Ups and downs of hunting...

[hq]

I couldn't find a thread like this so feel free to contribute. Not really a venting thread, but a chronicle of sorts.

So... a couple of days ago I realized I need to sight in my rifle for next week's hunt. Not a big deal, a half an hour drive to our property outside of town. Set up the targets, loaded the rifle, arranged table and chairs for good support and started to take aim. Couldn't find the target, a white paper plate with an X drawn with a marker. Found a deer's face instead. A decently nice 3x3 buck staring at me RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TARGET. I was tempted to pull the trigger, but eventually let it go. When you're wearing regular jeans and a jacket, haven't got butchering knives or a trailer anywhere nearby and aren't prepared for the slightest bit of field dressing, there's little you can do. Why doesn't this happen when you're prepared and actually hunting?

On the other hand, it's about midnight now. Leaving for a 6-day moose/bear hunt with my son early tomorrow morning. Moments like these make everything else worth your while. A rollercoaster of a week in more ways than one and I'm glad I don't have to think about much else in next few days. They warned that there will be snow and slush up north. I don't really care, this is by far the best time of the year for me and I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it.

 

[jmr40]

It's not uncommon for deer and turkey to wander out into the firing lanes at the club where I shoot. They get accustomed to the gunfire and ignore it. I've had to stop shooting and walk down range to chase them off before. I asked the caretaker his thoughts on shooting one if it were in season. The club has about 400 acres open for archery only, so by club rules he said I couldn't. Now if I were practicing with my bow on the archery range and one walked out.....

 

[Armored farmer]

A doe and fawn took up residence in the woods surrounding my favorite sporting Clay's range. It wasn't uncommon to see them loitering around the shooting lanes. One day I spotted the doe standing just in front of the pile of clay targets that had landed unbroken. Of course I educated her about humans by flipping the trigger on the trap. The target sailed downrange and bumped her right in the flank.

 

[climbnjump]

It's not uncommon for deer and turkey to wander out into the firing lanes at the club where I shoot.

Same thing at the range where I shoot. There is a swale between the 100 and 200 yard backstops so when the deer or turkeys come out between the two, you can just keep shooting as the bullets are passing 10 feet or so over their backs. They don't care one whit because they are used to the noise.

What's fun is to watch is other shooters on the line being so focused that they are not even aware that they are shooting over a deer which is standing in plain sight. I usually video it on my phone to show it to them afterwords or they don't believe it.

 

[buck460XVR]

Ups and downs of hunting...

Kinda what hunting is all about....the quick adrenaline rush that comes after hours of waiting on stand or for opening day.

Turkey hunting to me has always been about ups and downs.......or highs and lows. Take for example, one day for me in the turkey woods.

Wake up to drizzling rain and wind, not what you want for turkey hunting. A low.

Time I get to the farm I hunt the rain has stopped. This means with the wind and wet leaves my aproach should be quiet so I should be able to get close to where I know they are roosting. A high.

Right before I get to my planned setup, I spook a deer and it runs to where the birds are roosting and starts to snort at me. A low.

Deer runs off and I sit down. Half hour later I hear subtle tree yelps right where I figured the birds were. A high.

As the sun just starts to light up the morning sky I see movement in the tree above me and hear a hen alarm putting. Definitely a low.

That bird flys off and two toms open up a hundred yards away like nuttin' has happened. Again a high.

After dueling in the tree for half an hour along with another tom competing with them behind me, I hear them fly down and start gobbling, the two Toms a long ways off in front of me and the lone tom, behind me gobbling a long ways off behind me. Another low.

Knowing I have to move, I go down the ridge a coupla hundred yards to another favorite setup. After I let the woods quiet down I get a respones to the first set of yelps I make and he's damn close. High.

With the wind, I could not tell exactly what direction the bird was so I had to guess. I decided it must be the lone tom that was behind me so I moved into position before he got there. As I turned , I see a huge longbeard standing directly in front of me,looking right at me, not 30 yards away. He must of just popped up over the ridge. He was gone before I even realized what was going on. Called aggressively for another half hour, never heard a peep. Extreme low.

Knew I had to move. Knew where the birds sometimes headed mid-morning, so I thought I'd get there before they did. Knew there might be Toms there that I hadn't screwed up with yet. Was maybe a quarter mile away. While setting up heard a really distant gobble from the next farm over. Gave a series of cutts and cackles and was rewarded by double and triple gobbles. High.

