Author Topic: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.  (Read 1571 times)

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Offline teddy12b

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Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« on: November 16, 2008, 08:26:34 AM »
Well,
   I finally did it.  I had a place where I could hunt locally, I scouted everything out myself, setup the ground blinds, setup my trail cam, handloaded the bullets, and after everything I got an 8pt buck.

Scouting:
  I put my trail camera up in the exact same spot as I did last year and ended up getting a picture of a nice buck at nighttime.  This may be the one I ended up shooting, I'm not 100% positive, but it's close.





  I used two pop up ground blinds for my father in law and I to each have one and I made sure to put some orange surveyors tape around them since it's hard to see orange inside the blind.  In hind sight I wish I'd have put more up but we were lucky that nobody else went out there to hunt this year, so far.



  As far as the hunt itself goes Saturday morning we got out there an hour before daylight and were getting rained on pretty heavily.  We didn't see anything so I grabbed my trail camera and we left around 10 or 10:30.  We were watching TV at the house debating on even going back out there because of the heavy rain and the radar.  I checked the trail cam pictures around 2:30 and couldn't believe it when I saw the pictures shown above.  The rain stopped and we rushed to get back out there.  I jumped a good buck (possibly the one I ended up getting) as I was making it to my blind and he got away without my getting a good chance for a clean shot.  My father in law saw two deer just before the sun went down and he shot with his 20 gauge, but cleanly missed.  He underestimated how far away they were and I missed being able to take a good shot.  That was the end of day one.

  This morning we went back out at least an hour before daylight, just enough time to take a little cat nap or two, not that I'd ever do that, but a guy could if he wanted to.  Sun came up around 7am and about 7:30 my buck showed up out of nowhere without making a single noise.  I saw where he was walking and waited for him to take a few more steps into a spot where I had a clear shot and Bang, flop.  He went down on his side right where he got hit.  He flopped around on his side like he was trying to get up and I didn't want him to suffer anymore than he had to.  I chambered another round in my stainless Puma 20" 44mag and shot him again right in the neck and he never moved again.  My rifled is zeroed for 100 yards and I aimed dead center behind the shoulder not thinking to aim lower to compensate, so I hit him higher than I'd have liked to.



  Just before field dressing and long after I said a prayer thanking the big guy upstairs for a deer, let alone an 8pt, I stood where he was shot and used a Bushnell laser range finder to get the distance to my blind, it was 60 yards.  There was a strange looking bump on the opposite side of where I shot him and it was my bullet.  I cut it out first, before field dressing.

  I hunted with my Puma 44mag last year and never got an opportunity to use it.  This year I was using my handloaded hornady 240gr XTP hollow points.  The recovered bullet was cleaned, rinsed, and dried off weighing on my rcbs chargemaster combo.  It left the barrel around 1600 - 1700 fps and hit a deer just behind the shoulder 60 yards out and weighed 184.2grs afterwards.  That's a pretty good bullet as far as I'm concerned and it did a number on the deer.





I'm pretty happy with the events of today and genuinely hope everyone else hunting for whatever they want have as great of a season as I think I had.  It's not over yet, I may go back out after some does.  :)


Offline Siskiyou

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2008, 10:29:20 AM »
Outstanding!
There is a learning process to effectively using a gps.  Do not throw your compass and map away!

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Online Graybeard

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2008, 10:37:06 AM »
The trail cam photo buck is clearly NOT the one you shot unless the trail cam shot is from a previous year. The buck in that photo is a yearling with really nice genetics but that's almost certainly his first rack. The buck you shot has tines a good deal longer than the trail cam buck and is at least one if not two years older.


Bill aka the Graybeard
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Offline kyelkhunter3006

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2008, 10:40:43 AM »
+1, I was thinking the exact same thing.  The deer you shot is clearly larger and older, IMO.

Offline Cheesehead

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2008, 10:44:44 AM »
It is very good when a well thought out plan comes together with excellent results. Congratulations.

Cheese
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance.

