Broke the bad streak this morning. Got a nice little doe. First deer in two years. Need another 2-3 and I’ll fill my freezer again for the year.
8 Likes
Favorite has to be whitetail, just for all the tradition associated. 3 generations of 2 families and a shared fenceline has lead to a very regular communal shindig every November, and there’s always an encore Thanksgiving weekend. Plus, it’s a real fast way to get a chest freezer from empty to borderline over filled.
Turkey is maybe the most rewarding for me. Something about talking to them and getting that personal with my quarry just feels more…I dunno, something.
Pig season never closes, and you can hunt then at night with thermals, so thats a lot of fun, too. Id still prefer they not be here, but when life gives you bacon flavored lemons…
Used to hunt quail as a kid but now we only very rarely hear them, so thats been back burner for decades.
Dove is like an arcade and super social, and active, so probably a solid second place there.
3 Likes
Love this little rifle…. Its the rifle that seems like ….you can’t miss.
Missouri Dept of Conservation wants them killed on sight. I picked the biggest one and put one between his eyes. It was like a cartoon……he suddenly got stiff…and fell over on his side….and didn’t even twitch after he was down.
The rest of them were like juggernauts going through the Thorn thickets.
3 Likes
Time for a pig roast! Nice job!
I’d love to go on a pig hunt.
Side note, don’t piss of iznthesky, did any one see that assassin-like shot location? It must be because of the silencer, normal people can’t shoot like that. That’s why CNN says they’re bad. And CNN never lies about gun facts.
For real though, thats a good pull. He’s pretty good sized.
4 Likes
Guess I’m getting older and my hunting taste are changing. I’ve really gotten into upland bird hunting the past few years. Here in Virginia there’s not a lot of places to go other than preserves. I know, pen raised birds are not the same as wild birds but it’s still a lot of fun. We did a hunt in Kansas last year, one in North Carolina a few weeks ago and taking the wife, daughter and her boyfriend to one here in Virginia in a few weeks. (PriestView Hunting Preserve)
1 Like
watched a hunting show a few years back. They were shooting everything, even piglets. The guy called the piglets ‘bacon bits’.
1 Like
My favorite bird hunt was years ago. I was working up in the Outer Banks doing some testing for the new bridge on hwy 12 before they started building it. It was Feb, which for anyone in the area means, its raining 50% of the time. With our machines, we couldn’t work in the rain for safety issues. So if it was early a.m., we’d take our shotguns to the Wildlife Management office and pick our blinds, and go out duck hunting. So we got paid to hunt every other morning, usually got something, paid for per diem, and didnt have to buy much for dinner. All around win!
6 Likes
that’s my next adventure - duck hunting on the Potomac. My dad is not able to get around well enough to do upland hunting. I want to get him to try duck hunting from a blind. Besides the cold, that should be a lot of fun.
1 Like
Day 4, with the weekend of the opening season over….the deer are feeling less pressured and are now moving again. When I turned around….this one was watching me 20 yards away. He watched me gently raise & aim my rifle. With the first one down, I can relax now and enjoy the rest of the season.
12 Likes
Great looking deer. I’m off the next two weeks. Hope to have freezer full by the end of them. Again, great deer! 
1 Like
Deer #2 Harvested. All the Preperation throughout the year has payed off with success. It’s off to the Amish Deer Processor.
It was a great Deer Season this year. The sunrises and sunsets were the most memorable I’ve ever experienced. Now I wait for the butcher to call me when my venison is ready. I hope it doesn’t take too long……Iam on my last tube of Summer Sausage.
8 Likes
I guess you went up north, but if you harvest anything locally and love summer sausage Bellville makes some damn good summer sausage among other things.
1 Like
Yes I grew up in Missouri….the Mark Twain National Forest was my favorite playground. So my inner-child goes back to playing in the woods each year during deer season….and to visit my Mother & Sister too. I live in Houston….but it’s still less expensive to hunt in Missouri as a Non-Resident Hunter than it is to Pay for a Hunting Lease in Texas.
What’s the Name of the butcher/Game Processor in Belville….if my son or I harvest a pig locally, It’s always good to know where to take it.
Thanks.
I prefer bird hunt - turkey, pheasant, dove… I didn’t really know what to expect but to prepare myself I shot skeet as often as possible throughout the summer and weeks leading up to opening day. Looking back, I feel that it was a good way to prepare and found that pheasants fly very similar to a clay pigeon being thrown out of a skeet thrower, starting at the ground and flying up. Not many birds were shot due to the previous years’ drought taking its toll on the population, but this will be a hunt I look forward to each November from now on.
2 Likes
Man that’s like trying to pick a favorite kid 
If I had to be honest nothing makes my heart pound like a crisp early morning and having a big old Tom Gobble that cuts through the air. Has to be one of my favorites
7 Likes
I know it’s a year old but wow great deer! I was wandering what caliber rifle you used in the pictures, looked like a ruger american just wondering. I use a ruger american Predator in 308
Good eye….it’s a “Ruger American Ranch” in 7.62x39. It uses the same magazine that the Ruger Mini-30, 7.62x39 uses.
These inexpensive little rifles have a widespread reputation for exceptional accuracy……especially shooting cheap surplus ammunition.
Last year I used my 308. This year it was the 7.62x39. The power of the 308 compared to the x39 is superior……but that little x39 is lightweight, slimmer, low recoil, a pleasure to carry in the field and it gets the job done confidently. Ruger American….Making American Rifles Great Again.
2 Likes
It’s been 3-1/2 years since getting my one and only deer ever. I just remember all the work it took to drag that deer from the field to my buddy’s jeep, but the work was just getting started… No more for me unless the family is hungry! I’ll definitely tag along anyone’s hunting trip and be the cook - I think deer hunting was my favorite, although chukar hunting is a close second.
This year, my sister and bro-in-law picked out a cow that we bought half of - I don’t get tired of beef.
1 Like
I have Atrial fibrillation and luckily it doesn’t affect my normal routine in life……but it prevents me from over exertion. A couple of years ago I was exploring new territory in the national forest. I had stalked for a couple of hours until I found the “Honey Hole”. It was like the “Living Room” of a deer house. I harvested a great Buck there
But I seriously thought I was going to die trying to drag him out. I was physically exhausted, dehydrated. I had to leave the deer. It took me about three hours to walk back to my Jeep. The walk back was good for me and had me feeling better. At the Jeep, I filled up on water and ate a small lunch. That Jeep crawled all the way back to within about 25 yards of the deer where I recovered it.
Deer season is still my favorite time of the year.
This year I tried one of those deer carts, thinking it would be easier to move the deer with…….another lesson learned. It is very difficult to just get the deer on the cart. You have to have the cart tied down to a tree or something……once you get him on the cart…it is much easier to move than dragging……but it’s not a piece of cake. There are fallen logs, rocks and holes in the ground that make things difficult……for me….getting to my over exertion level. Since I don’t own an ATV, I use my Jeep for my deer recovery.
I use a block n tackle to hoist them up, then I can lift and swing their hind quarters onto the cargo basket, then I lower the rest of the deer onto the basket. My dragging is minimal now……only move them to a suitable area that I can field dress them and access them with my Jeep.
There are no roads so I have to select a path around large trees, sometimes cutting smaller ones, and a lot of branch pruning along the way……but the Jeep makes life a lot easier. As for the meat……EVERYDAY I eat venison. Seriously. It’s great and I have an abundance of it. I feel good knowing exactly where my meat came from.
5 Likes