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2014 Hunting Megathread
- Thread starter dropride
- Start date
Well I got my first deer ever yesterday. It was a great experience. Yes......it is a button buck......dressed out to 50 pounds. I know I know......que the guys telling me its only opening day why shoot a little one yada yada yada.......I am a busy man and am only gettng two days to hunt the whole season so I took the shot....if I had 5 or 6 days of hunting ahead of me I may have passed. Story........had a heard of at least 7 run by me at about 30 yards out going from my right to my left. I picked out the deer in the lead (cleanest shot without taking a chance on a through and through getting another deer). Grunting did not get them to stop so I put a little lead on and squeezed. This guy stumbled a little got up and kept running. Found GOOD blood where I hit him and followed it 40 yards and found this:
Had to use my antlerless deer tag as the spikes were a bit short. 20G foster slug went in a little lower than I had wanted puncturing the stomach but not too much spilled. Looked like a fragment came up and hit the heart though as there was a tear in the heart and the chest cavity was FULL of blood......and the 40 yard trail was non stop red. Overall......time at the range pickign out the right gun......right ammo.......putting a solid shot into a sprinting deer at 30 yards........not too shabby for my first deer. Wish he was a little bigger but It'll make a few meals and the experience was worth it!
Had to use my antlerless deer tag as the spikes were a bit short. 20G foster slug went in a little lower than I had wanted puncturing the stomach but not too much spilled. Looked like a fragment came up and hit the heart though as there was a tear in the heart and the chest cavity was FULL of blood......and the 40 yard trail was non stop red. Overall......time at the range pickign out the right gun......right ammo.......putting a solid shot into a sprinting deer at 30 yards........not too shabby for my first deer. Wish he was a little bigger but It'll make a few meals and the experience was worth it!
Just came back from Wisconsin from a successful hunt at my parents farm. Got my first ever Buck after 24 years.
For those who are curious, I am hunting with a Remington 700 VSSF .308 and used Remington 150gr Core-lokt. My Scope is a Loupold 3x9x44mm.
For those who are curious, I am hunting with a Remington 700 VSSF .308 and used Remington 150gr Core-lokt. My Scope is a Loupold 3x9x44mm.
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Congrats Wacko and Brent.
I am entertaining taking a trip to Wisconsin next year since their deer population is so much higher than Mass and there are some guys on the hunting forum I post that would help me around. It is just one long ass drive and I would have to take my chair with a Uhaul which does not thrill me to much.
And Wacko I would not worry about what anyone says. People hunt in different ways and different reasons, as long as it is by a legal method that is all that counts in my book.
I am entertaining taking a trip to Wisconsin next year since their deer population is so much higher than Mass and there are some guys on the hunting forum I post that would help me around. It is just one long ass drive and I would have to take my chair with a Uhaul which does not thrill me to much.
And Wacko I would not worry about what anyone says. People hunt in different ways and different reasons, as long as it is by a legal method that is all that counts in my book.
Just a reminder in Wisconsin, They just instituted Buck only zones in most of state as the last winter was pretty harsh. Might change next year depending on how this years winter goes. Just keep tabs on the DNR page. I was hunting in Barron County which wasn't under that regulation and was able to get bonus tags as well for antlerless.
But yea, Wisconsin is awesome for hunting.
But yea, Wisconsin is awesome for hunting.
- Joined
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Contrats, Brent. That's a dandy. I too hunted the 9-day Wisconsin deer hunt. Got out for 6 days and didn't see any antlers. Spent the opening three days in a Northwoods buck-only zone and was covered up in does. Was in a farmland zone from day 4 on and didn't see a single deer. My in-laws cut their corn early so all the big bucks we had on camera moved to neighboring farms where corn and soybeans haven't been harvested yet.
Now back to Mass where I'll focus on hammering some ducks and geese for the next several weeks.
Now back to Mass where I'll focus on hammering some ducks and geese for the next several weeks.
No luck for me today either. I decided to get out of the stand since my trail cam hasn't been showing any deer for the last few weeks. Probably walked for 5 hours straight and only saw some good sign toward the end but it didn't amount to anything.
