Bartertown.com

I have not been for years. I went bow hunting when I was 13 in Oregon several times and never got anything. After I joined the military I lived in north FL, there was not a lot of hunting up there, so I stopped for many years. Then 10 years later I moved to the middle of no where Kansas to go to college. I have been here 7 years now, and this year I decided to go hunting with some friends. I do not even own a gun or a bow anymore, so I have to borrow them from a friend named Matt.


My dad who lives here too was extremely happy that I wanted to get back into this, and he bought a new Savage 270 this Black Friday, it was the one that comes with a scope that many dick's sporting goods were offering on sale. I found that even though I had not fired a gun in 16 years I had not lost a step from when I was in the Army. Matt had me sight in one of his rifles, a very old 3006 with a off brand 3 to 9 scope.

The funny thing is I know a fair amount about deer hunting, as I was tried of getting skunked year after year bow hunting when I was younger. I even went rifle Hunting two years when I was a teen in TN. That said I had never gotten a deer of any kind prior to 29th of Nov 2012. I am extremely happy to say that this year I got one, it was from the blind I picked the location of, and I dropped him with a perfect single shot.


So this is my first deer ever. Yes one rack is broken off at the trunk on the right side, but it was still a very impressive rack to see through that scope. lol Ever heard of Buck Fever, well I had it briefly prior to the shot, I had to pause and stop myself from shaking. It weight about 350lbs on the hoof, and is a 8 point wannabe, one side has 4 almost 5 points, and we guess the other side would have been the same. We also believe the spread of the rack would have been 20 inches across, and the crazy length of the G2 (10 inches) would have made it a pretty nice score for a buck of it size.

My friend Matt who lent me the rifle also got one in that same area opening day, his also was a 8 point though he had both of his racks. heh


Anyways, here is a picture of myself with the buck.



I got him at 4:45 PM, and that was a extremely filling part of a very cold day. It was 18 degress with 15 mph winds and gusts up to 30 mph. At least it wasn't wet though. heh




Thanks for letting me share, and I would love to see if anyone else has gotten anything.
Clark

Nice deer you bagged there, congratulations. I haven't been deer hunting in probably 15 years, and am really wanting to get back into it (along with Elk, since they are in this area as well). College, no close family, and no friends that were into it were the reasons for me dropping out of it. I have a rifle for it, now I just need to get to scouting a future location, and re-learning the art of field dressing. I hate that part more than anything. My wife has made it quite clear that there are to be no animal heads mounted on the walls, but she said nothing about rugs ! As for the butchering out process, I have not decided what to do, percentage wise. If it were up to me, I would just do it all as jerky as it is the perfect food, hehe.

Good Hunting to ya.

Pretty nice buddha! Good job on filling the freezer.

Watched this one all season on one of my clients property. BUURRPPP !!! Had to come out and eat during hunting season sometime.

Took mine with a 223 62 grain. 4 point. 155ish Buggahs are getting smaller every yr on the island. Early morning. Took it in the back spine. Basically handicapped it and then finished it off with a trusty 38. 11F Keep it dry!! I am not a mounter. Takes up to much room and can't see spending the money to do it. I'm in it for the frugal not the sport.

De oppresso liber Honor those

Nice to hear. heh The first thing I saw of mine was the flash of white from his horns. I then scoped it and he was coming out of some super thick brush nearly 190 yards awawy. He was facing me so I waited for a better shot, I also had to confirm that it was not a mule deer, since we have both here. When he turned broad side, I got a clean look at him, and waited for him to stop. He never knew I was there.

I hit where I was aiming, which was an inch inside his left shoulder, which would exit behind the far shoulder at the angle I was at. It was a through and through, that did not even bleed, I do not want to get too graphic, but major damage was done and he never even made a sound. The only sign that I hit him other than seeing him go down 20 yards away, was the small tree he slammed into where I shot him.


Due to nerves and my desire to not see an animal suffer, I went to load a new round in case I needed it, and the gun jammed. lol I was so pissed! So I just watched where he went through the scope. I walked straight to where he was.


