Doc

The only place where I can track deer and have a chance of catching up with them is state land. That's the only place where there is enough contiguous land with legal access to actually pull it off. In my younger years that was a popular way for me to hunt. The problem now as I continue to get old and decrepit is that I have to keep in mind that anything I get has to be dragged all the way back. I used to get so far away that that would be impractical anymore. A two mile drag up and downhill is pretty much out of the question anymore.

Ever dress with so much clothing that you have trouble pulling your scope close enough to your eye? There are times when I have to struggle to get the butt of my gun close enough to my shoulder to get the proper eye relief because of the bulk of the clothing I have piled on.

Many years ago, I remember arguing with a co-worker that there would come a day when hunting would become a paid activity. I believe we are well on our way in that direction and moving fast. Two years ago I had 300 acres of prime deer hunting country that was all of a sudden posted up tighter than a drum with the only access for hunting granted only after payment of fairly expensive "membership fees". That's just one example and there are at least two other examples that I can think of. Leases are becoming commonplace with hunters bidding against each other for prime hunting land. Its a shame, but the European model for hunting access is quickly over-taking the U.S. Sport of the wealthy?.... yeah, that's where we are heading as state land continues to become so overcrowded that that may not even be an alternative before long without impractical travel.

Yes, "stuff like that will happen in life", but we don't have to lay awake at night dreaming up new ways to increase the odds that those things will happen. We have to stop trying to use the law to beat hunters over the head with. That seems to be the first thought in everyone's head, to just keep tightening the screws and see how many hunters we drive out of our ranks. Well, it seems to me that if the object is to take more does, aggravating more hunters out of the woods is not a real slick way of doing that. It's a disturbing trend in thinking these days that seems to be taking ahold. Got a problem? .... Dream up something to screw with the hunters. I wonder where that mentality is going to stop?

All my gun stands have some kind of gun rest incorporated into the cover. However, many of my deer are taken during still-hunting where a perfect gun rest may not exist. So while bench shooting is essential for sighting in, the off-hand shooting should be part of the practice routine because that may represent the majority of your shots when you are in hunting situations. If nothing else, it familiarizes yourself with your limitations. And remember, "A man's gotta know his limitations" .... lol.

Seriously .... We have had some winds this year where I actually felt a bit uneasy about the dead limbs that were coming out of the trees. I had one situation where a huge tree had come down between the time I walked in the trail til the time I walked out. When they talk about "widow-makers", I have seen quite a few potential examples this year. During those high winds days, I noticed that I stopped worrying about how the deer would react, and started spending my time checking out all the dead limbs overhead .... lol.

Seriously, as of 11:00 am Saturday morning there had been more shots fired before legal shooting hours than there was after.....by quite a wide percentage too.

I came down out of the trees a couple of decades ago when I started getting a bit phobic about heights. Actually, I haven't missed being up there at all. I kind of like the thrill of taking on these critters in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation. The excitement level spikes when you have that vulnerability. I have had deer so close I could have reached out and touched them. That's something that will get the old ticker thumping.

And for those people that are super-concerned about harvest age, you have a better chance of hunters being more selective if they know there is only one buck available to them. I think there is an attitude that the first one is meat in the freezer, and then the trophy hunting can actually begin with the NEXT one.

That's a wonderful system as long as the deer come along in the right sequence. How pissed would you be to have the buck of a lifetime come along before you even saw a doe? Let's not be in such a hurry to heap restrictions all over ourselves every time we think we have a problem. There is way too much of this, "gotta problem - pass a law" mentality with no one thinking of the potential consequences.

They certainly will if somebody shoots them .... lol.

There was one thing that I still remember from back in the dark-ages when I took my hunter safety training, that made a hell of an impression on me. They showed pictures of some of the hunting accidents. I remember a picture of a guy hanging over a fence with a rather nasty looking head wound. And there were a few of some other shotgun wounds. These shock tactics put those images in my head as a permanent mental display of the consequences of lapses of safety awareness. Now two things that might put a damper on these tactics: 1 With all the namby-pamby attitudes about subjecting youths to the trauma of death, I'm sure that today those kinds of tactics would not be tolerated by parents. 2 With the constant exposure of blood and gore on TV (especially the CSI programs) the impact might not exactly be the same as it was back in the more innocent days when I took the course. But anyway, the point is that if somehow it could be brought across to the students that these weapons are not to be taken lightly and that their misuse has some rather disgusting and life altering consequences, perhaps the ideas of firearms safety would be taken more seriously and become something that is always on the minds of future hunters. I would suggest a segment in the course that details some of the consequences of unsafe hunting. I mean some true stories of the impacts of hunting accidents on not only the victims and their families, but on the shooter and his family. I think some "shock tactics" might actually help cut down on some of these fatalities.

