Deer hunting (harvesting for consumption) on the East Coast, gory pics

[LittleLebowski]

I'm a Wyoming/plains guy. Talk to me about this subject.

I hope to get a younger deer for meat. I plan on using my friend's 10 acres (got permission already) to hunt on. I would prefer doing the bare minimum myself (gutting and bleeding out) and simply dropping the carcass off at a butcher with my requirements on meat cuts made ahead of time. I assume I'll need a stand and several early mornings scouting. I have a hair bit of camouflage clothing and understand about scent reduction. Due to the nature of the terrain, I doubt I would get more than a 100 yard shot in distance. I plan to use my 20" .308 Remmy 700 with a 3-9x.

[BLR]

You're good.

I always take 25lbs of ice (or there abouts) to stuff in the cavity to keep everything tasty is the weather is above 10F. The faster the cool down, the safer and tastier the meat.

Ground blinds, in my experience, work as well as tree stands. Take your pipe with you, as the smoke gives them something to smell other than you. Use scent free soap in the laundry and to wash with that morning. Where game trails cross, you'll see most traffic.

Good binocs are vital. Absolutely vital.

[LittleLebowski]

No budget for binos this season. I'd really prefer to take my 22-250 with 6-20x hunting but VA has a minimum bullet size law. I don't miss with that 22-250 and have had it for years. The .308 is good but the 22-250 is a laser.

[41magfan]

When I reflect back through my own personal learning curve it really is as simple as being quiet, being still and positioning your stand with the wind in your favor. Tree-stands obviously mitigate the movement and scent variables, but I personally don't fret much over camo anymore as I've learned that scent, sound and movement is more critical to success.

I still get frustrated when I realize that I've fooled the deer's perception of sight and sound only to be busted by his nose. You just can't fool a deer's nose so ALWAYS HUNT THE WIND! I hope you have some success.

I hunt with a handgun so any CF rifle cartridge seems adequate to me.

[okie john]

I hunt small deer like this in wooded country, and I'm envious. You have a great hunt coming up. I’d prefer to still-hunt a place like this, but that’s because I fall asleep on deer stands. Your mileage may vary.

You can start scouting now—ask your buddy if he knows of a spot where he’s seen a lot of deer. If he’ll share that with you, then pump him for information and follow his advice to the letter. Also, checking out the place and adjoining parcels with the satellite view on Google Maps will help you have a feel for the lay of the land before you arrive, plus you can print the maps and satellite photos and have them with you when you actually hunt. Keep them in a big Ziploc bag to keep them dry--printer ink isn't waterproof.

Once you get there, walk the edges of the property with your map and note crossings and active trails. 10 acres isn’t a very big parcel--you can probably walk it in an afternoon--and it's unlikely to have bedding, feeding, and watering areas. The deer will have to leave the property to find one or more those things. Walking the property will let you find those crossings, determine when the deer use them, and determine which direction they're traveling when they do. Combined with your map recon, this will help you plan your hunts, identify neighboring farms and other no-shoot areas, and plan meat recovery.

After your hunt, spend some time on after-action analysis. Figure out where the deer came from, where they were going, and why. Also walk the property and study their movements in general. What you learn will be a big help if you get to hunt this place again, and any time you hunt other brush-country animals.

As for gear, you have the right cartridge. For smaller deer, you don't need a premium bullet. In my 308, I've used 150-grain Remington Pointed Soft Point Core-Lokt ammo for years with perfect satisfaction, but 165's or 180's would work fine. A 150-yard zero will let you stretch a shot along a trail if one comes up, but the trajectory will be close enough to the line of sight that you won’t muff a close, fast shot by shooting over the deer. Been there, done that. Speaking of the scope, I’d set it at 3x and leave it there for all of my pre-season training, in which I’d focus on snap shots, offhand shooting out to 150 yards, using a post rest, and shooting in low light.

A 3x scope is VERY effective in low light, so know when it’s legal to shoot. Legal shooting hours probably begin and end when it’s pitch black, but you can hit a deer with a scoped rifle long after iron sights vanish in the gloaming, so be in the woods with a loaded rifle long before dawn and stay until it's too dark to see your crosshairs. To train for low-light shooting, I put a piece of corrugated cardboard the size of a deer’s body horizontally on a target holder, then engage it at dusk. (You can trim an IPSC target for this.) This will help you learn to shoot in low light, and see just how dark it can actually get before you can't hit anything any more. Low-light shots are easy if you train for them--the deer are usually calm and feeding instead of being ready to bound away, so you have a little more time to work.

