[dpretired]

Went up to Crawford County on Monday (the 18th) for a two day hunt on some state land my buddy and I used to go to regularly back in the mid-90's. There's been some heavy logging operations going on up there taking out the hardwoods ever since then. Most of our favorite spots have drastically changed appearances and are now thick with shrub oak and other thick stuff offering very limited visibility and shooting range. We finally found one area that hadn't been touched yet that still had some mature oak trees with heavy acorn droppings, so we decided to hunt there. The first day passed with neither of us seeing a deer or any other animal for that matter. Lots of tracks in the snow indicating that at least there was some night time activity taking place. On the 19th, I found a couple of fresh scrapes and some impressive rubs on trees near the oaks, so I parked my homemade back rest and butt pad on the ground and leaned back into it for the duration of the hunt. By 4:30 p.m., me and my 30-06 were pretty much convinced that day two was going to be a carbon copy of day one, when suddenly, I saw movement just off to my right about 70 yards out. It was a buck! He caught me as I swung my rifle around to point in his direction. For the next five minutes we had us a virtual motionless stare-down as he tried his best to determine whether I was a mineral, a vegetable, or an animal. Then he made a fatal mistake! He swung his head around for a quick look behind him and when he did, I raised my rifle up, quickly centered his shoulder in the crosshairs, and fired! He left an incredible blood trail in the snow for about forty yards before falling down for keeps. And here he is, a nice 7 pointer

:

 

[Yamirider]

Congrats on a fine buck.

 

[deernutz]

Nice buck! Congrats!


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[antlerhunter]

This has to be one of the best I've read this year. Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

 

[on a call]

Great report and hunt...glad you were blessed to have him come in on you. Are you left handed ?? I am doubting it due to the bolt on the right. You did well swinging to the right.
I used to hunt the southern part of the county years ago. Even back then with the clear cuts it was thick...real thick in areas.

Great looking buck !

 

[GATORGETTER]

Great looking buck and gun congrats

 

[Esquire]

Congrats on your success.

 

[83mulligan]

Congrats, Nice job and nice buck!

 

[DEDGOOSE]

Way to adapt. Congratulations

 

[Skinner 2]

Awesome story rifle and a fine buck for sure. Congrats

 

[riverman]

That stock is eye candy. Make? congrats on the deer

 

[deepwoods]

Congrats on the deer and that fine looking weapon.

 

[snortwheeze]

CONGRATS, love the rifle, buck and story !

 

[MichMac]

Congrats on a great buck and story! I hope we're reading of your success for many years to come!

 

[Sprytle]

Congrats!!

 

[dpretired]

That stock is eye candy. Make? congrats on the deer

I've had that Ruger rifle with a laminated wood stock a long time, around thirty years or so, and have shot over twenty deer with it. Ruger has offered laminated stocks on their M77 bolt action rifles for quite a few years and I always thought they were always much prettier than plain walnut. They also seem to be a little heavier than pure walnut stocks which is something I like because that little bit of extra weight helps soak up some of the recoil. If I remember right, these stocks are actually 32 thin layers of birch glued together with opposing grain direction on each sheet. Because these opposing grains pull against each other when wet, they don't have the tendency to warp like regular walnut stocks do after getting soaked. When a stock barrel channel warps enough to put new pressure at some point on the barrel, it will alter the barrel harmonics enough to change the point of impact from when the rifle was last sighted in. Although we can't feel it when we shoot, a rifle barrel actually vibrates as the bullet spins down it. That's where the barrel harmonics part comes in. As I said, when that changes, so does the point of impact the rifle had before at various ranges. You might have noticed that in competition shooting where money or prizes are involved, as well as in long range varmint rifles, the barrels are always much heavier as opposed to common deer hunting rifles. That heavier barrel weight is designed to cut down on the amount of vibration (harmonics) as the bullet spins its way down the barrel, thus leading to more consistent bullet placement from shot to shot. On a separate note, it's really a matter of a person's personal priorities as far as rifle stocks are concerned. Warping after getting wet does not occur in the various composite rifle stocks that are offered today, only those made of wood. And these composite stocks are often lighter and much easier to carry. A lot of guys don't want a heavier rifle to walk around with which is what we do 99% of the time when we're out hunting. Here is one last interesting note: It was in the latter days of WWII that the German army actually started experimenting with making laminated rifle stocks for their infantry due to the alarming shortage of walnut they had access to as the war was winding down. So laminated stocks are nothing new, it's just a more complicated manufacturing process that has its up and down sides to it.

 

[Trout King]

Nice story and very nice deer.

 

[Stubee]

Nice buck DP! I hunted up in Crawford County back in the ‘80s, NW of Frederic. Challenging and fun.

 

[Airoh]

Good job.
Congrats.

Went up to Crawford County on Monday (the 18th) for a two day hunt on some state land my buddy and I used to go to regularly back in the mid-90's. There's been some heavy logging operations going on up there taking out the hardwoods ever since then. Most of our favorite spots have drastically changed appearances and are now thick with shrub oak and other thick stuff offering very limited visibility and shooting range. We finally found one area that hadn't been touched yet that still had some mature oak trees with heavy acorn droppings, so we decided to hunt there. The first day passed with neither of us seeing a deer or any other animal for that matter. Lots of tracks in the snow indicating that at least there was some night time activity taking place. On the 19th, I found a couple of fresh scrapes and some impressive rubs on trees near the oaks, so I parked my homemade back rest and butt pad on the ground and leaned back into it for the duration of the hunt. By 4:30 p.m., me and my 30-06 were pretty much convinced that day two was going to be a carbon copy of day one, when suddenly, I saw movement just off to my right about 70 yards out. It was a buck! He caught me as I swung my rifle around to point in his direction. For the next five minutes we had us a virtual motionless stare-down as he tried his best to determine whether I was a mineral, a vegetable, or an animal. Then he made a fatal mistake! He swung his head around for a quick look behind him and when he did, I raised my rifle up, quickly centered his shoulder in the crosshairs, and fired! He left an incredible blood trail in the snow for about forty yards before falling down for keeps. And here he is, a nice 7 pointer View attachment 459995 :

 

[wannabeup]

Nice deer and nice read. Thanks for sharing, you took me to the woods on a work day. I've been in those stare downs myself. Trying not to breath, trying not to let them see your eyeballs. Usually I lose. You got 'em. Good going.