View attachment 1107150
I’m ready!
Deer season opens here next Tuesday, and my wife and I have been driving around over by our friend’s ranch - in the unit where I drew a tag this year. We’ve seen a few decent bucks (and a bunch of does and smaller bucks) out in our friend’s hayfield on a couple of different evenings. The problem is, the deer we’ve seen were clear over on the other side of the hayfield (306 yards according to our son-in-law’s range finder), and there’s no cover to stalk closer. Besides that, the deer seemed skittish. They started moving into the sagebrush on the
other side of the hayfield as soon as I stopped the truck.
So, if I’m to shoot one of those deer, it’s going to be a 300-yard shot from the sagebrush alongside the road after I’ve had my wife drop me off at least an hour before dusk - before the deer start coming out into the hayfield. That’s why I bought myself the tripod in the picture.
I bought it at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Pocatello, drove straight home, and stopped by the house to grab a gallon jug full of water before heading on down to the county gravel pit (our “range”). I set the jug on the side of the hill at the south end of the gravel pit, then drove to the north end.
I then aimed my new range finder at the gallon jug and discovered the gravel pit is a good 400 yards long - longer than I had previously thought. So, I drove the truck “downrange” a bit, and ranged the jug again.
It was 314 yards from the hood of my truck to the gallon jug at the south end of the pit. So I set my new tripod up in front of the truck, sat down behind it with my .308 Norma Mag, put the crosshairs on the top of the jug (my rifle is sighted to hit dead-on at 250 yards) and squeezed the trigger.
POP!!! I hit that jug about half-way down, and about 2” left of center. That’s
good enough for a 300-yard mule deer - or for that matter, a 100-yard mule deer if I run across an unwary one.