Jump to content

The 2018 Hunting Thread

Bert Orange

By Bert Orange
in Hobbies

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 915
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Pescado_Rojo
Pescado_Rojo

Little Rojo broke his arm last week, and we thought his season was done. He took it upon himself to learn to shoot lefty, practiced for two days, then went out and hammered this guy. 

Errestaurants
Errestaurants

Had a hunch last night so I went out this morning. shot it with a 1952 Model 70 featherweight in .270. 

jofus
jofus

My brother just shot this guy

Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3,024

Posted
Posted

I used to take loins and hams on the regular when it was cold.  Cut up many dozens through the years and enjoyed the meat.

Then, I was driving one of our roads and stopped to take a phone call about 75-100 yards from a cow that had died a few days before.  While I was on the phone I kept thinking I was seeing the cow move even though she'd been dead for days.  After I finished the call I still couldn't figure out what I was looking at so I put a scope on her....Just in time to see a good sized hog crawl out of her ass covered in rotted guts.  He was eating her from the inside out.  

That broke me of butchering them pretty quickly.  

I don't judge anyone who butchers one....I've just moved on from it.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
noharleyyet

noharleyyet 2,838

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Izhmash said:

Got my euro mount back!  Thought I would share how it looks hanging on a Skull Hooker.  I love how clean the presentation is without a wood plaque.

 

 

What a cool euro, really like those dark horns. Cool swivel and angle, perfect for corner presentation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105,152

Posted
Posted
From a friend’s ranch down the road from our place in south Texas.  Weirdest buck I’ve ever seen.  He’s been trying to kill this one for 3 years.  7.5” spread.  

2-CF8-A2-D0-42-DA-4-ACD-BA2-F-B01-EB9724-D4-D.jpg

That’s actually a cool deer. That reminds me of one of our neighborhood bucks that has an odd rack with a small spread.

 

da1dc5d3681265d380e67d510bb94865.jpg

88bac83bcbefed74b2584fe150b78605.jpg

 

Really thick bases, though. And he’s the boss of the herd round here. Can’t quite age him right. I think he’s 4.5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Izhmash

Izhmash 563

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, RMac5 said:

That’s a cool looking euro. Love the split G2, was his left G2 split too and broke off or was it always just a nub?

How wide is he?

The split G2's really stood out in the field.  His left side is a clean break, so I suspect he was quite symmetrical.  Wish I could find the guy that broke it!

2 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

Got to be 23 or 24.  Beautiful buck.  

He's a hair over 20", measuring the inside of the main beam.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fattyflattie

fattyflattie 4,639

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

That’s actually a cool deer. That reminds me of one of our neighborhood bucks that has an odd rack with a small spread.

 

da1dc5d3681265d380e67d510bb94865.jpg

88bac83bcbefed74b2584fe150b78605.jpg

I shot this dudes twin on a mgt hunt on king ranch a few years ago. I’ve witnessed those guides get down to the inch on the dozen or so deer I’ve been with them when taking (some mine, and the rest hunters in our party) over several years.  130” is the limit on the mgt slot we were in and the biggest oversight I’ve witnessed was a 130 4/8” that he said was going to be just a tad over (so I guess he nailed that one too).  I mean these guys are on top of their shit, all degreed wildlife guys that work for the ranch.

Anyhow we see this guy by himself just over 250 yds. Looks like a really good deer, right at 130”. Hit him with a neck shot and hes drt and everyone is pumped af.  We drive out there and the deer is mature, but about 60% of the body size of every other deer on the ranch. Like a fully proportional runt or something. Everything was proportional, and he fooled 4 decently salty hunters and a full time ranch biologist (guide for the ranch, not outfit that leases from them). I remember putting him in the truck by myself with minimal effort. Was a really weird hunt and that guide was just mindfucked. He felt bad of course, but everyone in the truck saw the same thing. I have a cool pic where it’s set in the rack of the next deer shot that afternoon and it’s so tiny. I’ll try and dig it up.  I had just shot a really nice wide 11 pt in Freer the week or so prior that was going to score a jacket, so I wasn’t that upset. It also wasn’t my first time on KR so that wasn’t killing my mind either. It was a cool story as far as I was concerned  and gave me 1.5 full days worth of shit talking to our guide/biologist.  Since it was the first deer of the trip, we got a lot of “you sure” mileage with the rest of the party. We had him on previous years so it was all in jest - he knew his shit  

We had rattled up a bunch in the 120-125” range that AM, but passed because we had the time, etc.  Just a completely misjudged deer. Wouldn’t have happened had the grass been taller, or another deer (or jackrabbit) had been in the same sight picture.  The deer still scored 115 or so and looks really good in the pics where you can’t scale him  

Anyhow.  Cool neighborhood deer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Izhmash

Izhmash 563

Posted
Posted
On 1/5/2019 at 4:25 PM, Both Tacos said:

The duck season has hit the bottom of the barrel. Too much water and not enough ducks around. This mornings hunt was the worst I've had in 3 seasons. 3 guys and got 2 ducks. Probably saw 10 ducks all morning.

