Deer season!

[Serk]

It was mentioned in another thread, but figured I'd start a new one...

Today was opening day of deer season here in The Republic.

...an activity I've never had the slightest interest in participating in.

Recently I've been trying to be more of a Renaissance Man and try more things, at least once, so over the last year a buddy of mine (And Valk owner, no less) and I have been setting up blinds, stands, feeders, cameras, etc on my land.

So for the first time in my life I went hunting today.

Alarm set for 3:30AM.

Got to the land in the dark about 6AM and straight up into the stand.

Froze my butt off 'till noon when we slipped out for lunch, then came back and sat there until 6:20PM.

Around 12 hours, totally skunked.

Did see 3 Armadillos (I was surprised, I thought they were born as flattened corpses on the side of the road!), some hawks, a huge spider that was climbing on the suppressor of my rifle, met some folks hunting the property next door.

Queries from the other post:

Where do I hunt:
My 18 acres south of Dallas. Although that's a whole other kettle of fish. We have "An offer you can't refuse" on the table right now to have the whole thing bulldozed and leased to a solar farm.

...something doesn't sit right with me as far as plowing under large tracts of mostly untouched forest "For the environment".

What do I hunt with:
Today I chose my Ruger Gunsite Scout in .308. Love the gun, the optic I have is pants and won't go to the field with it again.



For next time I try, I know .223/5.56 for deer hunting is controversial (Even illegal in some more repressive states) but I'll be taking my Tavor out next time. Why? I'm the best shot with it of all my guns, and a very well placed Hornady "American Whitetail Interlock" would be more ethical than a "I think I'm on target, mostly" .308.

I've often wondered why so many people spend so much time, money and effort to sit in the forest for endless hours and maybe get a little bit of meat in the end.

I think I get it now.

Yeah, was boring at times, cold, got rained on.

But there's a connection there, something primeval.

I look forward to trying again. Not tomorrow, but probably next weekend.

[Rams]

Can't answer the question as to why people do this but what I do know is that the meat that is harvested totals up to some pretty expensive meals.

Having fired all kinds of military weapons and quite a few civilian weapons, I have to say I don't really get much out of it.   Not sure why but, I don't wish to kill any prey I am not planning on eating and I don't like gamey meat.   I used to go to a wild game gathering where all the folks brought what they had harvested both animal and fish, prepared it the way they liked it.   I will say that the beer battered rattle snake did remind me of chicken.  

Edited:   But, I do wish you and all the hunters the best of luck at reducing the deer population and the risk of having to meet one crossing the asphalt.   No, I don't care about Bambi.

Rams

[Jess from VA]

Thanks for the reply Brian (I kept checking the other thread).

I went deer hunting one time, so long ago I can hardly remember.

It was much deeper forest and up and down hills, and freezing cold and wet.  And you have to be quiet and still if you want to see any deer, and I've always had to work at patience.  I saw nothing all day, and hated it.

And one of our party got a deer and the three of us worked like slaves lugging that thing up and down hills and covered in mud and blood.  I hated that too.  So that was it for me.

My uncle John the master hunter (and textbook redneck) told a story about being out in the woods and having some guy take a brush shot at him (at his noise), so he took a shot back at the guy and yelled he was another hunter, not a deer azzhole.  

That Scout rifle is a nice one.  My old eyes don't care for long eye relief scopes.  What do you mean when you say the scope is pants?

Please keep us posted on future exploits.  


My hunting for 35 years has been grey squirrels who like to dig holes all over your nice yard.  In a subdivision and where shooting even a pellet or BB gun is illegal.  I use a Ruger 10/22 Sporter (18.5" bbl) and Colibri subsonic 20 grain ammo which makes less nose than a pellet gun (pfftt) (the bullet hit makes more noise than the shot - thwack).  And a straight 4 power scope.  The little rounds lack the power to cycle the action, and must be single loaded with needle-nose.  I also use traps, but they are less fun.    

The twitchy little bastards are small and hard to hit... "aim small, miss small."

