OT Hunting wild game thread and gun preferences

[riverman]

...yeah, different states have different laws...hell, in fact different counties in Georgia have different laws. In my county you're allowed 12 deer per season. But because of over population the NNR changes it annually and this year no more than 2 of your harvest can be bucks.
...deer are so plentiful here that hitting them with a car is commonplace. I've heard stories about deer coming through the windshield and injuring or even killing the occupants, sometimes from flailing and kicking them to death.

Couple years back I was leaving my driveway in my old truck and about 50 yards down the road a buck ran alongside me in the ditch and jumped up kicking out my passenger side mirror...was going about 15 mph at the time...didn't hurt the young buck but I still haven't replaced that mirror

 

[yankeesince59]

^^^How would you like a moose in your lap?

 

[riverman]

^^^How would you like a moose in your lap?

I've seen them in Canada..man they are enormous in real life..

 

[Lanny]

I’m a helluva cat hunter myself. Knocking them off the fence with my Daisy BB gun is pure adrenaline. Especially if they fall on the dog’s side of the fence........

I've shot hundreds of little birdies with my BB gun. Missed every one of them except one. I shot that one dead. I knew it was dead 'cause it fell to the ground on it's back with it's little feet up in the air. I ran over to it and saw that it was dead and I started crying tears for that poor little helpless birdie that I had so ruthlessly murdered. Then, to my surprise, the birdie stirred, got to it's feet and flew away. I felt a momentary joy. Then before it got too far away I was shooting at it in the air.

Little boys. What can I say but tsk, tsk, tsk.

 

[Lanny]

...it's those damned mockingbirds down here...no match for a Crossman Powermaster.

I used a Daisy Red Ryder.

 

[MARIS61]

...and hand guns are just as accurate as rifles.

Any gun is only as accurate as the shooter.

 

[MARIS61]

...yup, that's why when possible I take deer with a head shot. If you shoot one in the lungs or sometimes in the heart they can still run a long way and like you said once they've been hit and start running the adrenaline has kicked in and it can definitely have an effect on the taste of the meat...that's also why I prefer young does to bucks, especially during the rut.

No deer that is shot in the heart can run. Simple biology.

It would be shocking if it could take 2 steps.

A head shot on the other hand, will often bounce off the skull or hit non-lethal areas such as the jawbone, mouth, nose, eyes...as the brain of a deer is very small compared to the size of their head.

 

[barfo]

No deer that is shot in the heart can run. Simple biology.

It would be shocking if it could take 2 steps.

A head shot on the other hand, will often bounce off the skull or hit non-lethal areas such as the jawbone, mouth, nose, eyes...as the brain of a deer is very small compared to the size of their head.

But since the deer has no bones in its left legs, it is very easy to just push over.

barfo

 

[jonnyboy]

I bet I saw 40 deer in a 7 mile stretch of highway on the way home tonight, no exaggeration. They go crazy this time of year when it's cooling off, but I've never seen them like this. Insane. I had to drive slow and stay in the middle of the road with the high beams on to avoid hitting them. I wonder what the deal is this year?

 

[yankeesince59]

Any gun is only as accurate as the shooter.

...you really should know what the comment was about before spouting off.

 

[yankeesince59]

No deer that is shot in the heart can run. Simple biology.

It would be shocking if it could take 2 steps.

A head shot on the other hand, will often bounce off the skull or hit non-lethal areas such as the jawbone, mouth, nose, eyes...as the brain of a deer is very small compared to the size of their head.

...you don't know what you're talking about,..you're talking out of ignorance and you are wrong on both counts...shocker !
...heart shot deer can and do run, I know this from actual experience...and as I stated, I shoot deer within 75 yards and my .243 has a velocity of over 3000 fps...there is no "ricochet".

https://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1733774

https://shootingtime.com/hunting/blood-trailing-deer/


Heart shot
A heart shot will result in a quick death to the deer. After being shot in the heart, the deer will sometimes jump up and do a “mule kick” and then proceed to dart off at a blazing speed with its tail down. The blood from a heart shot deer should be a bright red and thick. The blood should spray out a nice pattern which is normally easy to follow. Heart shot deer make blood trailing deer easy in most cases.

