for 117 Grain Gamekings for the .257. This is second load test for this bullet. It will shoot an inch at 100 yards, but not all that well at 300. Have other loads that shoot very well. 117 Grain Prohunters shoot very good at 100 yards .67 " on average and excellent at 300 yards. Have some 110 grain Accubonds that are awesomely accurate. .333" at 100 yards and less than 2" at 300. Still debating if I want to use them on whitetail or not. Originally was going to use them for antelope. Tried some 117 grain Hornady SST's, but for some reason could not get them to shoot very well at all, so use them for fouler rounds. Shot a number of deer with 115 grain Nosler BT's, they were good accuracy wise, but I didn't like their performance on deer. So far I have been more than satisfied with the 117 grain Prohunters on deer. Now its just a challenge to see if I can get the Gamekings to shoot as well as the Prohunters. Also been toying with the idea of using the Mauser on deer this year. Never shot a deer with it myself. The boys have shot a few with it. I've only used it for elk hunting. Still have a good month yet to make up my mind. Got a call from my buddy Pat in Idaho. He got a nice 5X5 bull yesterday. Luckily they could get horses in to pack it out. Opening day of pheasant season tomorrow. Generally don't go out opening day cause it seems to get pretty crazy sometimes. Normal people seems to go nuts on opening morning. But may sneak out in early morning.
Guess I'm alittle anxious too, because I've worked hard with Dakota all summer just for this moment. Hope all goes well.

[Kt29]

Just a side note to Chris's bear kill last week. Tonight I learned that several days before we hunted the Fox Creek drainage, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had to kill a menacing Grizzly Bear that was working the lower end of the Fox Creek drainage. That's to bad. Apparently people had been feeding it for sometime and it just got to habituated to humans.

[Kt29]

Well didn't make it out pheasant hunting yesterday. Guess I just don't like opening days. Spent the day in the reloading room. Loaded up some 130 gr. Sierra's for my oldest son's new .270. That was about the easiest load develop for a rifle that I have gone thru. He should be in good shape now for deer season. Also loaded up a few more test rounds for the .257 Roberts to try out one of these days. Spent time cleaning my rifles from the last shoot. Tried out some Wipeout. Have heard some good things about it, so always a sucker for something new I bought some to try. It seems to work OK, and can't really say it's all that much better than anything else, though, as a lot of people have said, its really messy. The injector can is designed to apply it from the muzzle end. Now that's a challenge. But to make things easier now, they send along a straw so that you can inject it through the breech. What a joke that is. Apparently whoever designed the application system for this product has never cleaned a rifle before. With alittle scounging, I removed the injector nozzle from one of my old cans of fogging storage oil. It fit right on the injector nozzle of the Wipeout, and now you can inject easily, very similar to the Gunslick foaming bore cleaner.
Dakota and I left early this morning to go after some pheasants. Had to be back early cause it was my turn to cook Sunday breakfast. Wouldn't ya know it, the fog rolled in pretty heavy. Visibility was maybe 30 yards. Had no desire to try to hunt in the fog. While I was sitting waiting by the field I planned to hunt, I left Dakota out to relieve herself. In a heartbeat she was gone. I could hear pheasants getting up all over in the field. Guess the bird smell must have been overwhelming for her. After some whistle blowing she came back, but had a hard time getting her to get back into the truck. She is eight month old today. We will give it a good hunt tomorrow. After an hour went back home and cooked breakfast. My wife and I decided today we would buy a new Browning Buck Mark .22 for Chris in Idaho. Poor kid has had somewhat of a rough go of it. Awhile back all his firearms were stolen and he is gradually starting to replace them. He had worked hard in grade school and high school to buy them. And as of the last few months, he has been helping his girl friend take care of her brother who is rapidly dieing of cancer. Just this summer he went to Alaska with him fishing. It has been extremely stressfull for the both of them, watching him die, plus trying to home care him. He's a great kid. I sure hope he survives this ordeal. They're all way to young to have to deal with all of this. I applaud him for doing what he is doing. He care's alot. Called my buddy Barry in Idaho and had him order the Buck Mark. Will be his Birthday/Christmas present. Poor kid was born right before Christmas.
He shot Barry's Buck Mark a couple of years ago, and eversince has really wanted one. Barry said he can do the paper work on it when he comes over to pick it up. Pretty anxious to get out with Dakota tomorrow and get some pheasants.

