Gun Season Opener

[ShaunM]

I'm seeing deer both does and little bucks. Seen a spike this morning. His right tine was about 8 or 9 inches long and the left tine was only 3 or 4. He was chasing a doe around. I still haven't seen any of my big deer. I'm kinda getting frustrated so I'm hitting some other properties this week. Maybe that will help out. I seen 1 little doe this evening.

[DaveS]

My SIL built an AR in 7.62x40 and put a nice doe down this morning with it. The round performed very well!

Dave S

[Slappy]

[quote name='Hunting101' timestamp='1353282735' post='847842']
I'm seeing deer both does and little bucks. Seen a spike this morning. His right tine was about 8 or 9 inches long and the left tine was only 3 or 4. He was chasing a doe around. I still haven't seen any of my big deer. I'm kinda getting frustrated so I'm hitting some other properties this week. Maybe that will help out. I seen 1 little doe this evening.
[/quote]

Yeah its funny how you see a bunch of nice deer on game cameras and then when you go hunt them they are non existent. Guess thats why they call it hunting!

[sigbrown1297]

Congrats on a good day. Im planning on going on wed morning. Pretty excited.

[ShaunM]

[quote name='Slappy' timestamp='1353292871' post='847937']
Yeah its funny how you see a bunch of nice deer on game cameras and then when you go hunt them they are non existent. Guess thats why they call it hunting!
[/quote]

I figure if I keep at it then they will slip up......I hope lol.

[Slappy]

[quote name='Hunting101' timestamp='1353298885' post='848009']
I figure if I keep at it then they will slip up......I hope lol.
[/quote]

This may help us both!
http://www.qdma.com/articles/to-kill-mature-bucks-go-somewhere-else

To Kill Mature Bucks...Go Somewhere Else

I had an interesting phone conversation with deer researcher Dr. Mark Conner while I was working on an article for [i]Quality Whitetails[/i]. Mark, who works in Maryland, has led a number of recent groundbreaking studies of buck movements and home-range characteristics using GPS tracking collars placed on deer. We were talking about “sanctuaries,” and Mark told me about two distinct areas on his study site that have developed into safe zones with no hunting pressure, and how these two areas ended up being the core areas for several of the adult bucks being tracked.
These sanctuaries weren’t created on purpose, Mark said. Hunting guides tried to place guests in or near these areas because cover is heavy and they knew mature bucks frequented these zones. But the guests often objected. They tended to want to be somewhere they could see a long way, so they could “see more deer.” Stuck in a stand in heavy cover, they were unhappy. So, the guides altogether quit using these areas as stand sites, which further enhanced the sanctuary effect.
The irony here, of course, is that hunters equated seeing farther with seeing more deer, including mature bucks. Yet, as the researchers learned, these hunters stood a far greater chance of actually encountering a mature buck in the thicket, where they couldn’t see very far.
This brought to mind related stories that always crop up whenever I’m thinking about hunting strategy and mature bucks.
Several years ago, before I worked at QDMA, I interviewed a teen-aged hunter who had killed an outstanding buck. His story also had an ironic twist. Hunting as a guest of his dad’s club, the teenager had his heart set on a particular stand. When he rose before dawn the next morning, he hurried to the sign-in board to put a pin on the map, reserving the stand he wanted. But a club member appeared and pulled rank, removing the boy’s “guest” pin and taking the stand for himself, as the rules allowed. The boy’s father couldn’t do anything about it, and there were no other “good” stands available. In frustration, the boy picked a random spot on the map, just outside of camp, and jabbed his pin into the board. Then he grabbed his climbing stand and rifle, straggled off into the dark into a tangled cutover bordering camp, and climbed the first large tree he came to. Shortly after sunup, a monstrous buck rose miraculously out of the cutover where it had been bedding, only a stone’s throw outside camp.
Ah, sweet justice.
You’ve heard stories like this, I’m sure. The big bucks that get killed the first time a new stand is hunted. The hunter who gets lost and kills the best buck of his career. Or the “lucky” hunter who consistently kills mature bucks but doesn’t fit in with his hunting peers because he doesn’t hunt like they do. The common thread is hunters who think they know the best places to hunt, and they’re wrong. Either they choose sites that aren’t as good as they think they are, or they turn the best places into the worst places by hunting them – over and over again.
As hunters, we make all kinds of judgement errors in choosing where to hunt:
Some of us think seeing a long way equates to seeing more deer (sometimes it does, but not always).
Some of us think food plots are the best place to be (sometimes they are, but not always).
Some of us think a productive stand is bound to be just as productive tomorrow. This is just plain wrong, in my opinion. Consistently successful hunters agree: The chances of seeing a mature buck at a given stand decrease exponentially each time you hunt there without giving the site a lengthy rest.
And some of us look at cutovers, thickets, swamps or thorns and turn the other direction, toward that comfortable condo stand at the end of a four-wheeler trail.
The main mistake is in thinking we know what kind of landscape mature bucks prefer. Mainly, mature bucks prefer to be where we [i]aren’t[/i]. They do have their weaknesses, and if it wasn’t for the rut, significantly fewer hunters would ever see adult bucks; but to consistently increase your chances of seeing them, identify your favorite stand – and go somewhere else. Edited November 19, 2012 by Slappy

[Mdunntn]

Passed on a yearling this morning. Was paying attention to it, and missed an chance on 4 big does that ran off when I wasn't paying attention. My cousin killed a six point this morning.
We just haven't been seeing as many deer this season?[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/11/19/azu3yguz.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/11/19/azamure7.jpg[/IMG]

Sent from Behind a Set of Crosshairs

[sigbrown1297]

how soon after the kill do you have to field dress it?

