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OfflineSpongiform
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Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) * 1
    #19353988 - 01/01/14 08:49 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

For awhile now I've been trying to come up with a way to not stop eating lots of delicious meat but NOT eating or financially supporting mass factory farming without busting my food budget. 

Finally decided I needed to either raise my own meat and/or learn to hunt for it. 

So I ordered a .50 caliber black powder muzzleloader.  Seemed to be the best way to get started with the least amount of legal hassles.  They shipped it right to my place :-D 

Watched videos on deer hunting, read guides, tutorials, perused some forums.  Talked to a few local people who hunt for info.  Sewed myself home made camouflage fleece lined ghillie hat. 

Went out, scouted our trails/woods for deer sign, followed tracks everywhere.  Put out some deer snacks, put up a trail cam.  Set up some "stands" to hunt from.  Just some giant rocks in our woods that overlook trails.  Made brush piles across trails to block access, cleared other trails to encourage them to come along my rock stands.  Tried 'stalking' and holy shit is it hard to sneak up on a deer in the hills with lots of leaves.  Almost never have more then 50 yard line of sight, usually less. 

First chance I had to take a medium-small spike buck I was shaking so bad I missed my shot (also failed to take into account elevation difference).  So then some more practice shooting but this time at different elevation differences, a 30' drop made an 8" difference on my aim :-O 

At this point I'd been going out every day, often multiple times for 2 weeks, I go out one morning and plop down in an aluminum ladder stand that had been sitting in our woods for god knows how long, no idea who left it there, but 7+ years.  I had taken it down, cleaned it, oiled, made sure it was safe and put it back up.    Got comfortable, ate half an apple, rubbed the rest of the apple all over myself as a cover scent and tossed the rest out onto a deer trail in front of me.   

Despite my repeated failures I'm beginning to enjoy just sitting out in the woods listening to the critters.  A cool (something ice fucking cold) breeze in my face, fresh air.  Peaceful, serene, most of the time.    At first my ADD and being used to constant input (being online all the time), had my mind going nuts.  I'm used to dealing with this camping, but this was a little different. 

I sit there looking around, making plans for a deer feed plot/garden/orchard I want to build at that spot.  Start thinking about the rest of my day, planning it out, weighing options, getting my thoughts straighened out and sorted.  Kind of like meditation but better.  Couldn't ask for more beautiful weather.  Cold, crisp, around 25f and it's just barely after dawn, maybe 7:30 am, EST. 

As my mind and eyes are wandering, I'm listening to the squirrels rustling around in the frozen leaves for nuts I see a set of pointy horns slowly come up over the hillside ahead and to my right.  Now sometimes deer make so much damn noise you can hear them from hundreds of yards out, long before you can see them in my terrain.  Othertimes they are sneaky fucking ninjas. 

Slowly the full 8 pt rack comes into view.  I recognize this deer as Bob.  I've taken to naming any deer that I see repeatedly and can readily identify.  So far I have Bob, Susie, Jamie, Barbara, Shnouzer & Goofy. 

So Bob slowly comes up over the hill and stops.  He's sniffing HARD and snorting a bit.  He looks around and then his eyes flash right to my face. I'm thinking "fuck!" but I'm wearing my ghillie hat with dangling shit hanging in front of my face.  I have a camouflage fleece throw I made draped over my legs, because it's fucking cold and it's warm and comfortable. 

He stares, sniffs, looks at me from different angles, snorts. The wind is blowing right across me and straight into his face. Couldn't be in a worst position wind wise. The second he came into view I felt a shot of adrenaline hit my veins.  Him staring at me just makes it worse.  My heart wants to leap out of my chest.  There's very few things in life that I react to like that.  I've had a shotgun held to my face and had less of a reaction. 

I remain motionless, I don't even blink until he looks down or away for a moment.  Finally he turns, snorts, wheezes and runs off back down the hill.  I'm thinking "fuck, again, oh well".

