wadeocu

I don't think your going to see anyone around here answer that one differently. Of course I have a 3 buck limit too, so maybe if it was the one buck for the year or if it was a scrubby little spike it would make it tough. It's the right thing to do though, so I think most would.

Howdy folks - These are the bucks I killed on 12-29&30-2011. I didn't kill any bucks this year (3 doe in the freezer though) and I don't think I posted these last year so I figured I'd share them now. There is a really long story behind these deer; I'll post a link to it when I get it published. - Best regards, Jack

I have a similar deer rifle that I love. A Ruger M77 in 250-3000 with one of the new Redfield Revolution 2-7x33s on it. You and I have similar views on matters it appears. I also have a Paul Jaeger 30-06 with a Kahles 2-7x36 that I love just as dearly. The M77 has a shortened stock (3/4 of an inch) and a muzzle break that can be screwed off and replaced with a cuff; it is set up as a youth gun. The trigger and safety were also customized by a Paul Jaeger gunsmith back in the 80s. It was a gift to me from my dad and was my first deer rifle. I killed two deer with it last year for the first time in 20 years. I had forgotten how much I love it. I hope to have my sons kill their first deer with it. Great gun you have there! Sounds like you can shoot it well!

The rifle season in MS ended in the thrird week of January with a muzzle loader season that ran to 1/31 this year. There is legislation on the table to move it to 1/31 for rifle and 2/15 for muzzle next year! Thanks for the compliments guys!

I am a firm believer in the Mauser 98 action; it is the best there is in my view in terms of reliability and performance. It has more than a century of proven history to support this conclusion. Many custom rifles (including my own) are built on Mauser actions such as an FN, but you don't have to go with a custom rifle to get one. Remingtom actually offered a new build Mauser 98 in its 798 model a few years back and I think it can be had for under $500. I saw one at Bass Pro about 3 years ago for $450. I have never used or owned a Remington 798, so do some research on it. My comments are based on my belief in the Mauser 98 action and the fact that this seems like a cheap way to get one. Google it and draw your own conclusions. I'd get one in .30-06 for versatility with North American big game and plains game around the world. - Jack

Thanks for the kind comments and sharing in my excitement folks! Here's a little bit more of the story. The picture gives a good feel for the country I hunt in - thick cover! 200 yard views are about as far as it gets. I glassed this group of deer for 30 minutes through the vines at about 200 yards with a very obstructed view until they filtered through a shooting lane about 150 yards away. There were 8-9 deer in the group with does, at least one spike, a fork horn and this guy. I was able to get a good idea of what I was looking at through the cover piece by piece seeing a hind leg here, an ear there and an antler every so often while they hung up and fed before coming into my shooting lane. I had made out this guy as a shooter and was ready for him a good 15 minutes before he presented a shot and glassing was the key here. I had a pretty good idea he would make it through the lane as the lead does had gone through single file and they all seemed to be following slowly but surely. He and the fork horn were trailing the herd and made it into one of only a couple of shooting lanes about the same time. I had to be careful that I was shooting at the correct deer given the broken up views I was getting. When he stepped into the lane, I gave a loud verbal 'grunt' and he stopped and looked. I had my knee up on the stand to rest my shooting arm and squeezed off a shot. He bucked up so I knew I connected, but pandemonium ensued and I wasn't able to keep an eye on him as he ran through the woods. I thought I heard him crash and started glassing in that general direction. After ten minutes or so I caught a glimpse of a small white patch and thought it may be him. I climbed down and walked toward the shot site perpendicular to the location of the white patch and a better view opened up where I could make out a bit of antler with the white patch. I glassed for a minute about 200 yds away and made sure he wasn't moving his head. After satisfying myself that he was down I went ahead and walked up to him without having to follow a blood trail. It was a clean heart shot and he even had the decency to run to w/in 30 yds of an accessible road on top of the old levee. Great way to end the season!

Shot this buck at 150 yards inside the levee on the MS river on 1-17-10. An exciting day in the woods; I have seen 76 deer this year on 22 hunts and 20 of those deer were seen on this one 5 hour hunt last Sunday!

Good buddy of mine drew one, but it was a doe and spike tag. He had a great hunt but saw a couple of big bucks he couldn't shoot. The torment would make it hard for me to go on that hunt unless I had the coveted buck tag.

