Sika Are My Kryptonite

OneGunTex · Dec 4, 2021

Need a little encouragement here y'all.

Sitting out at Blackwater NWR trying at what might be my last chance to ever come chase Sika. This hunt is always hard to squeeze in as it is, but with some upcoming life changes I'm not sure when it will happen in the future.

Over 4yrs & about a dozen days in the marsh, I've seen 6 Sika, fired a total of 6 slugs at 3 of them, and have killed 0. About an hour ago I shot at a tiny little hind crossing a drainage. Same story as ever - they never stop moving, shot windows are so small, never find a drop of blood.

Now, I've killed deer with this slug gun before, and I've never seen a deer soak up a slug (even poorly placed) and go more than 1yd before keeling over. So I guess that's 6 clean misses. Iron sights 12ga out of a tree in waders caked in mud isn't easy, but boy does it sting.

I guess I've got 8 more hours of sitting in this damn tree before it's all over. Wish me luck.
-Tex

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Bboarder · Dec 4, 2021

Do you call to them or just say "hey" before you shoot to try to stop them?

gtodave · Dec 5, 2021

They don't call them swamp ghosts for nothing.

Don't feel bad, you aren't the only one.

E.Shell · Dec 5, 2021

They are not especially tough, but their very thick fur soaks up blood amazingly well and like any bigger animal, can run relatively far even with the heart and lungs destroyed.

They are also MUCH smaller than they first appear and very precise bullet placement is necessary.

Between the scant blood, the wet environment and the fact that they blend in so well that you can almost step on them without seeing them, they can be VERY hard to recover if not DRT. Many people shoot them through at least one shoulder or in the head to stop them right there.

For your future hunts, a red dot or low power scope with heavy crosshairs will make it possible to place your shot correctly when presented with these low-light fleeting opportunities.

lazarus · Dec 5, 2021

E.Shell said:
They are not especially tough, but their very thick fur soaks up blood amazingly well and like any bigger animal, can run relatively far even with the heart and lungs destroyed.

They are also MUCH smaller than they first appear and very precise bullet placement is necessary.

Between the scant blood, the wet environment and the fact that they blend in so well that you can almost step on them without seeing them, they can be VERY hard to recover if not DRT. Many people shoot them through at least one shoulder or in the head to stop them right there.

For your future hunts, a red dot or low power scope with heavy crosshairs will make it possible to place your shot correctly when presented with these low-light fleeting opportunities.

On your last, ditto. Also depends on the sights. I had rifle sights on my 870 for about a year and then installed Williams fiber ghost ring sights. My 50yd groups with federal flight control slugs went from about 4” groups to about 2” groups. But a dot or scope is going to make you significantly more accurate, even in low light. Or, isn’t BW in Dorchester? Couldn’t you switch to using buckshot? Might be the ticket with stuff that thick.

If it makes you feel any better I’ve spent I think 6 days over 3 years, shot at one hind and missed with both slugs (my inexperience and those iron rifle sights. I watched them go right over it’s back and the 2 shot was a stupid one as I’d jammed the slide in my haste and by the time I cleared it I was basically just firing a warning shot). Two other hinds in a blizzard I was too slow getting my scope covers flipped open and off safe and I held my shot because at best it would have been a running neck shot on them fleeing straight away from me from 60+yds in more open woods.

I am hoping to get back out there late gun season this year, but I might skip it. Maybe try early ML season next year to change up when I am hunting the shore.

delaware_export · Dec 5, 2021

Distance?
Gun?
Barrel length?
Choke?
Slug make/type?
Have you confirmed consistency at same distance on fixed targets?
Did you see any reaction on the deer? Kick? Jump?

OneGunTex said:
Need a little encouragement here y'all.

Sitting out at Blackwater NWR trying at what might be my last chance to ever come chase Sika. This hunt is always hard to squeeze in as it is, but with some upcoming life changes I'm not sure when it will happen in the future.