[Kt29]

Today was Dakota's first official day of pheasant hunting. When we left the house at 7:00 this morning, it was a cool 26 degrees and again we had fog. As I didn't have to worry about cooking any breakfast this morning, we waited it out for only 45 minutes. We did not see alot of birds today, but Dakota worked the CRP very well. The CRP fields have very heavy cover this year, way more than the grass fields she had hunted for sharptails. I must say she put up six single roosters very well plus quite a few hens. The down side to all of this was my shooting. I was so far behind most of them. It was pathetic. I must have really aged since last year. I felt more sorry for her than myself. We did get two of the birds though, but they were straight away shots. Pretty proud of this little girl. She did extremely well I feel. The hunt really pooped her out though. For the first time when we got home, she didn't have enough energy to harrass the old yellow lab. I think that made him happy. If she looks perky tomorrow, we may go out again, and I'm pretty sure she will be fine. Didn't have to deal with any even warm weather today and I kept her well hydrated. Going to leave the Beretta and home next time and take out dad's old 1300 Winchester
20 Ga. I mostly like the Beretta because its very light to carry, but I really don't swing it all that well. On the other hand the winchester is pretty heavy in comparison, but I do swing it pretty good on pheasants.
It gets pretty heavy carrying though for more than an hour, guess that's why I like the Beretta. I can at least carry it all day. Mostly, I just need a confidence builder. Guess I'll see what happens next time out.
Really thought we would see more birds than we did today. Just extremely happy with Dakota though. She really makes the hunt most enjoyable. All she can do it get better at what she already does pretty good. I can't begin to ask for anymore than that.

[Kt29]

Dakota was perkier than ever today, so we went back out looking for a few more birds. Left at 1:00, cloudy, overcast 45 degrees. Hunting a 320 acre CRP field. Took my Dad's old winchester 20 out today. Parked the Beretta as haven't been doing very good with it on pheasants. Worked this field very hard. Dakota put up two roosters both of wich I dropped and Dakota retrieved. Was a good decision to go with the old winchester. No problem staying on the birds at all. Only put up these two roosters and five hens. Doesn't seem to be a lot of birds, but still more than the last couple of years. In 2005 could shoot a limit a day in this field. The October 6, 2006 blizzard devestated the birds in this area and they are slowly coming back. Did not shoot a bird in this field last year at all, and only put up a few hens. Lots of good Karma in this old Winchester. Just wish Dad was still around to be using it with me.
He died at to young of an age. He was carrying this 20 when he died in the field while hunting. Today was another great day in the field with Dakota. Talked with my hunting buddy Russ, he just came back from bowhunting elk in Montana. They did not have any luck, but a good time. Will be interesting to see how Dakota hunts with Russ's labs. She spent alot of time with them all summer long.

[Kt29]

Went out for a short pheasant hunt today. Weather has been nasty last couple of days. Was still cold and rainy this morning, but the rain started subsiding about 11:00. Decided to give it a try. Dakota did not get out at all yesterday, and she was being a real pain in the butt wanting to get out today. So we loaded up and went south a few miles.
We were into birds right away, but the conditions were very tough. Temps. still at 40 degrees, wind 30-40 MPH and some on and off again drizzle. Completely missed the first two birds that Dakota put up. As I haven't used the pump very much at all the last 20 years, I'm having troubles getting the safety off and pumping a shell in for a second shot.
Finally connected on a bird, and Dakota made a nice retrieve. Second bird did not make a very good shot at. They are gone in a heartbeat when they swing with the wind. Dakota was on it though all the way. When it came down, it was a runner. She worked very hard and finally got it. The last bird I shot was similar to the second, only couldn't find it. Always hate when I loose a bird. Tried hard to find it but to know avail. Dakota put up several other roosters that I good not get shots at. They were just gone to fast. Also put up a flock of huns, also could not get a shot at them. They are super fast even with the wind. All in all, was still a great day afield. Supposed to be warmer tomorrow, but still very windy.

[Kt29]

Went to town last night and picked up a Hi-Viz shotgun sight. Thought I might try it out on the O/U shotgun because I have been shooting it so poorly on pheasants. Anything was worth a try. Installed it last night. Dakota and I went out to try for some more birds this morning about 9:30. What a nice morning, clear blue skies, about 45 degrees and winds only 15 MPH. About 10 minutes into the hunt Dakota was on a bird. She flushed two roosters and remarkably I made a double. First one of the year. Now that gave me a lot of confidence right there. Can't say truly if the new sight was the answer, but was nice to make the double. Wasn't a very long hunt this morning. Dakota put up another bird, but it was in the sun and I couldn't ID it till it was out of range. She put up one more rooster, but it got up to far ahead to shoot at. Probably going to rest her a day or so. She has been working pretty hard the last few days. Her nose is raw from going through the CRP and having her nose to the ground. Got up to 61 degrees today. First time it hit 60 this month. Have really been enjoying the cooler weather. Soon enough though it will be below zero and snowing. Will be interesting to see how she takes to snow. Since it was so nice this afternoon I winterized the boat. Another fishing season also gone now.

