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while on my way to the office, I received a text from my 15 yo daughter. She told me that she was accepted as a member of the National Honor Society by her High School. She was 1 of 35 applicants who were accepted out of a total of 120 classmates that were invited to apply. Words cannot describe how proud I am of her!!! Sometimes hard work and perseverance pays off!! This is a great early Christmas present!!

Big fat doe. Dropped her around 3:45PM with the muzzleloader. This drag is killing me! Details to come.

I'm not surprised.

Got this doe today at around 3:45 PM after conducting a mini-two man deer drive.

I miss people just being nice to each other... never had to worry if you had a flat. now you might get mugged while changing a tire if any stops at all. I miss the community/neighbors working together instead of the "me,mine" attitude.

Guess your left holding the bag, LOL.

I miss the days when no one ever even heard of "political correctness" I miss the days when teenagers didn't wear their pajamas out in public I miss the days when people were polite and showed curtosy for other people I miss the days when people were a little embarassed to be on welfare I miss the days of $2 a gallon gas I miss the days of 50 cent draft beer night I miss the days when hippies just stayed home with their bong Starting to get depressed, I'll finish later

this thread is like a car accident.i don't wanna look but can't help myself.

I would think the bigger problem has been the lack of snow. No, I am not fond of plowing my driveway, but when there is a coating of snow, those critters silhouette pretty darn nicely. This year I only had one day when there was enough snow on the ground to be of any benefit. Also, tracks in the snow do not lie when you are trying to assess what the heck the size of the herd is and where they are.

Why because you didn't read the whole thread and wanted to start an arguement?

I asked Santa to bring me enough 8' high fence to totally enclose my hunting camp, a post hole digger, and a few breeder bucks to make my private hunting preserve complete.

Okay..story begins in squirrel season. I use squirrel hunting as my scouting and found a nice spot. Lots of signs. So I came back to that spot during archery. Every time I go there, this doe kicks up from this swamp and runs off in the same direction. Once, I followed her and that's the one I was less than 20 yards from but only had the head shot and passed on in if you remember from my previous postings. After a while, I didn't see her anymore, then the tree stand accident, and I figure I played my cards one too many times at this spot because the deer here has patterned me so I moved on to another spot. I never did get her and once archery season ended, I couldn't hunt that spot anymore because I didn't have a DMP for that area. While I did find buck signs, I only saw does. I kep telling people that if I was allowed to take them with a firearm, I would have had several deer by now and that's when the light bulb went off. I went and bought a muzzleloader because that'll allow me to use my antlerless and/or either sex tag. I prayed that no one else had discovered that spot during gun season and that deer would still be in that swamp. Took days off from work, made sure I made my way up to the spot real early. Shawnhu wanted to tag along and assist and it's a good thing he did because I actually owe this deer to him. We got in a couple of minutes before 7 and sat till 10. Nothing. I figure the deer are not moving due to the rain so we need to walk around and push. We walked for miles but golly and saw a bunch of signs. I was so frustrated. It was like their teasing me with signs but never show up. We hike from 10AM till 2PM and we're pretty beat at his point. I insisted that we go back to that swamp. I'm going to sit in the direction she ran to each time I kicked her up and wait for her to come out as the sun goes down. Shawn, decided to wander off somewhere. Turns out, he decided to go a big circle and come walk in from the rear of the swamp. Good thing. As it turned out, the reason why I stopped kicking her up was because she moved to the other side of the swamp. My walkie talkie went off..Shawn is whispering quickly "She's coming towards you! She's coming towards you!" I shut the walkie talkie off and kept staring...about a minute pass and I see these movement 30 degrees to my right. I raise my gun and the deer saw it and stop. Again, it was head on but even with the muzzleloader, I decided to be patient and wait. We essentially had a staring contest that lasted maybe 5-10 minutes. The doe must've thought to herself "I could have sworn I saw something move over there...oh, it's probably nothing." She took two hop prances to the left, went into a stroll for about 10 to 15 feet, and stopped. Roughly 50 yards from me. Perfect broadside shot. I pulled the trigger. Boom! Huge puff of smoke. I cleared the smoke and look and the deer is gone! Disappeared. I went to where she was standing and I didn't see anything. No blood, no hair, nothing. I was shoced! No way could I have missed! Shawn shows up and I told him what happened. Shawn said well, "if she was facing in that direction when you shot her then she probably ran in that direction." We went over with would be the other side of this rock ledge which starts a decline of a hill and there she laid. Dead as a door nail. We traced the blood trail backwards (and it was a lot of blood) and realized that I had actually shot her 10 yards further back than where I had thought. Drag out was a killer. Just had a drag rope. No sled. No tarp. Didn't get her to the car till around 5:30PM. Couldn't even get her into the car. Luckily, a fellow hunter happened to have drove by and gave us a hand as well as some extra plastic bags. Got her to my parents garage where Shawn, my dad, and I butcher her up. Shared the meat around. I took off while my dad is putting the finishing touches. He wanted to break the bones into smaller portions because he plan to make stock with them. Me...I find myself telling this story over and over again to anyone who asked. I'm excited. My proud. My dad is proud. I just need to invest in a cart of something. Apparently, I now wear the marks of a hunter. PS: .50 cal TC Shockwaves went right through the deer but after examinging the insides, the shockwaves completely shreded both lungs, I couldn't even recognize them anymore.

