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General Categories => Hunting and Fishing => Topic started by: bkoenig on November 13, 2012, 11:25:07 AM
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Ok, let's hear your stories and see some pics!
I'll start. Got a pretty big buck this weekend, his rack was decent sized but he had broken off several points from fighting. Probably would have been a 5x5 if he had all of them. You can't really see it from the pics but he also had a deformed ear that looked like it had been injured a long time ago in an encounter with another buck. He was the heaviest deer I've ever shot - I would guess around 200lbs before field dressing. I also got a little doe that allowed me to take the distinction of smallest deer away from my nephew, last year's reigning champion. One of the guys I hunt with got a really nice non-typical 5x4. He had really weird antlers that actually got thicker towards the end. The rack on that one was a little wider than mine.
This was my first year hunting with a suppressor and it was really nice. I was shooting down inside a ravine that really amplifies sound, so I appreciated not having to choose between wearing hearing protection and damaging my ears. Both of my shots were close, less than 50 yards, but my 300 Blackout performed nicely regardless. The heart and lungs on both deer were destroyed without excessive meat damage. I wasn't totally sure about the terminal performance of a cast lead subsonic load, so I stuck to supersonic this year. It's still pretty quiet but you get a crack from the bullet.
My daughter had been messing with my phone and it took me a while to figure out she had changed the camera settings, so the first pic looks weird.
(http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/alemonkey/IMAG0345.jpg)
(http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/alemonkey/IMAG0349.jpg)
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Got my first deer! EVER!
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i295/bradkoll/photo.jpg)
Saturday morning on public land near Columbus I was the magical day. I had been in the woods about 2 hours, and at about 8:45 this guy came into view. I was focused on the countless squirrels making a ruckus and heard something that sounded like it was trying to be stealthy. 15 yards away he came out from behind a pine tree and gave me a stare down for about 45 seconds before walking away to my right. As soon as he turned his back to me I swung my gun around and at the sound of my safety going off he turned broadside and at roughly 30 yards I pumped a 150gr .308 pill into him. As soon as I shot him I looked behind me and saw another deer, an even smaller sickly looking buck, staring at me and left shortly after I called my mom. He went about 30 yards where I saw him bedded down and was able to get within 5 yards before he took off again, (I would have given him some space but there was some guy who didn't speak english walking towards my deer and I was trying to shoo him away). After another 30-40 yards of tracking an impressive blood trail I found him bedded down again and waited a couple minutes for him to expire. Thought my shot was at the rear of the lung but it turns out it was right through the stomach, which made field dressing a whole lot of fun.
I then proceeded to hike my climber treestand and gun to the truck (just estimated it was .95 miles...) and get my knives to field dress it. Then after probably 30-45 minutes of field dressing I managed to not mess too much up, (started skinning the ribcage not thinking of it, and left a chunk of intestine in the pelvis). Then the REAL FUN began... Didn't have a deer cart or anything to assist in dragging. Got a couple hundred yards dragging by the hooves after stopping every 10 feet to get a new grip and catch my breath. Then I managed to find a stick small enough but sturdy enough to stick in between the tendons and bone in the hind legs to get a better hold while dragging. After 3 hours of dragging I made it back to the truck with the roughly 125lb field dressed deer.
As I'm writing this I'm waiting for some backstrap steaks to finish thawing so I can get to grilling!
Note to self: get a deer cart, get a bag to protect the deer from dirt/flies while getting it to the truck, and don't shoot the stomach.
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Good job! If you gut shoot them make sure you wash them out really well. It also helps to use a small hatchet to split the pelvic bone. That makes it a lot easier to get the intestines and bunghole out.
It's funny how they can just sneak up on you out of nowhere. I couldn't count all the times I've been looking one way for just a minute or two, and turn my head to see a deer just standing there a few yards away.
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Congrats, Brad!
We took 4, for four hunters.
The kids teamed up on a big bodied buck on Saturday morning, with Eldest knocking it down with a shot through both front legs just below the shoulder, but he got up and ran another 100 yards..... Jac got a shot (missed) and my nephew put him on the ground with a shot through the lower shoulders...... he was not quite expired and we usually have a .22 to shoot them in the head ...... Eldest used her 30/30 ..... and shattered his skull and broke the rack........ 5 minutes later, my nephew took a shot at a fawn and did not grip the gun properly ..... scope hit him in the bridge of the nose and broke it. Had to make a 35 mile trip to the hospital ...... he took his deer and went home to take some anti-biotics and painkillers. :(
I got a forkhorm buck Saturday evening ..... nothing unusual about him other than when I shot him through the top of the heart with a .270 at 35 yards, he reared up on his hind legs an turned 3 circles before falling over backwards ....weird, that.
