wildcat junkie

Not in my area. 2 1/2 year olds usually sport moderate 5-6 point racks.Yearling can be spikes 3-points, 4-points, 5-points & ocasional 6-points. I did shoot a small 8-point that was most likely 1 1/2. It had a cute little simetrucal 9"wide basket. On the other end, the biggest body weight deer I ever shot way a 219# dressed 4-point. 100" eight points I have shot have been teeth aged @ 3 1/2 & the one I shot this year will be @ least that old, more likely 4 1/2 judging by the body. Deer in my area lead a hard scrabble existance W/only a few corn field in the area & all of those are chopped for balage. Not a huge amount of mast trees either.

That "American" rifle was built under license from Mauser.

That skeet choked barrel was the only barrel that I liked #7 1/2s in. It spread so quick & evenly, it didn't shoot up the meat W/the larger shot count of #7 1/2s. In my 12 ga muzzle loader dbl barrel I used #6s. It was choked mod/full, but patterned more like IC/mod. Over dogs I like to dbl barrel W/ICmod barrel for some of the longer shots.

Best gun I ever used for jump shooting rabbit was a 12ga M58 Remington W/a 26" skeet barrel. The choke was just ahead of the gas port. It would spead 1 1/4oz of #7 1/2s 30" @ 20yds yet it was so even it would still have sufficient coverage @ 30. I hand loaded Winchester hulls. Low brass & AA hulls got 1 1/4oz of #7 1/2. High brass, buckshot & rifled slug hulls I would pick up in the field & at the range got 1 3/8oz #6. I stuffed a load of 7 1/2s in the chamber, then the heavy #6 load farthest up the tube W/another 7 1/2 behind it.. I picked up every Win plastic hull I found in the woods or @ the range. No paper base wad to soak up water & the same internal volume no matter what the original load.

I'll stick W/Mausers for now. If I ever feel the need for an assault pea-shooter. 1 bullet will get me one.

I always had my best luck on calm cold sunny mornings. Hunt south facing edges like the northern edge of a powerline or southern side of a fencerow. Thin cover/thick cover transitions. Bunnies will seek out the sunniest spots to soak up sun to warm up after a fridgid night. Thick fencerows need 3 people. One guy takes his turn busting the brush while shooters take either side. 1st guy to get a shot takes his turn as dog. BTW: Love the "mixed bag" picture. Can't beat a agme bag full of Gray Squirrels/Cottontails.

It's on the Sportman Network. 605 if you have DirecTV. I have it set on my DVR. 1/15 8:30PM-11:00PM-11:30PM 1/16 11:00AM-11:30AM

He didn't like the gall bladder juice either.

He'd be dead if he ran by me looking like that! I can see a pretty good 4-5 point half rack on the near side.

One ear, or both?

And all I said was that spikes are USUALLY yearlings. I didn't say all spikes are yearlings or that all yearlings are spikes did I? That being said I will also state that spikes that reach the legal 3" criteria as bucks are RARELY fawns. Please note that I didn't use a difinitive tern such a NEVER. How can you positively identify a barely legal 3"ish spike as a fawn by trail cam PIX? It very well could be a late born yearling (older than 1 year old but less than 1 1/2 in November) that is small in body size? If you shoot it & age it by teeth, then it would be a slightly different matter.

is it possible for a 6-month-old buck fawn to grow spikes? We have a healthy food supply and good genetics, and believe we've seen a buck fawn with 2- to 3-inch spikes. - Rick W. ANSWER: Antler growth begins early in a buck's life. Just a few months into its first spring, a young buck's antlers begin growing from a permanent protrusion of bone on the forehead called a pedicel. We typically don't see them on buck fawns because they're hidden beneath the skin. By their first autumn, young stag's foreheads are usually adorned with leathery buttons for which they get the name button bucks. On rare occasions, a buck fawn might sport tiny spikes or bony protuberances scarcely more than an inch or two long. It is not until their second fall, as yearlings, that bucks typically grow what we would consider a true set of antlers. I once shot a button buck that had tiny little 1/2" points sticking out of the buttons. I also have a 1 1/2 year old Southern Indiana buck "Euro" mount that has 9-points & a 12" spread. I killed it on a F&W area where checking it in was mandatory. It was aged @ the F&W headquarters.

Those are fawns. the term "yearling" means adolecent. In a human, early teens of there about. In a deer it means more than 1 year old but less than 2 years old. Button bucks are fawns. Spikes are usually "yearlings".

In WWI the the "doughbays" used a Mauser action to shoot those 30-06 cartridges..

$150 for a Mosin is about $300 more than it's worth.

If it wasn't for the 8X57 you wouldn't have the 270, 30-06 or 308, oops, I mean 7.62 X 51. Every one of them were based on the 8X57 case.

