I bet you don't mix the next time. If you keep your eye on the deer, through the scope. You will see the bullet impact. Keep your cheek pinned to the stock and you'll make a clean shot. Good luck Tiger chik!
She hung in there and put her .270 to work. I heard the meat slap then got the text. 9pt. and 150 lbs. That was 1 happy lady. It's all quartered up and she's going to have a European mount done. I can't wait for a venison roast now.
Close, It is social, and it does include a few people in a blind. However it is usually a few people getting drunk in the blind and one or two kids wondering why in the hell they are out here freezing their nuts off. Yes Yes and No. Yes being the size of the deer is always important. I learned to bow hunt from a guy that was a close personal friend of Fred Bear. He told me me once "big deer don't get to be big deer by being stupid" I haven't hunted deer in a long time but I know that I would never hunt them any other way than with a bow. It is the ultimate test of you vs. the deer on his home turf. The places that you mentioned, imo have ruined deer hunting and turned it into deer killing. A true hunter has to go out and scout long before the hunting season begins. Find trails, find out where the deer eat, find out where they sleep, set up a stand somewhere in between the two and wait. These high dollar arrangements are nothing more than a shooting range and I hope someday they all go belly up. Hunting clubs are a different story. There are lots of them and they organize work weekends and cooking schedules and they have dues to pay for the lease and all sorts of things. They are usually on a vast expanse of land where it is still you vs the deer in its natural habitat and not corralled like the places you talked about. My ex father in law had a hunting club like this in Grosse Tete and you had to do your homework if you expected to even get a shot at a deer. It is called hunting for a reason. It should never be called "shooting" As for the bonding, I don't know if there is a better way. Leave the cell phones and the computers and TV's and radios and just spend time with your kids. I need to do this more. If you were to get into it, learn, figure out what they do, how they operate, feed, breed, mark territory, spar, all that stuff and then get out in the woods and start looking at sign and figure out just by looking at things such as scrapes and rubs that you are on to a really big deer then it sort of consumes you. It becomes an obsession. Then when you see him, WOW, it really does take your breath away and chances are you will miss the first shot on nerves alone. You get to see him prance off and you say to yourself "next time big boy" and that is if you are lucky. Sure there is a bit of sadness when you finally take him down but it can't touch the euphoria.
Nothing like putting organically grown food on the table and in the freezer either. No antibiotics or steroids added.
I don't drink while I hunt, never. Not that going out in the morning after a night of heavy drinking (which I've done many times - though not in a long time) is a whole lot better. EDIT: I just posted a Mardi Gras thread and recalled a time (last year) where Sensa and I jumped on my 4 wheeler with a 12 gauge at 2 a.m. in the morning and rode off in the pasture to go shoot a skunk. I wouldn't call that hunting but I know it technically was.
Hunter chokes up after spotting record buck... After a minute or two of staring through my scope, I dropped my rifle in the grass, fell to my knees and prayed for this blessed creature. I just couldn't pull the trigger!
Damn @red55 does have a sense of humor. That pic is too funny. I haven't been deer hunting in probably 15 yrs or so... wish there was better public hunting around here.
