2019-2020 hunting picture thread

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Today, Wednesday 12/04, was opening day of the Kansas firearms deer season. Got up early and went out this morning, but saw only a group of 4 does. Went back out this evening to a different spot about a half mile from where I was at this morning. I was sitting on a high spot in a brome field with my back against a corner post. Right out in the wide open. About 5 o'clock, those same 4 does came out into the field. I watched them feed for about 10 minutes and was just about ready to call it a day when another deer jumped the fence and walked into the field. At first I thought it was another doe. Picked up my binoculars to take a look and it was a buck. By the shape and size, I knew it was a fairly young one, and at first I thought it had a small rack. At one point, he turned away from me and I saw that the rack was pretty wide and much nicer than I had first thought.

He started walking toward the does and I kept watching him through my binoculars. The more I watched, the nicer he got. I still thought I would pass on him, then got to thinking that I really did not get much chance for deer hunting last year (and no deer), and I had not gotten one yet this year. He was a long way out there and not getting any closer, and I finally decided I would take a crack at him. I was sitting on the ground so was shooting from a sitting position with my support hand elbow on the knee. I squeezed the trigger, the gun went BOOM, and I heard the bullet hit the deer. He sort of hunched up, tucked his tail between his legs and took a few weak steps away from me and stopped. Probably hit him a little far back. I knew he was hit hard, but not wanting to risk the chance of him running off, I worked the bolt to get another round in the chamber. Took aim again, squeezed the trigger, the rifle went BOOM and I heard the second bullet whack the deer. He turned around in a couple of circles and fell over. Found out a few minutes later that the second round was a heart shot and there was no heart left when I field dressed the deer. Also, there was no liver left either. First shot was a bit back, but a good hit in the liver. Thankfully, the bullet did not hit the paunch, but there sure was a lot of "hamburger" inside that deer.

After I walked out to check him out, the deer was even nicer than I thought. Yes, he was a fairly young deer, but he had a nice wide rack with pretty tall tines. Ended up as an 11 pointer, main beam 5 x 4 and both brow tines were split, giving him two more points. I left my rifle leaning on him and my fanny pack on top of him to (hopefully) keep the coyotes away from him until I could get back with my tractor to load him up for the ride home. (I was only a quarter mile from the house where I shot him.)

Walking back to the corner post where I shot from, I counted my steps, none of them short. 315 steps, so pretty darn close to 300 yards.

Got back home, opened the garage to get the tractor and the battery was mostly dead. Not enough juice in it to turn the diesel fast enough to start. Took my truck instead and got my deer. Put a quick charge on the battery when I got back, and got the tractor started, so was able to get him hoisted up to clean him out with the hose.

So my deer season is now over (unless I decide to get a doe tag for two later). He's not the monster buck I always hope for, but I am quite happy with him. He has just about the prettiest rack of all my deer. View attachment 875943 View attachment 875944

Nice buck congratulations.
 
The pictures of the bloody hands make me a little nervous. For many years I had the bloody hands but about 10 years ago one of my fellow taxidermists got really sick from skinning and he spent many days in the hospital. Now I wear disposable gloves every time and I refuse to get my hands bloody. It's kind of a he-man thing like smoking, drinking alcohol and driving reckless because sooner or later it may catch up with you. I would recommend that everyone carry disposable gloves because they don't take up any room. I use the extra large powdered nitrile disposable gloves made by Radnor. Their item number is 2018-08.
 
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"Take an Old Friend Hunting" - Ithaca Gun Co.
~1973 Ithaca M37 Featherlight

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I was in Afton on hunt road the same spot I shot the spike. The exact spot.
The 7 point didn't even know I was there.

First off my SIL and daughter both worked today so my wife and I watched our grandson overnight. We took him to a 2 flea markets, we had fun. Any way we got back at around 11:00 and started getting ready to go out. Yesterday I had asked my SIL, if I see a buck want me to shoot him. His response was hell yes.

