Live from the stand 2016!

[ChrisPBrown]

I hunted with a 6mm for years and the kids I take still hunt with it. I had all kinds of trouble shooting cor-lokts and power points from the gun. The performance on game was less than stellar and on a few occasions it led to lost deer....no blood trails to follow at all and if they didn't drop where they fell there was a good chance I would never find them. About 3 years ago I picked up some 80 grain factory second Hornady GMX's and it completely changed things. It really made the caliber shine. No more fear of hitting a bone...those things would just punch straight through it. Since the switch I have not lost a deer and they drop like Thors hammer slapped em in the head!
The problem really wasn't the caliber in reality, but my own fears. I have always been a firm believer in aiming straight at the shoulder....sure you lose some meat but I have never had a deer hit dead in the shoulder run off. With the smaller caliber I was too nervous to try it. It might have been unfounded, but to me that smaller pill couldn't take a direct hit on bone. No worries with the solid gilding metal bullets...those things are tough and as long as you keep the speed up above 2000 feet per second it will expand enough to make a pretty good hole.

 

[ChrisPBrown]

Today was the last day I will get a chance to take out either of my nephews before the season ends tomorrow. The oldest caught some sort of bug the middle of last week so he missed any hunting this last weekend. My youngest nephew came down on Wednesday night and we hit it Thursday morning. We had a decent little 6 pointer walk past us that he never saw, but that was it. This morning I decided to take him to an old road bed that borders the property I have permission to hunt. A few years back the owner of that road bed told me he wouldn't care if I hunted it since none of his family ever messed with it. The deer typically use the road to pass between my neighbors and the field I hunt. We got in there plenty early since I wasn't sure where we would set up and discovered that a tree blown down cutting the top portion of the road off so we moved down to the bottoms. We weren't set up 10 minutes and deer ran right in front of us and stopped. Then about 20 minutes later in the distance I see a headlamp coming at us., knowing full well that no one else had permission to be back in there because the land owner is well known in the county for not being the friendliest guy. I got up and met the guy as he stepped into the little clearing...come to find out his buddy had permission to hunt property about 2 miles away and he had told the guy it was ok to hunt here. I informed him that he was not on the property he thought he was and he turned around and walked back to where he came from. We were set up feet from the tree that he had his treestand in. And this is how I found out why I hadn't been seeing any deer in the field I have never had a problem shooting a deer out of. They had cut me off by setting that stand up and they weren't the most quiet or careful hunters....the kind that came crashing through the woods 10 minutes before shooting light. Really irritates me, but in the end there isn't much I can do.

 

[G3 Ranch]

I'm not sure if we're in a late rut here or the second rut. This guy has been trailing doe all week. I passed him on our opener last Saturday because I wanted to get him with a bow. He was still chasing doe around so I took him. I'm seeing lots of new rub and scrape activity right now.View attachment 4794

Very nice buck.

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[Sampson]

Lil man scored Friday night with a 150 yard shot for his first good buck.


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[Sampson]

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[G3 Ranch]

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What a stud, impressive shot as well,,,Congrats on the score,

 

[Chainsaw]

Wow! Buckly that is a great NY deer. Congratulations on both growing and harvesting this deer. I am happy for your success;I know that it is well earned. This just shows that all properties are not on the same page when it comes to rutting deer. All it takes is one doe to be in heat and the whole story can be different.

 

[Buckly]

Thanks for the comments everyone.
Chainsaw, the rut always seems to be a bit later here than everywhere else. I do see good chasing the first week of Nov. but, it's always good around Thanksgiving down here. That buck only weighed 155. Skin was just hanging off it all over. I'm sure it's lost at least 25-30 pounds since Halloween.

 

[dogdoc]

Day 8 of OKLAHOMA rifle season. We have seen deer just not what we are wanting yet. So proud of my daughter. She has hunted so hard and still excited every time we enter a stand. Two years ago she shot a 2.5 year old 6 pt and now she has moved on to only wanting to take a mature buck. This morning finds us in my new tower stand over looking my BBJ Plot. A mix of wheat, oats, rye, DER, and radishes. Brassicas look horrible from lack of rain but the cereal grains look great.

Back to school tomorrow for the girl so we are hoping for success.

God Bless America
Todd

 

[OkieKubota]

Good luck to everyone still hunting. I am up on the mountain with a stout breeze. I started in a bottom but the wind down there swirled so bad it would be every direction in a 2 minute span. More predictable up a little higher. 40 degrees ESE 10-15 right now but supposed be gusting to 40 later today. Last hunt for a couple days...

 

[lakngolf]

Good luck Todd. That time with your daughter better than gold. Hoping for exciting hunt!

