I took my daughter hunting.
She was less conspicuous than I thought she'd be:
http://i558.photobucket.com/albums....mo1.jpg
http://i558.photobucket.com/albums....mo2.jpg
http://i558.photobucket.com/albums....amo.jpg
Edited By Paul on 1335570057
Request: Deer hunting tips
I had no delusions of shooting a bird.
The early spring made the birds nest early, so it's a bad year for turkey hunting in these parts.
Also, last year's flooding was bad for birds.
Also, I rarely see turkey in my back yard.
Also, it was the wrong time of day.
Also, we were out for less than an hour.
We did set up a decoy and have a gun, but this was more of just a practice run.
The early spring made the birds nest early, so it's a bad year for turkey hunting in these parts.
Also, last year's flooding was bad for birds.
Also, I rarely see turkey in my back yard.
Also, it was the wrong time of day.
Also, we were out for less than an hour.
We did set up a decoy and have a gun, but this was more of just a practice run.
As for the last post, by "rarely see turkey" I mean that I have seen them twice in the past 12 years, have heard them once, and have caught them on my trail camera once (in the 10 months it's been up).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I got into hunting about a year ago. While I live in Kentucky now, I grew up in Los Angeles and I used to think that shooting animals was sort of barbaric. Of course I've always eaten meat, and chickens and cows have pretty lousy cramped/dirty lives. It occurred to me that I was being pretty self righteous. I was still an essential part of the slaughter of the animals I ate, I was just paying other people to do the dirty work and package it in a way that I wouldn't associate it with an animal. That's not very respectful to the animal.
I went on a few hunting trips last year. I had no luck with turkey but my girlfriend bagged a deer and showed me how to field dress it. Field dressing is basically removing the guts so they doesn't spoil the meat. It's a pretty interesting process, but bloody.
To prepare for deer season this fall I moved my trail camera around my back yard (I own 45 acres) until I found a place with sufficient deer activity.
I used the date/time stamped photos to make a spreadsheet of all the times when deer showed up. For the past month they were most active from between 7:00am & 11:00am. After 11:00 they were inactive, but would reappear from 5:00pm-8:00pm. Basically, they were active at sunrise and sunset.
I set up my tree stand three weeks before muzzleloader season started to combat neophobia. For the first two weeks the deer would stare at it, but eventually they ignored it.
Early muzzleloader season was two days in September while late muzzleloader season takes place over 9 days in December. Muzzleloaders are guns loaded the old fashioned way. I put propellant down the barrel, then I use a ramrod to cram the projectile (the bullet) down the barrel.
In the old days they used a piece of flint on the hammer to ignite the black powder and expel a round lead ball. Modern muzzleloaders have the hammer hit a percussion cap which ignites compressed pellets that explode and expel a conical copper bullet/sabot. (A sabot is a bulled with some plastic at the bottom to get a better seal)
My friend (my ex-girlfriend) stayed over Friday night and we went hunting early Saturday morning. I had a lousy sleep. Whenever I have to get up early I keep waking up to check the time.
Here's the view from my tree stand:
The trail cam is... oh.... see that thicker tree just left of middle and about 2/3 of the way up the photo? The small tree a little left of that and maybe 12' behind it has the trail cam.
Here's a trail cam pic of the tree stand:
She and I spent 4 hours in the tree stand and only saw one deer. It came over the ridge. We didn't notice it until it saw us and bolted back over the ridge. Those deer are quiet.
She had to attend an out-of-state seminar so she left before lunch, and I ate and then went out to swap SD cards in the trail cam and on a whim I set it to record video.
Since I was out there anyway I went ahead and sat in the tree stand for an hour but I didn't see anything.
That afternoon I spent four hours in the tree stand with no luck either. I quit with a half hour of legal hunting light remaining (you can hunt until 30 minutes after sunset) because even if I shot one I didn't want my first gutting-a-deer experience to be alone in woods in the dark.
I went to bed early and was woke up wide awake... at 12:30am. Ugh. I woke up every 45 minutes or so until I finally got up at 6:40.
I left the house at 7:00 and hit the tree stand.
At around 8:00 some deer magically appeared to my right. They had to have come over a ridge so they should have been visible for 50', but I never noticed them.
They were I the thick brush so I didn't have a clean shot at either. I'm not going to take an unethical shot.
Fifteen minutes later another appeared in front of me, and she turned and went back to the same trail the other two deer were on. She was a bit nervous and moved briskly (I think she saw me, or smelled me) so while I aimed at her the entire time I wasn't confident with my shot so I did not pull the trigger.