Over 4yrs & about a dozen days in the marsh, I've seen 6 Sika, fired a total of 6 slugs at 3 of them, and have killed 0. About an hour ago I shot at a tiny little hind crossing a drainage. Same story as ever - they never stop moving, shot windows are so small, never find a drop of blood.

Now, I've killed deer with this slug gun before, and I've never seen a deer soak up a slug (even poorly placed) and go more than 1yd before keeling over. So I guess that's 6 clean misses. Iron sights 12ga out of a tree in waders caked in mud isn't easy, but boy does it sting.

I guess I've got 8 more hours of sitting in this damn tree before it's all over. Wish me luck.
-Tex

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Chevyman85 · Dec 5, 2021

Sika are a tough animal. I shot a hind the other year with a .270 @ 100yds, she never flinched. She then proceeds to bounce 50yds into the woods. I assumed that I missed clean and shot at another one. Found the first one just in the woods with the vitals shredded. No one would have known by the way she acted.

Doco Overboard · Dec 5, 2021

Sometimes I think when people shoot at them from a stand they're actually shooting at their reflection in the water.
Especially if your in some flooded timber and its near dark.
Years ago the guys from next door to where we used to hunt some pine woods would do a big drive.
They would put one on about every two years and give us a heads up a couple days before.
We would only get the ones that came through after they shot the hell out of them and we would still pile them up.
I killed a bunch like that with a pump 760 rifle and a Ruger single action pistol.
I had on of those shotgun scopes on my rifle with the diamond graticle wires in it.
It worked like a champ until it finally broke and wouldn't hold zero anymore.
Sika are way more resilient and harder to ground than whitetail. That yellow fat will plug them right up unless they fall right out from getting hit in the spine or something.

AlBeight · Dec 5, 2021

lazarus said:
On your last, ditto. Also depends on the sights. I had rifle sights on my 870 for about a year and then installed Williams fiber ghost ring sights. My 50yd groups with federal flight control slugs went from about 4” groups to about 2” groups. But a dot or scope is going to make you significantly more accurate, even in low light. Or, isn’t BW in Dorchester? Couldn’t you switch to using buckshot? Might be the ticket with stuff that thick.

If it makes you feel any better I’ve spent I think 6 days over 3 years, shot at one hind and missed with both slugs (my inexperience and those iron rifle sights. I watched them go right over it’s back and the 2 shot was a stupid one as I’d jammed the slide in my haste and by the time I cleared it I was basically just firing a warning shot). Two other hinds in a blizzard I was too slow getting my scope covers flipped open and off safe and I held my shot because at best it would have been a running neck shot on them fleeing straight away from me from 60+yds in more open woods.

I am hoping to get back out there late gun season this year, but I might skip it. Maybe try early ML season next year to change up when I am hunting the shore.

Blackwater is in Dorchester County, but it is Federal USFWS land, and they have a specific set of hunting rules that aren’t governed by the Maryland DNR regs. I’m not sure if buckshot is allowed, I haven’t hunted the Refuge in about 10 years, but used to bow, ML, & shotgun every year to mild success (along with donation of dozens of quarts of my own blood to the local pterodactyl population). I do miss it quite often, then I remember how much of a chore it was to get up extra early for that 2-1/2 hr drive, and the boot-sucking muddy walk into an area while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Getting shut-out sucked but damn if it wasn’t all worth all the trouble when you’d put one on the ground.

It was definitely a love/hate relationship, then I got older and the juice didn’t seem worth the squeeze any longer. I still do enjoy seeing the pics and stories of the members on this site being successful, it does keep alive the good memories.

AlBeight · Dec 5, 2021

outrider58 said:
Haha! I loved that scope. I think it sits on my first inline ML as a backup. I kilt alotta deer looking through that scope!

The Simmons Pro Diamond 4x scope? Mine finally stopped holding zero 3 years ago, after 20+ years of being as accurate as could be and filling my freezer every season. I’d still be using it if it’s didn’t finally break down.

