Any Luck With This Seasons Deer Hunting?

[Ben Framed]

Any of you deer hunters having any success in you hunting endeavors this season?

[gww]

Made a bad shot on horns and after lots of tracking he got away.  Got some does/button buck in the fridge and so do have meat which is what is important to me.
Cheers

[Ben Framed]

Congratulation on your meat in the Refrigerator! You might like this gww:

Hops, I know a fellow who had a house dog, a pet, not raised to be hunting dog, who would track wounded deer! This fellow found this talent by accident after shooting a deer (for food) and the animal ran into a huge thick area which would, under normal circumstances, make the mortally wounded animal  almost impossible to find. How the talent of this dog was discovered. After the shot, the fellow waited the extra time and proceed to look for the deer. Tracking blood, he soon realized he would never find the deer by himself. He went back to his home which was not a far distance away and ask the aid of his kids. The kids wanted to bring their dachshund (winnie dog)  along and to pacify  them he agreed. To his amazement, the dog, when was at the known place of the animal at the time of the shot, let out a bark and off he went! And straight to the deer he went. The fame of this dog grew and several hunters through the years ask for the aid of this dog. From what I was told the famous dachshund never failed to find a mortally wounded or dead lost deer!

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[Terri Yaki]

Made a bad shot on horns and after lots of tracking he got away.  Got some does/button buck in the fridge and so do have meat which is what is important to me.
Cheers

Do you often take less than optimal shots and have the deer wander off and go to waste?

[gww]

Depends on what your term often means, been hunting all my life and it happens to the best whether they admit it or not.  People who have not hunted much may not have experienced it.
Hunting is not like a parade/protest where your arms are just for show.

[Terri Yaki]

Depends on what your term often means, been hunting all my life and it happens to the best whether they admit it or not.  People who have not hunted much may not have experienced it.
Hunting is not like a parade/protest where your arms are just for show.

Yeah, I hear some guys say that to 'splain it off but the guys I hang with say that they don't take less than optimum shots. What they should do, rather than allow x number of deer taken is allow x number of shots to be fired. Wound one and too bad for the 'hunter'. Then they'd take less pot-shots.

[Ben Framed]

Even with a well placed shot, a deer can travel many yards sometimes, even when hit with the most accurate shot. In a thick place with thick underbrush, the deer can move in any direction. Making it very hard to recover one every now and then even for the best of hunters. 'No' deer hunter that I know wishes to waste a deer. A little 'Gibbie' 'type' Dog can go a long way in helping, if one is obtainable in such a situation.

[gww]

It is easy to know it all from your friends.  Course when you actually do it, you know for yourself.
Cheers

Ps, My granddaughter who is 11 got her first one this year on the last day.

[gww]

I had a friend kill a 10 point a few years ago and when we skinned it, it had a broad head with the tip that would cut you just under the skin from the year before.  From the broad head position, it should have been a perfect shot and there should have been no 10 point to shoot.  Talk is cheep, action is meat.

Phil
I have taken my dog, she is more interested in moles and mice and was zero help.

[Ben Framed]

Ps, My granddaughter who is 11 got her first one this year on the last day.

Congratulations for your Granddaughter gww..

Phillip

[gww]

She sit for five days and had did her part and was excited and in my mind had earned it and won $2 on a bet with her young cousin for being first.

[Ben Framed]

She was patient and determined! That is what it takes sometimes when deer hunting!  And Att-Ohh, sibling rivalries, (or should I say 'cousin' rivalries) lol   

[The15thMember]

Ps, My granddaughter who is 11 got her first one this year on the last day.

Congratulations for your Granddaughter gww..

Phillip

I agree, congratulations to her! 

Yeah, I hear some guys say that to 'splain it off but the guys I hang with say that they don't take less than optimum shots. What they should do, rather than allow x number of deer taken is allow x number of shots to be fired. Wound one and too bad for the 'hunter'. Then they'd take less pot-shots.

Not only would this be impossible to police, this plan sounds like it would increase the amount of wounded deer walking around suffering.  What if it takes multiple shots to drop a deer?  Isn't it more humane to have to fire multiple times but be sure you make the kill?  It's unrealistic to assume that you can drop a moving animal with a single perfect shot every time. 

