2017/2018

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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Well the weather has finally taken a turn for the better. Pushing 12 inches of snow in places and temps in the low 20's. It finally feels like muzzleloader season! I went out tonight in snow so heavy that within minutes I was so white that I looked like I was wearing snow camo. I saw one doe with a fawn. The fawn was big enough to make it on its own, but I don't really want to take a doe out of the area that I was hunting. Also saw a huge porcupine that was plowing through the snow. By the time I got back to the car, myself and my gear was absolutely covered. I hope I didn't get my powder wet, that wouldn't be good :?
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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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Violator31
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by Violator31 »

InstinctiveArcher wrote:Well the weather has finally taken a turn for the better.
People around here are always saying I'm crazy for liking the fall/winter best. It's been in the 50s here (Illinois) up until just a few days ago. We had winds up to 40mph for about a day & a half & now it's finally getting cold. Right now it's almost midnight & it's 12 degrees outside. Man I wish I was hunting in the morning.
Last weekend was the last of our firearm season & it was in the 50's. We hated it.
InstinctiveArcher wrote:Pushing 12 inches of snow in places and temps in the low 20's.
I love hunting in the snow. Especially the huge flakes that just drift down on a windless morning. Whenever we do get any snow, in a day or 2 it's gone. Even if it is a few inches. The ground just doesn't get cold enough anymore.
I was just telling my Son, last weekend,..... "I remember hearing my parents talking about how harsh the winters were when they were growing up. At the time I just figured they were exaggerating, but now, I believe it all. Just in my lifetime the winters have changed so much. This 50 degree weather, this used to be what we had in late September & October. When it snowed 2-3 inches the snow was still there days later."
Now that it's finally getting cold out, my Son text me yesterday "Hey look, it's finally November."

This photo is from 2010. We had a good snow in 2015, but no where near as nice as this one. As we were driving to the woods it started to snow. It was rough getting home that day, we live 30 miles from the property & most of the maintenance of the roads we usually take weren't keeping up with the snow fall. Ideally, we should have been in the woods the day before, but, we both had to work.
(I'm not as fat as I look in the photo -- it's the layers) :oops: (and the camera adds like 10 pounds, right?) :roll:

"so how many cameras are actually on you?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imz3yOOIR2M

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gas56
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by gas56 »

Violator31 wrote:
InstinctiveArcher wrote:Well the weather has finally taken a turn for the better.
People around here are always saying I'm crazy for liking the fall/winter best. It's been in the 50s here (Illinois) up until just a few days ago. We had winds up to 40mph for about a day & a half & now it's finally getting cold. Right now it's almost midnight & it's 12 degrees outside. Man I wish I was hunting in the morning.
Last weekend was the last of our firearm season & it was in the 50's. We hated it.
InstinctiveArcher wrote:Pushing 12 inches of snow in places and temps in the low 20's.
I love hunting in the snow. Especially the huge flakes that just drift down on a windless morning. Whenever we do get any snow, in a day or 2 it's gone. Even if it is a few inches. The ground just doesn't get cold enough anymore.
I was just telling my Son, last weekend,..... "I remember hearing my parents talking about how harsh the winters were when they were growing up. At the time I just figured they were exaggerating, but now, I believe it all. Just in my lifetime the winters have changed so much. This 50 degree weather, this used to be what we had in late September & October. When it snowed 2-3 inches the snow was still there days later."
Now that it's finally getting cold out, my Son text me yesterday "Hey look, it's finally November."

This photo is from 2010. We had a good snow in 2015, but no where near as nice as this one. As we were driving to the woods it started to snow. It was rough getting home that day, we live 30 miles from the property & most of the maintenance of the roads we usually take weren't keeping up with the snow fall. Ideally, we should have been in the woods the day before, but, we both had to work.
(I'm not as fat as I look in the photo -- it's the layers) :oops: (and the camera adds like 10 pounds, right?) :roll:

"so how many cameras are actually on you?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imz3yOOIR2M

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Nobody can predict the weather,... That's why I should have been a TV weatherman.....I could be wrong and still get paid for it.
I used to think the weather was lighting up a little bit,... but what's strange is yeah it was cold & harsh in early winter for most of the last half of the last century,..
but if you ever take a look at the weather news (they have been keeping records since the late 1880's) that these changes occur throughout that time where there will be mild winters,
and than some like artic snow storms. I wouldn't count mother nature out of it just yet,.. or what she has in store for us.
As for deer hunting in cold weather 1965 was pretty bleak for snow & cold, and shivering your arse off... as was 1975, 1985, 1995. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before
we get it again,.. but the older I get, I really don't mind the snowless ground and I remember those snow storms in October, but now I still see deer activity at the beginning of November
and I hate shivering anymore.
This morning the ground was frozen solid, and the newsman said there was going to be a snowstorm coming to the northeast U.S.
somehow I'm just not so convinced anymore by the weatherman.. until I see it for myself. But I'm glad I live in the mid-west just the same.
Your picture makes me shiver with that snow.............. :lol:
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Bong_Boy
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by Bong_Boy »

Well I’m a bit late to this thread but ima post my harvests for my 2017 hunting season!! ( I uploaded them to discord and exported them via links)

First goose of the year after putting out a 170 decoys that my neighbor went 50/50 with costs on

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

Hey I actually managed to shoot more then one and got my first double 2 shots 3 geese!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

Four in one hunt! Finally getting good at shooting flying geese :lol:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

Oh! What’s this :D !!!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

Tagged in Hudson Bay 2012 and was born in 2011!!

