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Thread: anyone else have stage 4 buck fever?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    Shooting a deer is like shooting a can off a fence post for me. I'm a meat hunter and my number one concern is bullet placement so I don't ruin meat, gut shoot, or have to try and recover a deer from God knows where! The other side to that, is that in this area, if one runs more than a hundred yards there's a good chance you'll be trespassing to try and recover it! My preferred method is a neck shot to drop them in their tracks!
    I will admit that as a teenager I was susceptible to buck feaver but it faded with time. A big mistake that causes a bunch of wounded deer is not realizing its a 3D target! You've got to imagine your projectiles path of travel through the animal. I'm amazed at the number of people that put hair in the scope and pull the trigger with no thought about where the bullet will go. Do you hold in the same spot if the deer is quartering twards you as away? If your not very careful you can tear up a bunch of meat without hitting any vitals! Then you get to see just how far a three legged deer can run!

    The OP reminds my of "Escanaba in the Moonlight", with the "buckless UPer"!

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Was bow hunting as a teenager and an albino buck stepped out of the pines. Couldn’t draw the bow string
    Regards
    John

  3. #23
    Moderator Emeritus / Trusted loob groove dealer

    waksupi's Avatar
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    I've had buck fever more than once over the years. Strange thing is, I have never got it when shooting elk.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

    Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!


  4. #24
    Boolit Master pmer's Avatar
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    I was in a deer stand on a line fence. On my side there is an open field and the other side, right behind me is thick brush with good shelter for the deer. I was holding a Rossi lever action in 45 Colt with a 300 grain RF going about 1600 FPS. I was out there for a evening deer hunt facing the field and standing in the stand when I heard a noise behind me. I didn't think much about it because I never heard much of anything else as far as twigs breaking and other associated sounds of an animal moving in brush.

    So trying to minimize my movement I just turned my head to the right just to see if there was anything back there. So there I was with my head turned all the to the right and there he was, a nice sized buck about 8 yards away staring right me! I still didn't have a good look at him but my next thought was "what's all that stuff on his head". He just stood there for what seemed like 15 minutes while I was froze in time trying not to move. Probably just a minute or less but I had plenty of time to get worked up. Maybe he froze too trying to not be noticed but it seemed like forever. I moved eyes away from him and was trying to hold on to my thoughts.

    For what ever reason he didn't take to flight and decided to move past me to my right. As he went by me looking up once or twice I started to snap out of it and was able to get my hunting face on.

    Being right handed I had to turn my body so I could shoulder the rifle but my coat brushed against the tree. From that sound he suddenly ducked but still didn't take off. He began to move away and at about 25 yards was going to the right. By now I have my sites on him but at the shot he veers left and the boolit hits his shoulder socket and travels along the outside of the rib cage and exits from the lower neck. The exit left a nice blood trail but I watched him fall after about a 150 yard run. I shot more times but they all were misses. He's a big 10 pointer with extra short points at the base of the antlers and a forked brow tine. Was able to drive my tractor right up to the deer and put it in the loader bucket too.
    Last edited by pmer; 11-25-2021 at 12:08 PM.
    Oh great, another thread that makes me spend money.

  5. #25
    Boolit Grand Master
    rockrat's Avatar
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    Nope, no shakes before the shot, but little jittery after I shot my 5x5 elk, but never had the shakes beforehand

  6. #26
    Boolit Buddy
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    I have been thinking about this for a few days what are your thoughts about a bullet like the sst or the winchester deer season xp. I understand that no bullet will makes up for poor marksmanship. I like both bullets, my buddy hates them. My buddy argument is there is not much of a pass through shot, resulting no blood trail. My limited experience is I don't need a blood trail, because out of 5 deer I have taken (50 to 150 yards) with these bullets is: 3 with sst and 2 with the xp. I have only had to look for one that one was with a sst and I hit too far back went about 35 yards before I found her. She was trying to breath and was out of gas once I found her.

  7. #27
    Boolit Master
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    I use a 300 Weatherby and 180gr Nosler partition bullets for all my hunting and I have never required a second shot on either Deer or Moose, nor have I ever had to chase a wounded animal. They have been DRT.
    R.D.M.

