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2017/18 Hunting Thread!!

admcd said:
I've hunted just about all day, every day this week in MA. Had one encounter with a deer - was making a ton of noise on the otherside of think cover and a stone fence. Wouldn't come say hello no matter what I tried.

Heading back for an evening sit in about 20 mins. Fingers crossed - Today and tomorrow are the last two days I have to hunt for a bit. Really want a deer for the freezer.
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Good luck!
 
Zone 4s... there appears to be only one other hunter active i the area. I heard his shot at sunset, found his hull this morning.he didnt get it but glad to see the deer are around. He's hunting the opposite side. So with any luck if we miss well drive them towards each other.

I cant wait for next years squirrel season, i was watching about 10 squirrel at 200 to 300 yards all morning with the thermal... amazing
 
MGnoob said:
Zone 4s... there appears to be only one other hunter active i the area. I heard his shot at sunset, found his hull this morning.he didnt get it but glad to see the deer are around. He's hunting the opposite side. So with any luck if we miss well drive them towards each other.

I cant wait for next years squirrel season, i was watching about 10 squirrel at 200 to 300 yards all morning with the thermal... amazing
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Squirrel season ain't over.,..just paused until after shotgun season. Squirrel ends on Jan 2 actually.

I took an amazing number of grey squirrels this season. In the drop freezer waiting for a stew to take ice fishing.
 
Nice! Glad to see OTHERS are seeing (getting) deer! Day 4...still have NOT seen a deer... BUT there's always tomorrow! ;)
 
Nice..I'm still holding out ill get mine . I'm definitely putting in the hours.
But after 2 failed opportunities i doubt i have many more left.

The thermals just make it so much more interesting, with the benefit of detecting an animal before they have much of a chance of detecting you first. As for squirrel, I can't wait. I know ill get squirrel and coyote. This deer stuff isnt easy.
 
Well done MP.
I'm putting in the hours near the nh border. Haven't put fur in the binos or scope yet.
Starting to look forward to coyote.
Oh well. Not giving up yet.
 
zone 5 update:

been out most of the week, met a few nice folks out in the woods.


we saw 2 deer and those were the two does that rolled through camp itself around lunchtime on Thursday.:eek:

Neither my buddy nor myself had doe tags. All we could do was laugh.:D

I started splashing some Code Red around hoping for a horny buck to come along, but no such luck.....I guess this is why the cabin has gun ports.




anyone else notice a lack of ticks?
 
This is the guy I missed during bow season. This is him arriving after I left my stand nearby after shooting light. I had used the grunt tube a couple of times during that stand, and sprayed some of that doe pee in a can. I hadn't seen him since my goof with the arrow (too low), and was contemplating setting up in a new spot. Now, I'm not so sure of that.
buck1.JPG buck1a.JPG
 
My brother did nab one, im happy for him.
Perhaps tommarrow will be my day.
My cousin was going to come out for the first time ever, if he had he would have nabbed his own, that probably would have pissed me off.My brother atleast put in over 40h
 
MP-In-The-Wind said:
Nice...I like the idea of the cart...dragging a deer without snow/ice on the ground gets old!
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I have that same cart, its good. To me the only improvement would be solid tires..
Now they have a couple nice Treestands, that are climbers, a cart, and can be used as a ground seat.

I was thrilled i got this jeep for hunting, between hauling the stands and recovering the deer its been priceless since ive got this bum leg.its a mess now. It looks like i disposed of several dead prostitutes.. total murder scene
 
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MGnoob said:
I have that same cart, its good. To me the only improvement would be solid tires..
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Mine does have solid tires. The areas I typically hunt have a lot of hiking trails so the cart is pretty helpful. I was dragging her and hit a big uphill section and said ah screw this I'm going to get the cart :) I found though that the bar for pulling it was too low and resulted in an awkward pulling position. I bolted on a set of handlebars from my daughters old bike. Made it much better, I don't have to bend over and the handles are great for pulling.
 
deer.jpg

Mommy what happened to Bambi?
 
Lol looks just like my jeep.

Almost had my buck today. 10 min after sunset, i was just about to leave.i saw it in the thermals at about 50 yards...naked eye visibility was about 40 yards
If only i had my thermal mounted and zeroed on my shotgun....i was really kicking myself..if only it was 5 minutes earlier or less foggy.
But its still means i have a good chance in the next few days.

Im getting anxious, with only a few days left.
 
A.M. and P.M. sits in the drizzle. Nothing but squirrels. Touched off the muzzle loader on the way out, which was carrying a charge from last season. Yay 777!
 
Though day hunting yesterday.