I love my grandfathers Winchester!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

Two more in the back of the truck!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

Last one before deer season starts

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

7 pointer shot at 160 yards with my brand new optima V2

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.png

It had two main beams on one side!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

And a 8 point shot at 20 yards with my optima v2 muzzleloader

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.jpg

That was my 2017 geese/deer hunting season!
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gas56
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by gas56 »

@ Bong_Boy
Interesting hunting season you had!
I like it.
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Looks like you had a pretty good season! Congrats!
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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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Violator31
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by Violator31 »

Bong_Boy, looks like your hunting went well this year. Congrats.
I've never done any waterfowl hunting but I have a few friends who do, it seems like it isn't too productive here (they do much better when they travel to hunt).
I wish the "leg tags" would be introduced into this game as "treasures". It has been suggested a few times but I don't know if it's ever gotten any serious consideration.
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MooseHunter330
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by MooseHunter330 »

I had a nice weekend last week. I got a deer for a friend who wanted one and shot my first ever waterfowl.

On saturday, I went hunting at the edge of a wood where there are forestry operations going on at the moment. I thought they were done logging for the day, but appearantly I was wrong.
After sitting in my box stand for about half an hour (around 5PM), I heard them starting up their harvester just over a nearby hilltop. I hoped that they would stop, but they didn't.
It seemed like they started marking logging paths along the edge of the woods by always felling 2-3 smaller trees every 70-100m or so.
They started doing this about 600m away from me and just came closer and closer. As the loggers came within 200m away from me, I had lost all hope of seeing a deer that day.
Then, as one tree fell, I saw 3 roe deer bolting out of the forest and onto the field in front of me like the devil himself was after them. They came to a full stop right in front of me.
I got the binos up and confirmed them being a doe and two fawns. I decided to take one of the fawns, since a friend told me, that he needed one.
In no time, my Heym SR21 found it's place on the box stand window and I took the safety off. I turned on the illuminated dot and turned the magnification to 12x.
I waited for a clean broadside shot. As soon as the deer stood broadside, I touched off the 8x57JS bonded soft point. I cycled the action and saw the fawn drop after 4-5 meters of flight.
The shot turned out to be a heartshot right behind the shoulder blade. It was exactly where I had aimed. The deer weighed in at 23lbs field dressed.

The same day, my dad and I got an invitation to a cormorant hunt the next day.
So we checked the shotguns to see if they had the right chokes screwed in. We decided on leaving the Merkel 201e, my normal go to shotgun, at home, since it only has 2 3/4" chambers.
Cormorants are tough birds, so the shotgun I took was a Mossberg 500, which was once bought for a goose hunting trip by my dad, but never used since the goose hunt never took place.
During the hunt, we took our positions on top of a floodgate on the nearby river. Just a few minutes into the hunt, my uncle, positioned to my left, furiously pointed into the sky in my vicinity.
I looked up and saw some ducks passing by. Seeing that it's duck season here, I flipped off the tang safety, shouldered the gun, swiftly aimed and led the target and pulled the trigger.
I lost sight of them after that, but my uncle said, that he saw the one I shot drop down into the river 150m further downstream.
In the next 2 hours of the hunt I began losing any hope of ever being able to retrieve it, since I thought it would already have arrived in the next city by the time we collected our game :lol:
We still decided to check the spot, where the duck dropped, though (you know, miracles happen). This time, a miracle DID happen. When we down there, we checked the shoreline, but nothing was
there. By the point I had given up, I saw something out of the corner of my eye: There it was, floating beside the concrete dam of the lock.
Thankfully, the operator let us walk onto the dam and get it out of there with a hook. That was one cold as hell bird.
Just as we got it out of there, the tenant of the neighbouring hunting district rode up and, later, congratulated me on the kill.
As I plucked it's feathers later that day, I saw that only two of the size 1 pellets had hit the bird.

I'm pretty happy with the results :D
Spends all the gold and money to buy new weapons in the shape of guns.
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Wow, only 23 pounds? That's pretty small. How much meat does one get off of a deer that small? My buck this year weighed around 160-170 pounds field dressed and we got about 50 pounds of meat. If that translates the same, that's only 6 or 7 pounds of meat.
Congrats on the duck!
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MooseHunter330
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Re: 2017/2018

Post by MooseHunter330 »

You get about 8-9 pounds of meat off of a roe deer fawn at this time in the year. It's generally 1/4 to 1/3 of the dressed weight as well.
Spends all the gold and money to buy new weapons in the shape of guns.
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