Bambi whacking thread 2020-2021

Gotta be target shooting. If so, something big.

We are up to over 40 shots all in the same general direction. Mostly really slow fire. Either a lot of dead deer, one really F-omg terrified deer and a hunter who needs new glasses, or target shooting.

I am not near IWLA and wrong direction for it.

Probably missed a deer and is now re-zeroing his gun...in the woods. Typical public hunting land.

outrider58 said:

Probably missed a deer and is now re-zeroing his gun...in the woods. Typical public hunting land.

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Up to about 80 rounds fired now. I think it’s the small farm right next to Brown’s church.

It’s a few shots every 3-6 minutes. Now some are too fast to be a ML, like 4-5s between follow ups.

Quietest muzzle loader opener ever. Heard 3 shots all day long. All were at unloading o'clock. Had 3 doe fawns milling around on neighbor's property and what I think was a member of the dink crew hanging out under me at last light. All the does seem to have ditched their fawns or the guys on the property next door have just been whacking the does because Im not seeing any big old girls w the fawns anymore. Probably already breeding. Rut over.

I’ll be out this weekend. Some may recall the story of how I found my biological father via AncestryDNA. My 1/2 brother is coming in this weekend. He sings country music, but is pretty urban. He wants to see a deer hunt and participate in the processing. Wish me luck!!!!

Good luck everyone! I'm not going out this weekend. Just saw my neighbor pull up and unload a deer from his truck.

I"m still doing bow on my own property. Saw 4 yesterday and the big doe presented a shot I was not ready for it, then spooked and walked off. I may switch to Muzzleloader from 70 yards away tomorrow night and Saturday night. Not sure, I really want a bow kill cause I've only done crossbow before. Saw NOTHING this evening but 7 squirrels eating my corn. I have seen zero at my corn in the mornings so I may get up saturday morning and take out some squirrels.

Archeryrob said:

I have one deer the SST hit the front leg exiting and WOW it wasted some meat. Drop your deer at the processor and you'll know why you're a few pound short. I'll agree is superb in ballistics but I want to eat what i am shooting and want a round that kills without excess damage.

Here is one that hit the heart on a doe, in and out pics.

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I think it's kinda hilarious that you guys are blaming the SST because of your own failure to hit an accurate shot on the game animal.

I don't care what bullet you use if you hit the deer in the wrong place your gonna mess up the meat. LOL!

You guys need to learn how to load your own ammo instead of depending on factory ammo. If you use factory ammo your stuck with whatever performance you get out of it and it's always gonna be bad if it doesn't shoot well out of your rifle. I'm guessing you must've tried the Hornady Superformance bullets. Those are probably loaded as hot as they can make them.

If you load, reload, handload or whatever you wanna call it you can tweak the ammo. You can use different bullets, gunpowder or primers to see if it can shoot well in your rifle. They all make a difference. You start with a mild load and work you way up to see if it'll work. If not, try a different load. All bullet companies have entire books that are like cooking recipe books to tell you exactly how to load the bullet.

Melnic said:

I"m still doing bow on my own property. Saw 4 yesterday and the big doe presented a shot I was not ready for it, then spooked and walked off. I may switch to Muzzleloader from 70 yards away tomorrow night and Saturday night. Not sure, I really want a bow kill cause I've only done crossbow before. Saw NOTHING this evening but 7 squirrels eating my corn. I have seen zero at my corn in the mornings so I may get up saturday morning and take out some squirrels.

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Too hot on Thursday. Just way too hot. I saw a big fat doe cross the road on my way to the store to get supplies for today, but not nearly as much as I would normally see out in the fields around me until way after shooting time.

Up now, getting my coffee and breakfast on and then it's off to the NRMA to hike in and wait. It's supposed to get back up to the mid-70s during daytime, so if I don't see anything by lunch, I'll likely pack back out, grab some grub, and hike back in towards the evening.

teratos said:

I’ll be out this weekend. Some may recall the story of how I found my biological father via AncestryDNA. My 1/2 brother is coming in this weekend. He sings country music, but is pretty urban. He wants to see a deer hunt and participate in the processing. Wish me luck!!!!

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I was curious how this turned out for you. I followed your thread but I guess I lost track of it after awhile. Sounds like it turned out well. Congrats.

My wife is the ancestry geek in our family. No surprises (yet) here though.

Stevie Boy said:

I was curious how this turned out for you. I followed your thread but I guess I lost track of it after awhile. Sounds like it turned out well. Congrats.

My wife is the ancestry geek in our family. No surprises (yet) here though.

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It turned out very well. We don't necessarily have a "family" relationship, but in the 5 years (might be four) that we have been in touch, we are all very friendly. Lots in common, except for my 1/2 sister being a socialist.

tallen702 said:

Too hot on Thursday. Just way too hot. I saw a big fat doe cross the road on my way to the store to get supplies for today, but not nearly as much as I would normally see out in the fields around me until way after shooting time.

