2020/2021 Hunting Thread

[Both Tacos 1806]

Hunting up between Stephenville and I-20.
Morning doe successs.

[Herbie Hancock 7376]

It finally started here about fifteen minutes ago and it’s coming down thick. Dad sent this from their house an hour ago. They’re south of Abilene

[williemackgarza 1826]

Nice doe. Finally did get some here in rr,tx.

[fattyflattie 4638]

On 1/9/2021 at 10:46 PM, huge said:

And he didn’t want the meat

Do what?  
 

Think I made the last hunt of the season this weekend.  We definitely did some doe mgt this year.  Did see a nice 9 4yo that might be on the menu if he makes it another year.  Maybe.  Other than that nothing but small guys, skunk pigs, and doe.  Still much much better than the office.  

[fattyflattie 4638]

On 1/7/2021 at 7:55 AM, williemackgarza said:

Man I want a .257 wby bad just havent stumbled on the right deal. Those 92g are screaming outta the barrel.

Been my go to for several years now. I’ve been trying to downsize but I still seem to reach for it more often that not.  Little 100 grainer did work this weekend, for sure. 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

12 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Been my go to for several years now. I’ve been trying to downsize but I still seem to reach for it more often that not.  Little 100 grainer did work this weekend, for sure. 

I have a 257.  And I do like it.  But I have a really expensive custom 270 wby mag that was my uncle's.  He had it made 15 years ago.  And was running custom made ammo that was hotter than factory.  It would lock up if you shot more than once in short order where you couldn't throw the bolt when shot.  I was standing next to him on our little range when it happened the second time.  And he said F it, and handed it to me.  He said you can have this piece of shit.

I went and bought factory Weatherby ammo.  You can shoot a box of factory loads and it won't lock up on you.  It is ultra light and has a very nice Leica 4x18 tactical type scope.  I love that rifle.  And it's just about all I reach for.  Though I did kill my big deer this year with my son's youth model 6.5 Creedmoor.

[fattyflattie 4638]

53 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Though I did kill my big deer this year with my son's youth model 6.5 Creedmoor.

I’ve got a couple of .243’s I’ve been trying to work into the mix. And I do switch it up. Just seems like every time it’s shooting time, it ends up being the 257.  I also have a 270 wby but haven’t done much more than tinker with it yet.  I’ve just started trending my recoil down around the same time I bought it.  Working on building a 22/250, 220 swift/other into a custom model 70 eventually. But it’s been on the back burner for a bit.   6.5 CM is on the list, as well.  

[Herbie Hancock 7376]

I really need to be better about mixing up my choice in rifle. Last year I almost exclusively used my 7mag. This year I did all my killing with my 6.5 creedmoor. I don’t know that I’ve taken a deer with my .270 in at least two maybe three years

[fattyflattie 4638]

I really need to be better about mixing up my choice in rifle. Last year I almost exclusively used my 7mag. This year I did all my killing with my 6.5 creedmoor. I don’t know that I’ve taken a deer with my .270 in at least two maybe three years

Buy 15-20 of them and you feel like you have to.  I have a 300mag just sitting in the back of the safe that I really want to mix in (I know, doesn’t jibe with my less recoil comments) at some point.  Been trying to talk @Llano Estacado into a Nilgai hunt so I can break her out. 




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[Gladeite 375]

As I have gotten older, I don't enjoy the recoil much anymore.   For about 20 years, I did all of my culling with the '06.  Loaded an 110 grain TTSX at 3500 fps and it is a killer for white tail deer and African plains game.  

This year, I am using a Savage Axis in .223 loaded with 75 grain Hornady soft points.  Killed a bunch of doe, cull bucks with it.  It works "most" of the time.  Tracking thru dense woods can be a pain because of the faint/if any blood trail.  They will usually be piled up 50 to 100 yards inside the woods/draw but finding a few has been a longer than necessary.  About 80% DRT or within 10 yards.  I have to do better than that.  I don't have time to be tracking/dragging out of the woods on a cull mission.

I have one more guiding trip starting Thursday, and I will finish up the season trying to build a better penetrator such as Barnes TTSX, Swift A-frame, Nosler Partition or a more violent expander that I can slip behind the shoulder and cause massive pulmonary disruption.  

Loving the no recoil.

[CHIEF 5095]

I love a .243, it was my first gun, and CHIEF Jr.'s when he was a kid, one of the best calibers for smaller central Texas deer. My Dad bought it when he found out my Mom was pregnant with me. He was an amateur gunsmith, I can remember as a small child watching him glass bed all of the rifles we owned. For decades, we owned three rifles, the .243, a .270, and his favorite rifle a 7mm mag. About 12 years ago, I bought the second Sako A7 .300 short mag in the US, it's a great gun for carrying on elk hunts, with the scope, it weighs under 8 pounds. Also inherited a Weatherby Vanguard .25-06 from my FIL, I was the only one that had ever killed anything with it. That's another great caliber for Whitetails, and probably the best rifle by a considerable margin in that price range.

