It's gotten too easy.

[BBF]

I hate to cut down a stock only to have to replace it later on when they grow up.  I have a couple Handi rifles and plastic youth butt stocks are cheap enough...

Tony

That will work just fine and if the rifles are with large cartridges, they can be loaded down so as not to send a 12 year old back a couple of feet.

[geezerbiker]

One of my favorite things to do is make reduce strength cast bullet loads.  I took both boys to my gun safe today and let them  hold up different rifles.  The did much better than I expected but the rifles were all to long for them. 

If cutting one down is the answer, then my 325 Savage .30-30 is the one to cut...  I want to put a new stock on it anyway.  A less than full strength .30-30 load will still drop a small black tail deer.  I'm looking to get another Handi rifle in .223 and hopefully by then Nosler 70 grain partitions will be available again.  It's either that or cut down my .243 78 Sportsman Remington since I want to restock it too...

I introduced the boys to bullet casting today and hopefully I have them fully involved in reloading over the next couple years.

Tony

[Mike in Virginia]

Too easy indeed.  As a teenager, I started out with a 30-30, iron sights.  Too easy.  In my twenties, I went to a revolver.  Still too easy.  Went to a flintlock longrifle.  Too easy.  (killed 7 in one season).  Went to a longbow.  Not so easy at all, but old age won't let me shoot it anymore and keeps me out of the tree stands.  I've gone back to the revolver and heavy flatpoint bullets.  Get yourself a set of those electronic ear muffs that lets you hear normal sound, but blocks out the blast of a handgun.  A revolver kill is pretty exciting and limits you to close distance. 
 
I think the main thing is to hunt where there are deer.  I used to be restricted to public land, and finding a deer was uncommon.  On public land, set up near a deer camp before daylight.  The people in the camp walking into the woods will often send one your way.  But it ain't safe.  Deer camps are made up of who-knows-what.  Lots of crazies on public land. 

[mannyrock]

 
   Mike, you are totally correct.
 
   Absolutely positively the hardest thing about deer hunting is finding that 40 acres of private woods with mixed fields that you can lease for yourself alone.  No clubs, no sharing hunting rights with the farmer and his "family" (sons, nephews, cousins.)
 
  Once you have found that, and located the funnels where the deer always cross the fields, and set up in the woods 15 yards from the field, watching the funnel, and put out the right attractant scent in the middle of the field right where the funnel path crosses the field, then killing a deer is a virtual certainty.  During the rut, the deer actually run through these funnels at break neck speed all day long.  That's when you can take a big buck.
 
  The second hardest thing about deer hunting is getting up in the winter before dawn.  That's why I quit doing it.  With private land, you can choose to just hunt in the afternoon, and you will be very successful.
 
  The third hardest thing is being able to sit in the bitter cold for three hours at a time.  Curing that is just a matter of buying exactly the right silk, wool, and down garments, with fabric that breathes.
 
   And as you pointed out, only hunt where the deer are.  Hunting marginal land is a total waste of time.  Your time is far better spent traveling the back roads and finding a good piece of private land to lease.
 
   Also, it is far easier to lease land if you tell the farmer that you only want to hunt during archery and muzzleloading season, and not the regular rifle season.   Most farmers don't use bows or muzzleloaders, so the money you pay them for this is sheer gravy to them.
 
      Best time to ask about a lease is the first week of February, when the farmer is dead broke and has just gotten all of his credit card bills from his Christmas spending, and needs cash to service his farming equipment.  Show up with cash to pay him immediately and get his signature on a little 3 sentence lease at the same time.  Post the land.
 
   After you lease for archery and muzzleloading for a few years, it is pretty easy to "expand" that lease to include either the first or second half of rifle season.  Just be sure to let him pick which half he wants to retain for personal hunting, and be generous with the extra money you offer him.
 
Mannyrock
 

[AtlLaw]

The third hardest thing is being able to sit in the bitter cold for three hours at a time.

Third!?      That's number one for me!!! 
 
I can't stand the cold!  Why, I sat in my stand once and the temperature got down to around 40 degrees!      Thought I was gonna die!  Almost didn't make it back to camp and into the hot tub!   
 
I tell ya, as rough as it is, I wonder why we do this huntin stuff... 

[mannyrock]

OK Atlaw,
 
   I have the solution for you.  How to beat the cold really easily.  My younger brother showed me this.
 