I've never hunted, but when we butcher our goats, we take great pains to be sure the shot is optimal because we can.  We train the goats to come and eat at the dispatch spot so they aren't worried by the change in routine on butchering day, and they are tame enough that my father can shoot them point blank, and so far, we've never had anything other than a perfect, instantaneous, humane kill.  But I can't imagine it's easy to duplicate that scenario when you are shooting a moving, wild target from comparatively far away.  That perfect shot exists, and every hunter I've ever talked to strives to hit it, but it's unreasonable to think it's going to work out that way every time.               

[Kathyp]

Nothing in the woods goes to waste.  Something will eat it, and what's left will go into the ground for fertilizer.  Things die in the woods all the time.  Unfortunate to miss the meat, but in the long run, not a disaster for the woods.

I used to be a pretty good shot, but even shooting a target I didn't bullseye all the time   

[Ben Framed]

But I can't imagine it's easy to duplicate that scenario when you are shooting a moving, wild target from comparatively far away.  That perfect shot exists, and every hunter I've ever talked to strives to hit it, but it's unreasonable to think it's going to work out that way every time.       

       

Good point Reagan. Y'all make headshots when doing your butchering, and a good choice that is for obvious reasons. Many hunters do not try for this shot, (the head shot). The head shot affords a very small target for placement to the brain and much room for era, as the points you made. The heart and lung area is the choice for 'most' hunters, and a deer does not necessarily drop on the spot with this well placed shot 'every time'.

[animal]

I've killed many whitetail and I've never lost a deer, while better hunters around me have. Why?

Call it luck more than anything else. There are too many variables that can ruin the shot, and the hunter is just a human.

Two examples of "nearly lost" I have are ... a 30 yard through and through heart shot with a bow(Browning Nomad Stalker). Shot was in the morning and I blood tracked it at least 4 miles before finding it just before dark. I quit bow hunting awhile back.
Another was at a deer running along a ridge broadside to me at a little longer distance. Seven shots, I thought I was missing it. He didn't so much as flinch until the last shot when he hit the ground on his neck and chest, blood came out his nose and mouth, and he no longer moved at all. The entry of all shots could be covered by my fist, 12 holes through the heart so only 1 "missed". (gun was an M1 carbine with soft point "hunting" rounds, and I never used it for deer again). There's no telling how far he might have gone with only one or two shots. Usually I kill a deer with one shot (and"usually to the head) and a better rifle. Most of my deer have been killed when I was young with an average of 2 shots from a 12 ga. shotgun (also using dogs in thick woods), but one took 5 including a "mercy shot" to the head

[Ben Framed]

Good stuff animal.  Dog hunting, (hunting deer with dogs), was always my favorite!! 

[animal]

Cool .. Maybe we can argue about the "best" dogs for it one day. My vote is for a redbone strike dog with a pack or 4-6 blueticks 

fast and furious and a great sound ... but beagles might be better for old men   

And though I used to love being the driver ... Ain't no way today ! 

[Ben Framed]

Cool .. Maybe we can argue about the "best" dogs for it one day. My vote is for a redbone strike dog with a pack or 4-6 blueticks 

fast and furious and a great sound ... but beagles might be better for old men   

And though I used to love being the driver ... Ain't no way today ! 

Well I must have been born an old man!  lol. We used beagles. There were no deer in my area when I was a kid. But we had plenty of rabbits. We would rabbit hunt here at home and take the dogs to deer camp several counties over and run deer there. Worked well and we had a BALL!!  And was lucky enough to get a deer every now and then! That was a treat at deer camp (Deer roast) !!..

[Ben Framed]

Gww have you had good luck with your deer hunting? Has you Granddaughter or her Cousin killed any more?

Phillip

[gww]

My granddaughter got it on the last day of season in the afternoon.  Now they did extend the chance to kill does for three more days and did have a second youth season coming up but mostly everybody is done.