Second series of calls the toms responded, but so did a hen right beside me. I thought good....iffin I can keep her here maybe the both of us can draw the toms. After squawkin' back and forth for a while with the toms gobbling continuously in the distance, she walked off in the direction of the toms squawkin' all the way. By the time I could no longer hear her...the toms went quiet too. Then it stared to rain again.....hard. Low again.

15 minutes later she is back squakin' at me in the rain and now I can see three longbeards in the pasture below me. I'm on a steep sidehill with a creek in between but they are struttin' and gobblin' everytime I or the hen calls. After a few minutes they tuck their wings and start towards me in a hurry. The high is back!

Knowing there's a creek they have to cross along with a fence to crawl thru, I'm wonderin' which way they will come. To my left is the easy open route, but it's longer. I hope that's the way they will come cause I'll be able to see them come. Straight ahead in the direction I last saw the toms, it's steep and brush filled. I know if they come that way they'll be on top of me before i see them. I wonder if they will come or just stay on the edge of the pasture 150 yards away and gobble till they get bored or another hen comes along. But I can't see them because of the steep dropoff in front of me. After what seems like an eternity, I give another set of cutts and there is nuttin' but silence. Even the noisy hen beside me has shut up. I'm thinkin' she left and took the toms with her without me knowin. Down low again.

Still I stayed still and kept the ol '97 to my shoulder as I tried to decide on what to do next. I knew even if they were going away they were too close for me to make a move to cut them off. Even tho I kept calling with what had turned them so hot before, without a response I had no clue where they went. Suddenly 10 yards ahead, directly in front of the bead on the old winnie, were three white cue balls on top of pink and blue necks. Was just a matter of pickin' one.

So in about three hours time my hunt consisted of so many highs and lows that I lost count. Yet, the anticipation of that next adrenaline rush keep me out there.

That's huntin'.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Today was the Antlerless Only season here so what do I have walking in front of me for longest time? A fork horn buck...

 

[Trey Veston]

Drove around 70 miles East into some of the more remote woods around here, hunted for four days, covered 40+ miles on foot and in a UTV and saw maybe 8 deer and only one little buck.

While sitting in my rig in the parking lot at work, in town...

 

[Random 8]

Yeah, I think the weather is against me. All August, into September I've had good deer on camera. Even practiced and got back into archery to get a crack at them before the deep freeze hits for rifle season (last 2 years have been nearly un-huntable with sub-zero cold and high winds on the weekends, and great deer weather mid-week while I'm working of course). Then the rains came. Most of my property is forested bog. We've had over triple the average rainfall for the area since Archery season opened in mid-September. I need knee boots, almost waders to get to most of my stands. Deer have all but vanished from the cameras, favoring open hayfield areas nearby that are well ditched. Oh well, hopefully it dries out eventually before all my pine trees die. I'm running out of projects for roughsawn lumber and would really like to shoot a deer this season.

 

[Taurus 617 CCW]

In my neck of the woods we hunt whitetail deer and turkeys. In the fall we are allowed up to seven turkey tags of either sex so anything that moves is fair game. I always bring a shotgun and a deer rifle in the truck because you never know what you are going to see. If there are no deer around we go for turkeys, if there are no turkeys we go for deer.

One day a few years ago we were hunting in the fall driving down a gravel road next to a field. I saw a whole flock of turkeys cross the road right in front of us about 20 yards up. My hunting partner and I jumped out of the truck while it was still rolling in neutral and ran after them. We bagged two nice hens that day.

Two years ago we were deer hunting in the fall and it was opening weekend. On the first day of opening weekend we had just rolled onto the property that we hunt. I had a hot cup of coffee in hand and was sipping on it while driving. (That is a sure recipe for seeing a deer). Not more than five minutes after we got on the property we see a deer run across the road right in front of us. I just about spilled the coffee trying to get it set down while I grabbed the deer rifle at the same time and got out. We had a deer down in short order that day.

Last year I hunted all season and missed a couple of easy shots on some deer. Found out later my scope was off from being knocked against the side of the pickup as I shouldered it. Our deer season goes from October 10th to December 1st. Two days before the end of the season it snowed eight inches overnight. I had to sit next to a tree in the wet snow for a couple of hours enduring the cold but my deer finally showed up. A nice big doe about thirty yards ahead. I didn't hesitate and she was down.