CHIEF

20 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

I’ve got a couple of .243’s I’ve been trying to work into the mix. And I do switch it up. Just seems like every time it’s shooting time, it ends up being the 257.  I also have a 270 wby but haven’t done much more than tinker with it yet.  I’ve just started trending my recoil down around the same time I bought it.  Working on building a 22/250, 220 swift/other into a custom model 70 eventually. But it’s been on the back burner for a bit.   6.5 CM is on the list, as well.  

 

[Spaulding Smails 1555]

Shitty pic through binoculars taken by my wife from the porch of the cabin this weekend while I was in the blind with my son, but this axis buck is going to be legit.  That's a fairly mature whitetail doe in front of him.  I saw him again the next morning, and he's a bruiser.  He's still in velvet and his antlers are still growing (I'm guessing another 45 days of growth remaining), but super wide and fat bases.  I restarted the game cams to see if I can get a better look at him next weekend.  

Since we're low fence and on a small property, I'm hoping he doesn't roam too much.  At least buck season is over, so that should mean less hunters in blinds on adjacent properties as well.  

[Johnny Sack 8397]

On 1/11/2021 at 1:50 PM, Herbie Hancock said:

I really need to be better about mixing up my choice in rifle. Last year I almost exclusively used my 7mag. This year I did all my killing with my 6.5 creedmoor. I don’t know that I’ve taken a deer with my .270 in at least two maybe three years

I still love a 7 mag.  I have a Remington 700 7 mag I keep in my truck toolbox that I don't give a shit about if it were to get stolen.  Shoots the cheap Rem Core Lokt ammo you can (could) buy for $20 a box.  Will go through same hole at 100 yards.

My first rifle that was my own, really mine, was a .270 Browning A Bolt with a 3x9 Leupold gold ring I got at age 13 thirty years ago.  I probably killed 80% of my 500+ deer with that rifle.  When my son was born 11 years ago,I took it in, put a nice piece of glass on it, had the metal stripped and refinished, and put it in the back of my safe.  That gun will still put a bullet in the same hole at 100 yards.  I will give it to my son in a few years once he is big enough (he shoots a youth model 6.5 Creedmoor now).

I have two other .270s in my safe that I have never shot.  They were passed down to me, and I am holding them for my kids.  

Have not shot a 270 Rem in years. But my 270 Weatherby Magnum is my favorite gun to shoot.  I have killed everything from a big Red Deer (melted it with a neck shot at 290 yards), to Mule deer, to turkey with it.  It performs fantastically.  Zeroed in at 2 inches high at 100, I killed a big Mule Deer (body wise and huge frame rack but only a 2x2) at 400 yards and I was holding on hair.  Hit square in shoulder and maybe dropped 8-9 inches.

I love that gun.  I honestly do not notice the recoil difference between it and my 257 wby mag.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Johnny Sack

[Johnny Sack 8397]

On 1/11/2021 at 2:06 PM, fattyflattie said:

Buy 15-20 of them and you feel like you have to.  I have a 300mag just sitting in the back of the safe that I really want to mix in (I know, doesn’t jibe with my less recoil comments) at some point.  Been trying to talk @Llano Estacado into a Nilgai hunt so I can break her out. 




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That's a beauty.

[BabaYaga 15327]

On 1/12/2021 at 6:38 AM, Gladeite said:

This year, I am using a Savage Axis in .223 loaded with 75 grain Hornady soft points.  Killed a bunch of doe, cull bucks with it.  It works "most" of the time.  Tracking thru dense woods can be a pain because of the faint/if any blood trail.

I use a 22-250 with 55gr PSPs.  They drop as if struck by lightning.  I exclusively take neck shots (base of the spine really).  Lights out.  Body shots, and you will get some adrenaline running.  Happens.  I use that first, smaller circle (Ideal POI).

Giant scope.  Under 100yds.  Heavy, bull barrel.  Child's play to make that shot.  200+yards, I'd use my .270 just to be safe, but no blinds have ranges that far so I feel secure in using it.  

[BabaYaga 15327]

On 1/12/2021 at 7:39 AM, CHIEF said:

Also inherited a Weatherby Vanguard .25-06 from my FIL, I was the only one that had ever killed anything with it. That's another great caliber for Whitetails, and probably the best rifle by a considerable margin in that price range.

