What have you done to prep for deer season?

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Good thinking. I'm a little behind the ball this time around. Lately I've been doing nothing but harvesting wheat ;). I'm hoping to have time to dial in a good load for my .270 but we'll see about that.

Despite my lack of preparation, I'm chomping at the bit to get out there. My freezer thawed out and I lost all my deer meat so now it's starting from ground zero :cuss: November can't come soon enough!
 
I think I will get my licences on Wednesday, stop a the army surplus place to. Just large and small game rifle maybe I'll get mz but still have to shoot that cheap online i picked up. No how this year, I am not positive where I can hunt this year, my old Shakespeare recuve is only good out to 30 yards.
 
Our tickets are for leaving Seattle on September 25th and leaving Ithaca on October 5th.
I plan on going squirrel hu ting every morning.Getting some scouting done afterwards. Setting up some trail cams. Gain acess to some new properties to hunt deer and do some attractions later in the day.

I played the Camden Rod & Gun Clubs month of June New York Daily Numbers raffle and hit # 428 on June 11th for a $500 gift certificate at Franks Shooting Supply or what ever it's called, so one afternoon we will hit up the Bass Pro in Auburn, then Frank's and on to Old Forge for the night and do the senic train ride and take a ride up in the mountains and see if we can harvest a couple of grouse.

This trip will be fun for my grandson. Thats what life is about.

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We have to pack out all of our meat so I put together a couple rucksacks to carry the load. I was using an assault pack, but it wasn't the most comfortable while carrying heavy loads.

To save money, I got a MOLLE II rucksack and assembled an ALICE frame with a hellcat mod (MOLLE shoulder and waist straps). I think the MOLLE rucksack is more comfortable, but I'll put both to the test.
 
I am planning on still hunting a few big tracks of forest and bought an older aluminum frame nylon backpack for carrying the quarters out if I connect.
Some of these still hunts will be from about a mile to closebto three miles. I will getvdropped off on one side and just take my time still hunting and when I get to the other side or where ever I come out I will make a call and get picket up.

I was going to do this last year, but it snowed almost every day, i didn't want to treak through the snow.
 
I loaded up some 243 this morning. 5 rounds each for testing. I loaded all my test rounds with IMR4831.
Five 100 grain Sierra Game King
Five 100 grain Hornady SST
Five 100 grain BTSP and
Five 100 brain flat base soft points.
I need to load up some extra cartridges to get the gun zeroed in then see which one the gun likes with this powder.

I will try other powders in the next few weeks.

Once I see the target results I will play with the volumes of powder.
 
I often equate deer hunting to camping. When I go camping with the wife most of the work takes place before we leave home and when we get to the camp area we just enjoy the fun of camping. Hunting is the same way here in Oklahoma in that all the work takes place during the off months and when the season comes around all I have to do is enjoy the hunt.

During the spring we had severe flooding in the river bottoms and it disrupted my usual activity. I usually feed all year but I wasn't able to get to my deer feeders from April until the middle of August. So, I finally got my feeders full of corn and protein and the deer quickly started using them. One feeder in particular went down 100 pounds of corn during the first night. I have been clearing the pasture and my shooing lanes with a brush hog and have spent over 20 hours riding a bouncy tractor. Everything is really rough because the cows made deep tracks in the wet ground and in the really wet places It looks like a waffle iron. I also moved three deer stands to take better advantage of the movement of the mature bucks. I haven't been able to shoot much this summer because my club range has been closed for construction. To keep in shape I usually hike a lot on Core land at the lake but the Govt has closed the area for maintenance which is par for the course and it takes them forever to get anything done. Hope everything gets back to normal before the last week in October when our muzzleloading season starts. I'm really looking forward to hunting this year but in the meantime I'm heading for South Fork, Colorado for two weeks to watch the aspen turn and then to Bull Shoals, Arkansas for two weeks. The Turkey Trot in Yellville is really fun and they have a fight with Pita every year about throwing wild turkeys off the top of the Courthouse. Life is good.
 