It is a Cabelas Tri-pod that I bought in '99. 40" X 40" platform & swivel seat. The roof was more of a sun shade. It was fabric. I picked up a couple of "cover sheets" from the local lumber yard. They are the top sheet used to protect the pallet from damage. They usually have some minor scratches & such.They can be had for the asking or very cheap. I made roofs for the tri-pod & a similar design ladder stand that has a bench seat. The stand is located about 45yds into the woods from an inside corner of one of my hay fileds. It faces due west W/the long shooting lane @ 12:00. I shot this 3 1/2 YO buck in '09 near the end of the lane, about 230yds. 142# dressed, very run down from rut. This one in '05 @ about 250yds, right @ the end of the lane, another 3 1/2 YO buck. 168# dressed. There is a 100yd shooting lane @ about 1:30-2:00 that covers about 30yds of horse trail. That is where I shot this year's buck. I'm guessing 4 1/2 YO from the way the bases splay out. When I get the jaw bone back from the taxidermist I will verify his age. 43" + heart girth, about 290# dressed. The 200gr .323 Hotcore cleaned his clock from a straight on hit just above the brisket. The top of thye heart & about 1/3 of the liver were gone, the lungs came out in chunks. There's an 80yd shooting lane @ about 2:45. This young man killed his 1st buck in that lane from the tripod in 2010 W/my M700 Mtn Rfl DBM 7mm-08. Finally there is a 75yd lane @ 9:00. I shot a 219# dressed weight 4 1/2 YO 4-point right at the end of it in '04. That is the M700 CDL in .280 that I used to have. I want to get some PIX from the stand of all of the shooting lanes & from the lanes back towards the stand.

Home built custom Oberndorf style Mauser sporter based on Yugoslavian VZ500 intermediate length LR M98 action & exceptional military 98K barrel tuned down & crowned to my spec's by Dennis Olsen. The barrel is 23 1/2". All up weight loaded W/4 rounds W/scope & sling is about 7 1/2#. 8X57-IS loaded to 30-06 pressure spec W/.323 200gr Sreer Hotcore bullets @ 2730fps. 3300 ft # of muzzle energy. + of - 3" MPBR of 270yds. Sub 1/2 MOA accuracy for @ least 3 shots is routine for that load. 3-9X42 Kahles Scope. Kahles is the oldest continually operating optics manufacture. They have been manufacturing optics in Austria since 1898. Karl Kahles was killed in an allied air raid strike on the facility in WW II.They were manufacturing some sort of optic sights for the 3rd REICH. Kahles developed the 1st practical variable power scopes. I wedge my elbows on the adjacent rails of the right corner of the tripod leaning into the corner. There is an upright for the roof that I sometimes can also use for steadiness, depending on the angle of the shot. I ALWAYS use whatever I can for a steady rest of some sort. The only shooting lane currently over 100yds is directly @ 12:00. I haven't failed to make 1-shot kills from that stand @ those distances since 2001. I can consisitanly hit a grapefruit sized target @ 250yds shooting off the rails of the tri-pod. Around 28 deer, about 17 of them bucks, have been killed from that stand by myself & 1 other hunter since 2001.

The 8X57 is the grandaddy of ALL .473" head cartridges, including the '06 & don't you forget it! The 30-06 was designed to replace the ealier 30-03 cartridge design & meet the performance level of the newly designed 8X57IS which far exceeded the 30-03 in performance. Springfield did a decent job of copying the 8X57IS & nearly met the performance level, albeit @ higher pressure.. Fact is, the '03 Springfield action was built under license from Mauser (before WW I) as it is a (slightly) modified M98 action. After WW I Springfield probably told Paul Mauser to kiss their ass.

7.62X54 is a full power battle rifle round. 7.62X39 is a reduced power assault rifle round. Big difference.

No, I just dabble W/hunting rifles, but I do try to get the best accuracy from them. My typical shot @ whitetails is about 240yds from a tripod stand that overlooks a 15 acre area that was selectively logged in '99. Besides the 8mm-06 A.I. I also play W/a Wildcat 5mm Remington Centerfire conversion of the 5mm RFM. The Schroeder brass is formed from 22 Hornet case W/the heads turned down. Surprisingly accurate for what it is. 100yds 200yds I load .204 33gr Hornady Vmax bullets @ 1.515" OAL over 6.8gr Alliant 2400 @ 2450fps. 33gr Vmax on the left, 30gr Berger HP on the right. OAL is too long to feed through the magazine so it is loaded single shot. Deadly on crows & groundhogs to 200yds +. I just worked up a load for Schroeder 40gr FMJ RN @ 2100fps for gray squirrels. W/the same zero that has the 33gr Vmax bullets 2 1/2" high @ 100yds has the 40gr Schroeders dead on @ 50yds. Trajectory for the 40gr RN is 1" high @ 75yds, zero @ 100yds. OAL for the 40gr RN is 1.350". Also too long to cycle through the magazine, but loading shorter degrades accuracy.

It would seem a shame to shoot a broken rack when next year he would most likely grow an even better set of antlers.

Make sure to check out the "This Doe Knows" page. Almost every day during season she left her sanctuary around noon to feed near the roads/camps.

Almost 48 MOA error that can't be affected by adjustments sure doesn't sound like mismatched ring mounts to me either!

Wuss!