When you guys get out of the stand and on the ground do you stick to main paths or what? There was a lot of hard snow off the trails today so I think I would have made too much noise walking through it. I've put so much time into hunting this year and I'm starting to get discouraged that I haven't seen a thing yet. I'm convinced I'm either doing something totally wrong or I'm cursed with really bad luck. My bet is it's both.
When you guys get out of the stand and on the ground do you stick to main paths or what? There was a lot of hard snow off the trails today so I think I would have made too much noise walking through it. I've put so much time into hunting this year and I'm starting to get discouraged that I haven't seen a thing yet. I'm convinced I'm either doing something totally wrong or I'm cursed with really bad luck. My bet is it's both.
Nice buck. Someone should bag you. You're like the Loch-NES Moderator.
![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
I've been on the board for 5 yrs and I think this is the first time I have seen a post of yours. lolIt depends on where you're hunting. If you're hunting a state forest that gets a lot of pressure then most of the deer are pushed to the fringes into peoples yards and a lot of sign you see is made at night.
Is your goal to put food in the freezer? If so......find some friends and try driving deer....it is exciting.......it is LEGAL in mass and it is ethical IMO as it is a legal practice. It is the most productive way to be successful in harvesting deer during shotgun season. If your goal is the thrill of scouting, solitude, silence, stalking deerl...... then be patient.......it'll happen eventually just stick with it.
Yeah I'm in a state forest. There weren't too many ppl there today though. As for my goals, I'd say I belong to both of the mindsets you listed. Just eager to get my first dear and all the fun that goes along with taking one.
My family has 26 acres and I passed up 3 antlerless yesterday. Today I hit a good size buck in the shoulder. Sad to say but unfortunately after tracking/searching for it for 4.5 hours (it ran into heavy brush/wetland area family owns a cranberry bog)I couldn't find it. Once I got out of the 100 yards or so of heavy brush I hit the wetland/swampy shit and the blood trail disappeared. It was basically game over from there. Although I still searched for a few more hours. It pisses me off that my dinner got away and pisses me off even more that I may have just badly wounded the animal and not killed it.
kengog
NES Member
...long evening for me today. I was out in a stand this afternoon looking to get a doe when at least a half dozen decided to show themselves not much after 5pm. I watched them for a few minutes seeing which one I was going to harvest and made my decision and when I just about got the rifle in position I got busted and they all broke camp on me. Needless to say I was frustrated and got the mindset that I wasn't going to see anything for the rest of the legal shooting time (a little more than an hour left) so I was a little bummed out. I always keep my clip on night vision device (Armasight CO-MR) in my backpack as legal shooting is 1 hour before & 1 hour after sunrise/sunset so I can get every minute of legal shooting time in with it.
Anyway I mounted it on my rifle which just so happened to be the 300 Blackout that I built and have been hunting with this season pretty much exclusively and decided to just scan around once it got just about dark. I was up 15' in a ladder stand over a picked cotton field and the stalks are still chest high so game can still hide pretty good in it and be very difficult to be seen. With just under 10 minutes of legal shooting time I heard some of the cotton stalks slowly snapping and I thought I heard some heavy breathing and thought "WTF is making that weird noise??" I turned on the NV and looked back and to my left and saw what looked like an big oblong mud puddle in the cotton. I was looking at it for about 30 seconds and then I saw it slightly move and then take a small step forward. That's all it took as I knew right there it was a hog so I flipped the safety and discharged a round. All of a sudden that sucker took off in a straight line like nothing happened. I got it again in my scope on a dead run and sent another round downrange...nothing, and by this time it's perfectly broadside to me going full bore through the cotton and I let another round go holding right on the jowl...nothing.
I knew that I was aiming right where I was supposed to be but it was like I was shooting blanks. It was pitch black out by this time but I was able to see just fine so I didn't know what the problem was. By now it was getting close to 50 yards going away from me at about a 30 degree angle and I made another good hold and sent another 125 grain SST at this animal. After that it showed signs of slowing down and I couldn't hear any more cotton stalks breaking from this hog busting through the field. Finally it's down and time for me to get out of the stand and find out what just happened.
