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686

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Posts posted by 686

  1. Did you get drawn or going OTC? 

    I put in for first rifle season, but wasn’t drawn, so I am OTC this year. My hunting partner drew a mule deer buck tag, so he’s looking for bucks and I’m looking for bulls.

    The neighbors close to his cabin had an aggressive blackbear around earlier this year, so I’ll probably pick up an OTC bear tag as well. Colorado makes you buy a small game license to apply for a tag so I’ve got that and I usually add a furbearer tag as well. I’ve seen coyotes and foxes the last couple years, but I haven’t pulled the trigger on one. I’ll probably do that if I get the opportunity this year.
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  2. 300 Weatherby. I only was able to shoot 20 rounds of my final load work up, but I was getting over book velocity and ~MOA accuracy. My last 3 shot group was ~2” in spread, just off the bullseye at 300 yards. The 168gr TTSX is an interesting bullet. Looking forward to shooting it more and hopefully ascertaining some terminal performance soon.

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  3. I’m packing up to head to Colorado in the morning. My elk season starts Saturday. Packing has been pretty hectic, since I was whitetail hunting all last weekend, didn’t get as much done on my Colorado prep, so it’s going to be a late night and an early morning tomorrow. I feel like my gear situation is probably ok, but I’m wishing I had some more time to shoot long range with the hand loads I’ve worked up. Still need to load some extras tonight. I’m bringing several boxes of factory ammo as well and need to spend some time shooting up at elevation Friday. It’s weird, when I started doing this trip a few years back I just threw some stuff in a bag and went, now I’m worried about every little gear detail. My partner is up there already and has seen a lot of cows and does but no bucks or bulls. It’s warmer and drier than usual where we’re hunting, which I don’t mind staying dry, but the snow does seem to help the hunting sometimes.

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  4. I gotta buy 400 shells for a 4 man skeet shoot on Friday, am I able to go to Walmart/Academy and buy that much these days or is there a box limit?

    It seems like the limits are local by store. I’d call ahead, but the academy’s and Bass pro/cablelas around central Texas have been selling shells by the case no problem from what I’ve seen.
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  5. @Herbie Hancock yeah he is thick. the drought was horrible for us this year; we have lots of does with ribs showing and this SOB has a gut on him. We have decent genetics on our little low fence central Texas place - we had a 3-4y.o. 14pt two years ago, and some little drop tines as well (we didn’t shoot them, so either the neighbors did, or ? but haven’t seen them this year). When I see “inferior” older bucks like this I tend to be tempted to get them off the habitat. Primarily though, we need to lower the population density and shoot lots of does for awhile and the herd would have better body condition.

    I have a 238” whitetail on the wall from a high fence hunt I was invited on as a guest, and I doubt I’ll ever shoot anything bigger than that, and I’m just enjoying the process now. I also like to pick out good cull/shooter bucks for friends/family to take (that are trophies for them); or ones I might take with one of my kids with me so they can be part of the process/put their hands on a nice buck.

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  6. @Pdawg88 nice work staying patient and going back for him in the morning. Archery highs and lows are too tough for me to shoot bucks these days - I may try to get a doe this year with my bow. I shot this buck with my bow a few years back and the blood trail petered out after ~100 yards or so. I was sick to my stomach for a week until I saw him again on trail cams. My dad got him with a rifle two weeks later. The scar was the exit wound. High entrance wound must have only got one lung is all I can figure. There was no scarring or bruising on the muscles from the archery wound when we cleaned him.

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  7. Shot this guy here in Oklahoma. Wife and I bought 15 acres to build a house on. It’s northwest of downtown OKC by about 15 miles. Shot him last night and waited till this morning to go find him. 


    Awesome buck! Archery tackle? Did you feel like the shot was good and just didn’t want to bump him or where you doubting things all night?

  8. The wind will be out of the SE on Friday, but the approach into the wind would require crossing a third mile of open ground with no topographical advantage. I’m not interested in unnecessary 500 yard shots. This is approximately the ground I’d have to cover going into that wind.
    IMG-5098.jpg
    When the wind shifts out of the NW, I have a wooded ridge with a bit of a ravine that provides some cover.



    Can you cover the 1/3 mile in the dark early Friday AM, get posted up in a good spot and wait? Where do you think they bed down mid-day?
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  9. I’m going for elk Friday-Sunday. The winds will favor my approach (you’d have to be there to understand) on Saturday and Sunday, but not Friday, so I may skip Friday. I don’t want to scare them off our land. I have multiple cellular trail cams, and the elk were on our land 10/6-10/10 and 10/17-today, so they are likely to leave for several days if I spook them.
    The bulls I’ve seen aren’t worth taking this year, although a couple have matured nicely since 2022 (if they are even the same ones). I may just go for a fat cow (don’t tell Vick).
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    Are you in NM? Man that bull in the back looks good to me. You have a great setup and are smart to play the wind
  10. A friend’s mother-in-law made the unfortunate decision awhile ago to hand-feed and try to make a pet out of a wild buck fawn, which is now a ~ 2.5 yr old.  The buck went off on her last week in the yard. Crazy to say, but she’s probably lucky she wasn’t killed. After the hospital trip and getting the m-i-l back home, my buddy called the GW and sent some video of the buck. Warden gave him the go-ahead to put the deer down. Crazy stuff. Buck tore up the old lady’s arms and legs bad. Trying to spoiler this in case you’re eating while reading:

    Spoiler


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  11. We have 51 MLDP doe tags and only 3 bucks this year as opposed to the 5 we got last year, and dad said he isn't giving them any buck tags so we'll see how that goes.


    Good for your dad! Getting after that many does is work. A nice high fence place with a big doe MLD quota I was invited to a few times had what I’d call a “does and bros” weekend for opening weekend, where guests were welcome, but bucks were strictly off limits and you had to shoot at least one doe.

    I’m trying to get about 5 - 6 guys out to our family place opening weekend to try and shoot 10 does at least. We should probably shoot more than that. Our ratios aren’t as bad as yours, but they are probably 5 does : 1 buck. My dad won’t shoot does either and doesn’t like cleaning deer generally, which adds work to my plate.
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  12. Knocking doves down with a 410 is impressive!

    I decided to replace the feeder that coons messed up entirely with a stand & fill. My dad is 73 this year and still gets out and fills feeders standing on the truck bed rail. He fell off a trailer and fell getting out of the bobcat recently. I’ll probably replace all the elevated feeders with stand & fills if this style works out. This is the 600# EZ Feeder from All Seasons, $499. I really like the mechanism design.

    ab76fc265f63a1aa69a9aee9e82e89b6.jpg


    I pulled some cards, need to take care of a boar and shoot a bunch of does. Have a couple of decent bucks.

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