Gonna have to quit rifle hunting 44man

[taco650]

Just kidding! Got my second deer of the season today. Was sitting in my friends box stand and shot a button buck at about 125 yards. The silly thing is I wasn't really expecting to get a deer and just wanted to get out and sit in the quiet for a few hours. Work has been hell since the beginning of the month and I finally got two days off in a row so decided to sit in the outdoors enjoying the "sound of silence". I'm an LEO and having the radio squawking in your ear for 12 hours straight wears you out!

ANYWAY... I went to my friends lease on this big farm. He built a huge box stand a few years ago that's about a 1/4 mile from the road in a 300 acre field near some power lines. I didn't get to the stand until 40 minutes after sunrise and was already planning when I was going to leave. When I got to the stand I saw two brown things in the shadows on the far side of the field near the tree line. I threw up my old 10x binoculars (which I had just gotten out of the backpack) and saw that neither deer appeared to have antlers. They were around 200 yds away so I climbed into the stand thinking they'd run off at the sound but when I got seated they were still feeding. I watched them through the glasses for a few minutes as they moved closer and into better light and then decided to take the smaller of the two because the bigger ones head didn't look right. FYI, legal "bucks" in my part of GA have to have at least 4 points on one side that are at least an inch long and I was afraid the bigger one might be a spike. It was also very close to the neighbors land and I didn't want it to run across the fence and have to deal with that issue. The smaller one walked toward me and sniffed the ground briefly giving me a good view of its head (no antlers!), then turned broadside and when I grunted it stopped and I shot it in the lower shoulder. It fell over, kicked few times and stopped moving.

The reason I mentioned 44man and giving up rifle hunting is because this is the third deer I've shot in the past two seasons with my old 30-06 and some handloads I threw together late last summer using IMR 4320 and HDY 150 Interlock SP's. All hits have been through-and-through and the last two DRT. If I'm going to sit in my buddies stands next year, I'm going to use my Dan Wesson 44mag with irons and make myself wait until they get within 50 yrds. The old '06 with an old Leopold 4x scope is just too easy. Like shooting fish in a barrel LOL!

I hope the rest of you are successful!

PS. Sorry for no pics but I didn't want to get blood on my phone-it's an Apple product and telling the Mrs. that my phone died because of deer blood isn't very appealing to me.

[44man]

Glad to hear but you will find the .44 as good.
I gave the rifle up because a deer anywhere was dead. I started deer with bows so a revolver extended it a little and was still hunting instead of shooting. Excitement is a close deer. You need to do things right, not get a rest set up for hundreds to 1000 yards. Hunting is doing the little things.
ML is an example today, you need a 200 yard ML. Then you need a rest. Why not a .300 in ML season?
I am with you and once you make the .44 work, you might do what I did, sold my .280.
What happens to you with a deer at 10 or 20 yards compared to one at 400? Different-YES! Heart pounds and you shake. You don't know why you fall apart. A deer at long range is setting up for BR paper. You can fool around without the deer knowing.
I hate videos where a guy shoots a deer across a food plot and goes nuts with dancing and high fives. A gal with a bow at 20 yards is the hunter.
If you NEED meat to survive is different but we have stores. There are times you NEED to kill.
A true hunter today is a few miles from home or a store.
The distinction is hard to understand. Yet a 200 yard deer is not the same as at 10 yards.

[richhodg66]

I've killed a few with bow, never with a handgun or shotgun. Only killed maybe 30 all told.

I have never shot one as far as 100 yards yet. Most are well under 50 and some have been close enough to spit on, case in point the two I watched and killed with that 1907 Winchester last month.

I like close.

[PositiveCaster]

I lived in Alaska for 27 years and hunted deer on Kodiak Island most Falls. The bag limit varied from four to seven deer so I got lots of action. The first few years I used various rifles, but most years it was handguns. Used my .45LC BH and DW M45 the most but did carry a .300 Savage Contender with 4x scope for the "long" shots. However, most all the shots I took with it were under 100 yards, one that I called in was about five yards! Getting close to the deer and anchoring the buck was the most important part of the hunting for me.



.

[Ramjet-SS]

Up close is fun with either handgun or archery. Closest was at 7 yards I was sitting on the ground In a Rancho Safari ghille suit a snake skinned 68" Brackenbury longbow two blade Zwickey broadhead on the end of birch arrow. It to this the most exciting deer I ever harvested. 7 pointer I like hunting with rifle but handgun is my favorite this year I will hunt mostly with my 10mm a Glock. Frankly just getting out there as you say with the peac and quiet is the real reason to hunt.

[DougGuy]

Once I got this oilcan of a near full wadcutter (L in the photo) clocking to 1200fps out of my 45 Schofield chambered New Model Vaquero, I knew then that it would indeed make a good revolver for deer. The places I hunt are thick and most shots are 25yards or less and a 44magnum kills 'em deader than dirt and it's only a 310gr RF boolit at 1180~1200 fps so I don't figure I'm losing nothing at all with a 250 at the same speed at handgun distances.