That had all happened to the right of the photo I took form the deer stand.
Next, two deer came over the ridge (from the far right of the photo) and I thought they'd head towards me but then ended up cutting back down the ledge.
I had an okay shot at the first one but I thought it would get closer so I didn't take it. Then it went down the embankment and while I had a nice shot at the second one it was substantially smaller.
I'm hunting for meat, so I didn't want a small deer.
I went for quite awhile without seeing a deer and I decided that I'd call it quits at 10:00.
At 9:55 I thought, "Close enough!" and took off my gloves. I had my gun cracked open and I was removing the firing cap (so I couldn't shoot myself while climbing down the tree) when three deer came down the hill from the left.
I made sure the cap was in place, closed the gun, and hunkered down.
The first deer was a fawn (but old enough to be self-sufficent). Some people shoot them because of their tender meat. The second deer was the largest so I set my sights on her (literally).
I shot it in the spine and the doe dropped instantly. The other two deer scattered. My friend left her muzzleloader with me so I took that down the tree with me (easier than reloading). The deer was still alive so I texted my friend (who is a deer biologist) and asked her what the best shot to dispatch it.
She told me just below the base of the ear. Blammo! Lights out.
I took this last one after disemboweling it. Blood soaked through my coveralls, through my jeans, and coated my knees.
After field dressing the deer I tied it to the tether for my harness and dragged it back to my place. It was heavy.
The carcass slid down hill but dragging it up hill was exhausting.
While I helped process my ex-girlfriend's deer last November I didn't want to screw anything up with unsupervised butchery, so I drove it to the butcher. He said it's been a slow season for him. My ex-GF said that the strong mast crop this year (mast = acorns and other food) means that the deer don't have to roam as much, so fewer will get shot.
I can use a firearm to take one more deer in my area. I can get two additional deer if I buy an additional pair of tags ($30 total) and use archery equipment.
Since I have no archery equipment, and assuming I get another deer this November during modern gun season, if I wanted to shoot more deer I'd have to go to a Zone-1 county.
I was extremely lucky to catch the shot on my trail camera.
It's sort graphic/violent so you've been warned: http://youtu.be/X9GVLUMA8GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I got into hunting about a year ago. While I live in Kentucky now, I grew up in Los Angeles and I used to think that shooting animals was sort of barbaric. Of course I've always eaten meat, and chickens and cows have pretty lousy cramped/dirty lives. It occurred to me that I was being pretty self righteous. I was still an essential part of the slaughter of the animals I ate, I was just paying other people to do the dirty work and package it in a way that I wouldn't associate it with an animal. That's not very respectful to the animal.
I went on a few hunting trips last year. I had no luck with turkey but my girlfriend bagged a deer and showed me how to field dress it. Field dressing is basically removing the guts so they doesn't spoil the meat. It's a pretty interesting process, but bloody.
To prepare for deer season this fall I moved my trail camera around my back yard (I own 45 acres) until I found a place with sufficient deer activity.
I used the date/time stamped photos to make a spreadsheet of all the times when deer showed up. For the past month they were most active from between 7:00am & 11:00am. After 11:00 they were inactive, but would reappear from 5:00pm-8:00pm. Basically, they were active at sunrise and sunset.
I set up my tree stand three weeks before muzzleloader season started to combat neophobia. For the first two weeks the deer would stare at it, but eventually they ignored it.
Early muzzleloader season was two days in September while late muzzleloader season takes place over 9 days in December. Muzzleloaders are guns loaded the old fashioned way. I put propellant down the barrel, then I use a ramrod to cram the projectile (the bullet) down the barrel.
In the old days they used a piece of flint on the hammer to ignite the black powder and expel a round lead ball. Modern muzzleloaders have the hammer hit a percussion cap which ignites compressed pellets that explode and expel a conical copper bullet/sabot. (A sabot is a bulled with some plastic at the bottom to get a better seal)
My friend (my ex-girlfriend) stayed over Friday night and we went hunting early Saturday morning. I had a lousy sleep. Whenever I have to get up early I keep waking up to check the time.
Here's the view from my tree stand:
The trail cam is... oh.... see that thicker tree just left of middle and about 2/3 of the way up the photo? The small tree a little left of that and maybe 12' behind it has the trail cam.