I grab my rem 700 7mm-08, coat, fanny pack and leave., I forgot my ear pro, but had soft plugs in the truck so it was OK. I arrived at the first state game land on hunt rd in Afton, geared up, walked into the old logging road and loaded up 5 140 nosler ballistic tips. The snow revealed literal highways where deer were moving through. I still hunted the logging road, at 1 spot I stopped looked to my left and saw a lone deer watching me, I knew if I moved the gun to shoot it would spook. So I tried to ignore it, with my first step it ran. I gave it about 15 minutes to settle down and continued to my spot. When I got there I removed my pack, looked around and saw a deer moving belowe from left to right. I was a little surprised to see him stick his head under a pine bough to nose the ground, he was nearly facing me, I had an open shooting lane about 2 feet wide. Y only shot was high shoulder I took it. At the shot he looked like he was dazed then hunched and ran. I watched him looking for another place to shoot but didn't get one. The shot was about 80 yds kneeling, went to where I shot and found brown hair and dragarks in the snow. No blood, plenty of tracks, drag marks I found him 20 yards from where I last saw him. He went about 40 yds.

Sorry I left you all hanging I was kind of busy. I calledy SIL and told him I shot a buck and he came to me to tag it because I had already used mine.
He was excited when he saw the buck.

I gave him my doe tag so he can go out tomorrow. I'm done until muzzle loader season next weekend.



Thanks Troy I hope you get a chance to get out to and good luck out there. I didn't see an exit wound so maybe I'll have a bullet for your partition thread.

Noice well done my friend!!!!!
Please .....lets hear the story:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
Snuck out again pheasant hunting friday for a few hours. Saw 2 got 1. Had one running and the cover transitioned from thick stuff to thinner and it took off on us on foot and flushed 40 yards out. We jumped another one in some briers of a fence row between fields and I dusted it as it got up cackling!

Had a great day with my goofball in the field

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This year turned out to -relatively - be a management hunt for me. I’ve been managing the herd on one of my properties for almost 20 years, and had unfortunately had two bucks rule this kingdom a little too long before finally getting an opportunity to take each of them last year and the year before - after 4 years of exclusively hunting those 2 deer. After finally knocking down both of those big bodied bruisers, having ran off too many other mature, quality bucks, and a poor fawn recruitment 5 years ago, this year was dependent upon cruisers. Mid-summer, I started seeing two nice 4yr olds, a 9pt with some decent mass for his age, but nothing to write home about, and a 10 point with a much more type-y rack and bigger body. Late fall, another 10 point moved in, very similar to the first, type-y as all get out, and big bodied.

I also learned this summer, the older guy who leased the property adjacent to mine had passed away. The same guy who I have caught almost every season trespassing onto my property, and the same guy who brings out other hunters and literally shoots anything they see. Multiple times in the last 10 years, I have seen them loading up fawns smaller than my dog. They show up after light, drive in on a UTV, drop one or two guys off on the side of a meadow, then the old man drives to the other side to park, and hunts from the UTV all day (illegal in KS) - all sitting 20yrds off of my fenceline, facing my side. Also multiple times in the last 10 years, I’ve found my fencelines with the top line cut and the bottom two pressed to the ground with UTV track into my property. More frustrating for me, the last 5 years, they had been bringing one of the guys’ middle school then high school grandsons along, and setting this standard of disrespect and unlawfulness with the future generation. Loss of life is always tragic, and I hate to speak ill of the deceased, but I’d be lying to say I’m not glad to have an irresponsible detriment removed from my property and deer herd. So I leased rights from my neighbor, and now control enough acreage there to be even more confident in successfully letting better bucks walk.

But having these three options and greater security for the investment bucks, I elected to cull the smallest of the 3 cruisers. “Men plan and God smiles,” but I’m hoping to expose more of my doe next season to the larger bucks for a more productive future.

That may all sound like a disrespectful concession, which isn’t my intent. Watching college football, we can see many amazing runningbacks who are phenomenal athletes and fantastic footballers - but simply won’t make the cut for the NFL later in life. When I first started with this property as a teen, I would have drooled over a chance to harvest a buck of this quality, and I’m still proud to bring him home and put him on the wall. There are a lot of other 4 year olds out there any given year which wouldn’t have produced his mass, nor his body weight.

