J-birds place
- Thread starter j-bird
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catscratch
Well-Known Member
Pics!
And congrats
And congrats
j-bird
Well-Known Member
OK - here is the story. I have been hunting a dandy 10 pointer and I have had close calls with him but just not been able to seal the deal. Last night this buck pops up and when I see him he is looking straight at me and I swore it was the buck I was after - So I shot...and.....nothing!?! What? Yep - I missed cleanly at a buck standing still at a mear 50 yards with a scoped rifle. Not sure how that happened but it did. He trotted another 10 yards away and I let fly again. This time he mule kicks and bounds away into the CRP. I didn't see him leave in any direction but I didn't hear him crash either. I waited until dark and went to look for blood. I found some but not much and I wasn't able to follow but a few yards. I have made the mistake of going after a deer too soon before so I chose to back out knowing I had the next day off, low tote issues and no forecast of rain and cold overnight temps.
So that brings me to this morning. I wait for daylight and go out and go back to where I marked last blood last night. I left the dogs at the house. I wanted to try to recover the deer on my own without the chaos the dogs may stir up. Something I have noticed with hunting with a 30 caliber (30/30) for the first time in my life is that the blood trail is weaker than I am used to (with my 50 cal smokepole and 12 gauge slug gun). I didn't find much more blood so I started looking for edges of the cover types where I could possibly find some sign. As I was walking thru the switchgrass I saw some red that caught my eye and there he was. Not 50 yards from POI.
I was sort of disappointed in that I pulled the trigger on the wrong buck, but I was happy to have recovered him all the same. I guess him to be a 3 year old. He is 10 clean points and will score 120 ~130 inches. He simply lacks the mass of an older deer. He had a live weight of 180 lbs and a dressed weight of 150 lbs. Turns out my second shot was dead on.....I guess he wasn't far enough away when I took the first shot!
So - sorry it wasn't a storybook ending, but I recovered the deer I had shot and nothing upsets me more than not recovering a deer. Things happen pretty quickly in the deer woods sometimes and I'm sure this isn't the first or last time a hunter has some "ground shrinkage" of a buck. Maybe that big guy I was chasing makes it to next year and he is even bigger next year.....
So that brings me to this morning. I wait for daylight and go out and go back to where I marked last blood last night. I left the dogs at the house. I wanted to try to recover the deer on my own without the chaos the dogs may stir up. Something I have noticed with hunting with a 30 caliber (30/30) for the first time in my life is that the blood trail is weaker than I am used to (with my 50 cal smokepole and 12 gauge slug gun). I didn't find much more blood so I started looking for edges of the cover types where I could possibly find some sign. As I was walking thru the switchgrass I saw some red that caught my eye and there he was. Not 50 yards from POI.
I was sort of disappointed in that I pulled the trigger on the wrong buck, but I was happy to have recovered him all the same. I guess him to be a 3 year old. He is 10 clean points and will score 120 ~130 inches. He simply lacks the mass of an older deer. He had a live weight of 180 lbs and a dressed weight of 150 lbs. Turns out my second shot was dead on.....I guess he wasn't far enough away when I took the first shot!
So - sorry it wasn't a storybook ending, but I recovered the deer I had shot and nothing upsets me more than not recovering a deer. Things happen pretty quickly in the deer woods sometimes and I'm sure this isn't the first or last time a hunter has some "ground shrinkage" of a buck. Maybe that big guy I was chasing makes it to next year and he is even bigger next year.....
j-bird
Well-Known Member
OK - now that the dust has settled I want to add a few observations.
#1 - a 30 caliber round doesn't produce near the hole I am used to from my 50 cal muzzleloader or my 12 gauge slug. IN legalized 30/30 this year and I loved using the gun and all the deer I killed with it thus far (4) have not gone far, but the blood trail has been far weaker than what I am used to. The 30/30 is much lighter on the shoulder and 1 deer dropped in it's tracks due to a spine shot and the others didn't go 50 yards. My slug gun often actually knocked the deer to the ground on impact and typically left a pretty profuse blood trail, but that recoil made it tough to shoot accurately at greater distances.
#2 - deer are bedding in my CRP/switchgrass. Some argue that deer won't bed in CRP or switchgrass. In my search for a buck I found several deer beds in the switchgrass. Now I have areas that are not as used as much, but for some reason another area is being used which is encouraging for me since I lack cover and this will allow me to hold some deer.....finally. I was hunting in the area and deer would simply appear because of the height of the cover. Most of these are doe beds, but giving the does a place to bed frees up some places in my limited timber to try to house a buck or two.