On Sunday, Eldest did a textbook spot-and-stalk on a fawn in the middle of a stubble field .... used terrain masking and distraction to get within 125 yards and then put a bullet in it's chest when it stood up .... she did not think she hit it, as it took off running ..... went running about 100 yards or so and stopped ..... she shot it again ......and it ran again ....... and stopped again ..... and she shot it again. 3rd times the charm, and it laid down. It had 3 holes in it ...... two apparently fatal shots through the chest, and on in the back leg above the hock......
The next day, we ran a 4x4 buck (2 1/2 y.o.) out of the same thicket ..... and Eldest was waiting when it ran over the hill right towards her.... 100 yard shot on a dead run broke both back legs just above the hocks .... and she ran it down and put him out......
The early mornings were brutally cold (12 degrees on Monday AM!!!).... the kids were troopers and hung with it pretty well.
I have two cut and wrapped, and the other two ready for tomorrow .....
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It also helps to use a small hatchet to split the pelvic bone.
We usually use a small hatchet to drive a knife throught the seam of the pelvic bone ..... but Eldest's knife (4-H project made from a file and a deer antler) was not up to the beating. ..... ended up chopping through w/ the hatchet ....messy.
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I started going at the pelvis with a bone saw but decided against it since I didn't want to risk cutting open any intestines.
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Nobody else has a story?
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I shot a nice doe opening morning a few minutes after shooting time and stayed put in the stand to see if I would have anything else come by. Sure enough a little bit later a nice 4x4 came though and I put him down. Rifle season was over in less than 45 minutes with 2 nice deer on the ground!
bkoenig, was that the vax bullet you were talking about with the 300 blackout? How was the penetration, did you get a pass through?
I have a small handheld bone saw that is about 4" long with a plastic end I bought at scheels a few years ago. These work perfect for splitting the pelvic bone and the rib cage. I used to use a folding camp saw that worked well too until it broke. On the pelvic bone make sure you have everything out of the way and go slow and you won't get into any trouble! Used a hatchet a long time ago once. Not good results! Hacked meat and sharp bone slivers. Go with a small handsaw, less than $15 and it will last for years and are trouble free.
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today was my first full day of deer hunting, but you wouldn't have known it. i saw zero deer, actually i saw a dead one from EHD. i did see four turkeys, about 12 rooster pheasants and four hen pheasants and a squirrel. i have also failed to trap anything. this might be a long week. :(
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about 12 rooster pheasants
are you sure you were in nebraska???
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Sometimes it's tough, and then sometimes you have more deer to deal with than you can deal with ..... I was beginning to think the deer were allergic to me- every time I left the kids* alone on stand, the shooting would start .......
Last year, I spent far more time cutting up deer than I did hunting them ......
.... we did OK this year. Eldest, in particular, had a great time ..... telling her da that she was going to sneak up on that doe sitting smack in the middle of that giant stubble field on the next ridge, and shoot it ..... and then proceeded to do just that, despite me telling her she was wasting her time, going on a long walk to spook a deer long before she was anywhere close to being in range.....
* I say "kids", but my nephew is 21 .....
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Nice one Brian!
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Saturday morning opener was way to warm and windy. We did have good luck though. My son in law shot a nice sized but small rack buck right off at 6:45 and about a half hour later my grand daughter shot very similiar one. His shot was thrity yards with a .300 WM and hers was 170 yards with a .300 Savage.
We spent the rest of the morning taking care of the down deer. My first shot came right a dark that evening. I was looking at what I thought was a shadow when it started walking. Made about a 160 yard shot with a .300 Savage. I hate cleaning deer in the head lights. Very tired old man that night.
Sunday I took it easy and my grand daughter and I went out on Monday in much more seasonal weather to fill our doe tags. Didnt see anything until two deer came across the field in front of us moving at a fast walk abut 8:30. She put the lead one down with one shot and I wound up with the trailing one but had to take a second shot into her from the stand. The first hit spined her and she was trying to get up so a second was needed to make sure she stayed put. First pic is my buck from Saturday night and the second is from Monday morning.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/GuzziRider/IMAG0133.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/GuzziRider/IMAG0137.jpg)
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bkoenig, was that the vax bullet you were talking about with the 300 blackout? How was the penetration, did you get a pass through?
Yeah, it was the 110 gr vmax. It worked fine. On the buck I just barely clipped the back of his shoulder blade which slowed it down a little. The bullet passed through the opposite ribcage but didn't exit the hide on the opposite side. On the doe it passed all the way through. I think this bullet is ok at lower velocities like the 300 puts out, but using it with a faster cartridge would probably result in a wounded deer or a ton of wasted meat. Next year I plan to try the new Barnes TSX made especially for this caliber.