From the website, http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/HUNTING...tions/deer.asp, it looks like they want you to shoot multiple deer, so go out there ready to limit out. That will raise your shipping costs but will drop your per-pound venison cost considerably, and will let you leave a little extra meat with your friend.

Finally, enjoy your hunt and keep us posted.


Okie John

[Chuck Haggard]

Have more than one spot picked out in case of the wind direction.

An example would be that I have a great spot, I have always got a deer every single time I have hunted that spot, and some of the biggest I have ever seen, but only if the wind is from the east that day. Wind from the west=no deer there.

The advice to scout the property and find the trails is solid.

Also, don't be in a hurry to leave the stand just because it's getting towards lunch time. I often seen deer moving at other than early morning/evening.

[JHC]

I'm a Wyoming/plains guy. Talk to me about this subject.

I hope to get a younger deer for meat. I plan on using my friend's 10 acres (got permission already) to hunt on. I would prefer doing the bare minimum myself (gutting and bleeding out) and simply dropping the carcass off at a butcher with my requirements on meat cuts made ahead of time. I assume I'll need a stand and several early mornings scouting. I have a hair bit of camouflage clothing and understand about scent reduction. Due to the nature of the terrain, I doubt I would get more than a 100 yard shot in distance. I plan to use my 20" .308 Remmy 700 with a 3-9x.

I reached adulthood without learning much about deer hunting and hunted in the woods fruitlessly for years until an experienced Pennsylvania woods hunter took me under his wing and showed me stuff about recognizing travel corridors in the terrain. Then it clicked and I've had decent success.

My earlier attempts were to look for open areas where I could spot something and shoot it. I then later learned that these whitetail were traveling all around such areas in much tighter paths. I don't hunt from trees I prefer to ambuscade them from ground hides. That does create an extra disadvantage in the woods because it limits your vision and shots but I like it just fine.

If this is intuitively obvious my apologies, it wasn't for me. It took me a bit to learn to spot those travel lanes.

In contrast to Bill I don't consider binos vital because I hunt pretty thick stuff from the ground. I'd better hear something moving first, or spot the slightest flicker of movement because it's all happening pretty close. I've carried binos into these woods before but don't find them that useful compared to being right with the wind, and very very still while listening and watching intently.

[LittleLebowski]

Listening and enjoying, gents. I suppose the below is mandatory. The 22-250 is the black, longer barreled rifle. The 700 is now wearing a Harris bipod but other than that, fairly simple. Did I mention that I wish I could use my 22-250?

[JHC]

When I reflect back through my own personal learning curve it really is as simple as being quiet, being still and positioning your stand with the wind in your favor. Tree-stands obviously mitigate the movement and scent variables, but I personally don't fret much over camo anymore as I've learned that scent, sound and movement is more critical to success.

I still get frustrated when I realize that I've fooled the deer's perception of sight and sound only to be busted by his nose. You just can't fool a deer's nose so ALWAYS HUNT THE WIND! I hope you have some success.

I hunt with a handgun so any CF rifle cartridge seems adequate to me.

I agree completely. So answer this deer mystery. Why have I had several nice bucks sneak up RIGHT BEHIND ME within feet, downwind? I didn't get any of them because after the long period of frozen stand off; when I couldn't take it anymore and tried to make a play they'd explode off into the brush from point blank range.

I try my best to figure out the trails and all and it works out sometimes. But sometimes they just appear out of what seemed like that last place they'd find their way through. I love hunting those things up close.

[BLR]

I agree completely. So answer this deer mystery. Why have I had several nice bucks sneak up RIGHT BEHIND ME within feet, downwind? I didn't get any of them because after the long period of frozen stand off; when I couldn't take it anymore and tried to make a play they'd explode off into the brush from point blank range.

I try my best to figure out the trails and all and it works out sometimes. But sometimes they just appear out of what seemed like that last place they'd find their way through. I love hunting those things up close.

Does or bucks?

If they were does, consider it a compliment.

If they were bucks......well, you know.