  8. #28
    Boolit Master
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    In 1979 and prior, I hunted with a group of three other people and we used one of the three cabins each of us owned. In November 1979 the other two cabin owners were invited by the third guy to hunt Elk in South East BC. I was not included in the invitation and so I went hunting from my cabin on my own. The other three were to arrive after the first week. I hunted for the first part of the week without seeing anything legal to shoot but on Tuesday afternoon I saw (briefly) a huge mule buck. Wednesday dawned cold, overcast and windy. I did not feel too well but I decided to go up the mountain where I had seen the big buck the day before. Up the mountain I came to a narrow swamp and I stood there resting. It had started to snow and I had about decided to return to my cabin when I saw a muley doe further down the hill, coming toward me, and right behind her was this huge buck. I waited and they came into the swamp about eighty yards away from where I was. The doe stopped and the buck stopped right behind her with his head across her back. Doe were not open and I knew if I tried the head-shot on the buck there was a good chance I would cripple the doe as well. I went down on one knee and waited for a clear shot but all they did was stand there and look at me. Blood was pumping, heart was thumping and I could tell that if I had to wait much longer I would likely be so keyed-up I would surely miss. I fired a shot over the buck's head and the doe took off up the hill. The buck likely would have been OK if he had not decided to escape down hill. As he spun, my second shot got him right through the heart. By the time I got him cleaned out the snow was about two or three inches deep and it was a wet slippery snow. Even so, I was unable to drag that buck down hill to the road. I went back to my cabin, made lunch and waited for another of my neighbors to get in from his morning hunt and got him and his partner to help me get that deer out to the road where I could get to it with my truck and drag it back up to the meat pole. The buck was a typical four point to the side and when measured later was just three points shy of getting into the BC record book. I did win the biggest buck trophy at our club that year. After that year I hunted alone or with different guys.
    R.D.M.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master

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    I like Lloyds line "my favorite brother in law". Sounds like we have the same one. Mine usually misses completely. He takes a lot of good natured ribbing.
    I call him "My No Brother Good In Law"!
    If liars pants really did catch on fire, watching the news would be a lot more fun!

  10. #30
    Boolit Master
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    Rock steady before shot, during shot, after shot. but when I get to downed game I turn to poop.

  11. #31
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    Texas by God's Avatar
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    I've had it a few times over the decades, and I've missed a few because of it. I've missed coyotes from excitement, too. After killing some bucks mere feet away, I'd get the shakes and need some Levi Garrett

    Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

  12. #32
    Boolit Master pmer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by redriverhunter View Post
    I have been thinking about this for a few days what are your thoughts about a bullet like the sst or the winchester deer season xp. I understand that no bullet will makes up for poor marksmanship. I like both bullets, my buddy hates them. My buddy argument is there is not much of a pass through shot, resulting no blood trail. My limited experience is I don't need a blood trail, because out of 5 deer I have taken (50 to 150 yards) with these bullets is: 3 with sst and 2 with the xp. I have only had to look for one that one was with a sst and I hit too far back went about 35 yards before I found her. She was trying to breath and was out of gas once I found her.
    It's hard argue with what you are seeing those bullets do. I wonder in my case above with a deer that is spooked and cagey if that SST would've held together long enough to make a nice sized hole in the bottom of the neck. My shot was going to come out low on the left side and a little forward of the left leg till he veered left right before the trigger broke. So the bullet didn't hit any vital organs and the only lethal thing it did was opened a hole in the neck after it went about 14 inches from entrance to exit. It broke the right front leg too but that alone wouldn't have put the deer down.

    IMO it's better to use a bullet that is tough enough to make an exit but not so tuff that won't expand.
    Oh great, another thread that makes me spend money.

  13. #33
    Boolit Master
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    It is a sport. You are supposed to get excited when you shoot an animal. Don't need to shake so bad that you miss.

  14. #34
    Boolit Master RU shooter's Avatar
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    My family have always been meat hunters . And dad taught both me and my brother to shoot well , since my first deer 40 years ago I’ve never got the shakes till after I’ve shot and gotten to the downed deer .my brother is the opposite he shakes like a leaf and gets all worked up , he gets so bad he has to lean against the nearest tree to steady the rifle down . Dads always been a hunting legend and is rock solid . So who knows why my older bro is a mass of quivering jello . None of us hunt were a shot is gonna be more than 75 yds so everything happens pretty quick . So it’s not like he has a lot of time to think about the shot
    If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

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