I'm kinda on the fence about all this...

I miss driving a rear wheel drive V8,with no seat belts 80 mph,on the expressway with one hand on a can of beer and the other on a hot blonde. I would say I miss my hair, but I dig shaving the head . I miss Jimi Hendrix, Cream and the Allman Brothers. I miss people having a sense of humor. I miss my Dad .

The deer aren't scared

The wife said I'd be lucky to get a seat at the grown up table for x-mas dinner. ( for some reason she gets testy around hunting season)....what ever. If I have to sit at the little table, I still get dinner and I totally dominate!!!! Last time , I sat at the kiddie table, I scored a sweet hot wheels car and a pack of sour patch kids candy!..... Win ..Win!! Merry Christmas.

After a long bow season with several good encounters but no back straps. I was happy to take this guy with a gun. Dec 8th is cutting it a little too close for my liking. Believe it or not this guy was dogging a doe hard. We have so many does in my area (4O) that not all get breed the first go round. 28 days later it starts to heat up again. I guess that is one benefit of having a buck to doe ratio of about 1:20. Put a pretty good shot on him @ about 150yrds. Knew he was hit good but he was running pretty hard across open field so sent another one at him took out his right front leg. tumbled him and there he laid. Saved my doe permit for muzzleloader so will be back at it this weekend. Thank you to everyone who posted I really enjoy reading all the stories. Helps me get though the work week and motivated to get up and get to the stand on those cold mornings..

Best story I forgot to mention. I had bought along on of those giant heavy duty garbage bags to stuff the deer into but it barely covered half her body. So I called my uncle, told him I about the deer and asked if he can drive up with more garbage bags. He said it'll take him hours to get there from where he's at and suggested I go to the nearest house and ask them for bags. I'm thinking...here I am covered in blood, knocking on someone's door in the middle of the night, asking for garbage bags so I can stuff a body into it. Visualizing that each time makes me laugh.

Omg now u can't even joke here, this place is getting tough, no high fences, no full camo, no ball and chain jokes, no swearing, well guess I will just have to go hunting first I have to go ask my ball and chain not lol. Happy hunting

Donate it

OK, next time me or Doe kill something we will send our GPS coordinates to you. We fully expect you to come out and give us a helping hand. Maybe that will get us to stop our "ball and chain" jokes.

If you had another person with you here is a little tip that may help u on your next one, this is what I do, on the hind legs cut between the bone and tendon half way down the back legs , both of them, find a strong sapling and stick it through the cuts you made in both legs, each of your take a side and off you go easy drag, no ropes, carts, ect. If you are alone do the same thing but tie a rope around each end of the stick step in between loop and off u go. Works like a charm for me atv also works nice lol

I use the Cabelas Recon Hunt app and it works great. It is the only app I have ever paid for ($3.99 I think), but it turns your phone into a hunting GPS. It works great for day trips in the big woods.

I have always had good luck with the plain jane factory stuff, mostly Remington cor-lokt. I shoot the 150 grain out of my 30-06 and the 140 grain out of my 7mm-08. The Winchester Power points are pretty good too, but my guns like the Rem. stuff a little better. I'd say shoot what flys the best out of your gun. whether it's the plain factory stuff, or the premium, but I would start with the plain stuff first. Just me.

