The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel
Question 1: Do you deer hunt?
Question 2: If so, what methods do you employ?
Tags:
I will start it off.
1) Yes.
2) Our bow season opens first on Oct. 25 so I start out with my crossbow.
Our muzzleloader season opens on Nov. 16. For it I use a NEF .50 caliber inline. I shoot a 250 grain .45 caliber saboted bullet over two 50 grain 777 pellets. Last season my only kill was a nine point at 150 yards with the muzzleloader.
Our regular gun season opens Nov. 21. I shoot an NEF .30-06 and Remington 150 grain CoreLokt.
All three of our seasons run through Jan. The limit is a buck and a doe a day with a three buck season limit.
Fall is my favorite too Jamie!
Q1 .. yes
Q2 .. family & friends,
i.e. The family farm is no longer actively farmed .. however .. brother (avid sportsman) plants soybeans & doesn't harvest. The deer like that. An accurate "map" of deer runs has accumulated over years of working & hunting on this acreage. Everyone who shows up to hunt .. immediate family & a few cousins .. is assigned a stand. Some are tree stands .. others are simply areas providing good view & shooting lanes covering the earlier mentioned runs. The spots according the "best chance" are given to the youngest & newest hunters. Seasoned hunters are assigned "grade 2" stands. Then we make a drive .. We know where the deer will bunch up / hide during hunting season ..&.. where they will run if disturbed. Four or five hunters will "drive" while others monitor stands.
This process is repeated over different portions of the farm throughout the active season.
We've never been skunked & everyone goes hm w/ some meat.
I use a Rem 700 BDL 22-250 floated w/ a Nikon 6.5 ~ 20 .. don't shoot unless I've a shot ..&.. haven't missed yet. Other's use firearms ranging from 24 caliber (.243) ~ 30-06. The brother mentioned earlier likes Thompson Contenders & has bagged deer using 7- 30 Waters single shot pistol .. 30-06 .. 243 (pistol & rifle) ....................................................
.
It's the camaraderie that I go for.
... and, we all reload. I & 3 brothers. RCBS press .. pertinent dies. NEVER EVER exceeding max load .. we load for highest accuracy. For me & the 22-250 .. that's generally 1 or 2 notches BELOW max load. The actual bullet used depends on the application. I load a Seira 32grain BTHP for prairie dogging .. a little larger for deer .. usually. The 32gr BTHP runs about 2750 fps. I've dropped 2 (deer) w/ the same load I use prairie dogging. My brother gives me a lil sht for using such a light load on deer ..but.. I've shot @ 2 & dropped them both w/ that load.
For my brother's 7-30 Waters .. we fire form 30-30 cartridges & he then loads em up w/ 160 ~180 gr sierra bullets. Other brothers generally use 7mm & 243 .. we use pretty std loads there. One of them has my Dad's 300 savage ..but.. no one has hunted w/ that for awhile.
Each load is tailored specific to the firearm it's being loaded for. i.e. the most accurate load through my 22-250 is not the most accurate through my brothers 22-250.
Reloading is the way to go .. for accuracy. Horandy's best loads have NOT been found as accurate as our reloads. Close .. but not quite.
D ale said:
Q1 .. yes
Q2 .. family & friends,
Dale
Sounds like a really good hunting situation you have there. Doing it with family makes it even better.
A friend of mine at church lets me hunt on his land. Last year only two of us hunted there, myself and the landowners grandson. The owner's son normally hunts there too but last season his contracting business kept him so busy that he didn't hunt any. I am the only non family member allowed to hunt there.
Up until last year it was a cattle farm but the cattle were sold. This year it was planted with about a hundred acres of soybeans. And as you said, the deer like that. I stand hunt but always see plenty of deer. I try to keep track of how many times I see deer. I have had over 200 deer sightings in one season. The most I have killed in any one season is four. I have done that twice.
On my muzzleloader I just have a Tasco 3-9 scope. On my .30-06 I have a Nikon Buckmasters 3-9 scope. I don't reload but I have been very satisfied with the performance of the Remington 150 grain corelokts in my .30-06. I have fired it 14 times at deer and coyotes and put 12 deer and 2 coyotes down with it. The deer ranged from 25 to 125 yards and the coyotes were at 25 and 75 yards.
My one kill last season was at 150 yards with my muzzleloader. i have killed a total of 17 deer. Twelve with the .30-06, three with my muzzleloader, one with my crossbow, and one with a borrowed 7 mm magnum.
I plan on hunting more this season than last. I have gotten pictures of some very nice eight pointers on my game cameras this summer and want to get one of them. One looked like he is going to be a ten point by the time he is finished.
Indeed Charles .. I've an enviable hunting situation.
.
I've aged & will no longer will take a life ..any life.. w/o good reason. Obviously, we eat what we kill.
.
The hunt doesn't end with the shooting season. Everyone participates in the butchering. And .. every hunter in our party goes home with meat .. regardless of whether they've personally made a kill that season.
.
And YES .. it is the camaraderie of the hunt that I enjoy the most. The whoppers I've heard the night before opening morning ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... :)
.
Charles Sample said:
Dale
Sounds like a really good hunting situation you have there. Doing it with family makes it even better.
These are two bucks that my son took last fall while bow hunting. Glad I spent the time with him to show him a few things when he was young. I started taking him with me when he was just 4 years old. He now shares venison with me since I don't have the time to get out. He has turned into a good hunter and man. I also made the knife that he used to field dress these two.
Bob,
Nothing better than spending time with them when they are young and watching them carry that through their lives. With that being said....except making them a knife they carry and use through out their lives!!!
.1. Yes
2. For the last several years, i have shot Deer only with a Bow. I would like to get one with a pistol. May try that this year.
Two good bucks there Bob. But the family time is even better!
Ken
I have a Ruger Blackhawk .45 that I strap on my hip during regular gun season. I intend to take one with it one of these days. I passed up a six foot shot at a doe with it once. I didn't shoot because I had seen a nice buck just before the doe came out. I was hoping for a shot at it.
© 2024 Created by Jan Carter. Powered by