Here's a trail cam pic of the tree stand:
She and I spent 4 hours in the tree stand and only saw one deer. It came over the ridge. We didn't notice it until it saw us and bolted back over the ridge. Those deer are quiet.
She had to attend an out-of-state seminar so she left before lunch, and I ate and then went out to swap SD cards in the trail cam and on a whim I set it to record video.
Since I was out there anyway I went ahead and sat in the tree stand for an hour but I didn't see anything.
That afternoon I spent four hours in the tree stand with no luck either. I quit with a half hour of legal hunting light remaining (you can hunt until 30 minutes after sunset) because even if I shot one I didn't want my first gutting-a-deer experience to be alone in woods in the dark.
I went to bed early and was woke up wide awake... at 12:30am. Ugh. I woke up every 45 minutes or so until I finally got up at 6:40.
I left the house at 7:00 and hit the tree stand.
At around 8:00 some deer magically appeared to my right. They had to have come over a ridge so they should have been visible for 50', but I never noticed them.
They were I the thick brush so I didn't have a clean shot at either. I'm not going to take an unethical shot.
Fifteen minutes later another appeared in front of me, and she turned and went back to the same trail the other two deer were on. She was a bit nervous and moved briskly (I think she saw me, or smelled me) so while I aimed at her the entire time I wasn't confident with my shot so I did not pull the trigger.
That had all happened to the right of the photo I took form the deer stand.
Next, two deer came over the ridge (from the far right of the photo) and I thought they'd head towards me but then ended up cutting back down the ledge.
I had an okay shot at the first one but I thought it would get closer so I didn't take it. Then it went down the embankment and while I had a nice shot at the second one it was substantially smaller.
I'm hunting for meat, so I didn't want a small deer.
I went for quite awhile without seeing a deer and I decided that I'd call it quits at 10:00.
At 9:55 I thought, "Close enough!" and took off my gloves. I had my gun cracked open and I was removing the firing cap (so I couldn't shoot myself while climbing down the tree) when three deer came down the hill from the left.
I made sure the cap was in place, closed the gun, and hunkered down.
The first deer was a fawn (but old enough to be self-sufficent). Some people shoot them because of their tender meat. The second deer was the largest so I set my sights on her (literally).
I shot it in the spine and the doe dropped instantly. The other two deer scattered. My friend left her muzzleloader with me so I took that down the tree with me (easier than reloading). The deer was still alive so I texted my friend (who is a deer biologist) and asked her what the best shot to dispatch it.
She told me just below the base of the ear. Blammo! Lights out.
I took this last one after disemboweling it. Blood soaked through my coveralls, through my jeans, and coated my knees.
After field dressing the deer I tied it to the tether for my harness and dragged it back to my place. It was heavy.
The carcass slid down hill but dragging it up hill was exhausting.
While I helped process my ex-girlfriend's deer last November I didn't want to screw anything up with unsupervised butchery, so I drove it to the butcher. He said it's been a slow season for him. My ex-GF said that the strong mast crop this year (mast = acorns and other food) means that the deer don't have to roam as much, so fewer will get shot.
I can use a firearm to take one more deer in my area. I can get two additional deer if I buy an additional pair of tags ($30 total) and use archery equipment.
Since I have no archery equipment, and assuming I get another deer this November during modern gun season, if I wanted to shoot more deer I'd have to go to a Zone-1 county.
I was extremely lucky to catch the shot on my trail camera.
It's sort graphic/violent so you've been warned: http://youtu.be/X9GVLUMA8GA
I bought a $90 "Sportsmans License" which includes a hunting license, two deer tags, to spring turkey tags, two fall turkey tags, a fishing license, and a trout tag. It saves me $60 or something like that.
I got my first KY trout this year, and at it for breakfast that same day.
For KY residents a standard hunting license is $20 and a deer permit (tags for two deer) is $30. You can keep buying tags at $30 a pair if you want to harvest more deer. So the minimum price is $50 for two deer, and $80 for four deer, and $110 for 6 deer.
Last November my lady-friend used a .270 which is about $25 per box of 20. When she got her deer last year we processed it all ourselves (steaks, roasts, backstrap, tenderloins, and ground the rest).
She took one practice shot the day before to make sure the scope was accurate and downed the deer in one shot, so $3 in ammo +$50 in license. $53 total, plus a lot of labor to process it. Processing it is easier than I thought. Muscles and stuff come in easily dividable sections.
She probably got about 50lbs of meat off it.