Johnny5k · Dec 5, 2021

If it makes you feel better, a friend of a friend told me his family bought a HUGE parcel of land on the eastern shore specifically to hunt Sika. Many hundreds of acres. They owned it over 10 years and have yet to see a single Sika. He said they were thinking about selling it.

outrider58 · Dec 5, 2021

AlBeight said:
The Simmons Pro Diamond 4x scope? Mine finally stopped holding zero 3 years ago, after 20+ years of being as accurate as could be and filling my freezer every season. I’d still be using it if it’s didn’t finally break down.

Edit: Nope. I'm wrong. I had the Banner but it was a circle-x reticle. Oh well, it's been years...

magnumpi · Dec 5, 2021

AlBeight said:
Blackwater is in Dorchester County, but it is Federal USFWS land, and they have a specific set of hunting rules that aren’t governed by the Maryland DNR regs. I’m not sure if buckshot is allowed, I haven’t hunted the Refuge in about 10 years, but used to bow, ML, & shotgun every year to mild success (along with donation of dozens of quarts of my own blood to the local pterodactyl population). I do miss it quite often, then I remember how much of a chore it was to get up extra early for that 2-1/2 hr drive, and the boot-sucking muddy walk into an area while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Getting shut-out sucked but damn if it wasn’t all worth all the trouble when you’d put one on the ground.

It was definitely a love/hate relationship, then I got older and the juice didn’t seem worth the squeeze any longer. I still do enjoy seeing the pics and stories of the members on this site being successful, it does keep alive the good memories.

Remember carrying the big six out of blackwater on a pole? That was a quite an adventure, especially after donating so much blood that day! Good times!

Oh and Buckshot is still legal at Blackwater.

mauser58 · Dec 5, 2021

I have only hunted them in Blackwater area with a crossbow. Arrow right through them in vitals and will run a bit pumping blood like crazy. I remember the first time shooting one and realized Ii need a whole stringer full of them to fill the freezer. Its eerie at night when they are bugling all over

AlBeight · Dec 5, 2021

magnumpi said:
Remember carrying the big six out of blackwater on a pole? That was a quite an adventure, especially after donating so much blood that day! Good times!

Oh and Buckshot is still legal at Blackwater.

I remember that, vividly. Another reason why I no longer do it. It’s just so difficult and I’m getting too old for difficult. I used to enjoy difficult, wearing it as a badge of honor, now not so much.

Good to know about the use of buckshot though, that could be very helpful.

OneGunTex · Dec 6, 2021

Thanks y'all. Good to hear I'm not the only one. Hunt ended with one other distant & fleeting stag sighting but no other shot opportunities. Got to watch a Delmarva Fox Squirrel for a while tho, and they are always interesting.

To answer a few of y'all's clarifying questions, was shooting a Remington sabot slugs out of a Mossberg 535, rifled barrel. Like I said in the past I've killed whitetail with this setup, and could hit a 6" circle consistently out to ~100yds. But now that I think about it, I haven't actually taken it to the range since before I missed a shot last year, just exchanged it for my smoothbore waterfowl barrel and came out to Blackwater. I absolutely could have banged those sights and have been shooting somewhere totally different from where I was aiming. A low power optic was on my shopping list, but seemed low priority. Guess not. Also, interestingly I did bring buckshot (and smoothbore) as well, but decided to leave them in the truck. I've never killed anything with buckshot before, and figured a slug would punch through light brush/random twig better. Didn't seem like a good time to try it out.

And I agree, it's very difficult and not very fun and more for the novelty and the challenge than anything. I don't know when I'll ever get back out there, but it's going to eat me up inside if I don't find a way to try.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Sika Are My Kryptonite

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

Escaped Member

Me Myself & I

Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Active Member

Ultimate Member

Member

Member

Ultimate Member

Eats Bacon Raw

Active Member

My home is a sports store

Member

Escaped Member

Users who are viewing this thread

Log in

Forum statistics