#3 - I saw and passed several young bucks which I think is a real positive as I should have some nice bucks to hunt next year. I didn't get the brute I was hunting this year and killed a pretty 3 year old that I really should have passed on but hunting isn't catch-n-release. I also only killed one real doe (2 button bucks) so my overall deer population should remain healthy as well.
#4 - I'm either a terrible deer caller, have horrible calls OR my deer are deaf. Other than getting deer to look my way they seem to have NO affect on deer in my area.
#5 - deer hunting is to be FUN. I have had a blast hunting with my youngest daughter and though we have not gotten her a deer yet she has had chances. We talk about all sorts of things.....some things a dad should not know about 12 year old girls! I also found out that there is some sort of art-form to deer hunting snacks! I now know why we wait all year long for that magical month of november.
#1 - a 30 caliber round doesn't produce near the hole I am used to from my 50 cal muzzleloader or my 12 gauge slug. IN legalized 30/30 this year and I loved using the gun and all the deer I killed with it thus far (4) have not gone far, but the blood trail has been far weaker than what I am used to. The 30/30 is much lighter on the shoulder and 1 deer dropped in it's tracks due to a spine shot and the others didn't go 50 yards. My slug gun often actually knocked the deer to the ground on impact and typically left a pretty profuse blood trail, but that recoil made it tough to shoot accurately at greater distances.
#2 - deer are bedding in my CRP/switchgrass. Some argue that deer won't bed in CRP or switchgrass. In my search for a buck I found several deer beds in the switchgrass. Now I have areas that are not as used as much, but for some reason another area is being used which is encouraging for me since I lack cover and this will allow me to hold some deer.....finally. I was hunting in the area and deer would simply appear because of the height of the cover. Most of these are doe beds, but giving the does a place to bed frees up some places in my limited timber to try to house a buck or two.
#3 - I saw and passed several young bucks which I think is a real positive as I should have some nice bucks to hunt next year. I didn't get the brute I was hunting this year and killed a pretty 3 year old that I really should have passed on but hunting isn't catch-n-release. I also only killed one real doe (2 button bucks) so my overall deer population should remain healthy as well.
#4 - I'm either a terrible deer caller, have horrible calls OR my deer are deaf. Other than getting deer to look my way they seem to have NO affect on deer in my area.
#5 - deer hunting is to be FUN. I have had a blast hunting with my youngest daughter and though we have not gotten her a deer yet she has had chances. We talk about all sorts of things.....some things a dad should not know about 12 year old girls! I also found out that there is some sort of art-form to deer hunting snacks! I now know why we wait all year long for that magical month of november.
Congrats on the buck!
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Congratulations J-bird!
Fish
Well-Known Member
Way to go Jbird. I call that storybook all the way. Beautiful buck to cap things off for you. Im very happy you found him. Last night i wasnt sure what to think, but you hammered him on shot #2.
Ive read a lot on deer bedding habits from guys up north, but that doesnt jive with what i find here. Small property parcels and hunter counts persuade deer to bed in thick cover, in my opinion. A buck bedded on a military crest in my neck of the woods would soon find a thicket where he didnt have to look at orange creatures flailing about in November/December. I find them in honeysuckle thickets and cedar/broomsedge thickets.
Great deer and season for you!
Ive read a lot on deer bedding habits from guys up north, but that doesnt jive with what i find here. Small property parcels and hunter counts persuade deer to bed in thick cover, in my opinion. A buck bedded on a military crest in my neck of the woods would soon find a thicket where he didnt have to look at orange creatures flailing about in November/December. I find them in honeysuckle thickets and cedar/broomsedge thickets.
Great deer and season for you!
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Beautiful buck j-bird. Sounds like you have a ton of positives happening on your place! Congrats on a great season!
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Congratulations J-Bird on a great season. I'm sure you have shared with your daughter that she will become a great deer shooter someday and that it just doesn't happen overnight. It is super great that she has so much excitement for deer hunting; people with that kind of enthusiasm and excitement usually become very successful at whatever they care to do. Once they learn to direct the excitement their way it becomes a huge asset to them. And as we know the excitement does not go away. Still today after a lifetime of hunting I still have to tell myself over and over---" Self-pick a TINY spot TO AIM AT,pick a spot,PICK A SPOT and then let the scope or sights settle on the spot, let it settle and squeeze,and follow thru."
Some people are "lucky" and don't need to talk themselves thru it after a while but others of us must and that is how it is. And if the deer moves away before all of this is done; you get to hunt yet another day--a win-win! So again, congratulations not just on your deer but on molding your property to meet the needs of the deer in your area.
