Buckmaster7600

Finally back to civilization, after shooting my buck Tuesday I spend wed-Friday trying to track a buck with a guy I work with that wanted me to teach him some tracking. We got on a few good ones but he was never able to get a shot off. I think I wore him out because He decided not to hunt this morning so we came home a day early. Thanks everyone for the congratulations, it was an awesome hunt now I’m just sad I have to wait a few weeks to do it again in Mass. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s not near as bad as it sounds, over 10 of that was on roads back to my truck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Snow came and I capitalized today. Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet. On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack. This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track. At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.” After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds. I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer. I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground. Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is. He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks. Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him. I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal. Cross country skier. His weird loops The spruce swamp Although I knew he was a buck it’s always nice to get reassurance After the first shots

Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet. On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack. This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track. At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.” After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds. I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer. I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground. Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is. He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks. Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him. I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Was driving the 15 mile drive on dirt roads out to the mountain I wanted to hunt today and a found a very good track crossing the road on the way. It’s not super fresh probably a few hours old, the edges are pretty rounded but he’s got a wide stance and is dragging his toes. His tracks look like a cross country skiers. Plans are changed sitting in the truck until daylight. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Finally got tracking snow, left home at 230 this morning got in the woods a little after 5 to hike into the mountain I wanted to hunt. Did a 7 mile loop and never found a track worth following but saw 6 deer 2 of them bucks that I let go. Got back to camp around 2:30 because I wanted to check a road out to a mountain I want to hunt in the morning. On the way driving down the road I cut a smoking fresh track of a good buck and a doe. Knowing I didn’t have a lot of time I took off after him on his track went a few hundred yards and come to a little knoll with a buck of beech whips and I could smell the buck, the wind was in my face so I backed up agains a tree and grunted a few times, about 2 or 3 minutes after grunting I heard something over my shoulder looked and a dandy buck was looking at me at 10yds. I swung on him but he was already going and didn’t want to take that shot this late in the day. Oh well it was a fun day gonna be snowing all day, hopefully we don’t get too much. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have both and don’t think there is any noticeable difference in recoil. The 30-30 is perceivably louder from a 16” barrel than a 44mag when shooting side by side. Neither, I like brush guns with open peep sights and I’m not taking a 175yd shot with a peep sight. I’ll hunt my way to the buck and try to cut the distance to inside 100yds and take the shot with any gun I would hunt deer with. A brush gun is a trade off, you give up the range for the other attributes. A deer shot under 125yds “my maximum range with a peep sight” whether it’s hit with a 30-30, 35rem, 44mag is dying and will never know the difference of what hit him. As far as ammo I don’t know of a place that sells ammo that doesn’t cary 44mag. I’ve also never took this into consideration because I reload and My 2 main deer rifles this year are a 35rem and a 35whelen both can be hard to find ammo for if you shoot store bought ammo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://www.n4lcd.com/calc/ Some of you will be surprised by the fact that the 44mag ranks higher than the loved 30-30, hey wolc don’t you hunt with a 30-30?

Wolcy stop, you’ve never shot a 44mag in a rifle and it makes you sound very ignorant. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The 44mag in a 5-6lb rifle has very little recoil. Would it be my first choice as a suggested deer rifle? A lot depends, it would be on the short list for someone that wants a light short rifle, will never shoot over 100yds or someone who’s recoil sensitive. A true brush rifle is anything but a unicorn or myth, everyone with a brain knows if a bullet hits brush it’s deflecting. Caliber makes very little difference on the amount of deflection distance between what the bullet hits and the animal is what makes the difference. A brush rifle is a gun that’s light and short so it’s easy to tote through the brush, quick to the shoulder, quick follow up shots in a caliper that’s has enough energy to make it into the vitals from other than perfect shot angles. With that being said 44mag in a lever is an excellent choice for a brush gun, if I liked levers more I would probably carry one more often but I’ve tried them all and keep going back to my pumps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have been disappointed in the Buffalo bore ammo I’ve tried always over rated for velocities. Between my old man and brother I was around about 10 deer killed with Winchester white box and they performed as good as possible. Only reason I started reloading for the 44’s is because I only hunt with copper bullets now and Barnes load there 44 mags very light. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why not, variety is the fun of it. Not to mention they make guns for pistol cartridges that they don’t make for the cartridges you mention. A light short soft kicking 44mag is a dream to tote in the woods and kills deer plenty dead, so what’s not to like. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+= 16” option. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hard to put a numerical number on something without a scale so I’ll make my own, 1) Being a BB gun and a 10) being a 35whelen I would rate the 44mag a 6. Ive killed deer with 44mag rifles and they all died. I like 44mag rifles a lot, I’ve acquired a small heard of them over the years. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup, you can do the same with wool or you can just keep on trucking because it will be heavy but it will still be warm. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wore it when I was in the service and still do for work tasks around the compound and ice fishing but for hunting it lacks 1 very important property that wool has, it’s cold when wet. When I’m miles from a road or the truck I need to know that if I slip and fall crossing a stream I’m not going to freeze to death wool does this polypropylene doesn’t. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ll know in a couple hours, I’m packing the truck for an 11mile hike into the tent tonight. Usually only 4 miles but with road closures it will be 11. Should be fun, snow tomorrow makes it all worth it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If it’s hit where you described the buck as dead before 5, you’ve already given it 4 hours normally I would say wait until morning but with rain coming I would head out now and see what the blood trail tells you. If you have good lung blood and a lot of it keep going if not back out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Many possibilities, is your bow tuned properly? Anything other than perfect arrow flight causes arrow to change paths on impact. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I understand that my point being a 2” group at 20yds is way more than accurate enough for deer hunting. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bow or a gun. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree 100%, muscle memory is what takes over when our hearts are beating out of our chests and our brains are everywhere but where they should be! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A good shot is when a deer dies from a vital hit within a reasonable time. I don’t really have a hunting weapon set up for accuracy. I don’t own a rifle that will regularly shoot under 1moa groups. My hunting bow has a huge pin and I don’t shoot with a peep so 1” groups aren’t something I see very often. I can keep my shots in a deers vitals out to 60+ yards with my setup but shooting tight groups isn’t something I give a crap about. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

2” group at a target from level ground no wind good light conditions or 2” group when its 10 degrees from a stand that you’ve sat in for a few hours? Target shooting means nothing, in my opinion the only good target shooting does is form muscle memory and ensure your equipment is sighted in. Real world hunting accuracy is what matters. You say2” group at 20yds isn’t a good shot but a deer will never know if you missed the hair you’re aiming at by 1”. I would be willing to bet that most members on here can’t shoot a 2” group with their hunting gun of choice at 20yds freehand yet that’s a shot everyone will take. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hell of a buck, congrats! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice buck biz! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk