Yeah, shooting them one or two at a time won't help us, but we have noticed that they move on to other areas for a couple weeks. That's pretty much all we're trying to do right now. We have some guys lined up to start trapping, but they don't want to start until after Nov 1 because they're doing other things right now. And on the shot, I really have no idea where I hit it. If it were a deer, I wouldn't have shot. But between the hogs being within 30 yards of where I needed to walk to get out of there and the nuisance that they are, I slung it at the biggest one I could make out. It definitely didn't pass through, but my guess is the entry was pretty high, which makes it more difficult to find a blood trail. By the sound of the arrow at impact, it sounded like I popped a lung. Hopefully, we will find out this morning.
Got this bull elk in Wyoming a couple days ago. There was a group of 7 bulls and this was the first to come out in the open, the closest and happened to be the biggest of the group. About a 250 yard shot and I necked him probably because I was a little nervous. This was a cool picture of a different bull who came out to investigate after the bull I shot was down. You can barely see a couple of the others by the trees in the background. They never took off running. Just kinda walked away and we could hear them fighting for a while afterwards. Also got a pretty decent Antelope the day before. This was 410 yards because I'm just unable to get much closer to them. They are skittish as hell around here. Was unable fill the wife's deer tag for the trifecta.
Went and picked up my bow from getting re-strung and one of the dudes in the shop was packed and leaving to guide in Alaska for the month of November. Said he makes 10k a week, plus expenses and long story short I think that’s my dream job. He tried to complain that it’s 7 days a week with no days off. I was like nah fam, no complaining.
Got in around 630am this morning, and there was a buck bumping around already. He slipped off before I could get enough light to make him in my scope. Saw nothing else until 945am and this guy popped out.
Getting a different stand set up today for modern gun season come up. Been finding signs all in the area. Found a white oak they had been eating acorns under. Then found a monster scrape, and the rub to accompany it. And that stand is (and already was) right in the middle of them. The scrape/rub is probably 25 feet over the right shoulder of sitting forward in that stand. Can't wait.
Tested positive for the rona today (fully vaxxed mildly sick). 2 week quarantine followed by a vacation. Looks like I’m gonna get to hunt the heck out of the rut this year while socially distancing.
Is that a decent buck for your part of the country?? It looks narrow from the picture, I try to never shoot anything that isn't outside the ears. Not trying to be cunty, just curious.
Any of you guys have a smokeless muzzleloader? I've been looking very seriously at putting together a mod. Hell of a range and a crazy exit hole.
Yes and no. We do have some bigger deer, but we are smaller here the further you go east and south typically. Where are you hunting?
Have you noticed a crazy amount of bigger bucks this year? Swear I've never seen as many 175lb+ with nice racks taken as this year around the Barnwell area
Saw a nice buck Saturday morning, dashed across the field at full speed and disappeared into the woods. It’s a little warm today, but we’ll see
Finally got my first buck this morning. 7 pointer. Surely the one I let walk last year. Going to try and preserve the skull/antlers together if anyone has any pointers.
After watching a few videos, boiling and bleaching seemed like too much work and you lose some of the smaller detailed bones. So it's burried in the compost pile with a tub to cover the antlers from squirrels and other rodents. Can't wait to see how it turns out. I liked some of the natural staining on the few videos I watched.
Spoiler This one is quite a few years old, but like Bo Pelinis said, if you can let it rest in compost, it works a lot better.
It may be worth calling a taxidermist. A lot of them now have beetle colonies that will strip the skull clean in a couple of weeks, and you won't risk the antlers getting bleached, affected by the weather, or hauled off by a varmint.
Compost pile is fenced in so I'm not too concerned about varmints, luckily. Hopefully the tub covering the antlers will help with the weather too but I may go wrap them with plastic wrap like I saw on some videos. Nothing makes me feel more like a cowboy than that gun, lever action 30-30. It's fun.
Pew-raketa-clak-pew. Always liked the feel of that mechanism. Something about the excitement of taking your shot, and reloading quickly in the seconds after with your heart going about 200bpm. Def feels like hunting from my teen years.
There are tons of people that do it in my neck of the woods for 30-50 bucks. I had a guy do mine last year for 50. Definitely worth it for me to not to have to mess with it. I'd look around for someone if was me.
Congrats dude! Know you have been after it for a while. I second a taxidermist. Or if you are gonna do the bury it, put a big planter like thing over it to keep said bleach or critter away from the horns. Bugs will still do the work under ground
Had some windy days this week. Just sat down in the shooting house and it’s filled with dry, crunchy leaves.
Had a young six point hanging around for a bit. Standing on his back legs chewing on a limb, probably going after some acorns. Hopefully he makes it a couple more years.
It took him forever and not the best method but my son did this one with a knife and a pressure washer Spoiler
What are you hearing about the rut? My camp dropped 4 buck and a doe Saturday/Sunday. I'm going down tomorrow afternoon for several days as the rut, or at least activity seems to be pretty good Thanksgiving week