While hunting in southwest Tennessee last Sunday (11/8) I rattled, grunted and bleated in some spike bucks. Saw the first one 100 yds away in the field. I was hunting 20 yds inside a wooded draw. He turned away and headed over the hill. I rattled a bit, grunted and then hit the can. He was coming into my draw - 180 degree turn in direction from when I last saw him - about five minutes later. He came into me within 10 yds of the stand and we locked eyes for a minute. He headed out of the woods a bit uneasy but not spooked. At that moment I saw another deer walking the tree line in the field headed our way from the opposite direction that this buck had appeared. The spike turned and headed to the other deer and they started sparing. That's when I realized they were both spike bucks. They turned and headed through the field away from me and over the hill. Just before they disappeared from view I rattled again and they stopped and turned to look. I grunted three times and they took a few steps to me. I hit the bleat can and they both started trotting back to me and into the woods, this time about twenty yards in front of me. They hung out for about ten minutes looking for the party before they trotted back out and over the hill again. This encounter lasted about forty minutes and there is no doubt that they responded to all three calls. I'm in the south and, by my observations and understanding, the rut will not really crank up here for another three weeks or so. - Jack

Thanks for all the kind congratulatory comments folks. This is my second best buck to date and I'm thrilled to be so fortunate. Here is another shot and the one from last year (best ever) for comparison. I think this year's buck is kind of young - 2.5 maybe. I say this because he seemed a bit smaller in stature and the neck and face was a bit shorter. If I am right (may not be - ageing deer is difficult for me) then perhaps I should have passed him up to let him really blossom into a truly big deer. Not sure I would have had the discipline to do so even if I had thought about before pulling the trigger - which I didn't, not for a second. What do you all think?

12-19: Shot a doe in the morning. This guy came in with 6 doe minutes from quitting time that evening. He was hanging in the thick stuff watching two doe in the food plot while they browsed for a good ten minutes. Great day in the Mississippi river bottoms.

I reccomend the Remington 798 (the one with the true Mauser action) and a Zeiss Conquest. The package should run you less than a grand. 30-06 is the caliber to get in my opinion.

Sorry to hear this 4Blade - sounds like you gave it everything you had though. Its a drag for sure. Indeed it sounds like there was a good learning experience to come out of it none the less - cheers for that. I too am a better hunter for this experience and thanks to everyone for that. - Jack

I'm hunting near Williston in Fayette County. The only scavengers that found her were some ants around the eyes. It was upper 40s for most of the night going down to 43 by 6:00AM. She was still warm from body heat when I field dressed her. I think the meat is fine, but I told the processor (a top notch outfit in Moscow that does nothing but deer) about the situation and he said he would clean her out and cool her down right away and will not process her if the meat appears spoiled. - Jack

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I found her! I got there at dawn, went to the spot I had marked and could not find any more blood in the field to follow a trail. So I made my best guess as to where she went into the woods on the other side of the field after she went over the hill. I walked into the brush about 30 yards in and started looking around in the thick low spots that would make a good place to hunker down and hide. I found one spot where she had laid down and bled out a bit but not a bunch of blood. I started glassing around at the surrounding brush and got lucky and spotted her about more 30 yards away. She was still a bit warm to the touch and only somewhat stiff - no critter issues either. Turns out my shot was about 3-4 inches aft of where it should have been and angled just a bit. It went through her liver and stomach. She's at the processor now and I have some confidence back. Thanks fellas - Jack BTW, How did your situation turn out 4Blade?

Thanks for the input guys. Im in west TN. I shot her a little after 5:00 pm. Sunrise is 6:00 am. It will be high 40's going down to 43 tonight, 58 by 9:00 and 72 by noon. I'll be there at first light and give it my best.

@*!! I shot a doe right at quiting time tonight and made a bad shot. Don't ask - I just messed it up. I'm pretty sore about this; I'm actually rethinking my continued particpation in this sport - after 22 years. Anyhow, I climed down the tree right away because when I shot, I couldn't see the reaction with all the black powder smoke and when she emerged from the cloud, I watched her bolt across the field and over a hill seemingly unhit. I thought I needed to find the spot where she was standing to see if I hit her before it got dark. I just wasn't sure that I hit her. I found the spot and there was a dollar bill size splash of blood with stomach contents in it. Some of the leaves were not very digested so I think I hit her in the stomach. It was dark shortly afterward. I backed out and went around and left. I'm going back out in the morning to look for her. Any advice or thoughts? - Jack

I'd say 3.5 too - 140 (not really good at this part) - Tall Boy, Canyon Rack or Max Headroom (remember that show!?!).

A custom Paul Jaeger 30-06 built on a Mauser FN action with a Kahles 2-7x38. T/C Triumph and a Nikon Omega for ML season.