[animal]

Well, somebody needs to start killing a lot of deer soon in east central MS ... in 23 miles, 8 deer crossed the road in front of me. Coming back, 4 crossed. Then, inside city limits going through neighborhoods saw another 4, only 2 of which crossed the road.
At least I know my brakes work well. I'm OC for deerslaying for awhile (can't hold a rifle steady thanks to a bum shoulder). Maybe I should start hunting with the truck. 

[Ben Framed]

Well, somebody needs to start killing a lot of deer soon in east central MS ... in 23 miles, 8 deer crossed the road in front of me. Coming back, 4 crossed. Then, inside city limits going through neighborhoods saw another 4, only 2 of which crossed the road.
At least I know my brakes work well. I'm OC for deerslaying for awhile (can't hold a rifle steady thanks to a bum shoulder). Maybe I should start hunting with the truck. 

Sounds like they may be collaborating and hunting you!! lol J/K   
We have a heavy population in North Mississippi also...

[animal]

Sounds like they may be collaborating and hunting you!! lol 

well, Ben, you may be right.
Coming home, nailed the brakes and came to a complete stop for 2 does to cross about 8 feet in front of me, and BAM !
Glanced in the driver door mirror and saw a buck scrambling on the asphalt and trying to get up beside the truck. He had run nose first into the tool body ... needless to say, no damage except to his nose and a blood smear on the rear compartment door. I just sat there slack-jawed and watched the goofy bugger slipping on the pavement, then prance off into the woods.
Completely stopped !!! and he hits the truck       It's getting ridiculous.

Maybe I'll go hunting after all ... got a 8" bbl. Dan Wesson .357 that'll do the trick, so that I don't have to use both arms
Used to shoot silhouettes with it and have killed 2 deer with it (one at about 100 yds., the other at about 5 feet )

[Ben Framed]

Wow! Yes that is crazy! When they make their minds to go, they will go, period. Hope it did not damage your truck..

Maybe I'll go hunting after all ... got a 8" bbl. Dan Wesson .357 that'll do the trick, so that I don't have to use both arms

Good, I'm rooting for you animal. Get out there and show a young buck what a old buck can still do! lol 

[gww]

Amimal
Guess you beat me, my ruger 44 only has 7.5 inch barrel.

[animal]

LOL ... beat you ? Hardly ... you must be being sarcastic ... I had a redhawk 7.5" for a short while and still bummed that I couldn't keep it. Sweet shooting gun, and the extra power of the .44 would be nice.
I do like the swappable barrels on the Dan Wesson, though.

[gww]

I knock the extra power down and reload cowboy loads so it kicks just a little harder then a 22.  Then it is sweet.  I am done with the magnum loads, just not as much fun for what you get compared to the accuracy of shooting bleep cat loads.  Admittedly these days, I have become too cheep to shoot much though.  I do like stainless.  Stays good no matter how you store it.  My friend had the dan wesson and we shot a lot more 20 years ago. 

[animal]

I meant the extra power would be nice thumping a deer with, especially with a  really soft 240gr. hollowpoint (and maybe slightly down-loaded but still well above a .44 spl.) For deer with the .357, I'll do 125 gr. JHP at full magnum load.

I'm right with you on light loads for fun, or introducing kids to the hobby, and even some uses in training.(even developed did a custom molded 100gr. 9mm underloaded round to shoot at an indoor range designed for .22s ... so it wouldn't harm the thin snail drum backstops .. the pistols actioned a little slow, but they always worked).

Anyway, good to see another hand loader/reloader around... not many of us left.
You'll really make me jealous if you have a Dillon setup. My stuff is a mix of everything but (and mostly Lee).

I've always called black powder loaded cartridges "cowboy rounds" ... yuck, when it comes to cleaning the gun.

[gww]

Nope, just a lyman set up.  Not sure but think they call it the triple tree or something like that.  I only do 44 mag cause it is a nice strait walled shell that usually needs no resizing,  necking or shaving.

[animal]

Lyman is cool. A buddy just got a top of the line Dillon progressive press. I looked it over, and might have put a few rust spots on it from drool ... until I heard the price ... and my mouth dried up quick !