That's about when we used to start playing "Battleship - 12 gauge version".

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Spaulding Smails

Spaulding Smails 1,553

Posted
Posted
On January 4, 2019 at 9:48 PM, Johnny Sack said:

From a friend’s ranch down the road from our place in south Texas.  Weirdest buck I’ve ever seen.  He’s been trying to kill this one for 3 years.  7.5” spread.  

2-CF8-A2-D0-42-DA-4-ACD-BA2-F-B01-EB9724

Where in South Texas?  I hunted down there for 10+ years and shot a few like this.  But, this one is more straight-up than I've seen.  Very strange.

My uncle still hunts in that area (Live Oak / Duval border).  He shot this guy earlier this year.  They aged him at 5.5.  Nickname was "Super Freak".

IMG-0126.jpg

IMG-7358.jpg

IMG-6574.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Llano Estacado

Llano Estacado 1,257

Posted
Posted
Going to someplace near waxahatchie in a couple of weeks for some duck hunting. Any reports on how things are going up there? 


Wet, wetter, and slow.


I’d take one of those over your standard run of the mill 10 pointer any day. 


Agree, but I’ll hunt your place anytime with a handful of East TX boys and we’ll take care of those boring old 10 pointers for you. Haha.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19,416

Posted
Posted
On 1/4/2019 at 9:48 PM, Johnny Sack said:

From a friend’s ranch down the road from our place in south Texas.  Weirdest buck I’ve ever seen.  He’s been trying to kill this one for 3 years.  7.5” spread.  

2-CF8-A2-D0-42-DA-4-ACD-BA2-F-B01-EB9724

I shot a stag buck that looked like that once. never came out of velvet in the two seasons it took me to shoot it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3,024

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Jkwellborn said:


Did it have nuts? I’ve seen pictures of deer that didn’t ever shed velvet due to being castrated.

 

49 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

It had tiny little nuts that were hard like pebbles. Weird deal. 

Hill country area?

Areas around Mason, Llano, and Fredericksburg have a lot of stag/steer bucks that stay in velvet....but not due to any injury.

They're basically chemically castrated as a fawn due to eating a plant native to those areas.......growing in the granite outcroppings and soils.  I can't recall the plant's name right now but it is toxic when it blooms (after summer rains) and if the fawn bucks eat it during that bloom period it sterilizes them.  Not toxic enough to hurt a more mature buck with more body mass and harmless to doe....but its hell on still-spotted fawn / bucks.

Some years if there isn't any summer rain, then the entire fawn crop avoids exposure.  Other years it can affect a lot of them if the timing is right (wrong) based on when the fawns drop and rains come.

We've seen them with no balls whatsoever, and some with pea to marble sized nuts.  They all get really fat and big body-wise because they are eating machines with no reproductive drive.  Meat is amazing.  Little if any evidence of tarsal glands........They are very timid around hard-horned bucks and doe alike.

TPWD did a study on it years ago and I have the paper on it somewhere.  The more granite outcroppings on a property, the more likely you'll see it.

No telling how many I've shot over the last 30-40 years in that area.  We shoot them on sight during season as they serve no benefit and just use up food resources.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105,152

Posted
Posted
So, we officially cancelled our goose trip that was scheduled for next week.  I talked to our guide, and he hasn't seen a goose from El Campo to Port Lavaca in the last two weeks.  He said this has been the worst goose season he's ever seen (been hunting there for 30+ years).  

Damn. Was toying with a goose trip this year. Seems like it’s a horrible waterfowl season all around.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19,416

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Reagan1k said:

 

Hill country area?

Areas around Mason, Llano, and Fredericksburg have a lot of stag/steer bucks that stay in velvet....but not due to any injury.

They're basically chemically castrated as a fawn due to eating a plant native to those areas.......growing in the granite outcroppings and soils.  I can't recall the plant's name right now but it is toxic when it blooms (after summer rains) and if the fawn bucks eat it during that bloom period it sterilizes them.  Not toxic enough to hurt a more mature buck with more body mass and harmless to doe....but its hell on still-spotted fawn / bucks.

Some years if there isn't any summer rain, then the entire fawn crop avoids exposure.  Other years it can affect a lot of them if the timing is right (wrong) based on when the fawns drop and rains come.

We've seen them with no balls whatsoever, and some with pea to marble sized nuts.  They all get really fat and big body-wise because they are eating machines with no reproductive drive.  Meat is amazing.  Little if any evidence of tarsal glands........They are very timid around hard-horned bucks and doe alike.

