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Just came back from the coldest deer hunt I can remember up in New Hampshire's Great North Woods with my M03 in .308. This M03 was born as a Stutzen, but I later added a regular .308 barrel to it.
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| A Mauser M03 in 308 Win with a Leica scope, on a hunt in the snow. |
Freezing my face off... I think it was -3F (-19C) when starting Friday after Thanksgiving.
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| A Mauser M03 hunter, on a mission. |
There was plenty of fresh tracks in the snow, so no doubt animals were around. But sitting still in such cold was not easy.
But the wait paid off in the end!! Suddenly I hear something to my left. A little 6 pointer jumps up in front of me, maybe 20 yards away. And he just stands there for a good 30 seconds, having a staring contest with me, wondering what I'm doing in his neck of the woods. Then he makes a jump, a little bit further into the woods, and again stares as me (probably because I look like an idiot with all the crazy clothes on me). All this time, I’ve been sitting still like frozen (which I also was), afraid that even the slightest movement would scare him off, so the rifle is resting on my shooting stick and my leg.
But then he turns his head away for a moment, giving me an opportunity to lift the rifle up and cock it. Bang! As always, if I can do my part, the M03 will perform flawlessly and .308 being plenty for a whitetail, he dropped right where he was standing. He even made a little snow angel.
A few hours later back at the hunting lodge. We were all so very happy that Mr. Deer decided to come for dinner!
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| The end result of a cold day out hunting with a Mauser M03. |