Second this.  25-06 is a poor mans .257 Weatherby.  If you hand load, you can match it in very metric.  As the .270 is a necked down 30-06, a 25-06 is a necked down .270.  All flow from the parent cartridge (as a .243 flows from a .308, etc)

It is a great, great cartridge for large Mule deer on down.  Perfect for WT.  Friend has one, it retired his custom 7mag.  Just as flat.  Less recoil and report.  More fun to shoot.  

[williemackgarza 1826]

Man, I love the 25-06.
I regret selling the first deer rifle I ever bought.
A Rem 700 BDL .25-06.
Was at UT and used a pell grant to buy it new.
Was at the old gun shop on south congress.
Damn I forget the name, Texas Guns maybe?
Bought a 3~9 Redfield tracker from the sporting goods store at northcross mall. They even mounted and bore sighted it for me.
Sold it later cause I wanted some quick cash.
Damn, what a dipshit

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4977]

Personally, I subscribe to the theory that it is always more desirable to take your guns with you on a fishing expedition on a boat of suspect quality than to sell them. You can't get one that you've sold back easily, but scuba isn't that expensive if you are dedicated.

[ROFL BOX 6649]

On 1/9/2021 at 3:21 PM, Herbie Hancock said:

Can you not read? His pole smoker is sick with the Covid.

Can you not read?  He's married... no spark in the pole smoker.

[Anastasis 23489]

Cleaning out the SD cards and noticed this poor guy.  First shot I saw did not show the left rear leg injury and his ass look emaciated.  Started worrying about CWD. Subsequent shots gave a clear picture of the injury and I exhaled. 

I never saw this guy in the field, or I would have put it down.  But my question is how much shit a game warden would give you if you shot this guy during doe season?  Hate seeing this guy waste away with an injury.

 

[Anastasis 23489]

First shot I saw:

 

[fattyflattie 4638]

Speaking of injuries. Lease member found this guy earlier this week. Figured it was a poaching situation, but upon further review it appeared he got gouged pretty badly in the neck. Not a monster but a pretty solid deer for our place, especially with another year and maybe some brows next year.







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[Reagan1k 3024]

58 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

But my question is how much shit a game warden would give you if you shot this guy during doe season?  Hate seeing this guy waste away with an injury.

More than you'd want I'm sure....especially if the GW was having a bad day.

S-S-S or let mother nature handle it as it appears he won't suffer much longer.  Yotes will have him in a week or so.  

The compassionate thing would be to shot him on sight regardless of season, but the law doesn't always provide for that discretion.

On a related matter, nature is resilient.  Two years ago I saw an decent Aoudad whose left rear leg was hanging on by a thread above the knee joint.  Basically all he had was a ham and a loose appendage dangling.  I couldn't figure out what had happened.  I was going to shoot him but a bigger ram pushed him away.

Fast forward to this year and I see that ram on camera in a feeder pen.  I was mildly surprised to see that he'd survived but then realized he was in the pen.  That SOB was strong enough to jump in and out over the 4' panel on one rear leg.  

Not saying that little buck will make it, but sometimes it'll shock you what does and doesn't survive once the injury and infections heal.

 

[BabaYaga 15327]

29 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

S-S-S

Yep.  works well for wounded animals, wild dogs, and any cat I can find

[Anastasis 23489]

super secret shoot? 

[BabaYaga 15327]

1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

super secret shoot? 

Shoot

Shovel

and Shut up

Works on animals and fat hookers.  Use accordingly.  

[fattyflattie 4638]

43 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

On a related matter, nature is resilient. 

Cue the video of the "backstrap buck" or the one walking around with its entire front qtr missing walking around.  Tough, tough, tough animals.  I'm not digging up the vids but I'm sure plenty here have seen them. 

[DalTxHornFan 3118]

49 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Shoot

Shovel

and Shut up

I did that on a horribly diseased buck a few years ago.  Showed a pic to Mike Leggett, the Austin American-Statesman hunting writer.  He told me that he would have done the same thing in a heartbeat, and while not supported by the details of the law, he didn't think that any game warden would have had any issue with what I did.

[Reagan1k 3024]

47 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Cue the video of the "backstrap buck" or the one walking around with its entire front qtr missing walking around.  Tough, tough, tough animals.  I'm not digging up the vids but I'm sure plenty here have seen them. 

Yeah - He got caught napping and didn't hear the combine coming.

[BabaYaga 15327]

8 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

Yeah - He got caught napping and didn't hear the combine coming.

Ever seen the buzzards and crows that circle after combines pass by.  They amount of small animal devastation has to be unreal.  Those things are scary.

[Reagan1k 3024]

And those deer hold tight in that corn. 

I hunted in Pike County one year and the outfitter stressed to me that if I see a combine start to work my field that my hunt wasn't over, but just beginning. 

Bedded deer would emerge from the stalks ahead of it and then circle back behind to feed.  Other deer would come out of the timber and into the field when they heard the combine start......like they rang a dinner bell.

