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Hunting the Grasslands with Colorado and Pawnee Josh
Well last week I spent four days with these guys and their partners experiencing some of the fantastic things that Colorado has to offer and I would go back there in a heartbeat. Absolutely great people to meet and their country and gun stores are awesome. Colorado picked me up from Denver International and we went straight to a Bass-Pro store to get a Small Game License.
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Next morning, we hooked up with Josh and Emily and headed out here...
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The Pawnee National Grasslands are a mixture of State owned and private blocks, each block is about a square mile, some fenced and others not, that covers most of the Weld County area from Grover to Nunn. Some of the private blocks are in Wheat and others a grazed by cattle and buffalo, and all are roamed by Pronghorn Antelope, Mule Deer, and mongrel damn Coyotes. There are Prairie Dog towns in pockets all over the Grasslands. The larger game is hunted only in season, and by draw (ballot). My Small Game license allowed me to shoot P-dogs and Coyotes.
We'd not been on the road long when we saw these two Coyotes jump up near the road and run back into the field.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkOjH9kUJiE
As you can tell, much excitement and not much camera... Turns out, they had just mauled this poor wee antelope fawn...
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The doe antelope actually ended up chasing the coyotes across the road in front of us and we were all gob-smacked when she caught up with one and literally bowled him over. She was PISSED. Almost as much as we were when we realised my camera had been sitting on the seat in the truck recording the dashboard instead of the action, while we all watched the chase. We did not get a shot in, the doe kept them running! We had to let nature take it's course with the fawn as, unfortunately, any acts of mercy can lead to issues with the wildlife authorities.
We pulled in to a P-Dog location a bit later and all had a crack at some dogs. They live in burrows, and sit up on top of them a bit like Meerkats. Sometimes they'll stand up on their back legs. We used Josh's new .260 and also Colorado's 22-250 to great effect out to around 300m. The latter was more prone to wind, but it's little 50 grainers sure did the business when they connected though.
Here's Emily showing me how it's done...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPemaLBCK5A
This was my 1st taken with Josh's rifle with it's 123 A-Max's...
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Around midday, we put the gongs out and had a play with the .260, and Colorado's .300RUM...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4IrD9AdD4
Well, that canon really needs to be stretching it's legs beyond 1500m, 600m on a 2 foot plate was just too easy! :thumbsup:
We lunched in the bustling metropolis of Grover, then headed over to the wind farm, which is about twice the size of the one near Ashurst, and has just as high a percentage of turbines not working.... The Pawnee Buttes are a geological feature near there and we also drove past a missile silo, but I can't put up any pix of it coz they turned out blank for some mysterious reason...:wtfsmilie:
Later in the day, Colorado took me to a gun store. Tannerite anyone?
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Nice prices on .338's...
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Next morning, Josh and I went after Coyotes. We saw a scrappy looking one slinking away through a cornfield, and then we stopped and set up in a spot with a wash running through it. It was real foggy but Josh gave a few calls.
http://youtu.be/jYGukK6NVVU
This call was answered, but when we went down and set up the rifle, we heard nothing more, even though he tried a few other calls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOVI_B57mdQ
Eventually, we saw a yellow Coyote moving quickly from left to right about 300m out right on the edge of the fog but he did not present a shot.
We moved on to a Prairie Dog Town and in 5 minutes, I had 5 dogs with 5 shots all taken at 200m...
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Here's a bit of video Josh got of two of these dogs getting hammered by the .260...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QWVzP3Cuc8
The one that back-flipped, literally ended up back in his hole :D
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On my last day with them, Colorado took me up along the Big Thompson river into the Rocky Mountain National Park where we drove up over 12,000 feet and down into Grand Lake. We saw Moose, Marmots and Elk (in velvet) and bear shit, but no bears. Incredibly scenic place. I can't do it justice with an iPhone and Video camera. It simply has to be seen.
I have to thank Colorado and Josh and their partners for being such great hosts and hostesses and will be doing my best to help them out when they come over in December.
Cheers all, Ray.
