Hunters?

[BMorrison]

Got any hunters out there?

Gun season opens here November 15th and I can't wait!
Plan to be out in the woods every morning for a solid week!

[cmack91]

i havent had a chance, but probably next year im gonna try to go deer hunting, see if i can get my first bow kill, what are you using?

[BMorrison]

I just do firearms hunting whitetails (real bad shot with a bow)
Mossberg 500 Mossy Oak shooting Winchester High Velocity 2 3/4" Hollow Points.

[cmack91]

damn lol, that should knock it down real good, i just want to use a bow for my first hunt, but after that im gonna use my Mosin Nagant hopefully, unless i can get a muzzleloader first, i really want a Thompson Center Encore, i love the way they feel

[BMorrison]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to bow hunt! I might start practicing using one of my buddies bows. It makes sense because I like hunting and bow season is a LOT longer than firearm season. Here we have Nov 15-30th for bucks and the 30th to January first for antlerless for firearms. Bow season is pretty long though.

[cmack91]

if you know had to use the wierd sites on them, theyre actually really accurite, if your good, you can get like a 5inch group from 35-40yrds, which isnt bad for being a bow. our bow season is longer too, and before the rest, so you have better chances at getting the good ones, although you might have to wait out there for a week or two lol, ive never heard of antlerless hunting, i'd think it might be difficult to determine wether its a buck or doe

[TomC]

My season starts the 12th and I have 4 vacation days next week so I am really looking forward to it.

[Wicked Constrictors]

I dont hunt yet but my husband does, gun season started a few weeks ago and he got a deer last week right down the street from us.

[razrbak]

I prefer bowhunting to gun hunting any day... problem is, it requires a LOT more work to do it properly: bow tuning, bow skills, scouting, tree stands (or ground blinds), concealment, getting with 20 yards of the critters(I have yet to take a shot over 15 yards)... I have even moved into using nothing but a bent stick (traditional), which requires even more & continual prep.
Family, job and current hobbies have moved me from getting in the woods as often as I would like, but I still really enjoy flinging some arrows in the backyard.

[mainbutter]

Well folks sorry I haven't been on bp.net much lately, but that's because of this thread's topic!

I've never been hunting in my life. My parent's have always sort of been anti-firearm, so the closest thing to hunting I've done is fishing most of my life.

I've been with my girlfriend for 6 years now and I was invited along on a hunt with her uncle, so I jumped at the opportunity for a new experience. Her parents have 120 acres of land north of Minneapolis a ways, and the previous owners had built some stands that are still in good condition, so we figured we'd give that a shot.

This area is also designated as an "intensive harvest" area, so if we purchased enough bonus antlerless tags, our limit is 5 deer per person.

*If you don't want to read about my first hunting experience, stop here. Cleaning deer carcasses is part of hunting, and those with a weak stomach may not want to hear the details.*

I have this entire week off work, so we came up after my evening shift saturday night (opener night) with just enough time to get four hours of sleep before getting dressed for hunting. I got up, had some cereal and coffee, dressed, and headed out into the forest while it was still very dark. I was able to stumble my way to the stand I intended to hunt out of without too much difficulty, and sure enough about an hour later just as the sun was breaking over the horizon, I began to see deer. Throughout the morning I had about a dozen does come well within 15 yards of me, some were literally just below my stand (10ft high?). I decided not to take any of the does that morning, though it was fun to train my crosshairs on a deer for the first time in my life.

Right about 10AM, a medium ~3-4 year old buck with a small rack wandered by. I'm not a trophy hunter, I'm just out for something to put in my chest freezer. I figured this buck would be perfect, big enough to have a good amount of meat but still young enough for it to be good quality. Not once did he look up at me, and he let me take about 5 minutes before definitively deciding to take my shot. I waited until he was far enough away from the stand that I wasn't making a downward shot off his back, aimed, and fired. He dropped five feet away from where I hit him.

Upon field dressing (which is WAY harder than the 7 minute youtube vids make it seem to be), I only found two chunks of his heart, the rest was hamburgered. I was only specifically aiming for the heart/lungs "area", but I sure got lucky. I'm really glad he dropped where he did, because we are RIGHT near a small river (3 feet deep, 15 feet across right now, STEEP banks) and I really didn't want to have to cross it to retrieve my deer.

That evening I saw more does and one more small buck, but it was my first day and I figured the next days would be just as productive, and I didn't want it to end. I only had one bonus tag left that would let me take an antlerless deer anyways, and had no interest in buying a third just because I didn't want hunting to end.

Fast forward two more days. The closest deer I've seen was ~200 yards through forest trees, never even came close to giving me a good shot. It's about time we get home since my hunting buddy doesn't have this whole week off of work. We decided that last night would be the end of this week's hunting. I was hunting a new spot, actually only about three or four hundred yards from the house on this property, perched on a hill in the forest overlooking a valley. I'd decided that if I saw a deer that'd fill my tag, I'd take it

Sure enough, just a half hour before shooting hours would close, a small yearling wanders by, on the same hill ridge I'm on. I'd been specifically asked to possibly take a small one for their DELICIOUS meat, so that along with a bit of urgency to fill the tag made that decision easy. This one however was not going to be as easy a shot. I was not in a stand, it was not close by, it was not below me. I couldn't get a shot while it was on the ridge, since there was too much cover.

All of a sudden, it starts trotting down the hill, away from me, and getting further away by the second. I don't have a shot at its vitals, and I don't want to hit the stomach/intestines area, and I'm thinking this deer is going to get away. At about a hundred yards or a little more, I get desparate and just yell out "HEY DEER!". It spun around, looked in my direction with ears perked, and gave me a nice 45 degree angle if not a perfect broadside. I aimed just below the shoulder, and fired. BTW THIS shot was standing with no rest to steady my aim, and I'm not that great a shot and still new-ish to firearms. This was not only the longest shot I've taken while hunting (not hard, making a grand total of TWO), but the longest shot I've taken with my rifle ever, so I was pretty pleased when I hit my mark.

Down it went, dropped right where it was hit. Entry was a lung hit, exit took out his foreleg. This time, field dressing was much easier, but still not "easy".

We're headed back home today, after we get this place cleaned up a bit. Hunting sure can get messy.

It's been a wonderful experience, and I know I'll be doing this in coming years.