wtnhunt

Saw what I believe was the guilty party this morning, up to now don't think we ever had a single trail cam pic of him. Kinda felt like deja vu from last year, hopefully will have a little different outcome and I will be behind a camera taking a pic of the wife and that deer. I don't think I could pass the deer again. A solid buck, past his ears and probably very similar if he were not busted up to the 9 point I took last year. I let him walk with hopes the wife can get a shot on him this afternoon.

Thanks everyone. He was a decent body sized buck, probably a 3.5 year old. His antlers were fully intact, sure he was not responsible for the busted bucks antlers being broken. The yote was an adult female, that means no litter or pups from her this spring. Need to whack a lot more of them.

Welcome to the forums. Might check gunbroker and compare what you have to what you can find there. Only other thought I would have would be to check cabelas, they have an online gun library.

Agree with Frank. Nice buck Charlie.

Yes Ruth the clover is a perennial, went with pennington clover trio. The grain is winter grazer rye grain also from pennington. So that plot should be there for up to 5 years. I will hopefully be planting more hoosier pride soybeans this summer here, will depend on whether or not rural king will have them again.

Getting a little blowback and residue is normal, but I have not had enough to really cause any issues during practice shooting sessions. The only time I had an issue was after letting the gun sit and not disassembling and cleaning the firing pin. I had probably 40-50 shots through the gun without cleaning the firing pin assembly. It got sticky and had an issue on a cold morning hunting with it not striking my primer hard enough to fire. You would know if you did not get your breech plug turned in all the way, the action would not close. Might try a little super lube or bore butter on the threads to make sure it is a solid seal, but you should not be getting blowback out the threads of the breech. I clean the breech every time I disassemble the gun, during practices I don't usually clean it. I do usually break the gun down after practice sessions regardless of number of shots. I usually only run a spit patch and then a dry patch between shots. If it seems to be getting harder to load or groups opening up I will run a patch with some bore cleaner down the barrel and then a few dry patches, then fire a primer with the gun unloaded to clear any moisture and should aid clearing out the breech as well. I have had a few occasions where I had to pull the plug for patches getting hung, but that does not happen very often and is a simple fix anyway.

Hung a couple stands specifically for bow season that planned to hunt with the crossbow. Never had an opportunity to sit in them a single time this season and yeah not too long until time to take them down. We are in the rifle segment until it all closes up, no chance I am putting away a gun for the bow, too many yotes needing whacked. Winter is supposed to rear its ugly head here later this week, supposed to get to 69 here this afternoon though. Gotta love it(not) wearing insulated bibs and parka with two layers in the morning and then gloves and facemask for mosquitoes and a tee shirt in the afternoon.

Little more recent from trail cam I moved to the plot. The clover underneath is doing well. Can see one of the bowstands I hung and never got to hunt. See deer under it just about every time I hunt that field from the other end.

Mine is the RT version on the top, notice the scope is longer, less eye relief, and is on the higher mount. Catrina's is the black or lower rifle and can see the scope tube is shorter and it actually clears fine with the standard durasight mount. Her scope caps clear as well. Both are nikon 3-9x40 scopes. Mine has a prostaff and hers is the inline xr.

I gave my wife hers for an anniversary gift just last month(Nov 20). She set the scope in the mount and got eye relief set for her. She has not shot it yet though. cva swapped mounts free of charge for me. I went to the taller mount to get clearance for the hammer spur. It was so close with the low mount on my gun that scope caps would not even fit. I will take some pics of both for you when i get a chance. The bdc will only get you close with either, you should shoot your gun at different ranges with either to know for certain and to have that confidence in knowing where it will hit.

Pretty sure there has been some use them. Could be a great tool for wardens. Had wanted a drone here to get a better view of our property but cannot use one at home due to federal aviation restrictions with proximity to airports. Hope the job goes well Martin, nice having that map to see what you are dealing with.

When i first started that one would have been a wallhanger. Have let bigger ones walk and really probably should have let this one go. But, wanted to kill something with my 308 and this year has been slim in what we are seeing in bucks. Only shooter really we knew was around had been the busted up buck back when he had his antlers, but he was all busted before season ever really got going. Whacked a yote this morning with the same gun, different stand. Liking these hornady eld x bullets.

Trail cam pic of him from a few weeks ago.

Bought this remington 700 varmint stainless fluted in .308 back before the 2016 season, but did not ever hunt with it last year. Worked some handloads out earlier this year and went with a 178 grain hornady eld-x and imr 4895. Was supposed to be a ne wind this morning, but was little to no wind when I was putting my outer layer of clothes on. I planned to sit a stand near the river channel hoping to possibly catch a deer we had not had any pics of or maybe whack some yotes. Headed out and realized I left my phone, so turned around went back to the house and grabbed it. Ended up going to the closest stand looking over food plots where I had heard a fight earlier in the week instead of the stand I initially planned on. After I got in the stand could see a deer at the other end of the field, but was too dim to tell what it was. As I am watching that deer had a doe blow a few times out somewhere in front of me off to my left, but never could see it and wind was not blowing that way. Ended up eventually having 5 does move around and end up on a scrapeline about 175-180 yards away as it was getting light. At 6:33 I hear grunting, picked up the binoculars and looked, but did not see a deer, heard him grunt again and still could not find him. Ended up having the deer grunt again right in front of me but still could not see him, he was just the other side of the crest of the hill and as he stepped in a cut path in the tall grass I saw his tines then saw body and got my gun up. Flipped the safety off and squeezed and it was over. He dropped straight down, didn't take a single step. Immediately after I shot had a 7 point step out of the woods from where this buck was headed. Wife had hunted the past few days, but she was unable to go this morning. I wish she could have gone, would have rather seen her get this one. Had hopes there was something better antlered around, may still be. Had several pics of this buck and another 8 but had not seen him this season before now.