I used a muzzleloader. I bought a 20-pack of Hornady sabots (bullets with plastic) for $14.99 and I got a 24-pack of Hodgdon Triple Se7ev propellant on sale at Walmart post-season last year for about $10 (two pellets per shot so it's 12 shots worth of propellant). The caps to ignite the propellant was $5 for a 100-pack.
Funny thing about the caps. I looked at buying a 500 pack online for cheap, but they are considered a hazardous item so if you order them online there is a $30 hazardous shipping fee. It's waaaaaay cheaper just to buy them from a brick and mortar.
So... $.75 per sabot, $.85 for propellant, $.05 per cap = $1.65 per shot. More with tax and stuff (like cleaning the gun often, and using breach plug grease) so let's say $2 per shot.
In two weeks we'll go deer hunting with modern guns and I'll probably use my Henry .44 Magnum using Hornady Leverevolution ammo ($17 for 20 rounds). I made half a dozen hollow points when a friend showed me how to reload ammo, so I'm tempted to try those, but with only 6 shots I won't have many left if I can't sight them in quickly.
Processing the deer was the expensive part.
They charge $100 processing fee for a whole deer, and for special items there is an additional fee.
My 20 lbs of summer sausage cost $2.55 per pound so that added $51 to the price.
No tax, so the total was $151.
If I only wanted ground meat and the prime cuts (steaks, roasts, tenderloin, backstrap) it would have just been the $100.
The summer sausage is freaking delicious though and totally worth the money. I'll bring the summer sausage to parties with cheese and crackers and get all sorts of compliments. I've been eyeballing one in the fridge for awhile and will probably open it up this weekend.
So I spent:
$151 Processing
$50 license & tags
$4 ammo
$3.75 per pound of venison.
I plan on taking one more deer this year and I'll process it myself, so the next 55 lbs of venison will cost whatever the ammo costs.
Edited By Paul on 1351908406
I got my first KY trout this year, and at it for breakfast that same day.
For KY residents a standard hunting license is $20 and a deer permit (tags for two deer) is $30. You can keep buying tags at $30 a pair if you want to harvest more deer. So the minimum price is $50 for two deer, and $80 for four deer, and $110 for 6 deer.
Last November my lady-friend used a .270 which is about $25 per box of 20. When she got her deer last year we processed it all ourselves (steaks, roasts, backstrap, tenderloins, and ground the rest).
She took one practice shot the day before to make sure the scope was accurate and downed the deer in one shot, so $3 in ammo +$50 in license. $53 total, plus a lot of labor to process it. Processing it is easier than I thought. Muscles and stuff come in easily dividable sections.
She probably got about 50lbs of meat off it.
I used a muzzleloader. I bought a 20-pack of Hornady sabots (bullets with plastic) for $14.99 and I got a 24-pack of Hodgdon Triple Se7ev propellant on sale at Walmart post-season last year for about $10 (two pellets per shot so it's 12 shots worth of propellant). The caps to ignite the propellant was $5 for a 100-pack.
Funny thing about the caps. I looked at buying a 500 pack online for cheap, but they are considered a hazardous item so if you order them online there is a $30 hazardous shipping fee. It's waaaaaay cheaper just to buy them from a brick and mortar.
So... $.75 per sabot, $.85 for propellant, $.05 per cap = $1.65 per shot. More with tax and stuff (like cleaning the gun often, and using breach plug grease) so let's say $2 per shot.
In two weeks we'll go deer hunting with modern guns and I'll probably use my Henry .44 Magnum using Hornady Leverevolution ammo ($17 for 20 rounds). I made half a dozen hollow points when a friend showed me how to reload ammo, so I'm tempted to try those, but with only 6 shots I won't have many left if I can't sight them in quickly.
Processing the deer was the expensive part.
They charge $100 processing fee for a whole deer, and for special items there is an additional fee.
My 20 lbs of summer sausage cost $2.55 per pound so that added $51 to the price.
No tax, so the total was $151.
If I only wanted ground meat and the prime cuts (steaks, roasts, tenderloin, backstrap) it would have just been the $100.
The summer sausage is freaking delicious though and totally worth the money. I'll bring the summer sausage to parties with cheese and crackers and get all sorts of compliments. I've been eyeballing one in the fridge for awhile and will probably open it up this weekend.
So I spent:
$151 Processing
$50 license & tags
$4 ammo
$3.75 per pound of venison.
I plan on taking one more deer this year and I'll process it myself, so the next 55 lbs of venison will cost whatever the ammo costs.