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Nice deer, 'Goose! And good shootin' by the G'daughter, too!
Then the REAL FUN began... Didn't have a deer cart or anything to assist in dragging. Got a couple hundred yards dragging by the hooves after stopping every 10 feet to get a new grip and catch my breath. Then I managed to find a stick small enough but sturdy enough to stick in between the tendons and bone in the hind legs to get a better hold while dragging. After 3 hours of dragging I made it back to the truck with the roughly 125lb field dressed deer.
Some tips on dragging:
Drag the deer forwards/from the front end, as hair has a whole lot less friction with the ground if the friction is going with the direction of the hair than against it.
With that in mind, antlers make good handles. A person on each antler makes long distance drags a breeze.
Hands get tired before the rest of you. Switch hands- If two are dragging, switch sides.
Better than grabbing an antler is having a 12-15 foot rope. Put a loop around the head or antlers and leave enough of a tag end to tie the forefeet and upper jaw together and to the working end of the rope ..... there will be enough rope to bring it over your shoulder, and away you go. An improvement on that is to tie the end of the rope to the center of a 3 or 4 foot branch about 1 1/2" or 2" in diameter to use as a yoke. Two people with a yoke in front of their shoulders can almost run with a field dressed deer. A thick rope is easier to grip, but takes up more space. If you use a yoke, you can get away with 550 cord.
Game carts are for sissies and gear geeks. ;). Rope weighs little, fits in a pack, and skills weigh nothing.
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I'm heading down tomorrow to the family land, we apparently have a monster hanging around. Gamecam capture shows a potential spread estimated at nearly 30 inches.
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Good Hunting, gsd!
Oh, and a pic......
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I did note that all three of our bucks had broken antlers, even the fork ...... lotsa scrappin' going on out there......
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another morning of no deer. i had hundreds of photos on my trail cameras with deer. they were there consistently all year and were there the night before i started hunting. since then no deer. :(
but the coyotes were howling a lot this morning. i might try and shoot them if i don't see anything tonight and tomorrow morning. i missed 3 more chances at beavers last night. and all of my coon traps were untouched. im the worst hunter in the world. if the world ends, i would die from starvation.
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Well it has been a pretty successful deer season so far. First off the most important thing, I got to see my nephew take his first ever deer out of my stand on Saturday. He put an awesome shot on this young buck at about 70 yards with open sights and hit this deer right in the blood pump. Here is a pic of his.
(http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc376/mattsanne/Tylersdeer.jpg)
First thing Saturday morning it was so foggy up around Clearwater that I could barely find my way to my hunting ground, but around 8:30 when the fog was finally starting to burn off this buck came running at me appearing out of the fog. Got my rifle up and ready and my scope was so fogged over I couldn't see a thing. Finally found him in my scope and double lunged him at about 80 yards with my Benelli R1 300 win mag. He was a 4x3 but a big boddied deer weighing in at 189 lbs. before we field dressed him. He looked a lot like yours Wildgoose Here is a pic of mine.
(http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc376/mattsanne/matts2012buck.jpg)
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Good season so far. Deputy Dan got a very nice 10 pointer, Mechanic Jon got a UNO, one antler 5 points, Deputy Kirk got a nice small deer, and I am still chasing a nice 8 point buck (but not really serious yet). Opening day no deer, next day 8 spotted, rest of the time average of 14 deer seen per day. Only found two dead down by the river.
Saw the funniest thing ever this morning. Nieghbors place, Iowa plated truck, two four wheelers. One drove circles around the truck at the end of the draw, the other drove over every grass spot, every tree and every draw. It took them around 25 minutes to thoroughly cover the 1/4 section of ground, loaded 4 wheelers and then left. Knowing that ground, all the noise they made getting started the 6 deer that have been hanging around there went out the north draw across the road. :laugh:
Nothing beats, just plain hunting.
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Had to work opening day but was out early Sunday. About 5 minutes into shooting time I saw 3 does. All itty bitty things and I didn't shoot. Next opportunity was with 2 minutes of shooting time left, a coyote trotted out onto the field. Dropped it at 106 yards. It was scrawny and mangy. Monday about 4pm, shot another coyote. This one about 60 yards away. No deer seen since the three little ones.
Gonna try again this weekend.
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First off the most important thing, I got to see my nephew take his first ever deer
Nothing better than watching the next generation do it right!
