huntingfool

Seed was quite intrigues with the skinning and butchering.

Well I finally have enough time away from school and work to write up the story. After going buck-less last season I was really looking forward to deer season this year. Last year I saw some bucks but didn't connect, largely due to my effective range being 250 yards. I passed up a spike the second morning at 200 yards, and missed one at 300 yards the fourth morning. As a result my tag went un-filled last year. I'm mostly a meat hunter so I'm usually not too particular but I'd seen so many bucks scouting that I knew I could do better and I had 6 days to hunt. Well the bucks dried up and if it wasn't for my elk tag I'd have gone hungry for the year. After last season I vowed to be able to shoot at lest 300 yards but due to parenting and school and work my range this year was 250 yards again. I don't like to take pot shots because I hate losing deer and I don't want one to die of a belly ache and be left for the coyotes. Also I didn't take Casey up on his offer to use his 257 Weatherby, otherwise I'd have been able to shoot one at 1000 yards over the hill and behind a tree... Anyway I only had 3 days to hunt this year so I was ready to put some meat in the freezer. You pass up too many of these little devils and you go hungry, that's the lesson I learned last year. So, first morning my old man and I headed out to the spot I had picked out. This was his first hunt down here (36B) and I was playing guide. Anyway we set up in the hills waiting for the hunters down below to push deer up to us (this worked pretty well last year). We spooked some on the way to our spot but didn't get to identify them, it was mostly dark still. Anyway we got set up and started watching, and as the light came the shooting started and we had deer running up to us. Unfortunately most were does and fawns, unlike last year About 8:00 AM I got a text that a spike was coming my way with 3 does, and sure enough 4 deer popped over the hill and headed past me. They were about 200 yards below me and were moving slow. I had my rifle on my shooting sticks and I glimpsed a spike on the lead deer so I flipped off my safety. He stopped and I was gonna pull the trigger but I took another look at his head (gotta be sure, these deer are so little) and I couldn't see any horns... so I had to let him go and he walked into a canyon and out of sight. I got good looks at the 3 does behind him so I figured I did in fact see horns on the lead one but I wasn't too worried as it was the first morning. After about 10:00am my dad made his way up to me and said the spike only had an antler on his left side, which explains why I had trouble seeing it. Around noon he made a walk over to the canyon and spooked the deer out and we saw the spike again, indeed only on the left side. He got away. With all the activity in the area (it's a popular spot) my old man wanted to move somewhere else so we headed for another spot I knew of. We popped over a ridge and were gonna set on a perch I had in mind for the rest of the day. I decided to glass the AO before we made our way down to the perch, and instantly I spotted a deer laying near the bottom of the canyon. He had bushes all around him, but I was at the perfect angle that I could see his whole body. Sure enough we could tell it was a buck, which was good enough for me. I ranged him at 228, and I'm zeroed at 220 so I knew I could make the shot. Best part was we were behind a big boulder, so not only could I sit on the step it had, but with our packs stacked up it was like shooting on sand bags. I was excited but had time to collect myself as he was looking up the canyon and not at us at all. I put it on his shoulder and squeezed one off. I don't remember hearing the report so much as the bullet smacking him. Whacked him good, he didn't even twitch. Didn't kick his legs or roll over. Never knew what hit him. Well we made our way down to him and could see he was a small 3x3, I'm guessing a 2 1/2 year old deer. We also realized we forgot the dern camera on the table but we got a few quick photos before we skinned him and butchered him up. Dog added for scale; such little deer! Neigbor's friend's beer gut (white shirt) added for good measure. He's not as hilarious as my neighbor but was way more drunk. He knew everything there was to know about skinning deer and even had spare knives if we wanted to use them...how convenient! I just capped him and tonight I boiled and bleached him, he's ready to get hung up now! I couldn't get my old man on one this year but hopefully next year I'll have more time to scout. There were definitely less deer in my spot this year thatn last year. Anyway I had a good time and I've got enough meat to hold me until elk season. Cooked up some burgers and tenderloins tonight, and they were top notch. Every bit as good as beef, but WAAAAYYYY more fun to go get! Happy hunting to those of you with tags to fill! (victory beer can included for scale)

Nice finds, gets the blood going!

Well I don't have any PM's... That's ok I bagged one friday afternoon and I'm having heart and liver tonight with onions. Doesn't get any better than this!

