Post by Janis Putelis
A few friends and I headed to Western Nebraska for opening day of Whitetail deer rifle season this year. Opening day was Nov. 14, which put us right in the middle of the rut. Although after two days of public land pressure the bucks quit acting rutty and turned into the gray ghosts that they are. I was lucky in my opening morning set up and saw lot’s of deer activity. I even rattled in one small buck. After the morning rush, I had counted six bucks and maybe 15 does all within shooting range. Being my first time deer hunting this area, I decided to let them all go and continue hunting. My plan was to sit all day. I had seen two bucks that were worthy of shooting, but I really wanted to continue hunting and maybe see if the area would produce something a bit bigger. Late that evening, with only about twenty minutes of shooting light left, one of the eight pointers fed out of a small draw in the timber, heading towards the agriculture fields. His antlers looked wide and I could see tall tines through my Zeiss 10x40s. After a terrible first shot, I connected with my second and took my biggest whitetail buck to date. He’s not a monster, but a fine buck at that, and I’m tickled. He grossed around 120 B&C. I also killed a couple does to top off the freezer. Tender vittles!
The weather was clear and cold on opening day, with highs only in the upper twenties. I sat all day and stayed plenty warm by incorporating the following gear.
Icebreaker Merino long underwear, 260 weight, top and bottom
Smartwool socks, Heavy Trekking
Lowa Sheep Hunter GTX boots
King of the Mountain Bun-lite wool pants
Montbell Eldo jacket, synthetic insulation
Cabela’s MTO5O Jacket
Icebreaker Merino stocking cap worn under my blaze orange hat
Marker Montana Gloves
Other gear that I found usefull on this hunt: Badlands 2200 Pack, Stoney Point shooting sticks, Case XX Stag Hunter Knife. On this hunt I used a Winchester Model 70, 300 WSM, shooting 165gr. Barnes X bullets that I loaded myself.
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