Rifle deer stories/pics
- Thread starter Toad
- Start date
Looking at my new weather-bug application, I had noticed that Saturday was going to be ROUGH at the least. I fortunately was going to be able to get in stand for what looked to be a wonderful end of the week. I had a new obstacle as the property owner to my South, who has always allowed us to drive up his “trail” to approach our top stands had leased his ground for rifle season and the short drive had turned into a rigorous walk, straight up hill. The morning started out cold as a lot of you know, I managed to sneak over the beaver damn and through a sliver of timber that helped me ease over the rim-rock and up into the “African-Tree” where a simple ladder stand was stood. On my final approach I kicked up 2 deer, watching as their white-flags bounced over the ridge. No big-deal. I climbed into the stand only to come face-to-face with a dandy of an 8-point that we had determined was only 3-1/2 years old from trail-cam photos. He “kinda” saw me, but never made a loud exit. The morning began fast, never got my outer layers on when 2-bucks eased out of the timber way out there. Light had not gotten to the point where a 400 yd judgment was available, so I just watched as they meandered out of sight. Soon after I noticed a few does getting run by a nice high-racked buck and a fork horn over 500-yds away. Throughout the morning deer came and went from all directions and the final count was 18. Then I noticed a flash out to the West where I had my wishes granted. In November, I had grazed a huge 5-1/2 year old we called “corkscrew”, we looked all over, never found him and were praying for a trail cam to catch him, no luck. Fast forward to this morning, 550 yards out, there he stood watching 2 groups of does make their way to the bedding area. This buck would literally walk 30-yds, stand for 10-15 minutes and then walk another 30-yds. (He will be a tough one next year). He never did get within my comfortable range, but he was ALIVE!!! As I sat back I noticed movement to the North where a young crotch-horn was coming in and he was followed by a mature deer. I got my scope on him and knew he was a shooter. The 2 bucks met and had a nice little fight at 100yds in front of me, something I had never witnessed first-hand. When the smaller 8pt was ran off, I released my safety and the rest is history!!! It is mornings like these that are hard to explain the non-hunter on why we do this!!! The good news is, this one will forever be burned in my memory…. And keep me eagerly anticipating next autumn!!!
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That is a Wallhanger!:thumbsup: Great story.
I hunt out west on the plains where i pheasant hunt.
Deer season was not the greatest, I went out Tuesday night, got my room and got up early on Wed. Went out, didnt see much moving but did see a broken up white tail buck (he looked better in the binos) walking through a pasture. Watched him a while and the instant he heard a gunshot about a mile away he immediately bedded down in a fence row behind some tumble weeds. The old guy was smart, he couldnt have picked a better vantage point as he had a view from pretty much all directions.
We had the wind in our favor and proceeded to conduct an appx 700 yard stock down the fence row. We got within 500 yards or so and rethought our strategy. We took some tumble weeds, pinched them in the shooting sticks and my buddy also had a couple in his free hand as well. We basically used the tumble weeds as a portable blind and only moved about 20-30 yards at a time. Fast forward about an hour and a half or so and we had snuck within 50 yards or so. We whistled to get him to standup and the old codger didnt even stand to look, just took off. Lucky for me, I was ready and fired a shot at the base of his neck and took him down. Wasnt much for mass (judging by the base of his horns he appeared to have been bigger last year) and he had an ok frame. He was old and awful damn smart. I was pretty impressed we were able to get that close to this old wise one. Was even more shocked when he wouldnt stand up and just simply took off when we whistled. Theres big group of aggressive fighters in the area I hunt, lots of big bodied deer but some of them have spindly racks. We take out one or two of them each year. Maybe we can improve the genetics a bit. So by 10am on Wed I had filled my white tail either sex tag. No dice on the muley doe tag or the white tail doe tag. Really saw hardly any of either. I would have held out for another deer but during pheasant season so far and our limited scouting we were not seeing the #'s of deer we had in the past and certainly a lack of any big ones. I just took the first one that came my way and good thing I did as I dont believe I would have gotten another shot. From that point on I just left my gun in the truck and tried to help my brother and buddy get their deer.
My buddy had a Mulie tag so we decided to hunt some walk ins up in GCB's neck of the woods. Love the rock country. I spotted a herd of mulies on Thursday in the middle of a section of CRP. For any out west, the wind was howling, I had several layers on and a mask with sun glasses, was warm but would have freezed to death with any less clothing.
One thing Im getting sick of and will probably start another thread on when I want to vent is all the jackholes who hunt from their trucks and run deer. If you are that damn lazy go to a game farm or just buy beef from the store. 2 jackholes thought it was the Indy 500 and drove around the walk in about 6-7 times while we were in it, continuously stopping and glassing, and doing their best to spook the deer though they could see us in it. Thank God the deer were far enough in and in somewhat of a low spot they couldnt shoot from the road, though Im pretty sure we did see a guy in a newer white Ford appear to get out and lay his gun across the hood...he only got back in his truck when we slightly stood up, iM not sure how he didnt see 3 orange pumpkins in the field. You were close to getting a 300 Mag bullet in your engine block should you have fired. And to the other butt head in the Late 90's early 00's Red Dodge with a firemans license plate on, I really hope you saw me flipping you off and holding up the deer after we got it as you drove your final lap around the WIHA and stopped to glass us again. You 3 guys were sorry excuses for humans and are not classified as hunters.