TPWD did a study on it years ago and I have the paper on it somewhere.  The more granite outcroppings on a property, the more likely you'll see it.

No telling how many I've shot over the last 30-40 years in that area.  We shoot them on sight during season as they serve no benefit and just use up food resources.

Yep, Llano County between Llano and the lake. We've had a few over the years, but not a ton. And you're right about the meat and lack of tarsal glands. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3,024

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Yep, Llano County between Llano and the lake. We've had a few over the years, but not a ton. And you're right about the meat and lack of tarsal glands. 

I'd figured that.

Closer you get to that corridor along 16 toward Fredericksburg where you have a lot of elevation changes and granite outcroppings (same as around Kingsland and Packsaddle Mtn) the more you see them.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BayouBill

BayouBill 835

Posted
Posted

Got a good 8 with my bow back in October outside of Palestine. 20 yard shot and saw it go in just about perfect. Waited for about an hour or more and then went down to find him what i thought wouldnt be more than 50 yards away...blood trail was solid but after about 130 yards of trailing and light fading quickly, I was getting sick to my stomach that I wasn't going to find him. I decided to go back to the camp and wait 3 more hours and then me and my friends would go try again at last blood. 

Nothing.

Blood trail went thinner and thinner and we even crossed the highway that splits our land. the last place we could see just a drop of blood was on the other side of the property line from ours, and being that we were 3 armed guys in the middle of the night with flashlights, we decided to come back the next morning.

Called the other land owner who I've known forever to go check on his place and after about an hour or more we didn't find a single thing. The other land owner knew a guy with a dog who lived close by and got him out there and he immediately got on the trail....

ended up finding him back on our place...1200+ yards from where I shot him. I couldnt believe it. The only way I wouldve ever found him where I did was bc that dog and the buzzards who were already on him.

This is my view from where i hit him. He was basically right in the middle of the red line.

20181027-161320.jpg

 

And this is how I found him. Coyotes must have gotten him that night.

IMG-1550.jpg

 

No meat which kind of breaks my heart, but the mount I did turned out great.

20181104-163020.jpg

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3,024

Posted
Posted

Great buck....sorry you didn't find him in time but it happens.

They do amazing things.  It's little comfort to a hunter who's lost the deer after an ethical shot and responsible recover effort, but their flight response and core survival instinct carries a lot of them many 100's of yards in a state where they are literally dead on their feet but for adrenaline.

One of my guys shot a cull buck this year with his new .450 bushmaster.  Knocked the buck over and he got up and staggered about 40 yards and laid down just off the road.  They decided to go change times on a nearby feeder and swung back to pick him up 30 min later.  Blood everywhere at impact site, and a big pool of bright blood where he laid down, but he wasn't there.

They called me and we started walking.  Steady blood trail showing he was bleeding from both an entry and exit.  Found chunks of lung and plate sized pools of bubbly lung blood.  Trail went on steady for about 800 yards in a big loop including where he had jumped an old stone fence 1/2 way through.  At about 1000 yards it started to get sporadic and then nothing.  We never found that deer even though he'd left most of his blood volume in the dirt.

That should be impossible, but damn nature U scary.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
BayouBill

BayouBill 835

Posted
Posted

 

5 hours ago, Reagan1k said:

Great buck....sorry you didn't find him in time but it happens.

They do amazing things.  It's little comfort to a hunter who's lost the deer after an ethical shot and responsible recover effort, but their flight response and core survival instinct carries a lot of them many 100's of yards in a state where they are literally dead on their feet but for adrenaline.

One of my guys shot a cull buck this year with his new .450 bushmaster.  Knocked the buck over and he got up and staggered about 40 yards and laid down just off the road.  They decided to go change times on a nearby feeder and swung back to pick him up 30 min later.  Blood everywhere at impact site, and a big pool of bright blood where he laid down, but he wasn't there.

They called me and we started walking.  Steady blood trail showing he was bleeding from both an entry and exit.  Found chunks of lung and plate sized pools of bubbly lung blood.  Trail went on steady for about 800 yards in a big loop including where he had jumped an old stone fence 1/2 way through.  At about 1000 yards it started to get sporadic and then nothing.  We never found that deer even though he'd left most of his blood volume in the dirt.

That should be impossible, but damn nature U scary.

It’s absolutely amazing how tough they are. You can see the exit wound on his lower ribs from the 2nd pic. Entry was about halfway up on opposite side. We did find one spot where he laid down across the road. My theory, which who knows, is that the coyotes found him when he was laying down and chased him to where he finally went down. Buzzards wouldn’t clean a deer that quickly I’d think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...