However, he only runs down about 10 yards, then circles around under me about 50 yards to my left and comes back up along that trail.  Sniffing, staring.  He's starting to calm down though.  He'll sniff the ground and bolt up and look at me.. sniff.. look... sniff, look.  Each time he's not looking I ever so slowly reach for my weapon that is on my lap.  Meanwhile I'm commanding my muscles to stop twitching and trying to do some breathing exercises.  He slowly walks along the trail stopping to stare, to sniff and finally gets to my apple bits and starts nibbling.  This whole process takes about 5 minutes, and I finally have my gun up and am ready to take aim.  He's right in front of me, slightly to my left, broadside and maybe 25 yards out. 

He's now slightly obscured by some trees, I can only see his rear half.  So I get my gun lined up, ready to shoot and ever so slowly lean to my left until I can see his front half.  I aim for just above his rear front leg, my leg is shaking like a leaf so I forcefully hold it down, using my left elbow on my leg as a stabilizer.  I take aim again, take a deep breath and slowly exhale, then gently squeeze the trigger. 

I fire a 240 grain copper jacketed hollow point bullet with the equivalent of 90 grains of powder (4.22 grams of hogodons pyrodex RS). 

I hear a loud bass filled BOOM.  If you've never heard one of these, they are basically cannons.  A cloud of smoke exits the end of the barrel and obscures my vision momentarily.   

As the smoke clears (I've always wanted to say that!), I see Bob's head jerk up in surprise with a "what the fuck?!" look.  He then turns and hops off down over the hillside. 

My first thought was "fuck, did I miss again?!"  I pull out my camera and take some shots of the scene, where I shot him at and where from and then listen to the noise he's making and what direction and take some pics of that. 

Based on my first miss, it's really hard to accurately remember those details later.  The angles/exact distance/exact spot standing tend to get muddled.   

He's making a lot of noise at this point, I hear leaves crunching but it doesn't sound like it's very far but sometimes that's hard to tell in these hills/ravines.  What sounds like right next to you may be a 20 minute walk to get to for a person on foot. 

So I wait for a bit, then head down and check where he was standing.  Doesn't take long to find a good blood trail.  I hear him making noise again so I back off.  No need to chase him, just let him bleed out in peace. 

After a few minutes I start following the trail.  He ended up hopping about 30-50 yards down the hillside, bleeding vigorously.  Then fell over unconscious and just twitched/kicked a bunch.  I hit him about 3" to the right of where I intended, just above the front of his right leg, right through the ribs and lungs.  Also severed the connective tissue for one of the front legs so he was only hopping with 3 legs.  Hit a major blood vessel too, but not sure which one.  He lost a LOT of blood in seconds. 

I went down to him and said "Sorry, Bob."  and then thanked him and told him I appreciated his sacrifice.  I meant it. 

I tied his legs together, thinking I'd drag him back up the hill but fuck, he was heavy.  I would have had to make a harness for myself or find a sled of some sort.    Instead I walked back home (not very far) and got my trusty steed out.  Told him we had some sort to work, fed him a big bucket of grain, some apple and carrots, saddled him up and grabbed some ropes.  Walked back out there.  I wasn't sure how he'd react to a dead deer but he honestly could not have cared less.  So I tied a rope to the saddle horn and then to Bob's tied feed and we dragged his ass up out of there.  Now part way through this my horse did react so something "chasing" him and bolted for about 10 seconds, then got tired of trying to sprint up a 45' incline dragging a 200+lb deer through brush.  Was easy and peaceful after that.  I fucking love that horse.  He's half clydesdale, half tennessee walker so didn't have any real trouble dragging the deer out.  Next time I'm going to use a sled though.  Gonna pick up a pair of used skis for like $5 at one of the local thrift stores to use as the base. 






So that's my story. 

What's yours? 

Any tips, tricks, suggestions, ideas, recipes? 

