Deer Hunting

[AKA Dave]

^^^^^ Mostly due to the liver in the food pellets...or at least that's what I was told.

Dave

[Smitty33]

Very nice buck congrats!! I lost my Dad and hunting buddy about 6 years ago. We hunted.fished and rode motorcycles together and he was my best friend so I know how it is. I've hunted with his muzzle loader ever since and taken quite a few deer with it. I live in southwest Michigan and so far anyway haven't filled a tag although my youngest daughter (20) got her third deer opening day, a small 8pt buck. She even field dresses them herself!!

[LittleTreeGuy]

I've enjoyed hunting for about 25 years now... I've hunted deer in archery, rifle, and muzzleloader seasons over th years. I used to only hunt bucks with a nice sized set of antlers, at least a 6 point or larger. Over the past few years though, I have found that I enjoy muzzleloader hunting more than anything else so that is where I spend my hunting days. Late in the year, with the old-timers that taught me everything I know about hunting and the outdoors. We all dress in frocks and buckskins and in Pa, it's still Flintlock only, so most use guns they have made themselves. None of the fancy in-line stuff. Just old, flintlock black powder guns that may not go off if it's too damp or they're just feeling finicky. lol. Where I live, It's not much of a challenge to walk out on the porch and shoot any deer with a high-powered rifle... you could have one in an hour if you wanted. I do it now more for the time to be with those who I admire and look up to. Never a deer or any meat wasted. If they hunter that shoots it doesn't take it, there are several less fortunate families in the area and we try to make sure they have a full freezer too. ;-)

[rlditmars]

Very nice buck congrats!! I lost my Dad and hunting buddy about 6 years ago. We hunted.fished and rode motorcycles together and he was my best friend so I know how it is. I've hunted with his muzzle loader ever since and taken quite a few deer with it. I live in southwest Michigan and so far anyway haven't filled a tag although my youngest daughter (20) got her third deer opening day, a small 8pt buck. She even field dresses them herself!!

There's something special about hunting with your Dad regardless of how young or old you are. How nice you had shared that with yours. It's good that you're continuing the tradition with your daughter and she is having success. I like that she will field dress them herself. It's all part of the process. I remember once when Dad and I were hunting with my sister up in the U.P. around Trenary. She took her first buck opening morning, a nice little 6 pointer. Since she had never taken a deer before I showed her how to field dress it but told her she'd have to do the next one herself. I thought I was referring to next season. Nope! She filled her doe permit that evening and dressed it herself. She kept wiping her hands in the snow while she was doing it so he whole area looked like there had been a massacre, but she got it done. She was so proud, as where Dad and I. Unfortunately neither Dad nor I ended up getting a deer that year, so my sister's gloating was almost unbearable. Such memories. Thanks for sharing

[Bcycling]

This year first shotgun season started out with deer moving. Had three walk up on me when it was still dark out so no shot possible. Then saw two more that I let pass cause they were kind if far out and small. That was Friday. Saturday the wind was howling and heard one moving around when it was still dark but never saw it. Didn't see a deer and at 10 am the rain came with the wind. Everything bedded down so we went in for lunch. Went back out at 1. The rain stopped but the wind had them all bedded down. Decided to try walking to kick some up and maybe get a shot off. Kicked five up in 15 minutes but only number five paused to look at me. Well the little guy is now in the freezer. But the best story was two years ago I sat all Friday and didn't see a thing. Got out of the tree to take a leak, and it was 3:30. Sunset was 4:06 so I decided to take a nap against a tree. I heard the squirrels running around off in the distance. About 5 minutes later I think to myself, as my head is bobbing from a sleepy daze, man that squirrel is close. I look over my shoulder to see one of the biggest bucks walking up to me at 10 yards out. I rolled onto my knee, as I had pushed all the leaves away, so I didn't make much noise. That buck raised it's head and looked over me, that's how close it was. I put one slug in the old fellow and he ended up almost running over me as he ran 50 yards before he collapsed. 282 pound field dressed 10 pointer. A nice chocolate rack on him and lots of rips in his ears from the battles he had been a part of. Shoulder mounted it for my dad to put up in his cabin. And that was the best meat I have got from a deer ever.

[Bcycling]

My best memories are my recent ones though. They best days I have spend in the field are with my daughter tagging along with our two german shorthairs as we pheasant hunt. She is not at that point where I would let her shoot but she has so much fun running the dogs she helped train to hunt. Actually, I got two really good upland dogs and have even had the honor of being hired to run them as guide dogs at a local hunting club. It's so fun being in the outdoors! My daughter even has started a blog about our dogs hunting and has me blogging about it, something I never thought I would do!

http://illinoispheasants.blogspot.com/?m=0

[rlditmars]

This year first shotgun season started out with deer moving. Had three walk up on me when it was still dark out so no shot possible. Then saw two more that I let pass cause they were kind if far out and small. That was Friday. Saturday the wind was howling and heard one moving around when it was still dark but never saw it. Didn't see a deer and at 10 am the rain came with the wind. Everything bedded down so we went in for lunch. Went back out at 1. The rain stopped but the wind had them all bedded down. Decided to try walking to kick some up and maybe get a shot off. Kicked five up in 15 minutes but only number five paused to look at me. Well the little guy is now in the freezer. But the best story was two years ago I sat all Friday and didn't see a thing. Got out of the tree to take a leak, and it was 3:30. Sunset was 4:06 so I decided to take a nap against a tree. I heard the squirrels running around off in the distance. About 5 minutes later I think to myself, as my head is bobbing from a sleepy daze, man that squirrel is close. I look over my shoulder to see one of the biggest bucks walking up to me at 10 yards out. I rolled onto my knee, as I had pushed all the leaves away, so I didn't make much noise. That buck raised it's head and looked over me, that's how close it was. I put one slug in the old fellow and he ended up almost running over me as he ran 50 yards before he collapsed. 282 pound field dressed 10 pointer. A nice chocolate rack on him and lots of rips in his ears from the battles he had been a part of. Shoulder mounted it for my dad to put up in his cabin. And that was the best meat I have got from a deer ever.

That's just how hunting goes sometimes, isn't it. The one I took this year was the first deer of 4 that I saw that I could have even taken a shot at and it was literally about 35 minutes before the time we would have stopped hunting for the rest of our trip. The animal you shot two years ago is a huge. The largest I've taken so far was with a bow. It was 10pt that scored about 116 and dressed at 253 pounds. I thought that was huge deer but 282 pounds, just WOW!

My best memories are my recent ones though. They best days I have spend in the field are with my daughter tagging along with our two german shorthairs as we pheasant hunt. She is not at that point where I would let her shoot but she has so much fun running the dogs she helped train to hunt. Actually, I got two really good upland dogs and have even had the honor of being hired to run them as guide dogs at a local hunting club. It's so fun being in the outdoors! My daughter even has started a blog about our dogs hunting and has me blogging about it, something I never thought I would do!

http://illinoispheasants.blogspot.com/?m=0

I used to pheasant hunt with my Dad when I was young lad. My first gun was a bolt action Mossberg .410 gauge. We lived in MI and there were plenty of birds back then up until about the late 70's, early 80's. We too had a GSP named Smokey and he was a terrific bird dog. There is nothing quite like walking through a tall grass field with your dog working out in front of you, and seeing him just lock up on a bird. On those hunts you could only take roosters so every flush didn't mean you were going to even take a shot but we'd get our fair share of chances. Thanks for sharing your story. It really brings back fond memories for me.

[Bcycling]

I never got mine scored or even really wanted to do that. I am more in it for the meat, but man does seeing a big buck walk up add some more excitement to it all. Still looking for the deer I saw four years ago, but my guess is it is no longer around. Massive deer and had a rack on it. Got a shed from it the following spring that was chewed up and I could still count 14 points on the single side. Had split brows and the main beam is chewed off where I know there are more points. It just never presented any shot worth taking. Could have tried for a head shot but I was like that's to nice of a deer to head shot, and figured id give him another day and see if I could get a decent shot on him. Never saw him again.

[Polyangler]

Thank you for sharing!

I can closely relate. My uncle John was my greatest hunting influence until we lost him in my late teens to a motorcycle accident. I have taken many big game animals from coast to coast using what he taught me, and am also the proud owner of his Marlin 30-30. As I grew older and stronger I gravitated toward archery. Now pushing 40 I only bring out guns to bird or varmint hunt.

Here's my blacktail doe I took on Black Fri this year while the majority of people were hunting bargains.



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