[taco650]

The deer today was about 200yds away when I first saw it but moved much closer by the time I shot it, probably no more than 125 yds-still an easy shot in an open field with an '06. There is a lot of thick woods here in GA but I don't have a hunting lease and have to rely on the good graces of generous friends. I'm from OR where there is tons of public land for hunting but GA is the opposite. I buy permits to hunt on the Corp of Engineer land and its pretty thick and the units that are open to firearms are restricted to ML or shotgun w/slugs.

Guess I'll need to break out my Lee 430-310gc mold and cast up a bunch so I can start practicing for next year!

[Texas by God]

Close is very exciting. I played a 30mph North wind in noisy Cottonwood trees to my advantage and jumped a buck at 15yds and quickly dropped him with a Krag. I used a dry creek bed and bare feet to close to ten feet on a Feral sow and hit her between the eyes with my .38 Special. And a nice 8 pt at 44 ft with my .54 plains pistol. I was shaking after all these with excitement- not so much the long shots I've made. 44 man- Rock on! Best, Thomas.

[DougGuy]

Close is very exciting. I played a 30mph North wind in noisy Cottonwood trees to my advantage and jumped a buck at 15yds and quickly dropped him with a Krag. I used a dry creek bed and bare feet to close to ten feet on a Feral sow and hit her between the eyes with my .38 Special. And a nice 8 pt at 44 ft with my .54 plains pistol. I was shaking after all these with excitement- not so much the long shots I've made. 44 man- Rock on! Best, Thomas.

Heheeeeee (slaps leg) yep! I hunted a railroad grade bed one morning in tennis shoes and was rolling my feet to keep the leaves quiet, there were two really nice big bodied bucks in full sneak, an 8 pt and a 6pt, they came towards me, wind in my face, sun in theirs, they were staring right at me, probably thinking what the hell is that standing there with it's knees knocking but the saplings were so thick I could see through them but not shoot through them.

They went in a thicket and I thought well, they will probably come back out the same way they went in, but if they are on a doe and she crossed the grade then they will cross the grade too and that would put us eye to eye about 40yds apart. I thought I would sneak up to where they went in the thicket and wait, see if I can't close the distance and get a better shot.

I walked SO slow and quiet, I snuck up to within arm's length of a gray squirrel, now this by itself is no easy feat to accomplish, but sure enough that squirrel saw me and he totally flipped out tore a path up the tree and went to barking oh man them bucks came out of the thicket they knew something was up, I didn't get a shot but the adrenaline rush of having to stand there motionless until them bucks went on into the thicket, and then it was all I could do not to laugh out loud at the squirrel. I will never forget the look on his face that first half second he saw me he froze then all hell broke loose.

[35 shooter]

Congrats on your second deer of the year. Good luck with your .44 for the next one.

[Pumpkinheaver]

Congratulations on your 2 deer. Those Hornady 150s are my favorite 30 cal deer bullet.

[taco650]

Heheeeeee (slaps leg) yep! I hunted a railroad grade bed one morning in tennis shoes and was rolling my feet to keep the leaves quiet, there were two really nice big bodied bucks in full sneak, an 8 pt and a 6pt, they came towards me, wind in my face, sun in theirs, they were staring right at me, probably thinking what the hell is that standing there with it's knees knocking but the saplings were so thick I could see through them but not shoot through them.

They went in a thicket and I thought well, they will probably come back out the same way they went in, but if they are on a doe and she crossed the grade then they will cross the grade too and that would put us eye to eye about 40yds apart. I thought I would sneak up to where they went in the thicket and wait, see if I can't close the distance and get a better shot.

I walked SO slow and quiet, I snuck up to within arm's length of a gray squirrel, now this by itself is no easy feat to accomplish, but sure enough that squirrel saw me and he totally flipped out tore a path up the tree and went to barking oh man them bucks came out of the thicket they knew something was up, I didn't get a shot but the adrenaline rush of having to stand there motionless until them bucks went on into the thicket, and then it was all I could do not to laugh out loud at the squirrel. I will never forget the look on his face that first half second he saw me he froze then all hell broke loose.

Putting the sneek on a squirrel? Now that's quiet!

[44man]

I have no problem what you hunt with. But to take 15 minutes to set up is not the same as a deer that appears within feet. I still distinct between hunting and shooting.
Real hunting is archery. It teaches you. I still remember the shakes until the string pressure stopped it. I killed 3 deer the first year bow hunting, PA, MI and Ohio. Only allowed one. At the time it took a bow hunter 17 years for a kill. I have about 220 to 230 bow kills. Lost count. I learned the deer first. They don't care about a squirrel at all. They get along with fox. Hate a skunk. They sold a 2 part skunk cover scent long ago--NO, not ever.
Doug, PM me and I will send my deer info.

[Texas by God]

When you're hiding behind a t- post and you and the deer are watching each other's breath fog and you can't control your shaking...... That is hunting, my friend!

[44man]

It is a strange thing. The falling apart with a close deer but one way out is just a deer. It will be your actions with one close that might spook it fast. Way out there you set sticks or a rest, can click the safety off with a CLANG. Hunting is how you handle yourself. How you keep breathing without the BIG one.
But it goes away after many deer. Calm takes over so you can get a good shot. I miss the excitement.
Some need to shoot far depending on the country. You never experience excitement. Then it is to know your gun, drop and where to aim.