This is a prime example of how shooting at the range, perseverance, and friendship all pays off at the end of the day(literally). When Elmo and I split up around 2pm, I really wanted to just sit in the car and call it a day. But something told me I should walk the other side of the forest and not let the miles of walking bother me. I found a nice trail, and thought, I'll take it easy and just "explore the area for next year." Thats when I remembered a conversation I had with Elmo in the ride back one day, "let's worry about this year first, it's not over yet", Elmo said to me. So I found a nice worn out deer trail, and followed it in. I went in as far as I could, hoping to kick up a bedded deer, but only managed to hit a dead end for humans, and decided to turn back. There were tons of sign in there, and in the excitement and many many briars, I was lost. Light was starting to get dim, and I started to panic a little. Took what seemed like hours to get back out, and after many scratches to my legs, arms, and neck, I finally got out with the use of my phone's compass and maps. I said to myself, I've really had enough for one day! On my way back to the car, I remembered seeing another side trail, and stated at it for a minute before I said, what the heck, and went right in. This trail was much heavier used by people, and it led me through the briar patches and into the edge of the swamp. I figured I could connect back to how I came in by walking the edge of the swamp, and maybe kick something up deeper in the swamp if there was a deer in here. Found a nice little spot someone made as a ground sit, and continued on. I again, found myself in a dead end in the direction towards the car, but just then as I walked over and snapped a branch, I heard an echo, "snap....snap!". I took a few steps closer and "snap......snap"! Each time I snapped a branch, another snapped in the near distance inside the thick thick briars. I snapped once more, and that's when it happened. I heard rustling running away from me, in the direction of Elmo. I refocused my attention to closing in on the, now almost silent, rustling and placed my eyes in the area where I last heard it going... And there she came. Up the ridge from the swamp, just like Elmo's encounters were like. She was huge, And she stopped broadside right in between a bunch of trees. I had my crosshairs on her, pretended to take the shot, and even make the noise of the hammer hitting, "click". I didn't fire, but still wonder if I had, would she have been hit and down. I made some noise to send her off trotting towards Elmo's direction, hoping he hasn't moved and as soon as she was out of viewing distance, I alerted Elmo that this is his chance! I can tell he was excited of the news because he had to ask me a few times to verify the direction he needs to be looking. I pretty much told him, "look towards the car"! Not one minute later, I hear a huge bang and I stood there, at a dead end, lost again, motionless for what felt like a long time. I didn't hear from Elmo, and tried hailing him a few times, but was unsuccessful. I feared the worst, I hope my buddy didn't shoot himself out of excitement or if another hunter shot him in his blaze orange, then I checked myself to see if I was shot and didn't know it(haha). Then I hear "tzzz... You there?....tzzz". Knowing my buddy is still alive, I quickly told him I'd be right there and stay put until I get there and rushed through the swamp I didn't want to trek through. On my way there, I discovered I had lost radio contact with him, turns out he could hear me but I couldn't receive his transmissions. It was very frustrating and turned out to be a VOX setting that was pushed by accident on Elmo's radio. I had to do the Marco polo tactic in the woods and zeroed him in that way. It was a good thing a deer was shot at that point, or else anything within 10 miles would have been spooked by us. And everything after that is history..... Good shooting buddy, I got the same on both my shoulders and I'm sure your back isn't feeling much better than mine right now. So when are we going for number 2? Too soon? Haha.

I assume you plan to hunt deer. Deer whitetail deer are not a big challenge to bullet construction. Any standard expanding bullet in 150 grain weight or heavier in the 30-06 will kill them just fine. You don't need an expensive bullet for deer. A buddy of mine, who is a non-reloader ( poor soul) just this year experimented with several different factory loads for his .270. Of all the loads he tried, the most accurate was the cheapest Federal rounds that he could buy..They seemed to kill ok also, since while he hunting with me he killed 3 deer in 2 days. Let me say also, price was not a factor in his decision. He is a successful attorney and can afford whatever ammo he wants. I'd try the cheap Federals and Rem Green coreloct first.Chances are one or both of them will group well. If not, there are dozens of other options in factory loads out there for the 30-06, probably more than for any other cartridge.

