General Categories > Hunting and Fishing
So ...... what did YOU learn this Deer Season?
JimP:
Now that the work is done and the freezer is stocked....... I can take a minute to think about what I learned.
1. A 7mm 140 gr Hornady spire point bullet leaving the muzzle at 2400 f/sec, fairly well placed, will kill a deer just as stone dead as an equally fairly well placed 7mm 140 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip leaving at 2800 f/sec, at least at ranges less than 100 yards ...... and will make a whole lot less mess of the deer in the process.
2. Eldest gets deer fever...... she can pop dozens of milk jugs at 150 yards...... 2 deer at the same range? 6 shots, 3 hits, only 1 lethal ....... needs practice.
3. Conversely, my niece "P", at the ripe old age of 12, seems to be a natural: her first deer was taken at 220 yards with a shot through the heart...... she had fired all of 6 rounds of (sort of-see below) live ammo through the gun.....
4. Deer season, 280 miles from home is a bad time to figure out that you seated primers too deep, causing misfires...... I learned this second hand from my brother...... "P" got 2 clicks before she got the boom that pushed the bullet through her deer's heart at 220 yards.
5. I am not as good as I need to be at butchering deer: I spent 4 days out of the 9 day season processing 7 deer...... I have to get faster.
6. Wearing hunter Orange is no disadvantage when hunting turkeys, if the grass is tall enough: you just treat them as "Magnum Pheasants" ........ a dog would have been ideal in that situation, but we took 3 in less than 2 hours of hunting, walking in a mixed grass pasture.....
Ram Ringer:
The draw length on my bow was too long. And deer can seem closer than they actually are.
Mudinyeri:
Not necessarily learned this year, but definitely reinforced this year ...
1. Sitting and waiting for deer to come to you - even if you know their travel patterns - is highly overrated. I have yet to shoot a deer from the nice, comfy blind in the "perfect" position on my property. Stalking is much more challenging and fun.
2. Somehow you can be warmer in 20-degree weather while a 20-mile per hour wind blows freezing drizzle that covers you than you can be in 12-degree weather with no precipitation and no wind.
3. Sometimes deer simply disappear.
4. Turkey show up when you're hunting deer and deer while you're hunting turkey.
5. There is no substitute for trigger time when it comes to improving accuracy ... except for trigger time that simulates real-world conditions.
6. A .30-06 round at 110 yards pretty much turns deer lungs into pudding.
SemperFiGuy:
General Observations, FWTW:
Every deer [and antelope] that I've ever shot in the classic heart/lung spot just behind the front legs has run off a goodly ways after the shooting. At least a run of some 50 yards. Shot and killed, but still running. Once a doe antelope ran downhill about 300 yards or so, w/.30-06 bullet classically placed. Then down.
Every deer [and antelope] that I've ever shot in the head or in the neck has gone down right on the spot without taking so much as a single step afterwards. Lights out. Period.
Spine shots are an entirely different category. They can be ugly. Hope I never do another one, ever again.
sfg
sparky:
Actually took my deer at around 250 yards this year with a neck shot right below the head and down he went. So many nerves in the neck, along with that giant 300 win mag round took him straight down.
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