wtnhunt

Everyone have a happy Thanksgiving. Plan to hunt some. Had a little 2.5 year old 7 come through early this morning then later had a small doe bounced around by something that i think was probably a good one but no clear shot. Same 7 i have seen a few times now, same one our 12 year old passed up. Had to get down about 9 to come back and get food going and take care of animals. Christina(our 21 year old) is home but has to go back to Knoxville this evening. Gonna eat about 1. Wife or I one will go this afternoon. Probably try to get our 12 year old out some this long weekend. Shot groundhog this morning after i got back, first one i have ever seen here.

Bought the wife the mountain rifle version for an anniversary gift back in July when Midway ran them for $299. Also got her a nikon inline xr scope a little later on from cabelas. Our anniversary was Monday, think she was happy with it.

Have read the same thing, guess that might be in part why they are also larger than the typical western yotes.

Congratulations Frank to you and your dad. Good that you all are able to hunt that public ground without running into others hunting on top of you. How bad are Illinois nr fees?

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving. Deer season here Tim, I will just say I was blessed last year to have tagged two nice deer on our small farm, perhaps used up my luck. lol. This year noone in our family has even taken a deer, Catrina has not even had one sit in a stand this year due to her work which with the kids has also made for limited time for me to be able to get out. Hoping someone here will get one down this week with Thanksgiving, but think our primary rut and best chances are over. Congratulations on your successful hunts Tim, you should post pics and stories here when you get time.

Nice buck Ruth. You have had a great season. Congratulations.

If it is legal there Ruth, kill em all. Their population can explode in no time, and they will hunt and kill deer. Had been a pair running less than a minute behind deer on my trail cams up to before I shot this one. Saw one this morning at 8:45, but no chance for a shot.

Seems I either misread the forecast or it has changed again. Low Friday night now looking like 60, ehhhh. Gonna be too warm for me, wife can go. Monday on the other hand now calling for 27 for a low.

Rifle opener Saturday and rifle will run until January season end, so basically free for all from here on. Need to break in my .308 with a kill this year. Last I checked gonna be cool Saturday morning in the low 30's then warm up to 70 something Saturday. I doubt there is a buck around our farm this year that would be a wallhanger for me and so unlikely I will kill a deer, but there are some yotes and beaver needed to be killed. Then again, have had deer we never got pics of just show up so who knows and there are a few standing fields of beans left to be cut yet too so who knows what might get bumped around. Did see a nice buck cruising in an uncut bean field this morning on the way back from taking the kids about a mile as a crow flies from our back field. I will probably go Saturday morning if the wife does not want to and then she can have all the rest of the weekend if she wants it. There are a few around I would not mind seeing Catrina or our 12 year old daughter get a crack at. Sat for about a 45 minutes this morning after taking the kids to school, was about 8:15 when I climbed up in a stand and within a few minutes had a spike come in on a grunting sequence, he had both sides when I had seen him earlier this week on the way to check cams, now missing one side. About 15 minutes later another grunting sequence and within a minute had a 4 point come from the opposite direction. 15 minutes later had a yote come through, but I never had a chance to get my gun up before he was out of my view. Tried lip squeaks and can call, but no luck. Had quite a bit of work to do so had to call it quits not long after the yote went through. Now is definitely the time to be in the stand as much as possible here.

The winchester 209 primers are what I am using. You should not have issues with them with ignition. Think your issue is probably more likely due to moisture from the cleaning you had done between shots, likely you got just enough moisture in the breech area to prevent the primer from doing its job, may also be impacting your powder burn efficiency if there is any dampness in the breech area. Again, I would not use any cleaning solution between shots unless you are having issues with loading or you notice your accuracy is worsening. A spit patch then dry patch should suffice. I am currently using hornady 240 grain "American Whitetail" interlocks, they use a shorter sabot that falls away pretty quick. I had been using the tc xtp mags, which were a hornady xtp mag bullet. Powerbelts do not utilize a plastic sabot. The sst's are a good bullet Ruth, you should get good accuracy and performance out of them.