I had never processed a deer or even seen it done really so I offered a 50/50 split with a friend to show me how and let me use her sausage grinder.  Ballpark, 75lbs boneless meat, 10lbs or so of organ meat.  I'm making BBQ, lots of jerky and ended up with about 4 or 5 gallons of 'organic deer broth' for soup.  Saved one leg for a roast.  I'm trying to get one more deer this season and keep most of it for myself so I have enough meat to get me through till next season.  I'll be attempting to squirrel and rabbit hunt too, with a wrist rocket until I feel like investing in a nice pellet rifle. 

I used everything but the stomach and intestines, btw.  I meant to try to make sausage casing out of the intestines but didn't get to it fast enough.  I'll do that with the next deer for sure though, as I'll have enough meat to make sausage then.


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OfflineD-Dub363
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Spongiform]
    #19354293 - 01/01/14 11:00 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Great story!  And nice buck bro enjoy venison so good.


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Invisiblebootster
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: D-Dub363]
    #19355491 - 01/01/14 05:04 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Great detail. I've hunted for 41 years and have spent thousands of hours (so it seems) just sitting in my tree stand enjoying it all.

Thanks to doe going into estrus, I have seen some impressive bucks in my day. That is the most exiting part.

What kind of muzzy are you shooting? I may have some things that will help you out. It sounds like you enjoyed your experience.


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OfflineSpongiform
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: bootster]
    #19355840 - 01/01/14 06:41 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

It's a brand new CVA Buckhorn.  Considering a scope, but not entirely sure what I want to do in that regards.


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Spongiform's Plastic Tek - An Alternative to Glass
Spongi's PF Block Tek & Automated Shotgun Project.


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Invisiblebootster
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Spongiform]
    #19356750 - 01/02/14 12:19 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

It uses 209 inline caps, correct? If so, you have to ditch the Pyrodex and get some Blackhorn 209. That stuff is the best thing to hit the muzzle loading craze since the pyro pellets. (I've already forgotten about 777) That's the only drawback with it is you can't get pellets. I've shot 8 rounds without swabbing the bore and I touched 5 of the holes at 75 yards.I put the gun up and you can hardly tell that it was "blackpowder". It smacks you, more like smokeless than Pyrodex, then shitty 777 that I haven't shot in about 7 years.

REVIEWS

Blackhorn 209 may sound pricey, but in my stainless Encore, I only have to use 80 or 90 grains to take deer at 200 yards. I think that the max the Encore can take is 100 grains of BH 209.

I don't think I'd chance utilizing the "organ meat". Way back before Monsanto hit the scene it was alright. The USDA has changed it's tune on it for human consumption. All of the dirty mcnasties get filtered through them and they retain a lot of the poisons that they spray on crops the deer eat. I wouldn't chance it if it were me, not for 10 lbs of concentrated poisons.

I hope this helps. If you do decide to switch., the BH 209 uses regular shotgun 209 primers (cheaper), not the pricey "muzzleloader" 209 primers. You wouldn't believe the difference in accuracy especially long range accuracy. Can you tell that I'm in love with that stuff?

As far as a scope goes, get some Warne detachable, return to zero rings for your scope. I take my scope off and put it in my backpack when I'm walking so that if I jump something up, I can use open sights. Don't fall for the "see through mounts". They raise the scope up way too high to be comfortable.

Good luck Brother.


Edited by bootster (01/02/14 12:25 AM)


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OfflineSpongiform
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: bootster]
    #19357471 - 01/02/14 07:07 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

I don't think I'd chance utilizing the "organ meat". Way back before Monsanto hit the scene it was alright. The USDA has changed it's tune on it for human consumption. All of the dirty mcnasties get filtered through them and they retain a lot of the poisons that they spray on crops the deer eat. I wouldn't chance it if it were me, not for 10 lbs of concentrated poisons.




Probably ok for me.  There are no commercial fields close enough for any of "my" deer to eat and all of my neighbors pretty much grow organic in their garden.  If I get a deer outside of that though, I'll be more careful. 