[Kt29]

Nice and cool this morning, about 32 degrees. Headed out for another short hunt this morning about 7:30. Dakota and I headed north a few miles to a smaller field to look for pheasants. Found that after better than a week of being hunted now, they are getting really spooky and not holding hardly at all. Most are flushing way ahead of the dog. In a few weeks, the hunting pressure will slow down, so I believe they will become less spooky. Dakota did put up one bird that did hold and I was able to bring it down. Did see quite a few birds in this field. One bird today is great. Freezer is starting to fill up with birds and alot of hunting yet to do. Just alot of fun to be out with her.

[Kt29]

Very mild this morning. 55 degrees at 9:00. Left the house and went North a few miles to check out a field I haven't been too in a few years.
Last time I was their, kicked up some pheasants and sharptails. Even though it was mild out, the Prairie Winds were at full song this morning.
Just into the hunt, Dakota put up a nice rooster maybe ten feet away. It got up, caught the wind, and was gone over my right shoulder. I flicked a shot at it, but was way behind it. A few minutes later she put up another rooster. I got up with the wind and never got off the deck. Wasn't a safe shot. Next bird up stayed into the wind and it was taken. Had one more rooster flush wildly and a few hens were put up. Still a one bird day for this short hunt makes for a nice morning. I had forgotten how rolling this field was. Did a walk around to scout for some calling locations for coyotes this winter. Nice dry creek at the south end and lots of ridges to set up on. This got me wondering when my Bell & Carlson stock will be showing up so I can complete my build on my 6MM. Expecting it anyday now. I know I will have a lot of tinkering to do to get it to fit my old Enfield. Supposed to be very warm tomorrow, in 80's. But the winds are supposed to be light in the morning. Need to get to the range and try out some more loads for the .257 so tomorrow looks like a good time. Crazy weather, snow predicted for Thursday and Friday. Gotta Love Fall.

[Kt29]

Got up early this morning and left for the rifle range at sunup. Clear blue skies and temp at 45 degrees and little wind for a change. My mission was to compare my loads of 117 gr. Prohunters against my 117 gr. Gamekings in my .257 Roberts at 300 yards. When it was all said and done width, there was no clear advantage for either one. They virtually shot the same at 300 yds. Both inside of 3". So at least for my .257 Roberts, this tells me that there is no advantage of using a boattail bullet out to 300 yards anyways. While I was shooting, had a couple of guys drive into the range. Turned out they were from Minnesota and were needing to sight in their 22-250's, as they were going prairie dog shooting in the afternoon. They were lucky I was shooting this morning, otherwise the gate to get in would have been locked. So I guess I did my good deed for the day, and invited them to shoot. They were a father and son. Their rifles were new, custom made on a Mauser action. Very nice looking. Kinda wondered to myself why they would come all this way without sighting in their rifles, but to each his own. The son got his on paper at 25 yards and somewhat of a zero at 100 yards. The dad could not get a zero on his. He was still ten inches high at 100 yards, when he ran out of adjustment on his scope. They packed up and headed for town to a gunsmith I told them about, in an attempt to remedy the problem. I'm thinking prairie dogs are probably going to be pretty safe around this pair, but those rifles were sure nice though. When I got home, I got on the computer and played with my ballistics calculator alittle. Just wanted to compare on paper, the difference between the Prohunters and the Gamekings. Not really that much difference on paper either. Was interesting to see that for larger whitetails that I hope to shoot this year, the optimum killing range for my rifle and load was 300 yards. Coincidently that's my optimum skill level range for shooting at big game. Now shooting prairie dogs with a good rest is a whole different story. Having a big magnum for long range shooting at whitetails would be no advantage to me, as my ability to shoot past 300 yards probably wouldn't change, and more than likely would get worse do to the flinch factor of the larger calibers. All in all, I think me and the .257 are a good match, and they have been for years now on whitetails and mule deer. Got a voice mail from my buddy Russ, sounds like he wants to play hooky from work tomorrow and go after some pheasants. He hasn't been out yet this year. Should be fun having all the labs out in front of us. Talking maybe snow tomorrow. 76 degrees out right now. Man, the weather really changes fast around here. Rather hunt in the snow though, then in 70 temps.