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so my deer hunting week is over. in all i saw zero deer and walked over 12,000 steps a day. i also sat and called numerous places all week. i don't know, just my luck. barely saw any tracks or poop.
and i only trapped one beaver and one raccoon. sold them for a grand total of $7. i didn't make any money, but i sure had fun not working and being in nature.
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Mule deer in South Dakota. I shot at this one earlier at about 375 yards, then moved to another ridge and lo and behold, he showed up again, this time at 260 yards. One shot through the shoulder and it was over. Later, I had the best shot I've ever had and got a doe at about 400 yards. I use a .300 WSM A-Bolt with the BOSS muzzle brake system. It's a lot of gun, but I like it's ability to reach out and it shoot so flat. The bonus kicker was filling my limit of pheasants that day, too.
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Didnt see a damn thing. Now i'm back in Lincoln for a couple days then back home for Thanksgiving.
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@Bluejay- I miss hunting the Mulies ..... not many left where I hunt Furnas and Red Willow counties, though I did see 6 of them this year (5 doe and a small 2x2 buck)....
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On opening day, I was playing single dad for my five month old son while my wife was in San Jose on a work trip. I went out to Yankee Hill WMA on Sunday morning, was a little late getting in place (got to my spot north of the lake just a couple of minutes before sunrise), and I only saw one deer--a buck running away from me into a treeline about 250 yards away as I was walking out. There are houses in that direction, and I was standing, so there was no way I was taking a snap shot. After I got to the spot I wanted to hunt, waterfowl hunters about 300 yards south of me apparently started having some very good luck and it started to sound like an artillery range out there. I didn't see another deer that day, and called it at around 11am.
Being a dirty rotten bureaucrat, I had Veterans' Day off work, so I went out again Monday morning. I was out a little later so I just walked the area, mostly on the southeast side of the lake. I didn't see any game that day other than rabbits and squirrels.
I went out again this past Saturday morning, and this time I was in my spot looking out onto a field by about 6:30am. Right as the sun was coming up, two hunters in orange and carrying their rifles decided they didn't like hunting so much after all and they walked out into the middle of the field I was watching and just stood around talking (I could hear their voices from almost a hundred yards away). I finally gave up on that spot, gave them a frustrated gesture, and started walking west from my spot, then south following the lake around. I saw another hunter walking west out of the area with his dog, to their left was a stand of trees, and on the other side of those trees I saw two does running away from the hunter, through some brush, and out onto the road. Again, I could have thrown a shot out there at them, but from a standing position with my heavy barreled rifle there wasn't much chance of hitting them, and I didn't want to fire across the road they were running towards. I walked the rest of the way around the lake (sometimes through the brush, but a lot of the time right on the waterline). There was a lot of deer sign along the water, but I didn't see another deer that morning. I found a nice elevated spot on the west side of the southernmost part of the lake, and after hanging there for a while hoping against hope, I called it a day and made my way around the rest of the lake and back to my truck on the east side of the area.
I returned to that spot on the south end of the lake that afternoon, and this time I went south from my parking location. I crossed the water and saved myself some walking by going across some (slippery) rocks. Well, with my pack, my rifle, etc., this was a bad idea. I lost my footing, and rather than plant my muzzle in the sand (or ding it off a rock), I came down on my right knee, tore up my pants pretty good, and hurt my knee badly enough to not want to move for about five minutes. I also managed to break the oft-criticized plastic trigger guard on my Savage 110FP. Anyway, once I finally got to my feet again, I made it the rest of the way across the water, climbed the bluff where I wanted to set up for sunset, and as I made it to the top of the bluff I saw a buck about forty yards from me. He took one look at me and dashed off into the heavy brush. I set up against a tree on the bluff and hung out there for about three hours hoping to catch a deer coming down for a drink at the end of the (warm) day. No luck. I did get to enjoy a beautiful Nebraska sunset, though:
(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/248902_10101064243429501_1892158684_n.jpg)
While walking around out at Yankee Hill, I found two dead deer. Well, one of them wasn't much more than a quarter, with a full leg, pelvis, and part of the spine and nothing else. I found a small doe that looked to have been down for a week or so. She was pretty scrawny, and I wasn't sure if she died of disease or just managed to get lost in the bush after taking a shot from a hunter.
All in all, I enjoyed being out in the woods, but I also decided that for next year I need to find some private land to hunt. I saw at least a dozen hunters out at Yankee Hill this past weekend. Certainly I saw more hunters than deer. Maybe I'll have better luck in January when there aren't so many people out there chasing the deer around.
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If you are looking to hunt public land, without the heavy hunting pressure, then the whole month of December is muzzloading season. Modern inline muzzle loaders are nearly as effective as abolt action centerfire ..... for one shot. That's all you need, right?