I made my way out to where I thought it was right in front of me where I made that perfect broadside shot and proceeded to look for blood. It only took about a minute or so and I found one single drop of blood. Right there I thought crap I hope it didn't make it out of the field undetected (well my ears were ringing pretty badly so it was possible) and I would be tracking this thing all night. I made it about 15 feet and there I saw a bit more blood and then 5 more feet is where I saw copious blood about waist high all the way down to the ground. Now I know that hogs don't jump so this had to be one big hog...little did I know at that time. I found pieces of lung mixed in with big pieces of clotted blood so right there I knew this was a successful shooting and I should be seeing my hog soon. Well I got my wish on that...
I about fell over this hog when I walked up on it as it was about the same color as the ground and brown cotton stalks so it was pretty hard to see. I couldn't believe how huge this pig was...then the thought came over me of how the heck I was going to move this giant piece of dead weight. By this time my ride came up with extra help but we found out real quick that 4 grown men could barely move this thing much less put it on a rear rack. Luckily one of the guys has a front loader and that is how we got this ginormous hog back to camp.
The game lift winch is rated for 880 pounds and it barely lifted this hog up off the ground. The game scale goes up to 500# and this sow bottomed it out real quick so she was well over 500 pounds live weight. She had 3 holes in her and she was hit right where I was aiming. The first round was right behind the ear and went into the top of the chest cavity as she was facing directly towards me and was a top down type of shot. The broadside was right on and double lunged her. Blood was coming out like someone opened up a fire hose and she would've died from that shot but I would've more than likely had to track her through the woods. The anchoring shot was right into the liver and completely took out the far lung and that was when she put the brakes on and went down.
This was by far the biggest hog that not only I have ever shot but also the biggest hog I have ever seen that wasn't on a farm or on the back of a truck on the way to the Smithfield packing plant. This is a true trophy hog and one that I will more than likely won't best in my lifetime. She is very healthy and will make excellent table fare. Big sows are good to eat, big boars not so much unless they have been gelded...and chances are you won't find a gelded wild hog. It looks like I'll be getting a shoulder mount to remember this amazing animal.
Nice pig! Awesome!
The amount of deer on the property is unreal. The only person that hunts it is me so I'm not sure if the tracking dogs will be able to pick up on it with all the scents down there. It's worth a shot though, thanks!
I'm going to spend 6:30-11 in my blind then spend a bit searching for the buck I hit today. Hopefully it's not floating in one of the reservoirs tomorrow..
Nice buck. Someone should bag you. You're like the Loch-NES Moderator.
LOL. I am a myth
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
It is technically not legal to do but most any dog would be of help as they love to find dead things like that.
Bob
As,listed under the prohibitions:
http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/laws-regulations/plain-lang-sum/hunting-and-tagging-of-deer.html
Just a question from the group. Let's say a group of guys is driving deer. Person A is a driver he jumps a deer gets off 3 shots, person b in the group sees the deer moving slowly and recognizes a gut shot wound, the deer comes right at person B, busts person B and regains steam and person B who proceeds to shoot once hits the deer the deer goes 20 feet and drops, whose deer is it? I've heard differing opinions just curious what you guys think. The deer has 3 wounds, a guy shot seen by person B, a grazing shot very high on the back and one right through the vitals.
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The person who has the kill shot owns it.Just a question from the group. Let's say a group of guys is driving deer. Person A is a driver he jumps a deer gets off 3 shots, person b in the group sees the deer moving slowly and recognizes a gut shot wound, the deer comes right at person B, busts person B and regains steam and person B who proceeds to shoot once hits the deer the deer goes 20 feet and drops, whose deer is it? I've heard differing opinions just curious what you guys think. The deer has 3 wounds, a guy shot seen by person B, a grazing shot very high on the back and one right through the vitals.
This is the larger opinion out there, the one shot you can see in this pic in my opinion is a kill shot and I would say the deer couldn't go the 2-300 yards it did with it. Especially how it was walking slow then grabbed an energy burst got hit again, then dropped 20-30 feet after
If it's a group driving them, then you probably hunt with those guys often enough to put on your big boy pants and decide for yourselves. I would rather let a friend take a deer than get upset that a deer with 3 holes, and probably a bunch of ruined meat, come between our friendship.
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