Edited By Paul on 1351908406
I went bow hunting this morning but didn't see any deer.
I went out early, so the infrared lights of the trail cam kicked on, making me look evil:
(That's me in both pics.)
I spent awhile hunkered against a tree and was visited several times by a chipmunk on a log. Before I left I put my camera on that log to take a pic of myself.
I ended up moving to another location at one point and the trail cam caught me again. I look less evil in this photo:
I plan on going back out tomorrow after I drop my daughter at school.
Edited By Paul on 1352344048
I went out early, so the infrared lights of the trail cam kicked on, making me look evil:
(That's me in both pics.)
I spent awhile hunkered against a tree and was visited several times by a chipmunk on a log. Before I left I put my camera on that log to take a pic of myself.
I ended up moving to another location at one point and the trail cam caught me again. I look less evil in this photo:
I plan on going back out tomorrow after I drop my daughter at school.
Edited By Paul on 1352344048
Deer can see very limited colors. They can see blue, but don't differentiate between other colors.
An orange vest just looks like a grey vest, but it's still a big, blank, light colored surface in a forest of mottled hues and shapes. So yes, a safety vest can catch their eyes.
During gun season the safety issues outweigh being seen by deer so state law requires that you wear a hunter orange hat and have solid hunter orange on your chest & back.
This is so that a hunter 200 yards away doesn't mistake you for a deer and shoot you. Or a hunter can at least see you across a field so he knows to not shoot in that direction.
For archery you are shooting a weapon that's good at under 50 yards and most people shoot at around half of that.
Because your weapon has a limited range there is less danger of accidentally/mistakenly hitting someone else.
Also, because you have to be close to the deer and it takes a lot more movement to draw the bow you need every advantage you can get on the deer, so as not to spook it.
It is only bow hunting season now. Modern gun season starts Saturday. I'll have my daughter and she doesn't hunt, so I won't go out until at least Monday.
My lady friend is coming down the following weekend though.
Edited By Paul on 1352346121
An orange vest just looks like a grey vest, but it's still a big, blank, light colored surface in a forest of mottled hues and shapes. So yes, a safety vest can catch their eyes.
During gun season the safety issues outweigh being seen by deer so state law requires that you wear a hunter orange hat and have solid hunter orange on your chest & back.
This is so that a hunter 200 yards away doesn't mistake you for a deer and shoot you. Or a hunter can at least see you across a field so he knows to not shoot in that direction.
For archery you are shooting a weapon that's good at under 50 yards and most people shoot at around half of that.
Because your weapon has a limited range there is less danger of accidentally/mistakenly hitting someone else.
Also, because you have to be close to the deer and it takes a lot more movement to draw the bow you need every advantage you can get on the deer, so as not to spook it.
It is only bow hunting season now. Modern gun season starts Saturday. I'll have my daughter and she doesn't hunt, so I won't go out until at least Monday.
My lady friend is coming down the following weekend though.
Edited By Paul on 1352346121
I have a ghillie poncho, not an entire suit. I got it for turkey hunting.
An orange ghillie suit would be psychedelic! It wouldn't be legal here though as it needs to be a "solid, unbroken orange." I think they do that to keep color blind people from shooting the bush monsters.
During turkey season you can hunt with a shotgun and not wear orange because turkey have great eyesight (so you need it) and because and shotguns aren't as dangerous at a distance.
Edited By Paul on 1352350233
An orange ghillie suit would be psychedelic! It wouldn't be legal here though as it needs to be a "solid, unbroken orange." I think they do that to keep color blind people from shooting the bush monsters.
During turkey season you can hunt with a shotgun and not wear orange because turkey have great eyesight (so you need it) and because and shotguns aren't as dangerous at a distance.
Edited By Paul on 1352350233
While bow hunting yesterday I could have bagged a doe. Three presented excellent shots, but I wanted the buck I'd seen the morning before to show up. He didn't.
This morning my daughter and I got up just before sunrise and hit the tree stand.
She got bored and went home after an hour. I stayed out a couple hours longer but didn't see anything.
I still want that buck. Even if the does came back I'd have left them alone.
I'm aiming toward the trail cam:
The cam through the scope:
This morning my daughter and I got up just before sunrise and hit the tree stand.
She got bored and went home after an hour. I stayed out a couple hours longer but didn't see anything.
I still want that buck. Even if the does came back I'd have left them alone.
I'm aiming toward the trail cam:
The cam through the scope: