2019 Hunting Thread

[Odin Bravo One]

@LittleLebowski getting dirty

[wvincent]

Eastern count 8 pointer, Western count 4x4 Whitetail buck on East River opener. Not the biggest ever, but the biggest I have ever shot.
Due to my Granddaughter competing in the State volley ball championship, my opening day was pretty wrecked. I actually never got into my stand until 1600 hrs today, with legal sunset at 1700 hrs. At around 1640 hrs, a doe came out of the corn in front of me, crossed the creek and headed for the Eastern tip of my North shelter belt. The doe came out 50' in front of me, and never figured out that I was there. At around 1645 hrs, a second doe passed in front of me, following the creek from West to East, headed for the same shelter belt, again not seeing me. After the second doe passed in front of me, I looked East and thought I saw the first doe back at the creek again. Wait, that makes NO SENSE !! It was a fairly overcast day, with the sun rapidly failing me. I looked through my bino's and determined that I was actually seeing a buck who had snuck out of the corn while I was watching the second doe pass in front of me. Once I realized he had a better rack than the one I had seen last week during a scouting run, I knew I had to take him now, or pass him by and hope for a better one before the season ended. I decided to take him, so I turned on the illumination on the reticle of my Burris Full Field E1 scope, mounted on my Browning X Bolt, in .243 Winchester. (The rifle I had won in a raffle a few years ago, so I decided to treat myself to a scope with an illuminated reticle).

Having previously made a range card for the location of my stand, I knew he was just over 100 yds out. I held dead on, but I had to decide on shot placement. I knew he could go for a bit with a heart or lung shot, and I had absolutely no desire to track him through a 1/4 section of corn in the dark. So, I decided I had better break him down first. First shot of Federal Sierra 100 grain Game King into the left shoulder. I knew it was good because he bellied out and then came back up, supporting his weight on three leg's, holding his front left leg loosely. Shots 2 and 3 I pumped into his lungs, as fast as I could.

Then I watched him struggle his way through the creek, headed for the corn!! I knew my shots were good, and the dumbest thing I could do was start chasing after him, encouraging him to run. I climbed down from my stand, and walked to the house and grabbed the Winchester 1895 in 30-40 Krag for the simple reason that I would rather have the Williams Fool-Proof sight if I had to make a final shot in standing corn. I walked to where I saw him last, and found him lying dead, 5' from the corn field.

At that point, I took one picture, and walked back to the house to get a lantern and my Polaris 6x6 Big Boss, so I could haul him across the creek, and then home.

Postmortem examination revealed a broken left front shoulder, and his lungs were wrecked. Field dressing in the dark, on the side of the creek was a "wonderful"experience.

I hauled him to my shop to let him hang overnight. Highs are supposed to hit 54 degrees tomorrow, so I will skin him and take the sub primal cuts home to stick into the spare fridge for a few days.

I will do a European mount for the skull and rack, probably put it on a nice piece of barn wood. His mount will grace the wall of my office, out of respect for his life, and to preserve the memory of this great, personal experience.



This is only the second buck I have shot in South Dakota, the first being a 6 point, or a 3x3, however you want to call it.
The irony is, I have only applied for a South Dakota Big Game License, a total of 2 times.

[LittleLebowski]

That’s interesting to hear. I wonder if there’s a cut-off in the weight of the animal where projectiles in that weight range become less effective.

I shot a doe with the 300 BLK this year just to see how it would do using the 110 gr Barnes load and it zipped straight through both sides, completely blowing out the far side shoulder and obliterating the heart. She wasn’t 200 lbs, but I was still pretty impressed.

My only "complaint" would be the lack of blood trail as that 150gr did nasty things to the buck's lungs and stayed inside of the animal.

[EMC]

It is cow elk season here in Utah, it will be my first time going with 2 experienced hunters. This particular unit we are hunting needs a good amount of snow and cold to push them down to the accessible areas so I am hoping this weeks storms will make conditions ideal for a thanksgiving weekend hunt.

[UNM1136]

I had a long hunt at Sean M’s property, four days of hard hunting against really paranoid (rightfully so!) white tails in a dark holler where often hearing the deer chew their food seemed deafening. Everything had to be perfect, I had to get different clothes that were quieter during movement, loose all noisy gear, use a shooting stick in the deer stand ao that I could pivot quietly, lots of refinement of gear and tactics.

On the fourth day, I shot this 8pt (he looks like a 6pt but he’s got nubs worn down because he liked to brawl) at about 30 yards, using this Winchester hunting ammo which did the job admirably. The bullet went through both lungs and stayed inside of the animal, giving the animal a humane 30 seconds death. The lungs were just wrecked.

I used my KAC SR30 11.5 SBR upper with my Energetic Vox S can. That can is light, quiet, and I can’t detect any cold bore shift, which is extremely handy for hunting. The DBAL D2’s green visible laser was really handy for lining up a potential shot when you couldn’t get behind the red dot without the deer seeing you.

I am blessed to have a generous friend like Sean whom took me into his home, treated me like family, and worked to ensure that I could harvest this animal that I will be feeding my family with.

Attachment 45154

Nice buck. I recently took a muely on a frozen pond where the sound of the deer chewing the ice was really loud. Even the deer ignored outside sounds that made the 15-20 turkeys sharing the hole leave. A stalk of 45 minutes to cover 45 feet, then 8-9 minutes hold at full draw (archery hunt) to get the shot I wanted. He did not die as quickly as LL's animal, but that 8s another story.

pat

[Quantrill]

This is my 7 year old daughters first buck. She got her first deer last season.

[vaspence]

We had a good and safe deer season. I took a couple with a new 6.5 CM (one at 180 yards, one at around 475 yards). Also got one with the new to me 1301.

[TCinVA]

We had a good and safe deer season. I took a couple with a new 6.5 CM (one at 180 yards, one at around 475 yards). Also got one with the new to me 1301.

Slug or buckshot?

[Duelist]

I didn’t even get a tag this year, let alone a deer or elk or antelope or whatever. Just some birds and rabbits.

But my buddy got this huge Mule Deer right before New Year’s Day. Over 80yd archery shot.

[vaspence]

Slug or buckshot?

1301 Gen 2 improved cylinder choke tube with 2 3/4 9 pellet 00 fed flight control
He was sneaking up a deep banked creek last Tuesday and jumped out onto the opposite bank. I was walking in to cut off dogs that were headed up the creek and was about 20 yards from him when he popped up/out unexpectedly. First shot hit him good but he didn't know it. He was standing about 30 yards from me trying to figure out what was going on when I hit him with the second. The sights were nice for that one.