Anyways, we drive to the far corner of the CRP from where they were and follow the low spots and after an hour we finally relocate the herd. I had seen one buck briefly while glassing them before they all laid down. The 30-40mph wind actually was in our favor and we were able to get within 50-60 yards of the herd before a doe spotted us. She didnt know what we were and Im sure she snorted as the whole herd stood up when she gave the alarm. This actually worked out perfect as my buddy was able to get a shot off on the 5x5 muley. He was ok, we were guessing 140-150" of horn...not quite sure but not a busted point on him. Well he did have a drop tine that we guess was maybe 2-4" at one point at the base of his antler but he broke that off some time ago. A real pretty deer. The drag was the worst part, it was almost a half mile and all up hill. Sure was fun putting a stalk on them in the open.
Was a good 5 days. Wont go out this weekend. My brother and my buddy's GF have yet to fill their tags but they each got a shot at a deer so neither can complain.
Im hoping someday one of us can come across a rancher with his property all fenced in that will be kind enough to let us hunt. Hopefully we could trade some labor and hard work for the opportunity. We really are getting sick of having all of the hunts ruined by people who should not be allowed to purchase a hunting license much less call themselves a hunter.
Deer season was not the greatest, I went out Tuesday night, got my room and got up early on Wed. Went out, didnt see much moving but did see a broken up white tail buck (he looked better in the binos) walking through a pasture. Watched him a while and the instant he heard a gunshot about a mile away he immediately bedded down in a fence row behind some tumble weeds. The old guy was smart, he couldnt have picked a better vantage point as he had a view from pretty much all directions.
We had the wind in our favor and proceeded to conduct an appx 700 yard stock down the fence row. We got within 500 yards or so and rethought our strategy. We took some tumble weeds, pinched them in the shooting sticks and my buddy also had a couple in his free hand as well. We basically used the tumble weeds as a portable blind and only moved about 20-30 yards at a time. Fast forward about an hour and a half or so and we had snuck within 50 yards or so. We whistled to get him to standup and the old codger didnt even stand to look, just took off. Lucky for me, I was ready and fired a shot at the base of his neck and took him down. Wasnt much for mass (judging by the base of his horns he appeared to have been bigger last year) and he had an ok frame. He was old and awful damn smart. I was pretty impressed we were able to get that close to this old wise one. Was even more shocked when he wouldnt stand up and just simply took off when we whistled. Theres big group of aggressive fighters in the area I hunt, lots of big bodied deer but some of them have spindly racks. We take out one or two of them each year. Maybe we can improve the genetics a bit. So by 10am on Wed I had filled my white tail either sex tag. No dice on the muley doe tag or the white tail doe tag. Really saw hardly any of either. I would have held out for another deer but during pheasant season so far and our limited scouting we were not seeing the #'s of deer we had in the past and certainly a lack of any big ones. I just took the first one that came my way and good thing I did as I dont believe I would have gotten another shot. From that point on I just left my gun in the truck and tried to help my brother and buddy get their deer.
My buddy had a Mulie tag so we decided to hunt some walk ins up in GCB's neck of the woods. Love the rock country. I spotted a herd of mulies on Thursday in the middle of a section of CRP. For any out west, the wind was howling, I had several layers on and a mask with sun glasses, was warm but would have freezed to death with any less clothing.
One thing Im getting sick of and will probably start another thread on when I want to vent is all the jackholes who hunt from their trucks and run deer. If you are that damn lazy go to a game farm or just buy beef from the store. 2 jackholes thought it was the Indy 500 and drove around the walk in about 6-7 times while we were in it, continuously stopping and glassing, and doing their best to spook the deer though they could see us in it. Thank God the deer were far enough in and in somewhat of a low spot they couldnt shoot from the road, though Im pretty sure we did see a guy in a newer white Ford appear to get out and lay his gun across the hood...he only got back in his truck when we slightly stood up, iM not sure how he didnt see 3 orange pumpkins in the field. You were close to getting a 300 Mag bullet in your engine block should you have fired. And to the other butt head in the Late 90's early 00's Red Dodge with a firemans license plate on, I really hope you saw me flipping you off and holding up the deer after we got it as you drove your final lap around the WIHA and stopped to glass us again. You 3 guys were sorry excuses for humans and are not classified as hunters.
Anyways, we drive to the far corner of the CRP from where they were and follow the low spots and after an hour we finally relocate the herd. I had seen one buck briefly while glassing them before they all laid down. The 30-40mph wind actually was in our favor and we were able to get within 50-60 yards of the herd before a doe spotted us. She didnt know what we were and Im sure she snorted as the whole herd stood up when she gave the alarm. This actually worked out perfect as my buddy was able to get a shot off on the 5x5 muley. He was ok, we were guessing 140-150" of horn...not quite sure but not a busted point on him. Well he did have a drop tine that we guess was maybe 2-4" at one point at the base of his antler but he broke that off some time ago. A real pretty deer. The drag was the worst part, it was almost a half mile and all up hill. Sure was fun putting a stalk on them in the open.
Was a good 5 days. Wont go out this weekend. My brother and my buddy's GF have yet to fill their tags but they each got a shot at a deer so neither can complain.
Im hoping someday one of us can come across a rancher with his property all fenced in that will be kind enough to let us hunt. Hopefully we could trade some labor and hard work for the opportunity. We really are getting sick of having all of the hunts ruined by people who should not be allowed to purchase a hunting license much less call themselves a hunter.
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Well I hunted 5 days of the rifle season and I saw no shooter bucks all season. I took my son all last weekend and we managed to bag a button buck pushing my buddies draw Sunday at noon. My buddy's son shot the buck pictured on a deer drive on public land. It is his first buck:thumbsup: Going back out with the bow and will just have to hunt harder.
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