I do a lot of hunting on public land and it can be good, bad, and ugly. Seems like half the time you end up having a guy walk past you on deer opener at 6:30 am or someone boats right through your spread of decoys. I've taken lots of different game and have had some great trips out there on public land in Minnesota but for the sake of having as many bad experiences as good ones, I really wish I had some private land of my own to hunt on.
Yeah... depends on just where the public land is. (In Canada, it's called Crown Land, because it's owned by the Crown, or government). Our 600 acre hunt camp backs onto 1200 acres of Crown, but it's hard to get to, so we hardly ever see anyone out there. The only time I remember seeing someone in the last 10 years was when they were following a deer they'd slightly wounded. The poor fuckers tracked that thing for miles... gotta admire their dedication. It's like any fishing spot, or hunting area... if you pick the closest and easiest to get to, you'll get a ton of people there. It's amazing how going someplace that requires even just a bit of work to get to thins out the crowd.
Nothing more humbling than missing FOUR shots yesterday with a crossbow. Looks like I have to go back to square one sighting it in and practicing at different elevation (does this matter a lot in shooting bows? Ei being 20 feet up in a tree stand as opposed to the ground).
Yes your elevation and angle makes a difference. There's ballistic calculators out there that show where you need to aim based on a number of variables. If you want to be precise, go measure the distance and angle of certain trees next to your shooting lanes or openings relative to your stand, and calculate the exact hold necessary to be on the spot with your crossbow.
SUCCESS! Was probably less than 15 yards away. Arrow went straight through his body. Lugging thems shits around is tiring.
I had a good time hunting this weekend but sadly didn't see a single deer, except for a doe that ran in a field next to mine that was shot and dropped in view of me. It was pretty warm so the deer just weren't moving... I heard only one shot this morning. Thankfully it turns out my buddy's land is crawling with grouse (ruffed and sharptail) so my shotgun got a lot of use this weekend too. Spoiler Nice view this morning, looking over 40 acres. If I'm sitting in a stand with a foot rest, I'll make a stick with the Y and control it with my right fist against my knee. Very sturdy. Directly to my right. I saw this 50 yards from my stand. It's wolf shit, with a .270 for scale. All deer fur. Real cool, wolves, real cool. I wouldn't be surprised if they opened up a season on them sooner or later. There's a good chance I'll be back at the deer in two weekends in an intensive harvest zone (5 tags, either sex) so me and the Wingmaster will hopefully slug the shit out of some deer.
In case anyone wants to copy my setup, I essentially created the ultimate varmint hunting rig: Halogen shop light, 500 watts, on the stand it rotates 360 degrees horizontal and 180 degrees vertical, but light is detachable...... $25 120v, 750 watt (1500 watt peak) DC to AC power inverter...... $60 including the extended warranty 12v lawnmower battery...... $20 Surge protector with on/off lever....... $4 Colored lens film for lighting...... 6 pack for $3 online I already had the extension cord and the luggage dolly (previous owner left it). So for about $115 I created a mobile, cordless, hands-free, varmint light that illuminates several acres at a time and is activated by a toggle switch I can use with my shoe (so it won't mess up my aim). Eventually I'll add more batteries to extend the run time beyond an hour or so, and so that I can dual-purpose it as backup power for the house. But for the way I currently use it, it works quite well.
Open sights allow for faster target acquisition. Until I purchase a varmint-specific rifle (see: gun and ammo thread), I go with the "more is more" approach -- I have my .243, autoloader 12 gauge with slugs, 20 gauge side by side with magnum buckshot, and .40 on my hip. When feasible, I usually carry all four with me. Different effective ranges, different actions, different all-around purposes. But I prefer to avoid the rifle, because of the scope. That is, until I find a solid actual varmint rifle. I'm leaning toward the AR .223. Got a gun show in about a week in a half. Call and bait. Again, more is more.
2nd time in 25 years I haven't been deer hunting opening week. Dad called today all depressed over the same. We're now working on doing a bow hunt over Christmas when I'm back in Ontario visiting for 2 weeks. The fucked up part is that the bow hunting around his place is insane... huge numbers of corn-fed deer. Where we normally go hunting (our hunt camp) is all barren woodlot and very few, swampy deer. I'm betting that we'll fill our tag in less than a day, and it'll be more of a deer than we've whacked in more than a few years. I'm excited. And to all of you out hunting now, fuck you, and good luck.
One of the best things about graduating from college and having a job with plenty time off is getting my hunting time back. I'm on my 2nd of what will be 4 consecutive hunting weekends. I'm not taking hunting season for granted.
Yeah, but if you're in college, you can skip class to go hunting or fishing. If I wanted to count the number of days in college I skipped to go fishing or hunting on my fingers, I would have to be Vishnu.
My neighbor got a deer last weekend. Said it was by far the biggest one he had shot. I don't know any specifics about the deer or about what he used to kill it, but, here's a picture! Looks pretty huge, compared to him standing behind it.
Maybe it's the angle of the picture, but the rack looks really narrow. Still a nice buck by any measure, though. I sure as hell wouldn't pass it up.
The rack looks really tall... easily wider than the ears too. What strikes me is how thick the neck of that buck is. In the rut for sure. The one the fella in our group shot last weekend had a funny rack and no neck/gland swelling. Spoiler I guess he really wanted to be a moose?
How many bucks you allowed to get up there? Don't know if Id waste my tag on a rack that small, though the oddness of it is cool. Honestly, each year Ive gotten a buck Ive kind of been disappointed in myself for not letting them go another year or so more so that they'd have been bigger, this year included. Easier to say if you have private land to hunt on with relatively low competition from other hunters. My dad's only deer ever was monster 19 pointer and he wouldn't shoot at anything that wasn't of similar wow factor. I kind of agree with the buck limitations places put on hunters. Limiting to one per season and in some areas charging more if said bucks antlers base's are under a certain circumference. Lets them grow older and bigger.
I've read that point limits (i.e. nothing less than 6pt) can dramatically increase the average age and size of bucks in the managed area. The tags here vary a lot... where I was hunting last weekend, only 100 doe tags were available in a lottery for the zone so I could shoot only one buck. The weekend after this one, I'm hunting an intensive harvest zone so I can shoot five deer, either sex. It's legal to use rifles in the area too so I'm gonna make it rain on dem does with my .270. Big deer are cool to look at and everything but you can't eat the horns and frankly I'd rather have a small pile of some fork tender venison from a yearling or small doe than a bunch of so-so meat from a grizzled old buck. If I am hunting on someone else's land and they are managing the population, I'll respect that and shoot what they want me to shoot. Otherwise, if it's brown it's down.
I guess I'm spoiled from hunting where I do in MD, but I'm allowed 2 bucks and 10 does. There's talk of increasing that limit in the near future since the populations are out of control.
Damn, we get one buck and five doe for the season. Don't know the best deer for the tenderest meat but Ive always heard does are. They are as dumb as rocks around here and I could kill the yearly quota in a day with the way they investigate noises.