[Kt29]

My buddies Russ couldn't make it today to chase some pheasants, as he got called to go out to review a project. As it turned out, that was probably a good thing as it realy warmed up today contrary to the weathermans predictions. Did go out for alittle bit, but soon decided it was way to warm out to run Dakota. Plenty of season left to do that.
The only close pheasant we saw was right next to the truck when I opened the door. It left in a hurry. After a half hour or so headed back home, it was then 70 degrees out. Went into the reloading room and loaded up some ammo for next times outing at the range. Just finished loading when my pager went off. Had a fire call about a mile west of our fire station along the interstate. We responded with three offroad engines and the watertender. Got to the fire just as the winds were really picking up. Fire burned out of the road R.O.W. into a stubble field loaded with big round straw bales. Fire burned in a spider web pattern going this way and that way. Seems like the bales had fire magnets in them. Didn't take to long to corral the fire, but putting out the burning bales was a real pain in the butt. Finally got everything put out and back to the station to clean up all the equipment. The ladies had pizza waiting for us when we got back. I'm now really pooped.

[Kt29]

A sad note to my journal today. Just received a call from my son Chris's girlfriend Beth in Idaho. Her and Chris have been home caring Beth's younger brother Ben who had terminal cancer. He passed away early this morning at the house. His last request before he got bedridden a couple of months ago the day before his birthday, was that he wanted to go camping one last time with them. It was not to happen. Chris was able to take a fishing trip with Ben to Alaska this summer. It has been just a very traumatic time for Chris, Beth, and especially Ben the last few months. Got to meet Ben a few weeks ago when we went back to Idaho. What a nice young man. Pretty much at a loss of words right now. I'm very proud of the kids how they took care of Ben to the end. I can't begin to imagine how stressful it was for these young people to go through all of this. God Bless you Ben.

[Kt29]

Didn't get out much this weekend. Russ and Mark made a late minute decision to drive over to eastern Montana to try for a mule deer with their rifles. They rightfully felt, since they spent so much money on out of state licences they needed to get something. There previous two bowhunt trips didn't yield anything. Haven't heard back from them yet. After the news of Ben's passing I wasn't really up to hunting anyways. On Sunday still feeling pretty blue, my wife pretty much told me a needed to get out of the house. Dakota and I went out for a short hunt and got one rooster. No more than got home and my pager went off again for a fire call. We rolled two offroad engines and the rescue truck. Call was for mutual aid for our neighboring fire district. Got ten miles down the road and received a call that the request had been cancelled. Didn't break my heart. My left shoulder still really aching from last week's fire.
Today feeling alot better mentally and physically. Decided I would take the old yellow lab along on our morning hunt to see if he still had any inkling to hunt. He didn't show any interest at all to do any hunting. This may be because Dakota was along. He doesn't even like to take walks with her. Will try a hunt just with him to see how that goes. Left him at the truck and Dakota and I took off. The morning was warming up really fast, so would be another short hunt. Dakota didn't get birdy at all the first 15 minutes. Then she got birdy. She is almost hillarious to watch when a bird is very close. She starts jumping straight up and down. She put up a nice rooster and I made one of my better shots of the year. Not a BB in the body, all in the head and neck. Very nice plump bird. Put up 5 or 6 more hens on the walk back. Haven't had to use the E-collar for quite awhile now on her. She just amazes me more and more.
As the winds were supposed to go down later on this afternoon, I loaded up the .257 to go to the range. Need to practice using my shooting sticks. Took Dakota along as there is generally no one else at the range and today was no exception. Drove down to the 300 yard backstop to put up a target. As I was putting it up I could hear her running around. Got up to look for her just as she was putting up a flock of huns about 25 yards away. Should have brought the shotgun along. Drove back to the bench to get out my rifle and get set up. Again Dakota was out running around. This time she was just across the fence from me in the stubble field, and wouldn't you know it, she put up a nice rooster. That girl is always on the hunt.
Put 15 rounds through the .257 using the shooting sticks. Can't say as I'm very comfortable yet using them. If I don't get any better will stick with using the bipod again this season. The winds never did go down this evening as predicted. I got an e-mail from my old boss today. Had attached a picture of his son-in-laws nice bull he got yesterday. Will try to post it if I can figure out how. Was good to be out today. I really needed it.

[Kt29]

Gale force winds on the prairie today, just terrible out. UPS truck did stop this morning and let off my new Bell and Carlson stock for my 6MM build. Nice stock, but appears to have been built for a very small person. Very disappointing. Made arrangements to send it back. Another six weeks lost. Will probably try Boyd's next. In the meantime, will go back to using the old ugly stock. Ugly may wind up being where it's at.