In short, I don't know the answer, but I'll describe an experience I had on a rainy day last gun season. I hunted all morning from sun up until about 11:30 when the wet started to wick up inside of my rain suit. It had rained steadily and moderately all morning long. I saw three solo deer walk by at different times that morning - two does and a spike. All three were browsing and seemingly unaffected by the rain. I went in for lunch and to dry out. Everyone else in camp had slept in due to the rain (spoiled pansies). They all went out into the field at 1:00 after the rain slacked off. I went back out at 3:00 when the rain actually broke and the sun peaked out. I approached my stand from the rear walking up a gully and quietly climbing out at my stand site. I climed up the ladder and while I was still getting situated (thankfully I had already chambered a round) I saw a nice 10 pointer and respectable 8 walking through at about 200 yards. Another fellow shot a smaller 8 point about five minutes after I shot the 10 and said it was in a large group of deer coming out to feed in a food plot. The two other guys hunting with us that afternoon both said they saw deer come into their area within a half hour of my shot. No one had seen anything that afternoon until the rain broke. I think this experience showed that in the Mississippi river bottoms that we hunt, they move after a long day of rain breaks and the sun comes out. I saw deer in the rain that morning but they were the odd young single deer. As soon as the rain broke, deer were moving all over the place. I think there was certainly a correlation. Here are the two deer taken that day:

Kahles or Zeiss both make great scopes in the $400 range(superior to anything Nikon makes). I got the Kahles AH 2.5-7 for right at $400 and think it was a great buy. The glass compared very favorably with my Dad's Swarovski. They are more expensive and, frankly, the Nikons mentioned here are indeed excellent choices in their price range $200 +/-. Go north of 1k and you can get Zeiss, Swaro etc. scopes that are far superior to the $400 +/- range Zeiss scopes such as their Conquest line. My point is that you should decide how much to spend and then pick the best quality scope you can afford. For the most part, there is a huge qualitative difference between the various price range scopes, but within a given range there are indeed some favorites. If you are looking in the saem range as I did early this year, take a long look at the Kahles scopes. Check out the guys at opticstalk.com - very knowledgable bunch and the site sponser (SWFA) has some great prices too. Check out their sample list for some really good deals. - Jack

This will be my first experience with one. I have never even fired one. I am leaning toward a TC Triumph as it seems to be easy to use and clean and is well respected. I want the stainless/black version for the corrosion resistance (camo not so important to me). Cabela's has a package deal with a scope and starter kit for $550 shipped. The gun alone is $470 shipped, the scope with mounts is another $60 and the starter kit is another $20. The scope is their Pine Ridge 2.5-7X junk but the attractive thing here is the mounts being included as the mounts seem to sell for about $50 individually. I may end up getting a Nikon scope for it eventually, I'm not sure how good/bad the Pine Ridge scopes are, but I suspect it is a Simmons with the Cabela's brand name. The starter kit includes the following: 20 Shockwave 250-grain sabots, composite T-handle short starter/ramrod extension, Super Jag with spire-point bullet tip, three speedloaders, 209 capper/decapper, bronze cleaning brush, 4-oz. bottle of Cabela's Black-Powder Solvent, 1/2-oz. tube of Superlube and 25 cleaning patches. Becuase I have no accessories already, the starter kit seems to be good value to get me going with the cleaning supplies etc. The price seems to be good - Bass Pro sells the gun shipped for $540 with none of the accessories which, for $10 more, seems to be a no brainer when chosing between theses otpions. What do you guys think? Is this a good deal? Should I dump the package deal idea and look for accesories individually? I will be using this for Whitetails in the Mississippi delta (thick bottom land terrain). Any input is appreciated. Thanks, Jack

I grew up with a Ruger M77 bored for .250 Savage - highly recommended.

257 ... 250 savage is worth a look too.

I posted this in the 'equipment' forum and got some good answers, but thought I would present it here since deer hunting is what I do with my rifle - whitetails in bottom land cover in the Mississppi/West Tennesee/Arkansas area. I rarely get a shot opportunity over 200 yards. Here's the question: Any thoughts on this issue? Some of my references (some of which are over 20 years old) indicate that fixed power scopes are better than variable citing, among other factors, the fact that they have fewer moving parts as making them more rugged and reliable. 4x is the recommended power according to these same sources. I am wondering, however, if variable power scopes have improved since these opinions were expressed. I'm in the market for a mid-grade scope such as a Zeiss Conquest, Khales or perhaps a Leupold. Variable power is definantly more prevalent among these lines, but I am curious about the preference for fixed power that I have seen some knowledgable folks express.