After three days of running from other hunters as much as the elk were, I decided to wait out the impending snow storm in my truck. I traveled point to point in an attempt to escape the snares of other hunters only to exhaust all of my pre-planned scouting locations. Instead of looking out into the mountainsides and seeing the brown hue of elk, all that was visible was the blaze orange of hunters. I woke in the morning with the usual excitement of opening day only to be as disappointed as the night prior. Simple and sturdy, yet elegant-its compact walnut stock fit much like the carbine M4 that I had become so accustomed to carrying. 308 fitted with a Leupold VX-5 3-9x scope.
![7 mag remington rifle 7 mag remington rifle](https://primarmi.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2Z7Q.jpg)
A Remington rifle had taken my first deer, as well as slung lead over 1,000 meters in two foreign lands to save my hide, so I figured the brand held its own. It had to be light enough to carry up the steep slopes of the Rockies, and compact enough to fit into a scabbard that I could sling off of a saddle. It needed to be able to handle longer shots and heavier game than PA could offer. I spent hours, days, and weeks in the saddle traversing the endless terrain within the National Forests before finally determining the most perfect hunting location.Īfter two deployments, it was time to purchase a rifle that was definitively mine. My whole life, what I had been calling “mountains” were merely rolling hills now dwarfed by the Rockies and their 14,000-foot peaks.
![7 mag remington rifle 7 mag remington rifle](https://palmettostatearmory.com/media/catalog/product/cache/7af8331bf1196ca28793bd1e8f6ecc7b/7/9/795571-Bergara_B-14_Wilderness_Ridge_7mm_Rem_Mag_Bolt_Action_Rifle_Woodland_Camo_B14LM507.jpg)
I finally made my way back to my roots as I climbed atop a solid, steady quarter horse and slid into my Billy Cook saddle exploring the endless wilderness of the National Forests. The slow, arduous pace of being back in the woods was a warm, welcomed feeling despite the cold, thin air of Colorado piercing my lungs at 9,000 feet. This bull elk was the first critter the author shot with his Remington Model 7. 30-30 took my first pig in a long overdue hunt with my father after too many years dormant. My father’s Savage 99 in my hands equated to plenty of deer meat in our freezer. A muzzleloader handed down from my great-grandfather took down a young buck. Over the following years of hunting through high school and college, I continued to borrow family rifles and shotguns that would get the job done on a few more deer, squirrels, and pheasants.
![7 mag remington rifle 7 mag remington rifle](https://images.guntrader.uk/GunImages/17/1708/17080/170808160234007/170808160234007-2.jpg)
The turkey laid still and my love for hunting and the outdoors continued to grow. Sitting against a wide elm as still as possible, I squeezed the trigger and felt my shoulder become a knot in the tree that I would later complain about having to split for cord wood. Putting my paternal grandfather’s old Remington 870 super mag in the hands of a 12-year-old was like dropping a Pontiac 455 SD engine into a Honda Civic. Seeing as how that old stick was the closest thing I had for a shotgun, I once again had to borrow. Continuing the family tradition of hunting no matter what, my father helped me skip school to go for turkeys.