Hey guys, with deer seasons starting friday I thought I'd give this a shot. If anybody wanted to save their hearts and livers for me I'd be much obliged I know most of you think eating organs is nasty but I think they're awesome and I hate to see them go to the coyotes. Ok, now poke your fun at me Casey if this works we'll cook up some liver and watch football next weekend

Good luck tomorrow guys, and save your organs! Hopefully I'll get my own

Used to be considered heroic. 200 years ago it would have been expected. Now we'd all go to jail. My 36B hunt starts friday, and I aint wussing out. Ima go kill me a buck.

Bummer man, I think I can find some bucks to shoot at though. You know I'm not picky Monday/tuesday is hard for me to swing right now man, I might be able to pull a tuesday. Bownut I don't shoot a mathews either so you're invited

Post office can't ship live ammo though, you have to go thru UPS or Fed-Ex.

Awesome thanks for busting that lion for us! Sounds exciting, trust me it beat working all day.

Wow what a buck! Great job.

Update: It was brought to my attention that there was a recall on these rifles, there have been reports of firing pins breaking and the weapon goes full auto. I called Winchester and they said the process is to mail in the stock firing pin and serial number of the rifle back to them, and they will send a new post-recall firing pin and a check for $30 to have it re-installed. So the price is reduced to $480 and if nobody is interested she'll get the rifle serviced and put it back up. Side note: She says she has never had a problem with the rifle and it has always functioned perfectly. It looks like it's been taken care of.

After you sell one gun for a co-worker, the others seem to jump on the bandwagon...anyway another lady at work wants me to sell her rifle. This is a Winchester model 100 in .308win. It is a semi-auto rifle and is mounted with a Weaver FX-4 scope, I'm guessing Weaver mounts (they look like old Weavers). It has one ding in the stock on the right side by the butt, but overall is in really good condition. She just doesn't hunt anymore and has no use for the rifle. Asking $580. .308 Semi-auto Pre-'64 Winchester What's not to love? [smilie=icon_mrgreen.gif] I'm in Tucson but will be traveling thru the valley this weekend twice en route to Flagstaff and back and could meet along the I-10 or 17. Pics: Price comparison: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/...p;cm_ite=netcon http://www.gunsinternational.com/Wincheste...FTOKEN=91256569

Hey guys a lady I work with wants to sell her full size pistol, and she put me in charge of it. It's just too much gun for her, she just bought a Ruger LCR. She has a sales receipt from late february, bought it new for $495 plus tax and shot about two boxes thru it is all. Still in case and in great shape, this pistol is really like new in box. This is the 7-shot stainless model, 4 1/2" barrel. She said she would like to write out a receipt for it, but if that is really going to be a problem we may be able to work with it. Thanks for looking.

She's sold pending a meet-up today, sorry guys. Also I never got a PM treestandman...

Nice job I gotta get me a cat this year.

Way to knock 'em down!

Good job! Arizona's deer herd needs help!

October 36B for me, can't wait. My little bro got the december hunt in 6A...lucky little turd ,it's like his third tag in 5 years for that hunt.

Well, I took my brother-in-law out coyote hunting today, trying to help out the deer herd. Anyway no luck, we saw one but it got away. Good day for snakes though. We got three, all with the SP101 loaded with #8 shot. For all you doubters and to those who are curious, snake #8 shot out of a snub nose kills snakes dead in a hurry. Two of the three didn't even flinch, one took about 10 seconds to die, but it just coiled up and writhed around. It didn't try to strike us. They were all shot at about 3 yards. Hope they taste good, their skins are tacked up on a board in the garage, we'll see how that goes. Anyway here's some pics to get us thru the offseason. This is a pic of the first one before he got drilled. He was the biggest, pushing 36" King snake, we let him go. I got no beef with king snakes: Yours truly with a pair of western diamondbacks: The first one skinned with the others + the Sp101: Snake medicine, it's a garaunteed cure: Me and James: Redneck vittles:

Haha what's up Jake! Funny, I never ate a snake when I was in Cornville, it wasn't until I moved to the city and working on a doctorate that I started eating reptiles. Go figure. Give me a call one of these days, find me some big bucks No it's easy. I didn't marinade either of them, they have a very mild flavor, no need to marinade in my opinion.

Here's a better picture of that mojave rattler. My wife showed me the "enhance" feature. Anyway you can see his color much better here, enjoy:

No they were all separate, but the last two weren't far from each other but not together. I've heard they are often in pairs, we looked for mates but didn't find any.

Tastes good to me! I battered and baked the first one with a little bacon grease, and it was pretty awesome. Not much on 'em though. I'm making pasta with the other two. The meat tastes good but it is too big of a pain to separate the bones from the meat. I'll be baking them in the future.

Thanks for sharing, I love this section of the forum!