I guess the question was aimed at gun season. For me the answer differs with bowhunting vs. gun hunting. After opening weekend, I kind of need the noise killing wind. Also a little wind tends to keep the direction more consistent than those light breezes that react to every little rise or hollow in the ground and those thermals. Yes, once the guys start emptying out of the woods, I have to go find the deer instead of waiting for somebody to push one to me. So, that means I am out there stumbling around the woods, and these days I need all the cover I can get.

Well, if for no other reason, I use binoculars to slow down my still-hunting pace. Few slow steps - glass the whole area, a few more steps - glass the whole area.

How about pipe smokers. Any adverse hunting effects from that? Frankly, I used to smoke for many years and couldn't tell you how many times I had to set the cigarette down to pick up the bow. You either have got the wind or you don't. I do wonder about strong aromatic smokes that periodically hit one of those back-blows, and distributes smoke molecules out along the trail that you are watching. Does it leave residual scent behind like footprints? Also, do the stronger scents hang together more and travel farther when the wind starts getting unpredictable. Ah, all these questions and so few answers. All I can say is that hunting is a recreational activity. If smoking enhances your hunting, go ahead and light up. If you want to quit smoking, hunting sits pretty low on the long list of good reasons.

So, exactly how do you drag a bear. It seems like it would be a bit like trying to tie a drag-rope on huge garbage bag of jello. They don't exactly come with handles.

I just finished up a 4 hour still hunt. The wind I was whining about this morning has stopped completely except for that damned swirling. What I have been reminded of is how loud the leaves can be when there is absolutely no wind, and they are all dried out. Of course, I believe I have totally lost my "sneak" with old age. You got to pick those damned feet up, and my balance isn't what it needs to be for foot and weight control. It doesn't matter anyway. I got a whole lot of exercise. But either I need some snow, or some rain to dampen those leaves a bit or bring back a little wind. Or maybe if I can find a buck that is deaf. You know one of those old "Mature" bucks .... lol.

I was over at a deer processor the other day, and I was looking at some of the bucks that were laying there plus a few that I saw guys walking away with that were caped out, and I was thinking, what the heck is all this AR talk all about? There were quite a few darned nice deer there, and we are not an AR WMU. It seems to me that every year the bucks get bigger and there are more of them without anybody passing any irritating new restrictive laws. Are we looking for a book-buck behind every tree? I'm sorry, but I really can't get all excited about whatever latest and greatest antler control scheme that people are able to concoct. I think it is a whole lot of kicking and screaming over nothing.

Yeah, it looks like an antler wound from rut activity. But it could be some of the other explanations also.

What .... is that wind out there howling again? Sure enough, that's ridiculous! Actually a little wind is a good thing for what I have planned today. Good cover for my stumbling, foot-dragging attempts at still-hunting ...ha-ha. Not quite as balanced and light on my feet as I used to be. So a little natural ruckus out there can actually be a good thing.

Shot just behind the shoulder (according to the OP) with the bullet or slug traveling diagonally through the body (According to the picture)? .... I think it's a safe bet that it didn't exactly pose a real challenging tracking job.

Shot behind the left shoulder and diagonally through the body and out the guts? It couldn't have been that difficult of a tracking job. In fact is likely that that is right where he dropped. I think there's a pretty good chance that it was intentionally left.

You know, there is another aspect to this lighting situation. The closer to absolute dark that you do your shooting, the harder it gets to find "first blood" when that becomes necessary. Some hits, the deer goes right down.....Great ... no problem. Some hits the deer goes a ways (sometimes a long ways) before any blood is dropped. Sometimes you are looking for specks of blood or even some sign of a track. Yes, hopefully the tracking job can be done by flashlight. But on the more difficult blood-trailing activities, a little bit of daylight left at the end of the day can make the difference between getting off to a good start on the blood trail vs. another lost deer.

Ha-ha-ha ..... They got me. Even though I already knew what was going to happen, I jumped when that critter lunged up. It was a funny reaction. Yes, it was pretty stupid of them to be standing in front when they had already remarked that the thing was still breathing. That's a good way to wind up with hoof-prints on your face or worse.

Actually my comments are not about shots fired 5 minutes early. What I was hearing Saturday morning was 1/2 hour and more before legal shooting time. Some of those shots you would have to admit were in the dark. That goes beyond legality and crosses over into the area of safety. My thought is that some of these people who whine about hunting start and stop times would have no problem with shooting deer at night if the right snow and moonlight conditions were to occur. There comes a time when you have to call that mentality just a pure poaching mindset. And either you believe in poaching or you don't. I don't.