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I'm a student here at UNL. I've been here since August 2010, but this is my first year hunting in NE. I made some friends on campus that hunt and they've showed me some good spots. My buddy and I went out firearm opening morning on public land that didn't allow rifles. He was using an inline muzzleloader and I had a shotgun. We were at our spot at 4:30 a.m. after a 35 minute walk in the dark. I'd never seen the place prior to that day, so it was an interesting walk... Anyways, we sat on a hill looking down on a deer trail that ran north/south between two wooded patches. We saw 5-6 deer, but none came close enough for a shot. All crossed a fence to private land and we didn't see them again. We left around 10 a.m. as we both had to work in the afternoon.
We went out to the same spot again the following afternoon, sat from about 2:30 p.m. until dark. Saw a medium sized doe and fawn. Took a crack at the doe saw the shot strike the ground well above the doe's back. Scope must've gotten knocked around, I guess. Learned the lesson that I should really shoot it after it's sat in the case all year... Sighted it in during the week when I had some time to kill.
I sat the following Saturday in the same spot from about 3 p.m. to dark. Didn't see a thing.
I went out Sunday morning, last day of the season, was in my spot about 6:00 a.m. Saw around 10 deer, nothing close enough. Moved spots, saw more deer, but all were running on the other side of the fence on private land. Moved spots again, about 20 minutes later, a small doe walked up about 20 yards away. Decided I wanted some meat in the freezer since it was the last day of the season.
Nothing really to write home about, but at least it was easy to drag back to my car, ha.
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3690/2012nedeer.jpg)
I didn't think the area I hunted was too overly thick with hunters, maybe because rifles aren't allowed? I saw other hunter's vehicles and such, saw a couple out in the field, too, but they were at least 200+ yards away with no direct line of sight. I only saw them on my way out on opening day. I saw some upland hunters with dogs when I came one afternoon, but they were leaving as I was going in. All in all, it was a fun experience. Although, it was pretty darn hot the day I shot my deer, 60 F or so. I'm not use to that, coming from MN.
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I'm a student here at UNL. I've been here since August 2010, but this is my first year hunting in NE. I made some friends on campus that hunt and they've showed me some good spots. My buddy and I went out firearm opening morning on public land that didn't allow rifles. He was using an inline muzzleloader and I had a shotgun. We were at our spot at 4:30 a.m. after a 35 minute walk in the dark. I'd never seen the place prior to that day, so it was an interesting walk... Anyways, we sat on a hill looking down on a deer trail that ran north/south between two wooded patches. We saw 5-6 deer, but none came close enough for a shot. All crossed a fence to private land and we didn't see them again. We left around 10 a.m. as we both had to work in the afternoon.
We went out to the same spot again the following afternoon, sat from about 2:30 p.m. until dark. Saw a medium sized doe and fawn. Took a crack at the doe saw the shot strike the ground well above the doe's back. Scope must've gotten knocked around, I guess. Learned the lesson that I should really shoot it after it's sat in the case all year... Sighted it in during the week when I had some time to kill.
I sat the following Saturday in the same spot from about 3 p.m. to dark. Didn't see a thing.
I went out Sunday morning, last day of the season, was in my spot about 6:00 a.m. Saw around 10 deer, nothing close enough. Moved spots, saw more deer, but all were running on the other side of the fence on private land. Moved spots again, about 20 minutes later, a small doe walked up about 20 yards away. Decided I wanted some meat in the freezer since it was the last day of the season.
Nothing really to write home about, but at least it was easy to drag back to my car, ha.
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3690/2012nedeer.jpg)
I didn't think the area I hunted was too overly thick with hunters, maybe because rifles aren't allowed? I saw other hunter's vehicles and such, saw a couple out in the field, too, but they were at least 200+ yards away with no direct line of sight. I only saw them on my way out on opening day. I saw some upland hunters with dogs when I came one afternoon, but they were leaving as I was going in. All in all, it was a fun experience. Although, it was pretty darn hot the day I shot my deer, 60 F or so. I'm not use to that, coming from MN.
Specifically what land were you on? I did the vast majority of my hunting at Yankee Hill WMA when I was at UNL before I transferred to UNO this year. The game and parks website says it has turkey but I have never found any turkey sign there. I have stirred up a few covey of quail on the southern end in all the crp if you are interested in hunting them. Yankee Hill has a good amount of deer (at least last year it did) and Pawnee Lake SRA has a decent amount of deer except it is shotgun only. And dove season is magical at Yankee Hill in the sunflower fields on the south western side and Killdeer WMA has some great dove fields too. All the public land is definitely what I miss about being at UNL, UNO doesn't have much nearby...