I am glad I waited for that broadside, it was a much cleaner shot. imo


In TN where I lived for a while it is very common to carry a side arm for both the copper heads and for mercy shots. However, in KS they do not allow back up guns.


I have put some thought into what I would shoulder mount so I would not make a snap decision in the field. On my first deer if it was at least 16 inches wide or tall, I would have mounted that because it was my first deer. However, I wont shoulder mount one now unless it is 20 inches wide or tall on my first mule or white tail, after that I want impressive racks like 24+ or 6 or more points on at least one side.

I do alot of hunting as well! But in Florida... they arel ike 100-150 pound bucks... lol.

My first buck was a 6 pointer, but only had one antler attached as well. It was a kinda sad looking deer, but it tasted good!

You buck looks great! (I need to find a pic of mine...)

Chris

I'm a turkey hunter, myself. Or at least, I am now. First day out on my first season ever, and I harvested a 16 pounder.



I need to find someone to mentor me before I venture out for deer. I don't want to take a deer, and then waste it by improperly dressing the thing.

That's a very nice bird!

I have been Turkey hunting myself a few times.. but I can never seem to get any within shooting range. XD I love going out in the mornings and hearing them gobbling though... that is a great sound.

Chris

That is a nice bird, where I live it is about 85% farms, we do not have a lot of turkeys, but have a ton of pheasants. It is a little dry now days, but when we have a few years of good rain, people come from everywhere to hunt pheasants. We have a very small airport that can only support planes that can hold 20 or 30 people at a time, yet we have 5 to 8 thousand people show up to hunt these birds. We have so many that every motel for 50 miles sales out for the two weeks the season lasts. We have had dry years the last few, so not as many showed up this year, but we still get some.


There is also only one lake for about a 100 miles radius, and it is a small man made one. The Kansas river as they call it at this point of the river has been below ground for decades, so you would not think we would have any water birds here, but we do. Right now it is some sort of white and black goose from Canada I am told, and where I am hunting deer I have seen thousands flying over head. They are heading to the wheat fields which have just been planted.

The farmers are beside themselves right now, I saw one out there in his "Car", chasing the geese off his land. It was more than comical, as they would just land as he left to get more off the ground some where else. We watched that for nearly 40 minutes, before he realized it was pointless and drove back to the road. However, in 40 minutes he only made 5 loops, that is how big of an area these birds were taking up on his field.


As far as deer hunting goes, deer hunters are just like other hunters. There are people it is safe to hunt with, and there hunters who bend/break the rules. You just want to know where you want to fit in with all of that prior to showing up. Also there are two basic locations to hunt deer Public land, and on a lease that is on private land. Public land can be very sketchy, as who ever tags the deer first keeps it in the eyes of a game warden. There are also a lot of game wardens out there too. Private land can be very formal with signatures and a lot of money, or they can be as simple as a hand shake.


In my case we are hunting on two different private lands. One was setup by one of us, and he is giving the land owner half a cow next year. The other one is also setup by another of us, and it is his boss's land. His boss only wants two of us at the same time, and wants to meet us first, he is also driving us to the location and picking us up as he does not want us walking his property. However, he is scouting the area for us too, and knows where they are bedding down normally. We have not made it to his land yet, and most of us can only take a doe now, so we hope to fill our last tags out. We also can only hunt Saturday and Sunday this week.


Deer hunters are a lot life fishermen too, no one wants to give up a good location, so it can be hard to get into a new group if you do not have a personal relationship with any of them. I do not think you need to be a part of any hunting party, and go to their locations with them, but if you can at least call upon them after the deer is down that would be a great help for you.

The basic thing to remember is prior to cleaning the deer you want to put your tag on the deer. You want to remove all the organs from the shoulders back to the very end of the tail if you get my drift. You want to try and not poke too many holes in in things that you would not want to eat, and you want to only see bone and flesh on the inside. This is sort of like talking in code, but I hope it is understandable. lol

Doing that part makes the deer a lot lighter, I would then take rope, tie it to the horns, and use the rope to drag the deer to the truck. If you are super lucky, you might have a 4 wheeler, or like if on snow and ice. If you are by yourself it could be extremely hard to get it up into the back of the truck, but using rope and a tie-offs you can work it up the back of your truck normally.