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Picked up another ladder stand to put in a new spot I've been working on in the wetlands. Cleared some shooting lanes last year and piled up the brush I cleared to make bedding areas. I was hunting a pop up blind during May Turkey season and had deer coming in and bedding down in the areas I made. It was very cool to see efforts actually working out as I had hoped.

With four stand sites set up I have viable options for pretty much any weather/wind scenario.

Gonna work up some loads for the K31 project I've been putting together as well as some loads for a Rem 7400 30-06 my brother gave me.

Also need to run a few rounds through my trusty Bubba'd No4Mk1 and 4" 629 to make sure they are still zero'd in.

I love this time of year!

Good luck this season folks. Stay safe and shoot straight!
 
Been too wet to do much out back but I did haul some limbs out that I'd trimmed to add to the ground blinds. Brush hogged some trails and dropped off a new mineral block at the "lick" as well.
Saw some fresh tracks in the mud around the lick.:)
Now I gotta pull the brush hog, attach the back blade and get the ruts outta the driveway from all that rain.. :(

^^^
Neat work on that blind there Rembrandt. That's some fine craftsmanship. :thumbup:
 
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Bought a pre-made shed that's 12' x 36'. My wife and I have been improving it to use as a camp house. Put in insulation, waterproofed the wood floor, put up solar motion lights, and wired it for a generator. Then I installed a window A.C. and hooked up an AC/DC TV for afternoon football games.

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I had planted milo in the median of the road and it was up and looking good. Maybe I'll get some dove shooting.

One of my cameras showed a REAL NICE 9-point in velvet so I'm trying to pattern him. Another camera pooped out so I didn't get any shots since the 13th of August.
 
Good thinking. I'm a little behind the ball this time around. Lately I've been doing nothing but harvesting wheat ;). I'm hoping to have time to dial in a good load for my .270 but we'll see about that.

Despite my lack of preparation, I'm chomping at the bit to get out there. My freezer thawed out and I lost all my deer meat so now it's starting from ground zero :cuss: November can't come soon enough!

Bummer. That happened to me once.
 
Last Sunday I shot my test ammo in my Remington 788 in 243. I will make up some more and tweek it a little.
The rectangle home made targets are from my 243,
The factory green/bkack/white target is from my H&R single shot with the 308 barrel. Fifteen shots in to this target.all shot from a rest.

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I also recieved my non-resident New York State small game/big game license & two doe tags in the mail today.
 
Spent last weekend logging and trying out my Alaskan mill, so didn't do much in the way of deer prep, but did make some beautiful spalted Red Pine slabs from my hunting land. Traded them to a taxidermist relative for a future mount, so that more than pays for the cost of the mill. He's going to use them around the shop and on mounts. Also slabbed out some 8/4 Tamarack and black spruce for deer stand material. Sighted in the Henry .357 single shot and got the neighbor's girl some trigger time for upcoming youth season. At 10 years old, she handled the recoil of full power hunting loads in stride, but had difficulty cocking the hammer and needs more time to develop marksmanship and general gun safety before she's ready. Game cameras were rather uninteresting. Same deer visiting the same places at same times, so I shuffled the camera locations. Put a few rounds into some threatening beer cans with The Death Ray .280 Rem to use up some rather tarnished ammo from the last couple of seasons. Working on reloading them this weekend with hopefully a more formal range trip to confirm the zero and get some field position practice.
 
I spent two or three hours scouting and hanging my trailcam yesterday.
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I had my ruger American farmer in .22mag/Simmons 4x.just in case a squirrel volunteered to join us for dinner.
I couldnt believe the amount of fungi and fall mushrooms that were everywhere! My mushroom app got a workout.
I did spot a nice buck at the edge of out cornfield. He was patient enough to pose for a quick cell phone pic.
 
Beautiful rifle Armored farmer, cool box turtle too.

I spent a long dusty day yesterday on the tractor. I disc'ed, and my brother and father planted nearly 3 acres, spread out over 10 different small food plots.

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My view most of the day.

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It was dry and dusty. Hopefully we get some rain soon.
 
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