A couple of years ago I was hunting in the fall with my hunting partner. We hunted all morning and didn't see anything. We heard some turkeys but never laid eyes on them so we decided to go back to the pickup, have a snack and some coffee. The pickup was parked off the road perpendicular to the road facing a pond. We were just chatting away eating and drinking coffee. As we were finishing up some movement caught my eye by the pond. When I pulled focus I saw about a dozen turkeys huddled around the pond drinking. I told my hunting partner and he snuck out of the truck with the shotgun. I stayed by the truck and called to them while he snuck around behind. When he pulled the trigger four turkeys dropped. The rest scattered like somebody just farted in an elevator. He fired a second shot and one more dropped. He filled all his turkey tags that day and set a new record. (We don't have a daily bag limit on turkeys where we hunt).

Last year during the fall hunt my hunting partner and I were moving through a really dense part of the woods on a steep hillside. I saw movement ahead and told him to stop. We saw a nice size deer moving right down the hill towards us. We got ready and my hunting partner was in front so I told him to take the shot if he sees the deer. The deer came out from behind some thick trees and leaves and stopped less than 10 yards in front of us. He was so close I could have taken him with my pistol. My hunting partner raised his rifle and shot. The deer just stood and looked at us. My hunting partner's jaw dropped. He fired a second shot and the deer took off. I noticed he had tipped a branch the first shot and later found out his scope was off alignment. No deer that day.

 

[rdnktrkr]

2 seasons back the shed I normally hunt out of fell so I changed places (without electricity for heater) 3 does crossed within 30ft, I raised my 12ga pump with 00 buck and dropped 2, after backing the truck to them so we could move them to a good skinning tree, another doe walked up about 10ft in front of the truck, another down, SIL still talks about that day and put a stand where I was sitting. I hunt back on our range where deer cross our lane regularly and there is known yardage, but so far I've only been able to down singles. Turkeys are off limits per the owner but this year she wants us to start coyote hunting so I guess I will have to start researching that.

 

[hps1]

My son hadn’t been able to get to the lease all year and with only a few days of season left, had an empty freezer. His rifle had flown since he last shot it, so we went to the range adjacent to our camp to check the zero. Set up on the shooting bench and just as he was settling in to shoot the first sighter, a 6 ½ yr. old 9 pointer stepped up, not 6’ to the side and slightly behind the target, staring at us. A perfect management buck!

My son deciding against shooting the buck w/questionable zero fired first sighter, while I spotted for him. I could see both target & deer and his shot was 1 ½” below POA; the buck just flinched at the shot and stood, staring at us!



I said, “You’re on, he’s yours if you want him”. A moment later the buck dropped in his tracks and my son said, “that’s the first deer I ever shot off of a rest w/sandbags!”
The deer is visible where he fell just to left of the target boards.





I knew that the ranch foreman was in camp, (about 200 yards through the brush) so I called him just to tell him the story; he said he’d be over and pick up the deer w/his winch so we didn’t even have to load him up.



Been hunting this 5000 acre ranch since 2004 and checked zero's on a number of rifles. Not uncommon to see deer tracks on the range, but this is the first deer that has wandered into the narrow brecha cut into the brush that I've seen.

Regards,
hps

 

[Random 8]

No offense, but that's a really dumb deer. Good thing he won't reproduce anymore!

 

[hq]

Four days into the hunt. No moose sightings yet, lots of tracks, an annoying hunting dog (she's not a puppy anymore so no excuses) spicing up the days. Great food, though. This morning we were prepared for a pincher movement on a known moose bedding area. Left my son to circle around them, drove a mile or so to the other side. Picked up the rifle and waited. A G*DDAMN HUGE CAPERCAILLIE flew by me. I mean at 15 yards if that. Needed a shotgun, left it in the car. Next thing I know is a crackle from radio "saw the capercaillie that took off at my feet and flew to your direction?"

Yeah. Saw it allright. The hunt continues.

 

[hps1]

A brief window opened Friday allowing me to get to the deer lease with two projects in mind; first we must install a new battery in my jeep, next was to launch the 308 BAR on it's maiden voyage. I was not quite there yet on load development but felt like it was shooting minute of coyote with 125 gr. NBTs. 3:30 found us driving north on one of the many two tracks on the 5000 acre ranch with high hopes and ambitious plans to squeeze in 6 short stands before sunset.