I'll check out that other powder, it does sound nice. 

Thanks!


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Spongi's PF Block Tek & Automated Shotgun Project.


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Invisiblebootster
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Spongiform]
    #19360404 - 01/02/14 07:39 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

I keep forgetting that there's still wilderness areas outside of where I live. Around me it's nothing but McMansions with a ton of fertilizer to make the lawn look good as they drench it with water if it doesn't rain. Other than that it's fields of corn and soybeans. If there's crops around, there's poison on the ground and on the crops.

Good luck and keep us abreast of the rest of your hunting endeavors. Good luck.


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OfflineSpongiform
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: bootster]
    #19362063 - 01/03/14 04:12 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

bootster said:
I keep forgetting that there's still wilderness areas outside of where I live. Around me it's nothing but McMansions with a ton of fertilizer to make the lawn look good as they drench it with water if it doesn't rain. Other than that it's fields of corn and soybeans. If there's crops around, there's poison on the ground and on the crops.

Good luck and keep us abreast of the rest of your hunting endeavors. Good luck.




I used to live in Northern VA, so I know how that goes. 

Where I live now is mostly woods.  In fact, the bulk of the land in my immediate area is giant 200-2000 acre parcels used for nothing but deer hunting and timber (every 20-40 years).  Quite a few 5-80 acre plots that are used for literally nothing or little redneck cabin/get aways and deer hunting. 

I mananged to figure out "Bob's" circuit.  He used our horse trail primarily, but cut through an empty parcel, where I suspect he bedded.  Then across the road through my neighbors organic garden, down behind her woods to the big old oak stand, then back across a neighbors summer weekend vacation property, back across the street to the other side of our horse trail loop and that completes the circuit.  I had thought all those separate sections of buck rub were different bucks, but after reviewing the tracks and my cam pics, it was all Bob. 

Looks like I need to set up 2 feed plots and 2 stands.  I have a perfect spot for a feed plot but no bedding in the immediate vicinity, so it'll definitely pull deer but probably nothing epic.  The other spot is less ideal for a food plot, but right next to epic bedding. 

I think in each food plot I'm going to basically set up a little garden.  Raised beds with peas, lettuce, corn, barley, oats, wheat, rye and some fruit & nuts.  apple, crabapple, persimmon, hazelnut.    Just so happens to already be a patch of wild apples, persimmons and hazelnuts at the #2 spot so that won't really be all that hard to do.


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InvisiblePolk_Audio3
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Spongiform]
    #19371453 - 01/05/14 05:37 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Good looking buck OP when I use to hunt I wouldn't kill a doe..


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InvisibleForest Sprite
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Polk_Audio3]
    #19406777 - 01/12/14 03:29 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

I love to hunt. I love being out there alone in nature just sitting and looking and listening. Sometimes I'll sort of meditate while sitting in the woods hunting. I haven't had any luck yet this year, but hopefully I get one. I've gotten at least one every previous year, usually more than one. My family loves deer meat. Steak, jerky, bologna... my dad and his buddies make it all and I love how each person's is unique in the ingredients that they use to give them all awesome tastes. Damn now I want some deer jerky.

Also, I highly respect animals and nature and I hate to see people hunting just for pure sport. It just really bothers me. If you kill an animal, eat it.


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OfflineSpongiform
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Forest Sprite]
    #19407976 - 01/12/14 11:42 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

If you kill an animal, eat it.




Yes, for sure.  Even if it's not an animal generally eaten, like a coyote.  Coyote jerky tastes as good as deer jerky.


--------------------
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Spongi's PF Block Tek & Automated Shotgun Project.


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OfflineAbsent Minded
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Re: Do any of you hunt for deer(white tail), rabbit or squirrel? The story of my first season (so far) [Re: Spongiform]
    #19447026 - 01/20/14 10:48 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Recently I have become extremely interested in starting to hunt. OP that was quite a story, congrats on your success.


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