Caught 'em in the open!!

by Mike
(SW Colorado)

Well, not much to this one...

It was was the second day of the first Rifle season in 2010 and while having heard about 4 shots on the first day I was hopeful for my chances.
Started to walk on the trail about .5 mile from camp when I saw a clearing through a couple stands of trees and decided to creep closer to look into this meadow, which was about 150x300 yards with trees dotting the open area.
I was thinking it was a good spot because I wanted to try the smaller open areas versus the huge expanse approach on that day.
When I was about 20 yards from the first opening, I saw a cow walk by from right to left and then I had to put my eyes back in their sockets. Crouching down, I unshouldered my 7mm and brought it back up as slow as I could. Right when I leveled the rifle, a 3x3 walked by followed by a 4x4. Since I was shooting through a small loophole, I really only had enough time to make sure it was at least a 4x4 and shoot. Luckily, I saw five points on the next bull and pulled the trigger. I would say there were probably 12-14 animals in the group, with at least four bulls. I pulled the shot to the right ( scope was on 10x, ya I know...rookie mistake) and when the bullet struck the bull ran up into a stand and succumbed to the wound.


The second picture was taken where the bull was shot, looking back towards my final firing position.