   Before you go out to hunt, ALWAYS buy six of those little chemical handwarmers (dry powder in the plastic packs.)  You can find these for as cheap as a dollar each.
 
   As soon as  you get in your stand, shake them all up, then put one in the top of each sock (above the boot, on the side of each leg), put one into  each pants pocket as deep as the pocket will go, and put one in each pocket of your jacket, where you will keep your hands as you sit.   Then be absolutely sure to put a pair of earmuffs on, to keep your ears from draining all of the heat from your body, and always wear a wool scarf and hat.
 
   You will be amazed at how warm you are.  You will be sitting there like a little cookstove, warm and cozy.  Often, I have to open the top of my jacket to let the heat and steam from my body escape!
 
   And of course, don't smoke. This automatically constricts all of your blood vessels and shuts down the heat circulation in your body.
 
   And, if possible, only hunt in the afternoons, from about 2:00 till sunset.  A very productive time if you are warm and still.
 
   Hope this helps.
 
Mannyrock

[jhm]

     I am with Atlaw when it comes to the cold, I grew up in Mich and deer hunted in the northern part of the Lower and in the UP, but since I came to Arkansas I find I cant take the cold anymore, and when we built my deer stand 3 yrs ago I told my son I wanted to have plenty of lights in it working off of a 12V car battery, and most of all I was putting in a lil buddy heater, havent had a deer get away since as I dont shiver&shake anymore from the cold, maybe a little shake because of age(66) but I really think I will outgrow that.  Jim

[Stuart C.]

Here in the Northeast we have access issues, loss of habitat (overly mature growth/no browse) and of course low deer numbers.
 
It is widely considered a successful hunt if you... see... a deer.
 
There are groups of hunters that still go north and do not see a deer all week. The group.
 
Yes. Deer camp and deer hunting is a whole lot more than just taking a deer. I get it, and I agree. But 1.) it's impossible to get young people excited about hunting (sitting and freezing like Spanky said), and 2.) even the diehards are not buying licenses and either giving up entirely or going south and west and buying non-res licenses. We got the message. We'll go elsewhere. Good luck with the budget.
 
Each year a few local hunters get lucky.
 
So stay local and blow vacation time, some funds, deal with the abundance of Liberals, access headaches, see nothing and come away frustrated. Or, drive 1 to 2 days, use the same amount of vacation time, spend not much more money, feel like you're welcome, chat it up with the locals at every lunch spot and sporting goods store, and be able to see deer.  No brainer.

[geezerbiker]

Here in Western Oregon it's usually wet but not that cold during deer season.  Mostly in the mid 40's.  I don't know of anyone in this area using deer blinds but I've always wanted to try one.  I think I'm too old and beat up to get up in a tree stand...

BTW, coming home last night at about a quarter to 11, I saw a big deer crossing main street near down town.  Not that there is much down town here. 

Tony

[chefjeff]

Try a different method of harvest if you want more of a challenge. Train up a new hunter.Hunt with one of your pistols.One of my co workers bagged a buck with a handmade longbow recently.Not for me though.Personally,I love plenty deer.Kill my limit every year.Then eat them. Whats not to like?

[geezerbiker]

Try a different method of harvest if you want more of a challenge. Train up a new hunter.Hunt with one of your pistols.One of my co workers bagged a buck with a handmade longbow recently.Not for me though.Personally,I love plenty deer.Kill my limit every year.Then eat them. Whats not to like?

If you really want to see difficult deer hunting come out west and hunt black-tail deer.  They're almost completely nocturnal and the seem to know exactly were the city limits are and stay within them during hunting season.  I'm not sure why I bother hunting them anymore...

Tony

[mannyrock]

   Training up a new young hunter is a great idea.  I trained up my wife 35 years ago, and she became a deer killing machine.   Then my son when he was 10.  He's 34 now, and not interested.
 
   I remember how really exciting it was to be excited FOR somebody that just killed their first deer, especially when you were the one who put them in the right place, at the right time, with the right rifle.
 
   My wife passed away ten years ago, and I have a great live in girl friend.  She has a son who lives in the DC suburbs, and only gets to deer hunt once a year, in a shotgun only county, on his best friend's property.  I don't think he has ever seen a deer.   I think I'll try to get him set up with a black powder rifle and position him for a couple of days of early muzzleloading hunting.  Almost guaranteed to get at least a big doe.
 
  Thanks for all of the advice.
 
Mannyrock