Heart shot deer will rarely take the time to find a trail to use and will just choose a direction and go. If you listen closely after a heart shot, you will sometimes hear the deer crash through thick brush and even expire with a frenzy of kicks/twitches after hitting the ground.

If you suspect you shot a deer in the heart and did not see the animal go down, give the animal at least 30 minutes before blood trailing. Heart shot deer will typically run anywhere from 15 to 100 yards before dying.

 

[Lanny]

No deer that is shot in the heart can run. Simple biology.

It would be shocking if it could take 2 steps.

A head shot on the other hand, will often bounce off the skull or hit non-lethal areas such as the jawbone, mouth, nose, eyes...as the brain of a deer is very small compared to the size of their head.

LOL, what an ignorant statement. Hunters follow deer and elk all the time that have been shot through the heart.

One thing is for sure, you've never hunted.

 

[riverman]

No deer that is shot in the heart can run. Simple biology.

It would be shocking if it could take 2 steps.

A head shot on the other hand, will often bounce off the skull or hit non-lethal areas such as the jawbone, mouth, nose, eyes...as the brain of a deer is very small compared to the size of their head.

I've seen many a steer killed on the spot with a 22 short round right through the skull....never seen one fail...they just drop like a sack of potatoes and steers have much thicker skulls than deer...the headshot is the quickest way to kill a deer without a reaction period.

 

[yankeesince59]

I've seen many a steer killed on the spot with a 22 short round right through the skull....never seen one fail...they just drop like a sack of potatoes and steers have much thicker skulls than deer...the headshot is the quickest way to kill a deer without a reaction period.

...thank you...and has been discussed, a bullet in the brain negates the chance of adrenaline which can have an effect on the flavor of the meat.

...anyone find it odd that maris has strangely and suddenly developed a case of lockjaw ?..........."shocker "

 

[yankeesince59]

...thank you...and has been discussed, a bullet in the brain negates the chance of adrenaline which can have an effect on the flavor of the meat.

...anyone find it odd that maris has suddenly developed a case of lockjaw

 

[MarAzul]

suddenly developed a case of lockjaw

Well, I suppose I should stay out of this, but being a I just don't like to see misinformation given as gospel.

First of all there is quite a difference between bow hunting and rifle hunting. Especial what you do next after taking the shot.
The Bow in my view is not the best choice of weapons in this day where the proper rifle is available. The chances of losing a wounded animal are far greater with the Bow used to stick and arrow in a deer. The heart shot is the best of all shots with the bow and arrow, but you never want to approach the animal until he has a chance to bleed out. Mortally wounded, it will lay down much sooner even if not drop where it was hit. With the heart still pumping the animal will bleed out well and produce the best meat, even if the Adrenalin increases the heart rate. Giving the animal the time to bleed and die, the trail will be shorter, unless the wound is not mortal because the bleeding is not great or stops. Then loss of the animal is very great. This is much less likely when the rifle is used.

Still the body shot is best as the meat is better when the animal's heart can pump out the blood, even if it ends up in the body cavity. A head shot with a weapon like the .243 will not likely bounce of the skull, but if the brain is blown away along with the Medulla oblongata, the beast's heart will not pump the blood out of the animal. Man nor beast moves a muscle after the medulla
is disabled. The high velocity .243 will more often than not, just destroy too much tissue, head shot or body shot. Therefore not my favorite weapon for taking animals for food.

A weapon with slower heaver bullet works much better with less tissue destruction allowing for probably better quality meat to be harvested. The old 30 30 or the .357 loaded as a rifle round are right in this game. But a .22LR will do the job in the liver or the heart. Trouble is, it is not legal in many states but it will destroy the least tissue, even the heart shot will let the heart bleed out the body. This is a meat gun, but then states do not license meat hunting. They always call it sport.

For sport and long range then different weapons are needed for the take. I will leave that to others, but now we speak of .243, .270, .308 and many more sport hunting rifles.

