2017/2018

[Dirtclod]

Grats to all you guys. You all make me jealous! Been a bit of a challenge for me this season. Had limited time and filled my tag with a day to spare before a major foot operation. Not a monster but my first whitetail so I'm pretty happy. That's the exit wound you see. He spun in place for a couple of seconds before dropping in place. .06 with a copper bullet. The first hunt with a copper bullet. Close shot at about 40 yards. When skinned the exit was almost a half dollar size. So it mushroomed greatly for being so close.

[Violator31]

Nice harvests folks.
Friday opened our shotgun season. My Son had to work so I didn't go. I could have but for one thing it's just not the same without him there & if I were to get anything....the woods are pretty far from the road & the terrain is pretty rough...too rough for this old fart by himself.
So we went out this morning. I rained so hard we left the woods about an hour after legal shooting time hit. We went into town & found a laundromat, threw in our coveralls & stuff. Then we went & bought new (dry) pants & back to the laundromat to throw our pants in too.
Went to get something to eat, then back to the woods. This trip was different....it had almost stopped raining while we were in town, but by the time we got back into our stands it started again...then the real fun began COLD WIND & the rain turned to slush dropping from the sky (sleet for a little while).
It was just a miserable day all the way around. But the weather forecast looks better for tomorrow. Windy, but no rain. Temps in the upper 20s but the wind will make it feel like it's in the teens. 15-20 mph winds.
It's not even 8:00 yet & my Son is asleep and as soon as I finish this I'm passing out too. The alarm is set for 4AM.
Good luck everyone.

[Dirtclod]

Nice harvests folks.
Friday opened our shotgun season. My Son had to work so I didn't go. I could have but for one thing it's just not the same without him there & if I were to get anything....the woods are pretty far from the road & the terrain is pretty rough...too rough for this old fart by himself.
So we went out this morning. I rained so hard we left the woods about an hour after legal shooting time hit. We went into town & found a laundromat, threw in our coveralls & stuff. Then we went & bought new (dry) pants & back to the laundromat to throw our pants in too.
Went to get something to eat, then back to the woods. This trip was different....it had almost stopped raining while we were in town, but by the time we got back into our stands it started again...then the real fun began COLD WIND & the rain turned to slush dropping from the sky (sleet for a little while).
It was just a miserable day all the way around. But the weather forecast looks better for tomorrow. Windy, but no rain. Temps in the upper 20s but the wind will make it feel like it's in the teens. 15-20 mph winds.
It's not even 8:00 yet & my Son is asleep and as soon as I finish this I'm passing out too. The alarm is set for 4AM.
Good luck everyone.

Good luck. I forgot my gloves the other day for an evening hunt. No wind and in the upper 20's. No problem. Then the wind hit! Could barely use my hands by the time I got back. Damn wind!

[Knut]

.222 is often underrated. I'd sometimes wish for one instead of the 5,6x50R Mag, since at distances closer than 100m,
you can basically throw everything around the shoulder blade away, if you hit it.

I agree. The 5.6x50R Mag is awful for Roe, haematoma all throughout the cavity and shooting channel. I used it in a combination gun a friend lent me. Which is why I decided to equip my combination gun with the .222 Rem.
Also there I had to play around a bit until I was happy. Especially the lighter softpoint bullets aren't all too great.
Now I am shooting the 3.6g/55gr Norma Oryx. It has a bit less flat trajectory than lighter bullets and thus I am limiting my range on foxes a notch, but it is excellent for medium sized Roe deer. Very little damage and outstanding shocking power.
Perfect combination in my O/U for taking fawn and doe together.

@dirtclod: nice buck, Waidmannsheil! What made you go for a copper bullet? I personally wouldn't choose a lead-free bullet without being forced to.

@violator32: that's hunting, too. Also these stories are nice to read, thanks for sharing!

[Violator31]

Finished off the 1st weekend firearm season. After all that fun Saturday, we were up at 4AM & in the woods an hour before sunrise.I wandered back down by the river to my climbing stand to find out that, because of all that rain, the river was creeping up the banks. There was about a foot of water under my climber & I wasn't about to wade out there. So I went to the tower. It was windy just like the forecast. And cold. We had to be home by noon so about 10 I saw my Son headed over towards my climber so I went over there to meet him. He said from his stand he noticed that the water in the creek had risen since shortly after sunrise. My climber was almost completely submerged. The top of the bar on that stand is about 3.5 feet off the ground. I'm going to have to drive down there later in the week one day to get it out of there. We've never seen it get flooded down there this late in the year. In the spring...YES!!! That tree with the climber on it, in the spring the water would easily be 10 feet higher than it is right there. The river is about 80 yards from the tree too. What a mess.
I saw a doe & a fawn, easily within range. Just too small for me to take. I don't need the meat so bad that I have to drop either of those 2.
Oh well, bowhunting this upcoming weekend then the last weekend for shotgun is the next weekend after that one.


I better get off to bed....I just got off work & it's 2:30 AM....which means I've been awake for 22.5 hours..... God I LOVE hunting!!!

[InstinctiveArcher]

Congrats Dirtclod! Nice buck!

Here's a picture (that I hope you guys can see) of my buck. Like I said, not huge, but respectable for the area that I hunt. If anyone knows of a better way to upload images, please let me know!
https://imgur.com/a/pCQNV

[LEFLOR]

My sixth boar of the season, not very big (107 kg) but good big trophy (for my region).





Last Sunday during a driven hunting. The dogs lifted him, 5 minutes of running, pulled by another hunter, the boar half turn, he took refuge in a big thicket and waited for the dogs to attack them, I had to wait 10 minutes, face to face, for finally be able kill him (so that there is no dog in front or behind to not hurt a dog with my bullet).

[Knut]

That's some decent tusks, congrats!

[MooseHunter330]

Not very big? Jesus how big do your boars get?
Nice kill, though!

[LEFLOR]

Not very big? Jesus how big do your boars get?
Nice kill, though!

The very big boars in my area weigh 120-150 kg (that's why I do not say very big ... ) it's a mountainous region (altitude 1000m to 2500m) with areas almost never hunted and where the males become old and heavy.
This year, following a strong reproduction, the boars are numerous, we are in the middle of hunting season and we have already killed the double of wild boar of the total season of last year.
The snow has arrived and makes the hunt even more beautiful (and also more tiring for dogs and men).
We will hunt until mid January 2 to 3 days a week and if there are still too many boars we will continue to hunt until the end of February.