If you want to shoulder mount it, you want to not cut any fur closer to the front shoulders than the ribs, without knowing what you are doing. Many slaughter house or the place you are taking it to be mounted can "Cape it" for you, it normally costs 20 to 45 dollars here to do that.

Only you either cape it or not, you want to skin it, wash both the inside and outside, and let it hang for 2 to 3 days if it is a buck. That gets the gamy taste out of the meat. If it is north of 60 degrees you will have to find cold storage, normally that is another 20 to 40 dollars as they might have to pressure wash it even though you have washed it yourself. You can find a butcher to cut the meat if you want, but check with other hunters who they recommend as some butchers have a history of keeping some from time to time. heh That part costs 70 to 100 dollars normally if it is not a monster buck.


As far as what gun you will want, there are a lot of factors to consider like: is there a lot of brush you will be shooting through, how far will you probably shoot, and if you plan to only hunt Deer with that gun. You will want to check laws on what type of guns can be used, there is a min and a max for this many times, though I find the max a little funny most of the time. Some guns that are lighter bullets deflect off branches and twigs like a 243 for example, but they are very flat shooting guns that can go a long ways. Others like the 3030 are heavier bullets, but you can almost see the bullet as it starts to drop at a 100 yards. lol

Personally I would use a 243, 270, or at max a 7 mag on a deer. The 270 and 7 mag are good for elk too, but there are larger guns that are very good too for elk too. I used a 3006 on that deer, but it was not my gun. That is a very common gun, and bullet type, but it lacks the range of the 270 or the 7 mag. It is more of the longer range 3030 for crashing through brush. I would feel safe shooting at a deer at 350 yards with a 243 or a 3006. The 270 could do it at 450 to 500 yards, and the 7 mag could drop a deer where he stands at 700 yards easy enough. You just need the scope, and the knowledge of where to aim to hit your target.


Just hitting your target is not enough with Deer or Elk, they have been known to run over a mile after being shoot, if you do not hit something that controls a function like pumping blood or breathing. Deer and elk can also jump like you have never seen or probably read about prior. I have seen them clear a 10 tall fence after being shot in a single bounce.

There is information on where you want to hit your target and where you do not want to hit your target, you just want to know the broadside, straight on, and the quarter turns for each of those, so you can at least aim at the right spot.


You will also want to make sure you are shooting the right type of deer, where I live there are two types Mule and White Tail. Mule have a split in there G1 horn, they have smaller tails, and larger years. White Tail have big fluffy white tails when they run, does often swish it around because they are nerves, they have smaller years, and the G1 does not split. There are also color differences, but that can change location to location, here White Tail are more red/brown than the Mule which are a grey, but that is switched in TX I am told. The north part of TX is about 300 miles south of me, so it really is location to location. In the US there are 4 kinds of deer, but only really 3 are hunted very often. On the west coast there is Black Tail as well, and they have the racks of Mule Deer, but the body type of White Tail. There is no confusing them though, as they are a darker color, and half the size of either of the other two. FL has even smaller deer, and many of them are a 4th kind deer, which I am forgetting right now.


The amount of deer you take can range widely, in KS where I live it is 1 buck, and up to 4 does if you do not have a special hunting tag. You can get another buck and doe from the Mule Deer if you are lucky enough to get a tag. There are also Elk and Antelope tags that are special to get as well. However, in Alabama and in Penn you can get vastly more deer, something like 60+ tags. I would suggest getting both a doe and a buck tag until you get a better idea of what you want to hunt, That way you can at least bag a doe if you see one, so that you have some meat, and if that doe turns out to be a small spike you are not in a pinch. Game wardens do their job, and are not known to believe the exceptions if you know what I mean. It is understandable on their part, but you do not want be in a tough spot.


anyways, here is a lot of information, and it only gives you the talking points to find out more for your area.