The official Deer Hunting thread.

[MustGoFaster]

I've had a shitty year of deer hunting.

TLDR; shot two, didn’t find either.

Firearms season, I shot a decent 6 or 8 point (didn't get a chance to see if he had brow tines). Found the blood trail and tracked it for ~1000 feet (Google measuring). He made it to a field road and was in decent enough shape to bolt quick enough to make the ever decreasing blood trail untraceable. Given the fact I know what direction he ran, and I heard shooting from that direction not too long after I took my shot, I'm hoping the other guys finished what I started and got a nice deer.

So, yesterday, archery hunting out of a box stand one of the other hunters put up on my uncle’s property, I finally get a deer standing where I can shoot it. The box stand is rectangular, I can only get drawn the long way in the stand. It’s pretty tight in there with a bow, even though when I talked to the guy that put it up, he described it as a “bow set”. Great for a bow except the size of the box. Now, the deer wasn’t anything to write home about, ok body size, 4 point. About the smallest I would bother taking. I wanted meat in the freezer.

Gets to be go time, I draw, he hears it and stops. Perfect placement, 25-30 yards, broad side. I send the arrow, and get a nice loud “whack”. Not the whack of an arrow hitting a deer though. The whack of my bow limbs hitting the stand. SH!T. The deer runs 10 yards or so and stops to look back. I slowly start going for my quiver that I took off the bow due to the close quarters. He runs another 5 or so to the fence line and is looking back by the time I’ve got an arrow in my hand. Put it in the bow and he’s over 50 yards away. It’s dark, I figure I missed him and decided not to try for follow up shot. I did hit him, found the blood while looking for the arrow. Give it about 45 minutes before I start tracking. Follow the trail, starts out easy and then starts dying off. Get to the point where the only trace we can find is some blood that must be on his hoof. The last couple specs we found where smaller the the letter “I” you are reading on this screen. Follow the hoof tracks until they disappear into the other fresh tracks. Follow the trails and tracks until we have no clue or idea where heck we are. Haven’t seen blood in more than who knows how many yards. Give up. Drive 2 hours home through thick freezing fog.

[niterydr]

Originally Posted by MustGoFaster

I've had a shitty year of deer hunting.

TLDR; shot two, didn’t find either.

Firearms season, I shot a decent 6 or 8 point (didn't get a chance to see if he had brow tines). Found the blood trail and tracked it for ~1000 feet (Google measuring). He made it to a field road and was in decent enough shape to bolt quick enough to make the ever decreasing blood trail untraceable. Given the fact I know what direction he ran, and I heard shooting from that direction not too long after I took my shot, I'm hoping the other guys finished what I started and got a nice deer.

So, yesterday, archery hunting out of a box stand one of the other hunters put up on my uncle’s property, I finally get a deer standing where I can shoot it. The box stand is rectangular, I can only get drawn the long way in the stand. It’s pretty tight in there with a bow, even though when I talked to the guy that put it up, he described it as a “bow set”. Great for a bow except the size of the box. Now, the deer wasn’t anything to write home about, ok body size, 4 point. About the smallest I would bother taking. I wanted meat in the freezer.

Gets to be go time, I draw, he hears it and stops. Perfect placement, 25-30 yards, broad side. I send the arrow, and get a nice loud “whack”. Not the whack of an arrow hitting a deer though. The whack of my bow limbs hitting the stand. SH!T. The deer runs 10 yards or so and stops to look back. I slowly start going for my quiver that I took off the bow due to the close quarters. He runs another 5 or so to the fence line and is looking back by the time I’ve got an arrow in my hand. Put it in the bow and he’s over 50 yards away. It’s dark, I figure I missed him and decided not to try for follow up shot. I did hit him, found the blood while looking for the arrow. Give it about 45 minutes before I start tracking. Follow the trail, starts out easy and then starts dying off. Get to the point where the only trace we can find is some blood that must be on his hoof. The last couple specs we found where smaller the the letter “I” you are reading on this screen. Follow the hoof tracks until they disappear into the other fresh tracks. Follow the trails and tracks until we have no clue or idea where heck we are. Haven’t seen blood in more than who knows how many yards. Give up. Drive 2 hours home through thick freezing fog.

Fun times for sure tracking. Just keep at it, shake the two bad times off and concentrate on taking solid predictable shots and putting yourself in situations to harvest.

I have yet to let an arrow fly this year

[MustGoFaster]

I now have a small buck hanging in the garage. Bought a Muzzle-loader and tag. Shot it some Saturday, was in a hurry and didn't get it sighted in right. Went to family Christmas and headed out hunting. Shot at one, missed.

Sunday, went for the AM hunt, saw two, I had all of 2 seconds to shoot at them since they saw me. Wouldn't have seen anything if I hadn't gotten up.

Went out shooting again cause I didn't have a ton of confidence in the setup. Found that I couldn't get the manufacture recommended (and other hunter) bullet and powder to group for shit. Switched to Hornady 300gr Sabot slugs with 90gr Tripple7 pellets, and was dialed in 7 rounds at 100 yards. For reference I put about 20 of the Powebelts (245gr and 295gr) with 100gr WhiteHots with through it. All with Tripple7 Muzzleloader primers.

Things worked out, smallest deer I'll shoot standing quartering away. Bang, hit, watch him run 50 yards and drop. Then it's time for the fun, and he's now hanging in my garage.

[awd laser]

The only thing I shot this year was a little 6 pointer... with my camera phone haha It was coming down towards me until it caught wind of me and turned around.

https://youtu.be/BzHAc3QhoXM