I get tickled at midwestern hunters who look down their nose at a Texas corn feeder.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

1 hour ago, BabaYaga said:

Ever seen the buzzards and crows that circle after combines pass by.  They amount of small animal devastation has to be unreal.  Those things are scary.

I worked rice fields around Garwood growing up.   You’d be surprised at the additives that go into Uncle Bens.  Egrets, lots of them, herons, mink, nutria, snakes and tons of bugs.   The occasional hog was so tough it would clog up the header on the combine so it didn’t make it in the sausage mix.  Also witnessed one guys thumb get lopped off by an auger chain and drop into a full truck once, when his unbuttoned shirt sleeve got grabbed. Someone got extra protein in their jambalaya.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Judge Roybeanbag

[deadshank 24653]

18 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Speaking of injuries. Lease member found this guy earlier this week. Figured it was a poaching situation, but upon further review it appeared he got gouged pretty badly in the neck. Not a monster but a pretty solid deer for our place, especially with another year and maybe some brows next year.







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Found this guy about this time last year.  Apparently jumped the fence and caught his neck on a t post top and injured himself to the point he eventually croaked as judging by the only item out of place.  Got him after a single buzzard started working on him but before the dogs showed up. 

[ousuxndallas 65]

I was invited on a hunt outside of Brady, shot this nice cull 8 pt. He is old as hell, I've never seen a buck get this old to be honest.

From the jaw, he looks to be 8+ yrs.

[Lat22 4018]

20 hours ago, Anastasis said:

But my question is how much shit a game warden would give you if you shot this guy during doe season?

He'd probably throw the book at you.  Same as keeping a gut hooked 14 inch trout or 19 inch redfish.

[BabaYaga 15327]

1 hour ago, ousuxndallas said:

I was invited on a hunt outside of Brady, shot this nice cull 8 pt. He is old as hell, I've never seen a buck get this old to be honest.

From the jaw, he looks to be 8+ yrs.

OLD man there.  That is a cool, grizzled old fella' that I'd do a shoulder mount for to capture all that gray.

[Reagan1k 3024]

Yep, you don't see that gray on the back and shoulder too often.

[deadshank 24653]

3 hours ago, ousuxndallas said:

I was invited on a hunt outside of Brady, shot this nice cull 8 pt. He is old as hell, I've never seen a buck get this old to be honest.

From the jaw, he looks to be 8+ yrs.

Pretty nice that his times weren’t broken off this late in the year.  Maybe he was just too old to chase the girls and slug it out with the other bucks.  
 

Nice deer.  Good work.  

[CHIEF 5095]

My BIL is the head of sales for Austin Wood Recycling, the guys that make their mulch bags take him to the King Ranch a couple of times a year to shoot Nilgai. He shot this big 700 lb. bastard tonight, makes great jerky. They told him it would make it into the Safari Club International (SCI) record book:

CHIEF

[Both Tacos 1806]

My BIL is the head of sales for Austin Wood Recycling, the guys that make their mulch bags take him to the King Ranch a couple of times a year to shoot Nilgai. He shot this big 700 lb. bastard tonight, makes great jerky. They told him it would make it into the Safari Club International (SCI) record book:

CHIEF

That's a big 'ol boy right there. Good size nilgai too.

[fattyflattie 4638]

1 hour ago, CHIEF said:

My BIL is the head of sales for Austin Wood Recycling, the guys that make their mulch bags take him to the King Ranch a couple of times a year to shoot Nilgai. He shot this big 700 lb. bastard tonight, makes great jerky. They told him it would make it into the Safari Club International (SCI) record book:

CHIEF

Man I want one of those in a bad way. I’ve been on several mgt hunts on the KR, and had opportunity to hunt the cows, but it never worked out.  Nice bull. 

[CHIEF 5095]

4 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Man I want one of those in a bad way. I’ve been on several mgt hunts on the KR, and had opportunity to hunt the cows, but it never worked out.  Nice bull. 

This is his first bull, they had always let him shoot a cow before.

CHIEF

[Anastasis 23489]

Shooting them easy part. Would like to see that big mofo butchered. 

[deadshank 24653]

Great morning for sitting in a blind

[deadshank 24653]

[Both Tacos 1806]

My youngest girl and I had a good shoot this morning.

[ousuxndallas 65]

My youngest girl and I had a good shoot this morning.

Nice bling!

[Herbie Hancock 7376]

This was the only buck I took last year. Finally picked him up yesterday.

[Both Tacos 1806]

Banded Greenhead was 6.5 years old.

[Reagan1k 3024]

1 hour ago, Both Tacos said:

Banded Greenhead was 6.5 years old.

I was about to request that you post the band info.  Thanks.  That’s always amazing to me when you see some of the ages.  Especially with geese.