2024 Rifle Deer Hunt - X-Bolt II 300 WSM

The winter of 2022-23 just wiped out the deer in the area where I like to hunt deer the most. We hunted it for a few days in the fall of 2023 and never saw a deer. We only found a few old deer tracks near the fence of the neighboring CWMU. With that knowledge, I switched to my second string area for deer hunting in 2024. My second string mountain lost a lot of deer in the Spring of 2023 but not all. On this hunt, I saw around 20 deer daily in the canyons I hunted.

Dallen and Kaden drew muzzleloader tags this year and I drew a rifle tag. I hunted with them for seven days of their 2024 Muzzleloader Deer Hunt. We found several smaller bucks and a couple of bucks on the three-year-old line that were the oldest that we could find. Kaden and I worked hard to try and get a large-bodied 3-point buck that in the end Kaden missed. We later found that his Bushnell HOLOsight red dot was somehow off by 4 inches at 100 yards. We found a 1x muzzleloader scope we like much better for his muzzleloader after the deer season that he would be using to hunt elk with this year.

I decided to pass on hunting the opener and head up the mountain to hunt during the week. I like hunting deer and not hunting around what I see other hunters doing so the middle of the week is far better for me than any opener. I spent my hunt doing day hikes out from my jeep early in the morning then returning after dark to sleep in and cook dinner in the front seat of my jeep.

During the muzzleloader deer season, Dallen and I spent three days packed several miles further up the mountain. We found few deer this far in but found a lot more deer within a day's hike of where we could drive the Jeep. Kaden, Dallen and I focused on this area and that is where we found the 3-point Kaden tried to get with his muzzleloader. With this knowledge, I focused my rifle hunt within day hikes of my Jeep.

For my rifle hunt I was hunting with a new to me rifle, an X-Bolt 2 Hunter Composite in 300 WSM. I purchased this rifle at this year's employee sale. The rifle had been shot some by R&D and had a pretty scuffed-up stock but I didn't mind because I wanted a workhorse 300 WSM primarily for a backcountry elk rifle.

I spent most of my time hiking down into a canyon and out on a point where I could glass below me and back into draws above and behind me. I would take my Vortex 11-33 spotting scope and my old reliable Nikon binos and spend the day glassing. Every day I would spot around 20 deer and around 4 bucks. One evening I found a small 4 point bedded down and moved to within 400 yards waiting for him to stand up for the evening. He ended up standing a good 10 minutes well after shooting light. I could just barely make out his figure through the spotting scope when he stood.

The deer were up and feeding on the evening of the third day. I digiscoped a small 2-point in one draw then a 16-inch wide 3-point in another. I texted images to my family saying I have option 1 or option 2 in sight. My wife texted back to shoot either because they all wanted meatloaf and deer steaks. I love deer meat and we could use some deer meat with the price of groceries out of control. However, I was hopeful for at least a 4-point this year. Not long after I sent images of these two bucks another buck emerged up in a different draw further away from me and he was encircled in nasty terrain. This 3rd option was the 3-point Kaden had missed during the muzzleloader season. I texted an image of him to the family with the question of "Or option 3?" Kaden quickly chimed in to get the buck for him. So option 3 it was.

The buck was currently at 812 yards from my position. I had been center punching my 12-inch 822-yard steel target with my X-Bolt 2 a week or so prior but... I felt I had enough light to make a move and get closer. Using my Vortex Optics Viper HD 3000 Laser Rangefinder I ranged the deer and then a ridgeline between us and roughly calculated if I could get to that ridge I would be sub 300 yards.

I quickly gathered my gear and off I went. I passed several does along the way but luckily they avoided running into the thick area I was headed towards. As I crested the ridgeline and set up on my homemade doublecross shooting sticks I had him broadside at 269 yards. A quick elevation dial on my Vortex Viper 4-16x50 HSLR scope and I settled in dropping the crosshairs down across the buck and I touched off just as I got to the top edge of his heart. After the shot, I watched for a minute and couldn't see the buck or any movement anywhere so I fought my way through the overgrown steep terrain over to where he was last standing. Yup, I drilled him right where I was aiming. Blood was where he was standing and the blood trail went 30 yards and there he was piled up. The 200 Gr ELD-X passed right through him around the top edge of his heart. I always do a gutless boning out of my deer and elk so I'm not quite sure if it took out the heart but it looked like it did from the amount of blood everywhere and the location of the shot.

I took a few photos and then started the boning-out process. I had all the gear I needed with me to tackle the task. Most importantly my Browning Monroe backpack and some meat bags. I decided to try and pack everything out in one trip. Looking back I should have taken a small load that night and come back in the morning for the rest. Anyhow, the scale at home showed that the deer meat weighed 72 pounds and the head was 9 pounds. Combined with all the rest of my gear I was packing 123 pounds up and out of that canyon. With the help of angels carrying the load, I made it back to my Jeep at 2:10am. I should have taken two trips. On a good note, all of my daily hikes I do early in the morning with my dog paid off. Even with such a grueling pack out my knees did great and were just fine afterward. Although I do feel I was pushing it a little too much on my total knee replacement. Next time I'll take multiple trips.

As I write this I haven't ground up any burger from this buck in my LEM 3/4 HP grinder yet but the steaks have been to die for yummy.