Put down a nice doe around mid morning with my group of Army buddies. She went right down.....kicked a little......and ended up on her side. Perfect.....so I thought. We wait to check on downed deer until the drive is over....for safety.....and also so extra moving around doesn't make any moving deer double back on the drivers. 10-15 seconds after she went still on her side she jumped up and bolted back into the woods. I put a quick second shot on her but she kept running. I waited until the drive was over and my son and I tracked the blood trail. Every spot of blood got thinner and thinner until it completely dried up. The initial blood spot where she went down was decent and so were the first 10-12 spots on the trail.......but they thinned out after that. I marked the last blood drop with an orange tape and we carefully walked increasingly larger circles around it......but never found another spot. I REALLY felt the first hit was solid based on her reaction and going straight down and being on her side (not on her belly with head up). I have never lost a deer that I've shot at. I'm still processing what went wrong. Had a bad day yesterday and still not happy with myself.
 
Sadly that happens. When it does all you can do is try your hardest to recover the animal. What are you shooting for ammo and how far was the shot?
 
Admin said:
Sadly that happens. When it does all you can do is try your hardest to recover the animal. What are you shooting for ammo and how far was the shot?
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1 ounce 12 gauge Winchester rifled slugs through a smooth bore with iron sights. Accurate to 50 yards with my range time and the 2 deer I've taken with it before. Shot was 30 yards......I'm still scratching my head over this one.

Like I said based on what I saw after I shot I though she was down hard. 2 years ago I shot a doe that went down but was on her belly and head still up so I put another shot on her and she fell over dead. This one was on her side and completely still so based on that I though it was a lethal shot and done.
 
whacko said:
1 ounce 12 gauge Winchester rifled slugs through a smooth bore with iron sights. Accurate to 50 yards with my range time and the 2 deer I've taken with it before. Shot was 30 yards......I'm still scratching my head over this one.
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Probably a high hit near the spine and the doe was stunned.

It sucks but it happens. You did everything you could.

Bob
 
HorizontalHunter said:
Probably a high hit near the spine and the doe was stunned.

It sucks but it happens. You did everything you could.

Bob
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This.....or a shoulder hit high near the neck/spine/shoulder. If you ever butcher a deer look at the shoulder/spine/neck intersection area. Its a very tough area with thick bone to get thru. Slugs will not penetrate. My uncle used to shoot deer there a lot because he was used to shooting deer there with a 30-06 which will absolutely kill the deer if hit in that spot and knock the crap out of them. But after tracking many that he hit with the shotgun that way with the same result you got yesterday, I'm certain that it's not the way to go.

A shotgun slug is not a rifle round. It hits something solid, it mushrooms and does not penetrate. Even sometimes the shoulder blade will stop it. Usually you will break the shoulder and have a three legged deer. But it may not penetrate into the vitals, or maybe compromise only one lung, which a deer can go forever on a one lung only hit, and do not like to bed.

Mainly I always would try to go back just a bit and get the lungs clean as in bowhuntin g this is the pretty much the preferred kill shot...but even in shotgun..... in most cases it means tracking, as there is little shock involved and it won't knock the deer over, but, guaranteed a deer will not survive a double lung shot ever, and 100 yards or less there will be a dead deer at the end of the trail. If your gun hunting and want to knock the deer down for fear of others getting it, try a shot a the neck/head intersection. Problem is that's a lot smaller target, and more meant for a scope gun.

Don't worry about it....it happens to everyone that has hunted any length of time. Learn from the mistake and move on and do your best not to repeat it. Deer get injured by cars, and predators that miss all the time.
 
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Snow coming to my part of the PRM tomorrow! I'll be in the woods early and can sit until 12:30 or so. Fingers crossed that I get my first solo deer tomorrow!
 
admcd said:
Snow coming to my part of the PRM tomorrow! I'll be in the woods early and can sit until 12:30 or so. Fingers crossed that I get my first solo deer tomorrow!
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Same here. Got the toe warmers ready for an afternoon in the snow.

RIFLEMAN1000 said:
My daughter got a 103 lb spike today around noon. Her 2nd season hunting , she got 1 last year and 1 this year.
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Congrats! Pics are mandatory.
 
No joy. Happily a friend and a fellow NESer bagged a nice little fork point on the same property. Heard two other sets of shots one nearby (Met the hunters later and they missed) and heard one closer to the center of town. Hoping to get back out Thursday night and Saturday.
 
did a morning and afternoon sit today. didn't see a thing but what a beautiful couple of hours sitting in the snow. Still plenty of season left......muzzle loaders have been ready and waiting. Taking a couple of vacation days to push deer with my friends and see what happens. I had to work Thursday but they ended up tagging 2 nice does and a fork horn buck without me so there is meat in the freezers!
 

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