[DIGGER]

Went to my deer lease in Jarrell, Tx.  One of the guys on the lease Saturday evening has been working with his 5 yr old son with a bb gun with a scope.   Was gonna let him shoot a doe.   Some does came out and the guy got his son in his lap and was getting ready to shoot a doe with the dads 243 when a 14 pt buck stepped out.  The dad told him to shoot the buck.  The dad was holding the weight of the gun and the 5 yr old wrapped his arms around the gun and sighted the scope on the buck and shot 98 yds and hit that darned deer in the neck and he dropped right there.   Unbelievable shot.  Biggest deer ever killed in 20 yrs on the lease.....go figure....

[Jess from VA]

Hellava story Digger. 

I hope they got pictures of the 5yo with the rifle and deer.   

[Serk]

That Scout rifle is a nice one.  My old eyes don't care for long eye relief scopes.  What do you mean when you say the scope is pants?

To be "pants" is modern colloquialism for "Crap". Being around 3 14 year olds I get the current lingo if I want to or not.
(If you really wanna see some chaos say "6 7" (Not sixty seven but just six seven) around some current teenagers and watch the chaos unfold.)

And by crap, I mean the zoom adjustment ring decided to no longer rotate, the lighted reticle, even with a fresh battery chose not to light. So I was in the area of a 30-70 yard shot at most with the scope stuck at 7x and the reticle wouldn't light. And with those issues I was strongly questioning how zero'ed it was at that point.

I'm almost thankful I got skunked yesterday, would hate to make a shot and have it be an unethical one.

Your one experience hunting is similar to my dad's. He was with a group in Quebec and shot his first buck. The group insisted on making him do the "Gut it and bite the heart" bollocks. He was so utterly grossed out he never went back, almost became a vegetarian even it hit him so hard.

The dad was holding the weight of the gun and the 5 yr old wrapped his arms around the gun and sighted the scope on the buck and shot 98 yds and hit that darned deer in the neck and he dropped right there.   

Woah! I nearly fainted when I saw the cost to have a taxidermist do a proper head mount (Around $1k here at least) but if I got something like that I might just have to make it happen anyway...

[0leman]

I hunted in OR and WY for 20 some odd years.   Did shoot an elk, deer, and several antelope each year in WY.  Never sat in a "deer blind" for any of them.  Just ease thru the woods till I located the critters.  Thankfully most of the lands where the critter were, was Public Lands.  So, no problem with access to sections of land.  

Only had bullets fly over my head once.  Decide to relocate.    

The meat was not gamey, except for the antelope.  We made a few steaks out of the meat where we could and then ground the rest.   DW would mix the ground antelope with cow, not bad.  Elk and deer was eaten without any mixture.

I quit hunting when the Kids left home and didn't need the extra meat and my pay check got bigger.  My job at the time allowed me to be in the woods, so could still see/admire the critters.

[0leman]

I never had nor considers mounting any of the critters that I shot.  Did take a number of antlers as had a guy that I worked with that was taxidermist, he would pay money for them. 

[Serk]

I never had nor considers mounting any of the critters that I shot.  Did take a number of antlers as had a guy that I worked with that was taxidermist, he would pay money for them. 

While I do intend to see this through at least once, I don't see this becoming a regular thing for me. (But who knows). IF my "one and done" is a respectable buck I might pay to have it mounted just because.

But anything less than a "Woah!" buck I ain't paying that kinda money for.

(And yeah, the meat will be eaten regardless, not just going for a trophy.)

[DIGGER]

Hellava story Digger. 

I hope they got pictures of the 5yo with the rifle and deer.   

[Jess from VA]

Awesome picture.   

I remember when I had hair (and toehead blond at that age).   

[cookiedough]

old saying goes cannot eat the horns rings true in my family.  Only seen and shot at like 3 nice sized bucks with horns in my entire life.  An iffy to mount 9 pointer is on my wall in living room from 1990's think back then was like 350 bucks or so to mount. 

The price of steaks and overall even hamburger at over 4 bucks per lb. make me want to take up deer hunting again just to save some money on meat bought in the grocery store.  Say get 25lbs. of meat or so from a deer, that is 120 bucks of store bought meat and the license fee is 20 something now I believe, pushing 30.  In years past in my youth, our families got together uncles and cousins, and drove 1 hour away to hunt some very nice land my dad/uncles knew an old lady who owned prime hunting land, always got 1-4 deer there every single year between the 3 of us, sometimes 5 deer for 3 of us.  When she passed, the land went to her son who in 1980s wanted to charge 50 per person to hunt and at that time, was too much for say 12 of us that went.  I think my dad offered like 20 per person, but the lawyer son was greedy for sure been hunting that prime land well before I was born in 1970.