Offline Skunk

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2008, 12:53:50 PM »
Great Job teddy12b!!! Congratulations!!
Mike

"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - Frank Loesser

Offline teddy12b

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2008, 02:42:39 PM »
Thanks guys,
    It was kind of a long winded hunting report, but maybe it can help people.  I forgot to mention on the equipment side of things that I used my Case XX changer & Savage "hunters edge fixed blade" to field dress the deer.  It was nice to have a folder that could change blades and a fixed blade at times too.
    I'm glad to hear you guys think my deer is different than the one in the trail cam.  It's a close call but I think mines a little bigger.  Not too bad for a third deer in my life and my second buck.  :)

Offline rickt300

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2008, 03:39:38 PM »
Excellent hunt and story. You can be long winded anytime about hunting around here.
I have been identified as Anti-Federalist, I prefer Advocate for Anarchy.

Offline teddy12b

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2008, 02:04:21 AM »
Since I'm being long winded, I'll also mention something else I found interesting.  While waiting for the deer checking station to open we were talking with another hunter.  He got a huge 8 pt and I mean HUGE.  He was also hunting with a 44mag rifle, but his was a scoped Marlin.  He was using the same hornady bullets I was and he knew the bullet drop out a ways.  He wasn't a young man and he said he'd been hunting his families property for 50 years.  They used food plots and management programs to really grow the bucks.  All of this sounded pretty common until he told me he shot his buck at 220yards and it dropped right there.  This guy was the poster child for a hunter who knew exactly what he was doing.  His shot placement was outstanding especially at 220 yards.  I'm really starting to become a believer in hunting with 44mag rifles.

Offline Cheesehead

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2008, 02:14:09 AM »
I have bagged a couple deer with 44 mag, if they dont drop on the spot, the blood trails are both wide and short.

Cheese
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance.

Offline Terry1

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2008, 03:17:16 AM »
Congrats!!!

Offline Sweetwater

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2008, 04:36:14 PM »
Very nicely done and great report.

Regards,
Sweetwater
Regards,
Sweetwater

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Offline hillbill

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2008, 03:13:34 PM »
awesum buk and awesum hunt, sounds like yu did yur homewerk and it paid off!

Offline teddy12b

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #13 on: November 18, 2008, 03:19:57 PM »
I picked up my antlers, steaks and roasts tonight after work.  I had to put a small steak on the grill and cooked it nice and slow.  I tried five different sauces with it doing a taste test and ended up liking the A1 Teriaki sauce the best with the deer meat.

I also took some pictures of this bucks antlers compared to my first bucks antlers.  I think this one was just a little bit bigger, but not by a whole lot.



I will proudly admit that I have no idea on how to "score" a bucks antlers so I set them on the ground next to a tape measure just for an idea. 





Not the biggest buck in the world, but I'm very happy with him.  :)

Offline ELMO

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #14 on: November 19, 2008, 01:07:52 PM »
   Congratulations on the deer. The 240 grain xtp by hornady is what I use to reload with. During this past Monday and Tuesday park reduction hunt I took 3  deer with my Handi .44 mag rifle, a buck and 2 Does. This was at Tippecanoe state park and there was alot of shooting going on. To me the .44 mag is an awesome deer round and all the deer shot dropped within sight....

Offline teddy12b

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #15 on: November 19, 2008, 02:13:56 PM »
I talked with another guy tonight who got a 8pt deer with his 44mag and he said it went 10 feet before it flopped over.  I'm a believer in the 44 mag rifle.

Offline newdad

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #16 on: December 20, 2008, 07:24:10 AM »
i love the 44 mag as a deer round. my handi rifle in 44 mag has taken over 20 deer, from small does all the way up to big bodied ten pointers and its put them all down with zero tracking. the round does have its limitations but it is a proven deer round.

Offline opossum

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Re: Happy deer hunter, hunt report & equipment report.
« Reply #17 on: December 20, 2008, 07:48:53 AM »
Congrats