And why you should not hunt with the JLK or A-Max...

[Darryl Cassel]

Boyd

The 210 will work fine as will the 200 gr MK.

Of course you already know that.

later
DC

 

[Dave King]

Len

Dave King

I can't believe you would take a shot at a running deer that was more than 5 yards away! This is really bad for our sport. And...you used a target bullet. What were you thinking...anyway?

I was thinking I wanted to kill that particular deer and if I didn't shoot soon it'd be further away still!!

I was going to ask the deer if it could tell the difference between a hunting or target bullet but it died before I got there.

Had a good hunt up in Wisconsin... got two (2) of the six (6) deer I saw... a little slow but it was a fun time. Randy, my hunting buddy, got two (2) also, he missed one that was bedder at about 200 yards. He's a conventional hunter... no bipod or custom rifle... but he did have a complete box of the same lot and weight factory hunting bullets... probably different than he sighted in with but that's his way, always has been and probably always will.

He get's a little amused by my hunting equip and style... but likes the results as he keeps the deer.

 

[Len Backus]

Dave

Nice shot!

Wisconsin opening weekend weather in my neighborhood was the worst for LRH that I have ever experienced. Ten to 20 mph Wind-driven rain-in-the-face both days. Hard to keep the optics functioning.

Missed the buck I was after on Wednesday am. He first appeared with a doe at 500 yards in good light but was facing me straight on. They were both relaxed so I waited for a broadside shot to develop. He didn't cooperate in that regard until he moved 150 yards within 15 minutes over into my "sunrise" corner. By then my optics were fogging from the cold, fog was developing in that corner of the marsh, the sun was coming up in my eyes, and I was trying to shield my riflescope eye with my non-trigger hand. Ranged him wrongly to be 600, shot under his belly and later found he had been at 650. Darn! Sure would have been nice to have had a rangefinding spotter sitting next to me that morning.

This is one lucky buck. A few weeks ago I shot a different buck with my bow and was walking up to my cabin to wait a while before tracking him. (Later found him just around a curve out of sight 70 yards from my stand.) Anyway, as I walked through the marsh I heard and saw 3 foot-high grass moving. Is it a doe, I wondered as I snuck closer. No...it was this same older buck that I'm still after! So over the next 20 minutes I stalked closer, working my grunt call. Finally at 25 yards I drew on him only to have to let down because the rising sun was in my face and I couldn't see my holographic bowsight in the glare.

But I still have a day and a half left in the rifle season to get him....

Stay tuned.

[ 11-29-2003: Message edited by: Len Backus ]

 

[Ian M]

""By then my optics were fogging from the cold, the sun was coming up in my eyes, fog was developing in that corner and I was trying to shield my riflescope eye with my non-trigger hand.""

Len,
Glad to see you are having such nice hunting weather

We sat in unheated tripod stands at minus thirty-one this week, from dawn to dark, watching dorky deer eat alfalfa like pigs. Lots of 130-140 class deer "bit the dust" but a wise old sage (whatever the hell a sage is..) once said, "You ain't never gonna kill a big buck if you use your tag on a little buck". Makes for a hell of a good excuse, although I did see three or four 120-130's that need to grow up a bunch.

I'm starting to believe that this late in the season many of the baited deer have lost some of their wild instincts since they will eat out of the guide's hands

One guide slapped a buck on the butt as he chased a doe right beside the quad that the guide was sitting on. Just like wild kingdom...

Naturally the big bucks remain relatively crafty but the youngsters get about as wild as kittens.

Bait hunting in Sask is a great opportunity to read books about moon phase, scrape lines, rutting behavior such as lip-curls etc. while you wait for a buck to walk over to the baitpile - sometimes for his last meal. If it wasn't so **** cold it would have been plum relaxing, sitting in a little tent c/w a swiveling boat-seat twelve feet off the ground, nice zippered windows that offer excellent view of the pile of feed.

The outfitter and guides we were with are very hard working folk who know the forest, and the cook was superb - they earn their money. But bait hunting for whitetails is a little on the canned-side if you want a lot of action.

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