gmil6184

I must admit I heard far fewer shots than normal this opening weekend. Although I personally had a very successful gun season. I only saw a handful of bucks and the 5 point I did shoot might not have been considered a "shooter" by some (and that's OK) but all in all I would rate this year above average.

.357 is certainly capable of taking deer but ammo selection is critical. I would pick a heavy for caliber bullet, ideally a hardcast to maximize penetration. I think a .44 magnum would be a better choice. The recoil is stout but should be significantly less than a .454. You could also split the difference and get a .41 mag, but the only downside is finding ammo as it is no where near as common as .357 or .44. Also you don't have the option of shooting lighter "special" ammo like .38 special and .44 special

Gotta love the way hard cast penetrates

Did you get a pass through with that 180 grain hardcast?

I made my first handgun kill Sunday on a mature doe. S&W 629 in .44 mag. Only second year carrying the handgun. I have always carried a rifle too. I'm too chicken to carry just the pistol, for fear of seeing a big buck at 200 yards or something. I am using the stock iron sights, I don't want to make it any heavier by adding a scope. Ammo are my handloads, 300 grain flat point hard casts I originally loaded for bear defense in Montana. The bullet passed clean through and shattered both front shoulders on the way.

I picked up a Marlin 336 in .35 Rem a few years ago at an estate sale. Probably paid a little more than what it was worth but I spoke to me. Already had a Williams peep sight on it (I personally think scopes look out on place on top of a lever action, practical as they may be). Checking the serial numbers confirmed it was made in 1954 and it showed signs of lots of honest use. Loaded with Hornady Lever evolution handloads it prints neat little groups. So far I have killed 3 does with it including one this past Sundays. God only knows how many deer it has killed over its 60 years but I am proud to have it back in the deer woods where it belongs.

Do you have your New York State Pistol permit? If not, AX Tactical in Yorkville, NY will be hosting an NRA Basic Pistol Course. This course satisfies the training requirement for Madison, Oneida and Herkimer Counties (and many others). You can sign up by contacting Instructor Greg Milewski by phone or text (315-292-8102) or email ([email protected]), or you can sign up at AX Tactical, or you can go to the NRAinstructors.org and click on "Find a Course" then search for NRA Basic Pistol course.

I love Jeff Cooper but I think the idea of a scout rifle is one of those "solutions in search of a problem." A marlin takes a traditional scope mount just fine so I don't see the point of using a scout configuration, but that's just my opinion. Personally I think lever guns look a little awkward with a scope and my .35 Remington has a Williams peep sight, which is pretty fast and plenty accurate at close to medium range where the 336 excels

Nice buck! Glad to hear you made such an effort to ease his passing. One of my huge pet peeves on hunting shows is when they spine an animal and go right into their high five, back slapping routine.

I was able to fill my antlerless tag saturday morning. It had been a slow morning as far as deer movement, so I pulled out my cell phone to text my dad to see if he was seeing anything. After exchanging a few texts I looked up to see a good doe standing in the middle of the plot. After standing there and looking around for a few minutes she turns and walks directly towards my tree and stops at like 5 yards and starts feeding. After waiting a minute or two to make sure there wasn't a buck following her, I decided to take the shot. The weekend before I missed a coyote, so I made a point to really take my time, hit my anchor, bend at the waist, and cut the arrow loose. Saw the arrow hit high behind her shoulder and she ran off like 25 yards and stopped to look around. After a few seconds her back legs started going limp and she crashed down. Shooting a Bear Truth at about 66 lbs. ICS Hunter .340 arrows, with 100 grain Magnus Stinger Buzzcut broadhead. The arrow I used was the same one I used to get the elk I posted earlier in the thread - think I found a lucky arrow

I would respectfully disagree with that video. I don't see how eyeballing the string is as good as paper tuning it - although a paper tune is really just a starting point. I think it gets your pretty close though and makes broadhead tuning that much easier.

Pics or it didn't happen! Haha good job on the doe and making a nice memory with your little one. I love taking a doe early. Puts a little meat in the freezer and it feels like it takes the pressure off. Making a good shot on a game animal (as opposed to a target) is a great confidence builder as well.