First two stands were blanks, but partner did see one coyote cross his sendero about 400 yards out.

Stand three, I placed the call 30’ down and across the sendero at my 1 o’clock. Heavy brush on both sides and light breeze coming from my 3:30. Figured anything coming in would approach into the wind forcing it to cross the 30’ wide brecha.

WRONG! Exactly 90 seconds into Nutty Nuthatch, a large coyote stepped out of the heavy brush traveling straight downwind. He had been hidden behind the scope and lens covers of my rifle which was resting on shooting sticks until he pulled up suddenly with the decoy only 3’ in front of him.

It didn’t take him but a split second to decide something was rotten in Denmark and before I could flip the safety, he crossed the sendero, disappearing into the brush just as I got a glimpse of fur in the scope. Five minutes later, either the same coyote or another crossed the sendero about 500 yards out, trotting in the opposite direction.

Stand four set up at cross roads but apparently the call was behind enough brush and far enough away that remote signal would not reach. I lost enough time getting up and reposition the call to squelch stand 5. Once it was functional, didn’t take long for first coyote to step out in partner’s lane and he quickly put it down with little ceremony. Due to the delay getting call up & running, we decided to set up at a cattle guard that regularly produces around sunset. We were not disappointed.

Parked the jeep on west side of the fence, just north of E<->W roadway and set up against fence facing east indicated by X. Call about 40-45 yds. east on south side of road(red dot). Ground cover on this stand is tall enough that coyotes can only be seen crossing roads for the most part. The dark green on north side of roadway is heavy brush.



Fired up Nutty Nuthatch again and almost immediately a coyote (red arrow) ran between us and the jeep (no more than 25 yards away), crossed the fence, & disappeared into the brush. Moments later a coyote stuck a shoulder out of the edge of the brush peering across the road @ the decoy; probably same coyote. First blood for the BAR! He was down but flopping, so sealed the deal just as another coyote (green arrow) poked out of the brush but quickly did a 180 before either of us could get on it. Right about same time a third coyote (white arrow) followed suite of first (red) coyote, meeting same fate as number 1. Scoring a double is always memorable, but doing so on the first trip out with a rifle made it even more special.

Minutes later #4 (blue arrow) streaked across the roadway close to 200 yards away, closely followed by #5 (yellow) trotted out and paused in roadway long enough for me to get on it for a quick shot. Don’t know if he tripped or if I hit him as he went down for a brief moment at the shot but was immediately back up and running. Light was fading fast as we checked the area for blood unsuccessfully and finally had to give up the search.

Being unable to close the deal on the last coyote takes the shine off the opening double. It happens, but it always saddens me to not be able to close the deal.

Regards,
hps

 

[courtgreene]

This year I decided to sit out turkey hunting, I count that as a high. It's not that I don't like turkey hunting, I do, but my thought process was that if I didn't take time off to turkey hunt, I'd be able to dedicate a whole week to bear hunting. I LOVE bear hunting with dogs. I really like the guys with which I go. I got really excited about it, lost 40 pounds and got really fast moving between and over mountains. I've had, perhaps the worst year of my life (loved ones dying tragically) and have been telling myself for months, "it'll be ok... I have a week of bear hunting ahead of me... everything's about to get better." So, Monday I woke up for the season opener, only to find out that the whole group has decided to trespass this year instead of hunting the INSANELY LARGE acreage of public land available to any and all bear hunters. Also, because of my job, they didn't want to be responsible for me getting in trouble, so I wouldn't be going. Now I'm at work. Now I'm not doing the thing on which I've been counting for months. Now I'm actually looking forward to therapy, where I was almost ready to stop going (it's not that I am ashamed, it's that I was banking on hunting therapy). I'm probably in the market for new friends, and I'm starting to hate my job (although I realize I shouldn't let other people influence that). I'm against trespassing, but to be told the decision was made for me? Come on!
So I gave up turkey hunting for a week of hunting bears that didn't happen, and just further compounded a crap year. I'm calling that a low.

 

[hq]

Here we go again.

I finally decided to do something about this season's deer hunting. I missed a call from a buddy of mine who had arranged a very nice hunt in a prime area and forgot to call back until it was too late. He was already there. And by "nice" I mean an average of 3-4 deer per hunter on any given weekend. Damn it. I really would've loved to go.