Up now, getting my coffee and breakfast on and then it's off to the NRMA to hike in and wait. It's supposed to get back up to the mid-70s during daytime, so if I don't see anything by lunch, I'll likely pack back out, grab some grub, and hike back in towards the evening.

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It was pretty miserable yesterday. Sat in a stand in the morning. Fog so thick I couldn’t see 15ft with my hand lamp hiking in. Had a doe and her fawn walk in around 8:30, but they wouldn’t come in to the open and mama changed her mind about waking by the stand at around 40yds and they made a 90 and went in to even thicker stuff and out of sight. An hour or so later saw a couple, maybe does, briefly at around 80yds. Just a glimpse of them briefly before they went deeper and over a ridge.

About noon I hiked around until 3:30. Almost got a doe in really thicker cover, but I wasn’t quite prepared for it. Another one of those “that seems like good deer cover, let me sneak up to it totally not ready to shoot anything that might be in it” situations. Knocked her loose at about 20 and would have had a good shot if I’d been looking the right way and low ready (had my ML cradled in my left arm instead).

Anyway, pretty sure I bumped her and her friend over to a hunter in a stand about 200yds away as I tried to see if I could knock them in to the open following them as they hadn’t run far. Might not have too. That’s when I heard someone out that guys direction fire 3 shots spaced about a minute apart.

Then all the target shooting started up 5-10 minutes later opposite direction. I heard maybe half a dozen shots in the evening that were probably downed deer in other directions, probably not in the park. One shot on my right in the park fairly close half an hour before sunset. Probably someone getting a deer headed for me. Oh well.

Very thick this year. It’s odd because a lot of the trees have lost their leaves, but most of the saplings and understory still have theirs. Makes it real hard to see.

Yesterday once the sun broke out, it sucked bad. Upper 70s, really high humidity and the sun beating down (see a lot of the leaves off the upper story trees).

Dead this morning. I saw a doe run in to the edge of the park driving in. Other than that, nothing. Even the squirrels aren’t very active compared to yesterday. Zero gun shots so far. Way quieter than previous years, but in deer activity and shooting. Usually in an afternoon I’ll manage to bump a few deer still hunting (and on uncommon occasions get one). Only the one pair this time.

This evening I am back to my house to hunt. Going to pull my camera pictures to see if I should hunt my side yard or in the woods up in the stand I just put up (yeah I was real late getting one up). Right now I really want a second deer in the freezer. A big buck would be nice, but I’ll take anything grown up. I’ll probably hunt the stand in my woods tomorrow morning and evening even if I get one today. Just see what is moving along the creek

Humidity was bad. A little better today. Had a button buck blowing at what I think was a larger spike harassing him. That was it. W their winter coats coming in that humidity probably sucks for them too. Need some cooler weather for this. Didn't hear a single shot all morning which is really unusual for this area.

Yeah. I am thinking the weather and winter coats has them not moving as much. Of course it ain’t going to change until tomorrow night. Oh well.

Man, when they are doing fox chases those hounds are ridiculously loud (I am about half a mile from it and it sounds like about 20 or so of them howling their lungs out)

It's a little cooler down along the creeks and rivers. That's where I might focus...

White bag laden four wheeler rodeo last weekend shut them down quick around my way.
Travel campers circled like wagons on leased lands everywhere.
Figure out where they go and how they get there when then the pressures on and you can still score if you want to.

I set out the first two mornings and Nothing moved!!! Why do we always get these warm spells on early muzzleloader season?

We are eating chicken wings and drinking beer tonight, its too hot to hunt.

Archeryrob said:

I set out the first two mornings and Nothing moved!!! Why do we always get these warm spells on early muzzleloader season?

We are eating chicken wings and drinking beer tonight, its too hot to hunt.

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Lol! That's why I gave up hunting early ML season plus, it tipped all the deer in my area that hunting season had started. I always start deer season right after the week and a half season.

Sitting at home in my blind hoping the corn brings them in. It has brought all the squirrels to my yard. Might have squirrel stew tomorrow for dinner. Save some more corn for the deer.

I heard 2 shots between first light and 1:30 when I called it quits, went to TSC for some chicken feed and deer corn and went home.

Sat in my hang-on for an hour and then moved to a pop-up blind.

First time trying a hang-on. Not scared of heights. Made me scared of heights. I think I need one with a bigger platform, arm rest and a ground to stand safety line. Felt like I was going to trip any time I stood up (I’ve got big feet and I am wearing rubber boots) and the wind felt like it was going to knock me over.

Any suggestions? Prefer not to break the bank. But also would like something that feels as secure as it can be. Climbing sticks and a climbing strap don’t bother me. Even hanging the blasted thing didn’t bother me. Sitting in it was no good.

My climber makes me feel nice and secure. Only time I get dizzy at all is if I lean out too far to take a piss to not dribble on the stand.