ETA: Sorry, I foolishly neglected to a few include details, in my already over-length post... Seekins Havak in 6 creed with Bartlein 1:7.5” Heavy Palma, pushing Berger 105 Hybrids at 3040fps, SilencerCo Omega 300, direct thread with flat end cap. Armaggedon gear suppressor cover. Bushnell DMR II shot at 12x. Jewel HVR set time 6oz. Taken at 53yrds, quartering away - waited ~2min for him to turn and offer the shot. The bullet stopped under the far side hide, retaining 53grn, with the core still in the base of the jacket. The top half of the heart was shredded, and the forward lobe of both lungs absolute jelly. The bullet punched through the far ribs and nestled under the hide. He hunkered and ran poorly for 20 yards in a crescent path across then away from my blind, crashed, and never moved under his own power again.

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Nice buck congratulations.
This year turned out to -relatively - be a management hunt for me. I’ve been managing the herd on one of my properties for almost 20 years, and had unfortunately had two bucks rule this kingdom a little too long before finally getting an opportunity to take each of them last year and the year before - after 4 years of exclusively hunting those 2 deer. After finally knocking down both of those big bodied bruisers, having ran off too many other mature, quality bucks, and a poor fawn recruitment 5 years ago, this year was dependent upon cruisers. Mid-summer, I started seeing two nice 4yr olds, a 9pt with some decent mass for his age, but nothing to write home about, and a 10 point with a much more type-y rack and bigger body. Late fall, another 10 point moved in, very similar to the first, type-y as all get out, and big bodied.

I also learned this summer, the older guy who leased the property adjacent to mine had passed away. The same guy who I have caught almost every season trespassing onto my property, and the same guy who brings out other hunters and literally shoots anything they see. Multiple times in the last 10 years, I have seen them loading up fawns smaller than my dog. They show up after light, drive in on a UTV, drop one or two guys off on the side of a meadow, then the old man drives to the other side to park, and hunts from the UTV all day (illegal in KS) - all sitting 20yrds off of my fenceline, facing my side. Also multiple times in the last 10 years, I’ve found my fencelines with the top line cut and the bottom two pressed to the ground with UTV track into my property. More frustrating for me, the last 5 years, they had been bringing one of the guys’ middle school then high school grandsons along, and setting this standard of disrespect and unlawfulness with the future generation. Loss of life is always tragic, and I hate to speak ill of the deceased, but I’d be lying to say I’m not glad to have an irresponsible detriment removed from my property and deer herd. So I leased rights from my neighbor, and now control enough acreage there to be even more confident in successfully letting better bucks walk.

But having these three options and greater security for the investment bucks, I elected to cull the smallest of the 3 cruisers. “Men plan and God smiles,” but I’m hoping to expose more of my doe next season to the larger bucks for a more productive future.

That may all sound like a disrespectful concession, which isn’t my intent. Watching college football, we can see many amazing runningbacks who are phenomenal athletes and fantastic footballers - but simply won’t make the cut for the NFL later in life. When I first started with this property as a teen, I would have drooled over a chance to harvest a buck of this quality, and I’m still proud to bring him home and put him on the wall. There are a lot of other 4 year olds out there any given year which wouldn’t have produced his mass, nor his body weight.

ETA: Sorry, I foolishly neglected to a few include details, in my already over-length post... Seekins Havak in 6 creed with Bartlein 1:7.5” Heavy Palma, pushing Berger 105 Hybrids at 3040fps, SilencerCo Omega 300, direct thread with flat end cap. Armaggedon gear suppressor cover. Bushnell DMR II shot at 12x. Jewel HVR set time 6oz. Taken at 53yrds, quartering away - waited ~2min for him to turn and offer the shot. The bullet stopped under the far side hide, retaining 53grn, with the core still in the base of the jacket. The top half of the heart was shredded, and the forward lobe of both lungs absolute jelly. The bullet punched through the far ribs and nestled under the hide. He hunkered and ran poorly for 20 yards in a crescent path across then away from my blind, crashed, and never moved under his own power again.

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