[jtmaze]

[quote name='robtattoo' timestamp='1353088226' post='846654']

NOPE!
Shoot what you're used to and accurate with. 5.56 WILL kill deer. While I would prefer something like .270 or '06, if all I had was a .223 I was used to & knew I'd take that over a bigger gun that I wasn't so familiar with, every day of the week.
It's ALL about shot placement. Everything else & I mean EVERYTHING else is a secondary consideration.

You gotta remember, even with pin-point-perfect placement, not every deer is going to dump on the spot (although the Sportsman (sic) Channel would have you believe this)
Use good quality bullets that are going to expand properly, learn where to shoot a deer from all angles & keep your shots to distances you're 100% comfortable with & you'll be fine.[/quote]

I have killed more deer with my grand daddy's old 30-30 than my 06. I have seen them fall on the spot, jump twice and fall down, and run for a quarter mile. Lesson is they all die. Most of the time if you give them time and don't pursue they will lay down close and bleed out.


JTM
Sent from my iPhone

[sigbrown1297]

First time out this morning and just landed me a doe. Pictures to come

Two other ones were too small and even though try we're handing out after the shot, i decided to pass on them.

Edited November 21, 2012 by sigbrown1297

[reed1285]

You guys in other units that can kill does during gun season are lucky. Ive only got a week to bag a doe with a rifle during my units non quota antlerless hunt. I had to buy a type 094 license on top my licenses i already have also. But thats gonna be my main chance at putting meat in the freezer. Congrats to all you guys gettin deer!

[Slappy]

[quote name='sigbrown1297' timestamp='1353506299' post='849086']
First time out this morning and just landed me a doe. Pictures to come

Two other ones were too small and even though try we're handing out after the shot, i decided to pass on them.
[/quote]

There you go!! Great job man!! Please do share pictures! To answer your question from above, I would say you should have it field dressed within and hour or two. I think a lot of that though depends on temperature and where you shot it. You don't want to wait too long though.

[Slappy]

[quote name='reed1285' timestamp='1353507463' post='849090']
You guys in other units that can kill does during gun season are lucky. Ive only got a week to bag a doe with a rifle during my units non quota antlerless hunt. I had to buy a type 094 license on top my licenses i already have also. But thats gonna be my main chance at putting meat in the freezer. Congrats to all you guys gettin deer!
[/quote]

That sucks. I forget how lucky we are to bag as many does as we are able to. The property I hunt we saw 15 deer on opening day so it definelty needs a few does taken out. Balancing buck to doe ratios improve the health of the herd and make the rut more intense and bucks more visible.

[sigbrown1297]

My first deer!
[IMG]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b194/sigbrown1297/2012%20Deer%20Season/IMG_1537-2.jpg[/IMG]
The two young ones hanging around after mamma deer was taken down.
[img]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b194/sigbrown1297/2012%20Deer%20Season/IMG_1534.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b194/sigbrown1297/2012%20Deer%20Season/IMG_1533.jpg[/img]

Mamma Deer. Clean shot to the heart.
[img]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b194/sigbrown1297/2012%20Deer%20Season/IMG_1532.jpg[/img] Edited November 22, 2012 by sigbrown1297

[DaveS]

AWESOME and congrats! You're now officialy hooked for life!

Dave S

[Guest adamoxtwo]

Nice Deer! and shot! Congrats it only gets better

[Lumber_Jack]

[quote name='sigbrown1297' timestamp='1353470411' post='849019']how soon after the kill do you have to field dress it?[/quote]

Depends on the outside temp, but the sooner the better. The high temp innards that are now dead can decay and spoil the meat, not to mention there is always a chance you have nicked the stomach or bowel and that needs cleaned out quickly.

I am of the camp that I field dress as soon as I get to the deer. Now of you have an ATV and want to transport the deer to an easier place that's perfectly fine. The warmer it is outside the more urgent field dressing becomes.

[Mdunntn]

We always field dress immediately after the kill

Sent from Behind a Set of Crosshairs

[FJCrusing]

[quote name='sigbrown1297' timestamp='1353470411' post='849019']
how soon after the kill do you have to field dress it?
[/quote]

Immediately.

[FJCrusing]

Took a doe on Thanksgiving morning. Was hunting out of state in West Virginia on family property that's overrun with does. I would not normally take a yearling or what appears to possibly be a yearling on the QDMA property that I hunt in Tennessee.

[img]http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/tyree326/Thanksgiving2012Doe-1.jpg[/img]

Also wanted to share this. Here is a link to a great example on how to age deer on the hoof. [url="http://www.tndeer.com/tndeertalk/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=594403&page=1#Post594403"]http://www.tndeer.com/tndeertalk/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=594403&page=1#Post594403[/url]