Okie we expect pictures this morning

 

[pinetag]

My stand is from the front door this morning. Watched this little guy chase a doe around the neighbor's house across the street. Ha!

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[wbpdeer]

City deer got to rock and roll too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Sampson]

G3
Thanks, he is pretty proud of himself and he can't stop talking about it and frequently looking at the deer, just to make sure it's not a dream. Of course dad's pretty proud too!


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[ChrisPBrown]

Well the nephews both ended to season with a goose egg. The youngest hunted Saturday morning and froze out by 7 and the oldest had a stomach bug that kept him out this last weekend. Sunday morning I got out for one last hunt. Around 7:20 am I see this guy trotting through the field coming the exact same way he had two days previously when I had my nephew out in the same spot. My nephew never even saw him. He wasn't so lucky this time. He trotted up a hill at 50 yards in front of me and posed for me. I hit him a little further back than I would have liked, but took out one lung, his liver and just barely nicked his stomach. He rolled about 50 yards down the hill and came to a rest. The old boy had had a pretty rough rut. A broken antler, broken tines on the other side, a torn ear, and multiple gore marks on his body attest to that. When I was skinning him I found multiple old scars on his body from previous years....this boy was a fighter! It felt good to finally put some meat in the freezer but I truly hated that neither of the boys killed anything.

 

[G3 Ranch]

Snuck out for an afternoon hunt. I seen what I think is a shooter here last sat pm, just a bit too dark to tell. Breezy wnw wind.

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[G3 Ranch]

Snuck out for an afternoon hunt. I seen what I think is a shooter here last sat pm, just a bit too dark to tell. Breezy wnw wind.

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[cutman]

Very windy in SC. Winds from the SW and steady. Hopefully this massive line of storms will make it to the coast tonight.

Going to shoot as many does as I can tonight. Time to start filling tags.

 

[dogdoc]

My little blonde hunting buddy skipped school today to go out with her old man for a perfect day hunt. Cold front came through last night dropping temps to the low 30's with a nice steady NNW breeze. Perfect wind for the BBJ plot. We wanted to get to the stand early to let things settle down. Legal shooting time is at 6:50 and we were in the tower stand with the little buddy heater going at 5:45. I think she fell asleep for most of the first hour while I played on my phone. Well first light came and the excitement of anticipation started dwindling by 9am as we had not seen a single deer. Our plans were to do an all day hunt because this was going to be our last rifle hunt of the year. This weekend she has all state tryouts with her viola. Noon came quickly and we started getting hungry so she opted to stay in the stand and I went to the local grill and grabbed us some grub. While I was getting food she was working on her makeup work for skipping school today. We had a greasy lunch and before too long she had finished her homework and asked if she could take another power nap. So being the great wonderful dad I am I said sure. She slept about 30 minutes then I started reading a book and she was on look out. By 3pm I could see the worry in her eyes as we still had not seen a deer. So at 3:30 I have my head in a book she quietly says "Daddy, here comes a deer". Sure enough through the thick cover pops out a doe. I look up and behind her staying the thick cover is a buck--a very wise old buck. He would not come out of the cover but through the binoculars we had already determined him to be a shooter. I told her to stay calm as this buck was locked down with the doe and wasn't going anywhere. After a a couple of minutes though I was nervous the doe was going to leave through the cover and take the buck with her. Hoping I wasn't messing up I grabbed the grunt tube and gave a semi-aggressive grunt. This old buck was having nothing to do with some other buck stealing his girl and out from the thick cover he came. He offered a perfect 100 yard broadside shot and Mollyann made the perfect shot. Double lung right behind the shoulder with the Tikka 25-06. The buck takes off with tail up wagging and we see him fall within 20 yards of the shot. Mollyann was screaming and jumping up and down in the tower stands. High fives, hugs, and tears. We hunted hard all last week. I haven't counted the hours but since opening day (saturday before T-day) we probably spend a good 40 hours in the deer stand. Sleeping in the travel trailer and eating canned stew and crackers for dinner. She passed several very young bucks holding out for a mature buck. This old bucks teeth were almost worn to the gum line. Only 2 lower incisors were left in his mouth. As you can tell he was an aggressive buck with several busted off tines. Can't tell from the pics but there are a total of 12 points (counting the busted tines). I bet on the way home she told me thank you at least 100 times. Well here are a few pics.

 

[Native Hunter]

Wow Todd - what a buck and that is the happiest smile I've seen on any hunter for a long time. Just awesome that the two of you could do it together. Lifetime memory and the stuff that dreams are made of. Congratulations to you both........