IIRC last year I killed a doe whose bladder was so full it filled the entire pelvic area, I mean it was HUGE. I was lost on that one. I got it but lost some. There was just no way I could get my fingers around the area to pinch it off properly. Hey Dan, when these guys (web masters) throw the xmas party I'll need to show you something. I have been thinking of becoming a urologist and I believe I've perfected the prostate check. I call it the "no hands" method. LOL, hehehe & a big fat <grin>

Was that refering to the rectum of the pronghorn or the hard to please customer..lol

I miss when a handshake was all you needed.

No, I was simply quoting the number Biz originally posted. The largest high fence preserve that I can find is a little over the 10,000 acre mark. Still an area that is about 17 square miles. I like Doc's explanation on it. Not all high fence operations are canned hunts. Some of them are about keeping a purely wild herd with a perfect ratio of bucks to does combined with the proper population for the carrying capacity for their property. It's not fair to lump these places in with the operations that operate like what Doc described.

Too bad they're not water activated. All my boots leak,lol

Brought to yuo by Doc Foxworthy...lol

There probably is no real official size limit when trying to define a "canned hunt". I generally figure if you can see prey species lounging around in the shade chewing their cud with their eyes half closed ....... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If you see a guy walking out into a barnyard banging the side of a grain pan with a wooden spoon and calling one of the animals by name ..... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If the prey animals are all congregated around a pan of food ..... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If you see a deer that can barely lift it's head because of the weight of its antlers ..... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If the animals to be hunted have ear-tags and collars..... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If the ground is worn down to dirt because of constant animal traffic ..... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If the animals walk up to the fence in front of you and stick their noses through for you to pet ... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If there is a barn and stalls supplied for the animal's shelter .... you're probably looking at a canned hunt. If you can use the fence for a gun-rest while you shoot the buffalo next to the watering trough .... you're probably looking at a canned hunt.

This is all I do anymore with no contamination... well, maybe a drop. At that point any leftovers wont be of any concern while processing.

mommy hasnt changed his huggies, or burped him yet. hes fussy.

You won't hear me say this often but "you are 100% correct". After all you were the first to show up...LOL

I miss the trust that people use to have. Where did that go? Seems like know one trust anyone today. I miss the simple life, the one without all the worries of tomorrow. I miss the happiness, people use to share. I miss the unity, this country use to have. I miss the value of the dollar. Just a few, folks.

Best of Luck on that Elmo....When our 180 invitations arrived....for the wedding we were paying for.....I turned to Mr. B and said sorry...I can't do this. I said how well do you know most of these ppl?....Not really well...How often do you see them?....Not often...save immediate family.... I then said invite your parents,,, grand parents... siblings and your favorite friend and aunt and uncle...I'll do the same...except aunt and uncle.... We took them all to a very nice steak house...told them to order anything they wanted and the restaurant gave us a private room and bartender...15 of us had a great time...surf and turf.... clams.... shrimp...lots to drink the wedding cake....nice music piped in... Used the invitations as scrape paper...lol Not one person complained about the wine... the food....music...ect.....Best decision I have ever made...

I have enough guns , bows , hunting clothes and hunting accessories . I can't think of anything I need . No doubt I will get Gift Certificates . I should clean out my closet and dresser and re-gift presents that I have never used .

Hes from KENYA not Chicago.

Whirled peas,oh I'm sorry its world peace.... In fact nothing like most years,like others I buy what i need when I need or want it . Now if only they'd move Christmas to prior to hunting season , then I'd have a list !

i dont know..... my dog is smart enough to stay inside when its cold, and i sit on the ice for 10 hours and not catch anything. maybe im just dumb. lol.

My last day of muzzleloader 8. First and only late muzz buck this far.

Muzzleloader, cva kentucky long rifle 50 cal ,round ball. and 50 cal kentucky pistol with round ball.

Hawkin 50 cal. powder, patch, roundball.

I wouldn't leave my bow in the woods for anything I wouldn't get sleep at night thinking if it's still their. Lol good luck though.

I don't watch the Outhouse Channel, because most of these "Professionals" couldn't find there way out of my 5 acre lot without a map, gps and string tied from one end to the other. AND another reason I would never support SCI.They certainly don't practice fair chase. They are notorious for shooting (I refuse to call it "hunting) inside petting zoos. And then have the gall to publish these zoo pets in their record books,

TC Triumph is all I use , one shot, so it has to count..........

you just have to train them to line up nice and even....

Because over 50yrs ago we started breeding "Common" sense out of the human race