I have shot probably a dozen shots in a single session before Ruth, without breaking the gun down to properly clean it. I have not had any major issues with crud forming. I mean you will get some minor residue, but it should wipe off with a dry rag, nothing that merits a need for cleaning. When shooting from the bench I will usually only run a spit patch and a dry patch then reload. More often than not reloading does not become any more difficult with following shots. I have in the past used #13 bore cleaner patch and a dry patch between shots, but that is really not needed. I do not wash the breech plug at all during shooting sessions, but if you were using a cleaning solution or pre soaked patches, some moisture may have gotten into the breech plug. ANY time I am loading a first round after cleaning or taking the gun out of the safe to load it I pop a primer BEFORE loading that first round to dry the plug, and then run a dry patch down and back up and out. If after 3-4 shots you feel the need to run a bore cleaning saturated patch down the barrel, just pop a primer to clear any moisture before loading it again. When I break the gun down, I always use a small nipple brush inside the breech plug. Far as the pellets, I have heard complaints about them not fully igniting, but I cannot say as I do not use pellets. I use loose powder in my setups and have NEVER had an issue with powder not igniting. Could be some of the crud issue you are seeing is a result of the pellets, not sure. To remove the firing pin you unscrew the screw where the pin face is. There is a spring inside and the pin itself. I use brushes to clean as best as I can and clean the pin with a rag and some clp or a lightly oiled rag would also work fine. Only misfires I had was really my own fault, that was with the sticky firing pin. Have had no other issues with misfires. What primers are you using?

Congratulations again Al. Cool character for sure on that one, very nice.

Bet that got a little attention. lol. Just a yote, but at least got to kill something with it this year. Keeps the streak of killing going since got the gun in 2012. With limited opportunities this year and our rifle opening this weekend doubt i even make it back out with the muzzleloader, so no deer with it this year. Running away shot between trees and through some briar tangles. The 240 grain interlock made a mess of him.

That is a good buck. Congratulations Jared.

Yes Ruth. I have killed a few deer during light rain/drizzle with my accura. No issues with ignition at all. Good luck tagging another of your target bucks from tc pics.

That is a real nice buck Tim. Congratulations.

Awesome character and a great deer Al, so guess you broke your odd year streak? Congratulations.

Seeing several does this weekend so far. Kinda weird no bucks around, not even the little ones.

Yes, Thank You to all veterans. Our 12 year old is having some friends over for a late birthday party tomorrow afternoon. Band season is done, 16 year old daughters school placed 6th out of 21 bands last weekend in the state competition. Should be some good activity going on here. I plan to be in a stand this afternoon, hopefully this north wind will die down and wont prevent me from going to the stand I want to hunt. Will probably be in a stand in the morning too unless I kill something this afternoon. Probably try to sit most of the day Sunday if I can.

Not legal to kill albino here. Piebalds would be legal the way our regs read. Never seen one or gotten trail cam pics of one. I would probably take a piebald if he was of my typical standards, 3.5 year old or older.

Congratulations Ruth. Nice buck.

He is splintered to almost nothing and is making his rounds around our cams about every 2 to 3 days. Not much left to fight with, but something tells me that isn't stopping him, he seems to have an attitude. Almost every set of pics we are getting of him now have him tailing other bucks within seconds, most of those are 2.5 year old 8 pointers. With 3 cams going still have not gotten pics of any bucks that I think could have busted his beams.

Good luck Ross. Not been much for me either. Between all we have had going on with my mother being sick and then losing her and stuff with the kids just not been able to get out. About all I have even been aside from the few hours this morning was the 3 sits over the youth hunt, now wishing I had talked my 12 year old into taking the 7 pt she had an easy shot on. I did get out a couple hours this morning, wind was all wrong for the stand I really wanted to go to. Instead sat a stand looking over a very soggy bottom and some standing soybeans and surprisingly saw nothing.

Hoping to finally get my first few sits alone in a stand the next few days, have yet to get out with my accura, our muzzleloader opened Saturday. Better weather coming in finally, but looking like a n or nne wind which isn't really great for most of my good stands. From past experience I know we should be right at that time where action is good, bucks cruising looking for early receptive does, but with just 3 sits over the youth hunt back in October I have not been in the stand enough to say for sure what is going on here. Noticed a good rubline along paralleling the river from a bluff going on to our food plot in the bottom while taking a walk in the 80 degree heat over the weekend. Also walked up on 3 ill tempered water moccasins, lucky for me they gave warning before I got close enough for them to strike because I was walking the trail they were laying on and I would never have seen them had they not popped their cotton mouths open and rattled the leaves with their tails. Last pull of cards had the mature splintered buck and another decent 8 pointer that I would pass both working a scrape I can see from a couple of my stands, not the right wind for them though. Looking for something special that has not been around the cams(particularly the buck that splintered the one Allison and I saw during the youth hunt) or will whack any yotes that present themselves. Will probably get Allison out over the weekend if she wants to go.

Great deer Pat. Congratulations.