Regular rifle scopes should be fine Ruth. I have a standard nikon prostaff 3-9x40 with bdc reticle on my accura. I did have to go to the higher durasight mount to have clearance for the hammer. I bought my wife the nikon inline xr muzzleloader scope for the accura I bought for her. The muzzleloader scopes often have shorter tubes and a little longer eye relief.

Dunno yet, but hope to get a few sits in a stand somewhere this weekend. Do know we have Christmas parade this Saturday to go to, don't know if my wife and youngest daughter are volunteering this Saturday morning at the horse riding academy or not. I would like to get our youngest daughter back out to hunt some, have seen the 7 point she regrets having passed on several times.

Cabelas for today(11-30) has 10 percent off plus free shipping, code is 17CLUB113. Figures. lol. I just placed an order with them and burned points yesterday.

Had moved this camera last week to our clover and rye plot. Not the best trail cam pic, unfortunately cannot tell what the bucks are.

Hey, good to see you. Welcome back. Hope life has been treating you well. A lot of good options out there. My budget .223 AR was a dpms back when they were hard to get your hands on and I admit I spent more than it is now worth. I have a few others that are nicer, I would probably not buy another of the sportacle models, would look at receiver fit between upper and lower, had issues with the dpms sportacle. Dpms does well with their upper end stuff, but the low line is not so great imo. A lot of great deals out there right now too, saw where the smith was under $500, had me tempted to add another. Dunno if they do the lifetime warranty on their long guns, know there are several that do like windham which from everything I have heard makes very nice rifles for what they cost.

Monday afternoon was a fun afternoon, had this buck follow a doe, then later two other bucks came through. Had multiple shot opportunities on him and had him as close as probably 65 yards. Ended up stuck in the stand with 9 antlerless coming out of the woods from 3 different trails to feed on the groceries I planted. Got stuck in the stand and had something come out after dark chasing. Got out Tuesday morning and went to a different stand just below that field near the old river channel. As light broke, heard the most intense fight I have ever heard that went on all over that field and lasted for nearly 10 minutes. Within a few minutes of the fight ending had a medium sized buck come through steady but cautious. Ended up moving up to the other stand over the field and about an hour later had the 2.5 year old 7 I have seen at least half a dozen times come out and he was also cautious as he crossed the field stopping to scent check the wind multiple times. This morning from the house, stepped out on the porch and had the busted up buck at 6:20(5 minutes past legal shooting light start) come out in our horse pasture less than 30 yards from the horses and probably no more than 60 yards from the house. He walked the middle of the pasture angling towards the gully behind our house. He does not seem to mind the house enough to hide during daylight and taking a shortcut in the wide open. He seems to be more regular around here as the season has gone on.

Got to watch this buck this evening for a little while following a doe. He never gave chase and she never ran. By far the biggest bodied deer I have ever let walk. Funny watching him, you could tell he has an attitude by his posture. Had 2 other bucks come through tracking, but they seemed to cautiously keep their distance.

Not 100 percent for sure, but we think he busted off his antlers completely, both sides early in the 2016 season. We had a big bodied antlerless buck chasing does and running off some smaller bucks, all he had that year once season got going was just the bases but I never really looked back to see if I could figure out if we had pics I could identify as being that deer before he busted them off. If in fact it was/is the same deer, possible he carried over antler damage in velvet to the right side that presented this year? I am gonna have to pull some pics from old files from the 16 season when I get a chance and see if I can find any positive features to id. With as early as he was fighting, would not seem unlikely that he could have damaged that side while growing,. Whatever the case may be hopefully he continues to stick around, been getting him on 3 cams pretty regularly and going back to August. I am sure he has to be at least 3.5 this year, probably more likely a 4.5 year old.

Man that is a horrible shame Al. Good thing your buddy was there and able to move the tank. Hope the insurance co comes through for you without too much headache. Did the antlers on your buddies deer burn up as well?

He had a nice left side, but a goofed up right side and even still I would have guessed his beam spread was no less than 18 inches inside from the out of velvet pics we had of him before he started getting busted up. I had posted pics of this buck in another thread earlier on in the season. My 12 year old and I saw him during the youth hunt back over a month ago and his body size dwarfed the biggest doe on the field, think he was easily over 200 lbs on the hoof, which is pretty big for here. Wife saw him last week on an afternoon hunt right at dark, so he was still alive then. Pretty sure he is a mature deer now, would be real curious if he hangs around to see what he will look like next year, if his antlers will continue to be messed up.

Awesome stuff there. Congratulations to Emma and you too.