So I headed to my own plot around noon, a half an hour drive. It's been crawling with deer all summer and fall so I was optimistic. You usually see at least a few, sometimes a couple of dozen whitetails in last 3-4 miles. For the first time in months, I saw none. It has snowed a bit during last couple of days so I went looking for tracks. Yep, plenty, but none of them were fresh. I've royally neglected filling the feeder this year, anticipating that I won't have much time to hunt so no help from there either.

It wasn't that cold, high 20°F's, but the combination of windchill and humidity was something else so after a couple of hours I called it a day. Even though sunset was at 3:20pm I didn't wait for dusk and a chance of deer moving through the plot. I drove back home and made myself a pizza, no fresh backstraps today. Next friday is a national holiday so I'll have three days to see what happens.

 

[Armored farmer]

This year I decided to sit out turkey hunting, I count that as a high. It's not that I don't like turkey hunting, I do, but my thought process was that if I didn't take time off to turkey hunt, I'd be able to dedicate a whole week to bear hunting. I LOVE bear hunting with dogs. I really like the guys with which I go. I got really excited about it, lost 40 pounds and got really fast moving between and over mountains. I've had, perhaps the worst year of my life (loved ones dying tragically) and have been telling myself for months, "it'll be ok... I have a week of bear hunting ahead of me... everything's about to get better." So, Monday I woke up for the season opener, only to find out that the whole group has decided to trespass this year instead of hunting the INSANELY LARGE acreage of public land available to any and all bear hunters. Also, because of my job, they didn't want to be responsible for me getting in trouble, so I wouldn't be going. Now I'm at work. Now I'm not doing the thing on which I've been counting for months. Now I'm actually looking forward to therapy, where I was almost ready to stop going (it's not that I am ashamed, it's that I was banking on hunting therapy). I'm probably in the market for new friends, and I'm starting to hate my job (although I realize I shouldn't let other people influence that). I'm against trespassing, but to be told the decision was made for me? Come on!
So I gave up turkey hunting for a week of hunting bears that didn't happen, and just further compounded a crap year. I'm calling that a low.

Man, that's tough.
Sorry to hear about your loved ones.
Maybe it's time to get your own dogs? There's no better hunting partner than a dog.

 

[Trey Veston]

This year I decided to sit out turkey hunting, I count that as a high. It's not that I don't like turkey hunting, I do, but my thought process was that if I didn't take time off to turkey hunt, I'd be able to dedicate a whole week to bear hunting. I LOVE bear hunting with dogs. I really like the guys with which I go. I got really excited about it, lost 40 pounds and got really fast moving between and over mountains. I've had, perhaps the worst year of my life (loved ones dying tragically) and have been telling myself for months, "it'll be ok... I have a week of bear hunting ahead of me... everything's about to get better." So, Monday I woke up for the season opener, only to find out that the whole group has decided to trespass this year instead of hunting the INSANELY LARGE acreage of public land available to any and all bear hunters. Also, because of my job, they didn't want to be responsible for me getting in trouble, so I wouldn't be going. Now I'm at work. Now I'm not doing the thing on which I've been counting for months. Now I'm actually looking forward to therapy, where I was almost ready to stop going (it's not that I am ashamed, it's that I was banking on hunting therapy). I'm probably in the market for new friends, and I'm starting to hate my job (although I realize I shouldn't let other people influence that). I'm against trespassing, but to be told the decision was made for me? Come on!
So I gave up turkey hunting for a week of hunting bears that didn't happen, and just further compounded a crap year. I'm calling that a low.

Man, that's tough. Sorry.

I'd be more concerned that my "friends" are deciding to trespass. I hate criminals; and poachers and deliberate trespassers are scum. They are ruining hunting for everyone by their slob hunting practices.

Last year, my brother went on a mule deer hunt in Montana, prepped for months and spent thousands of dollars on a wall tent and other gear, gas, tags, etc.

Finally saw a beautiful huge buck and took the shot, it didn't go down. Tracked it and it went onto private property. He couldn't retrieve it and beat himself up pretty bad over it. He upgraded his rifle this year to make sure he didn't wound another animal. But, he's a Detective and breaking the law is not an option.

 

[gspn]

A decently nice 3x3 buck staring at me RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TARGET.

That is one of the rudest things I've ever heard of.