A .308 should be much more than plenty for TX sized deer being smaller than WI whitetail deer. 

[DIGGER]

old saying goes cannot eat the horns rings true in my family.  Only seen and shot at like 3 nice sized bucks with horns in my entire life.  An iffy to mount 9 pointer is on my wall in living room from 1990's think back then was like 350 bucks or so to mount. 

The price of steaks and overall even hamburger at over 4 bucks per lb. make me want to take up deer hunting again just to save some money on meat bought in the grocery store.  Say get 25lbs. of meat or so from a deer, that is 120 bucks of store bought meat and the license fee is 20 something now I believe, pushing 30.  In years past in my youth, our families got together uncles and cousins, and drove 1 hour away to hunt some very nice land my dad/uncles knew an old lady who owned prime hunting land, always got 1-4 deer there every single year between the 3 of us, sometimes 5 deer for 3 of us.  When she passed, the land went to her son who in 1980s wanted to charge 50 per person to hunt and at that time, was too much for say 12 of us that went.  I think my dad offered like 20 per person, but the lawyer son was greedy for sure been hunting that prime land well before I was born in 1970.

A .308 should be much more than plenty for TX sized deer being smaller than WI whitetail deer. 

Ive hunted all my life.  Never been able to hunt to SAVE money on deer meat....ha

[Rams]

old saying goes cannot eat the horns rings true in my family.  Only seen and shot at like 3 nice sized bucks with horns in my entire life.  An iffy to mount 9 pointer is on my wall in living room from 1990's think back then was like 350 bucks or so to mount.  

The price of steaks and overall even hamburger at over 4 bucks per lb. make me want to take up deer hunting again just to save some money on meat bought in the grocery store.  Say get 25lbs. of meat or so from a deer, that is 120 bucks of store bought meat and the license fee is 20 something now I believe, pushing 30.  In years past in my youth, our families got together uncles and cousins, and drove 1 hour away to hunt some very nice land my dad/uncles knew an old lady who owned prime hunting land, always got 1-4 deer there every single year between the 3 of us, sometimes 5 deer for 3 of us.  When she passed, the land went to her son who in 1980s wanted to charge 50 per person to hunt and at that time, was too much for say 12 of us that went.  I think my dad offered like 20 per person, but the lawyer son was greedy for sure been hunting that prime land well before I was born in 1970.

A .308 should be much more than plenty for TX sized deer being smaller than WI whitetail deer.  

Ive hunted all my life.  Never been able to hunt to SAVE money on deer meat....ha

My expectation is that roadkill would be cheaper as long as someone else hit the deer.  

Rams

[cookiedough]

old saying goes cannot eat the horns rings true in my family.  Only seen and shot at like 3 nice sized bucks with horns in my entire life.  An iffy to mount 9 pointer is on my wall in living room from 1990's think back then was like 350 bucks or so to mount. 

The price of steaks and overall even hamburger at over 4 bucks per lb. make me want to take up deer hunting again just to save some money on meat bought in the grocery store.  Say get 25lbs. of meat or so from a deer, that is 120 bucks of store bought meat and the license fee is 20 something now I believe, pushing 30.  In years past in my youth, our families got together uncles and cousins, and drove 1 hour away to hunt some very nice land my dad/uncles knew an old lady who owned prime hunting land, always got 1-4 deer there every single year between the 3 of us, sometimes 5 deer for 3 of us.  When she passed, the land went to her son who in 1980s wanted to charge 50 per person to hunt and at that time, was too much for say 12 of us that went.  I think my dad offered like 20 per person, but the lawyer son was greedy for sure been hunting that prime land well before I was born in 1970.

A .308 should be much more than plenty for TX sized deer being smaller than WI whitetail deer. 

Ive hunted all my life.  Never been able to hunt to SAVE money on deer meat....ha

pricing of meat in grocery store is crazy high.  If butcher most of the deer meat yourself even if just hamburger and steaks/chops/roasts, saving money vs. buying at grocery store even paying for the license fees, gas, etc. of hunting.