Antlermass

Congrats!

Thanks

Nicely done

Little late on this but here goes anyway, Sat all day opening day and saw a lot of deer but none he wanted to shoot. He passed on some young bucks and a lot of does, 4Th season hunting deer so he’s a bit more picky now. Day 2 he was acting pretty sluggish in the morning getting ready and didn’t want to eat breakfast before we left. We have about an hour drive and then a taxing 30 minute walk through steep bluff county with full gear to last the day. We made more stops than usual during our walk and I was starting to feel bad we even came out, he clearly wasn’t feeling well but didn’t say anything until we started our hike. So we get to the blind and I have him take off his hoodie too cool down, we have a heater if he get to cold, and after a few minutes he’s getting his temp down. Then he stands up leans out the window and vomits! So now I’m dying inside because I hate that he’s not well and could care less about hunting. He sits down and says that he’s better, I tell him okay well go home if you want to, No he wants to stay. Fine, everything seemed to pass after that, he cooled down, ate a small snack and was much better off. About 7:15 we could here 2 bucks fighting in the cedars fairly close and so we got positioned where we hope he could shoot. 15 minutes later I saw antlers in the cedars and told my boy “Be ready, trust me you’re going to want to shoot this buck”. The buck stepped out from behind a cedar tree at 15 yards and stopped at 25 when I blew my grunt tube. Perfect shot! The rifle my son used belonged to my father in law, he is still with us but never really got into hunting and now is handicapped with M.S. He gave me the rifle one Christmas years back, I’ve used it a few times but it rarely comes out. This year we took it to the range while checking the zero on the other guns and my son really liked it and asked to hunt with it this season. He handled it well and shot good so I said ok. So as we are enjoying the moment after we recover his buck I decided that was as good a time as any to officially give him his grandfather’s Rem 700 30.06 that he bought back in 1968. Kid forgot he didn’t feel well pretty quickly after the buck and being given a rifle! Turned into a great day....

Congrats!

Fantastic buck! that thing is a huge!

ALL hunting shows have taken a doward spiral in the last 3-5 years. To much advertising, same ole tip-o-the-week-crap, they spend way to much time yappin and runnin their lip rather than hunting. Most every show is nothing more than a 30 minute infomercial for outfitters. There are a few exceptions, very few, I am embarassed by a lot of these shows and just shake my head in disbelief at every episode I watch.

Fairly common here in Nebraska to get a late season kill with babies. 3 of the 5 does we killed this year were pregnant with twins. Kinda of the point of the late season really , get them after they have been bred and take out the babies as well as the parent taking out 2 or 3 deer instead of 1. Typically a doe in january is about two months into her 6-7 month gestation thats about the same as the end of the first trimester of humans.

That deer was killed last year or the year before.

I own 4 of the calibers listed. The .270 was my first rifle and will always hold a special spot in my hunting memories. My 7mm mag has taken a few deer but in my opinion is too much gun for whitetails, a fine caliber but a touch much, better suited for Elk I think. I got a 30.06 this year and have not hunted with it, but have alwayes admired the versatility of the caliber. Now my .243 has become my go-to-gun in the last two season. After placing a Luepold VXII 4-12x40 AO on top it has been unstoppable in the woods. I have killed one buck and 5 does since Jan 1st 07 (late antlerless and regular firearm seasons) and 3 of them dropped in thier tracks the rest went less than 20 ft after the shot, so the .243 gets my vote as favorite, but the rest have all earned a spot in my gun rack for future hunts. Great list of guns there and no suprise that the .270 heads the crowd.

I used to read all the time on stand. Mostly whitetail hunting books and Stephen King novels. One year I was reading on of Greg Millers' books on deer hunting and I came to a chapter on reasons hunters miss out on the big bucks. As I sat on stand I read the sentance that said " Many hunter miss out on shots or prime oppertunities at big bucks because they have their nose buried in a book when they should be reading the woods" something to that effect anyway, well needles to say reading that while on stand made me feel slightly stupid so I put the book away and havent read on stand since.