Some people are "lucky" and don't need to talk themselves thru it after a while but others of us must and that is how it is. And if the deer moves away before all of this is done; you get to hunt yet another day--a win-win! So again, congratulations not just on your deer but on molding your property to meet the needs of the deer in your area.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
Thanks guys for all the kind words.
This just wasn't the buck I had hoped to close out my season with, but I have to trust that the man upstairs has a plan. Maybe one of the kids gets him or he lives to be even bigger next year.
Took the daughter out again tonight and it was quite the hunt for all the wrong reasons. At first the wife let the dogs out and they came and found us after only 15 minutes into the hunt. Then a stray dog ended up so I took a shot to scare it off and it fled and my dogs headed back to the house as well. Then my daughter became distracted with the magnets in my gloves/mittens and we had a discussion as why things are magnetic and way some are not and of course we had to test every metallic object at out disposal. Then she stares me in the eye and says, "Dad.....I gotta go.....ya know......to the bathroom" I thought she was joking.....She wasn't. We ad just entered that "magic hour" and poof - done! As I opened the shooting house door - there was another critter I had been after! We HAD a ground hog issue in our field. That pudgy SOB was caught out in the open. I took the gun and smoked him! The daughter just had to go look. She asked "where did you hit him I don;t see a hole?" Having experience with the 30/30 on small critters I knew what to expect. I rolled the whistle pig over and it was obvious then! We tossed it into the hole and headed home. Once we got to the road a deer runs across not 50 yards away and of course I give her some grief about the whole thing. Like I said - a hunt to remember but not for the normal reasons.....kids! They are off for break now so we should get a few more hunts in as long as it isn't too cold for her and my boy should be home from college as well so maybe a few more adventures lie ahead yet this firearms season (which closes sunday).
This just wasn't the buck I had hoped to close out my season with, but I have to trust that the man upstairs has a plan. Maybe one of the kids gets him or he lives to be even bigger next year.
Took the daughter out again tonight and it was quite the hunt for all the wrong reasons. At first the wife let the dogs out and they came and found us after only 15 minutes into the hunt. Then a stray dog ended up so I took a shot to scare it off and it fled and my dogs headed back to the house as well. Then my daughter became distracted with the magnets in my gloves/mittens and we had a discussion as why things are magnetic and way some are not and of course we had to test every metallic object at out disposal. Then she stares me in the eye and says, "Dad.....I gotta go.....ya know......to the bathroom" I thought she was joking.....She wasn't. We ad just entered that "magic hour" and poof - done! As I opened the shooting house door - there was another critter I had been after! We HAD a ground hog issue in our field. That pudgy SOB was caught out in the open. I took the gun and smoked him! The daughter just had to go look. She asked "where did you hit him I don;t see a hole?" Having experience with the 30/30 on small critters I knew what to expect. I rolled the whistle pig over and it was obvious then! We tossed it into the hole and headed home. Once we got to the road a deer runs across not 50 yards away and of course I give her some grief about the whole thing. Like I said - a hunt to remember but not for the normal reasons.....kids! They are off for break now so we should get a few more hunts in as long as it isn't too cold for her and my boy should be home from college as well so maybe a few more adventures lie ahead yet this firearms season (which closes sunday).
Familytradition
Active Member
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
That's a fine deer Jbird. I fear ground shrinkage myself. I haven't seen an antler on stand in quite a while, and I'm afraid after seeing primarily fawns and does, that my perception of "adult" is going to be quite skewed.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Great hunt with your daughter! I've had many of those hunts myself with my own boys and honestly, they are some of them best memories.
Glad you got your whistle pig. I think our equivalent is the armadillo, always happy when I can put one of those down.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Glad you got your whistle pig. I think our equivalent is the armadillo, always happy when I can put one of those down.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
j-bird
Well-Known Member
This showed up in the mail over the weekend.
My last issue of QW.......Damn right it is! Yes, I'm still bitter!!!!
Don't get me wrong - I fully support and believe in the QDM principles and process. The ASSOCIATION however proved that they are only in it for the money by shutting up us former forum members by closing it down and discarding all that GREAT & FREE information....... that ASSOCIATION can go pound sand!
My last issue of QW.......Damn right it is! Yes, I'm still bitter!!!!
Don't get me wrong - I fully support and believe in the QDM principles and process. The ASSOCIATION however proved that they are only in it for the money by shutting up us former forum members by closing it down and discarding all that GREAT & FREE information....... that ASSOCIATION can go pound sand!