If you broadheads and field points are that far off, that suggests your bow is out of tune. After made the adjustment to your rest, did you should field points again to confirm they were hitting the same as your broadheads? Are you sure you snugged your rest back up tight after you made the adjustment? I like to mark the rest, so I can tell if something moved. a 1/16th of an inch movement of your rest might not even be noticable, but can have a huge impact on arrow flight, especially with a fixed blade. Might also want to have someone double check your form. You might have developed a little form problem that you haven't noticed, and having another person watching might help detect it (dropping your bow hand, plucking the string, etc.) Just switching to a rage might get your arrows to fly with your broadheads, but if it is a tuning issue you haven't really "fixed" anything, and you will not be maximizing the performance of your bow. Let us know if you are able to figure it out.

I shoot a bear too, but the older model "Truth." I agree that you get a lot of bow for the money. Are you getting tight groups with broad heads or just Field points? Even a bow that is pretty badly out of tune is capable of tight FP groups. I always paper tune as a starting point and then broad head tune. If your broad heads and fps are hitting together I would not change anything, but if they aren't I would suggest paper tuning by making very slight adjustments to your rest and/or knock point until you get a perfect bullet hole. Then try a broad head. You may need to make some additional adjustments to get your broad heads to hit with your fps but paper tuning should get you pretty close

I shoot a bear too, but the older model "Truth." I agree that you get a lot of bow for the money. Are you getting tight groups with broad heads or just Field points? Even a bow that is pretty badly out of tune is capable of tight FP groups. I always paper tune as a starting point and then broad head tune. If your broad heads and fps are hitting together I would not change anything, but if they aren't I would suggest paper tuning by making very slight adjustments to your rest and/or knock point until you get a perfect bullet hole. Then try a broad head. You may need to make some additional adjustments to get your broad heads to hit with your fps but paper tuning should get you pretty close

I am convinced there is a difference between deer too. I have had situations where I have made less than ideal shots and the deer drop in sight, and other times I have made what I consider textbook shots and the deer go 100 yards. Same broad heads, arrows and bow. The ones that dropped in sight weren't always the smaller deer. I have had similar experiences with guns too. Hit two deer in essentially the same spot, one drops in its tracks, next one runs 100 yards before it drops.

The short answer is "no." A well placed field point would probably kill a deer. I think the difference between a two inch slice between both lungs and a one inch slice through both lungs is probably negligible. I suppose a bigger cut is prob better (or at the very least, doesn't hurt). But any quality, sharp broad head in the right spot will do. Conversely, the biggest, sharpest broad head (regardless of brand) in the wrong spot is going to give you a difficult recovery.

This obviously isn't a NY kill, but it was my first harvest of the season. 4x4 bull elk, taken last Thursday in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. 25 yard quarter to shot, got both lungs, liver and some gut and sliced up the offside hindquarter. He went about 150 yards and watched him drop.

I filled my antlerless tag yesterday afternoon. It was in the 60s and I wasn't optomistic the deer would be moving, but around 4 pm I saw this young doe coming through the brush and goldenrod. She was acting super hawky and stood on the edge of the food plot forever before finally settling down and working her way into range. She came broadside at about 28 yards and I cut it loose, hitting her a little higher and further back than I intended but watched her crash about 80 yards away. While breathing a sigh of relief from watching her crash I heard a few grunts coming from behind me and out comes a tall spike on a trot with his nose to the ground. He goes right to where the doe was standing at the the shot, then proceeds to walk down the same trail the doe ran off on, nose to the ground, grunting the whole way. He followed the trail right up to the doe's body before he realized she was dead. You could almost see him go "WTF?" it was pretty funny. He was not discouraged though, and he trotted off still grunting the whole way.

Got this buck Saturday morning. Was cruising through the timber at first light before turning and coming into the brassica plot I was sitting over. He walked straight into my stand and freezes at 12 yards. He started to test the wind and get nervous. After what felt like forever he turned and took two steps to his right, and I drew back and cut it loose. I heard the shot hit and he wheeled to run, and just as he got out of sight I heard him crash. Shot came in high but in at a sharp downward angle and he barely made it out of the plot.

If you are asking if you should do one or the other I would say lime. First of all it is cheaper and 90 percent of food plots are on the low end of the ph scale so it couldn't hurt to add more lime. It looks like you have brassicas planted which are annuals so I would save the fert for right before planting next spring and lime in the meantime.