 

[Lanny]

...you don't know what you're talking about,..you're talking out of ignorance and you are wrong on both counts...shocker !
...heart shot deer can and do run, I know this from actual experience...and as I stated, I shoot deer within 75 yards and my .243 has a velocity of over 3000 fps...there is no "ricochet".

https://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1733774

https://shootingtime.com/hunting/blood-trailing-deer/


Heart shot
A heart shot will result in a quick death to the deer. After being shot in the heart, the deer will sometimes jump up and do a “mule kick” and then proceed to dart off at a blazing speed with its tail down. The blood from a heart shot deer should be a bright red and thick. The blood should spray out a nice pattern which is normally easy to follow. Heart shot deer make blood trailing deer easy in most cases.

Heart shot deer will rarely take the time to find a trail to use and will just choose a direction and go. If you listen closely after a heart shot, you will sometimes hear the deer crash through thick brush and even expire with a frenzy of kicks/twitches after hitting the ground.

If you suspect you shot a deer in the heart and did not see the animal go down, give the animal at least 30 minutes before blood trailing. Heart shot deer will typically run anywhere from 15 to 100 yards before dying.

Aha, you've hunted, Maris61 has not.

...thank you...and has been discussed, a bullet in the brain negates the chance of adrenaline which can have an effect on the flavor of the meat.

...anyone find it odd that maris has strangely and suddenly developed a case of lockjaw ?..........."shocker "

Well yeah, he obviously didn't know what he was talking about. It was also painfully obvious that he had never done any significant amount of hunting for big game., not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[yankeesince59]

Well, I suppose I should stay out of this, but being a I just don't like to see misinformation given as gospel.

First of all there is quite a difference between bow hunting and rifle hunting. Especial what you do next after taking the shot.
The Bow in my view is not the best choice of weapons in this day where the proper rifle is available. The chances of losing a wounded animal are far greater with the Bow used to stick and arrow in a deer. The heart shot is the best of all shots with the bow and arrow, but you never want to approach the animal until he has a chance to bleed out. Mortally wounded, it will lay down much sooner even if not drop where it was hit. With the heart still pumping the animal will bleed out well and produce the best meat, even if the Adrenalin increases the heart rate. Giving the animal the time to bleed and die, the trail will be shorter, unless the wound is not mortal because the bleeding is not great or stops. Then loss of the animal is very great. This is much less likely when the rifle is used.

Still the body shot is best as the meat is better when the animal's heart can pump out the blood, even if it ends up in the body cavity. A head shot with a weapon like the .243 will not likely bounce of the skull, but if the brain is blown away along with the Medulla oblongata, the beast's heart will not pump the blood out of the animal. Man nor beast moves a muscle after the medulla
is disabled. The high velocity .243 will more often than not, just destroy too much tissue, head shot or body shot. Therefore not my favorite weapon for taking animals for food.

A weapon with slower heaver bullet works much better with less tissue destruction allowing for probably better quality meat to be harvested. The old 30 30 or the .357 loaded as a rifle round are right in this game. But a .22LR will do the job in the liver or the heart. Trouble is, it is not legal in many states but it will destroy the least tissue, even the heart shot will let the heart bleed out the body. This is a meat gun, but then states do not license meat hunting. They always call it sport.

For sport and long range then different weapons are needed for the take. I will leave that to others, but now we speak of .243, .270, .308 and many more sport hunting rifles.

"The scientific basis for the phenomenon is well-established, and it’s frequently been discussed as a reason to make slaughterhouse practices more humane. The key ingredient here is lactic acid: in an unstressed animal, after death, muscle glycogen is converted into lactic acid, which helps keep meat tender, pink, and flavorful. Adrenaline released by stress before slaughter uses up glycogen, which means there’s not enough lactic acid produced postmortem. This affects different kind of meat in different ways, but in general it’ll be tough, tasteless, and high in pH, and will go bad quicker than unstressed meat." (Lactic acid helps slow the growth of spoilage bacteria.)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-scared-animals-taste-worse


Although like I said, my next purchase will be a 30-30 (mainly for portability) but as for now, overall, I still prefer .243. And in my experience it doesn't tear up tissue as much as say a 7mm short mag which was my first deer rifle. For me, it's all about accuracy and maybe it has to do with the particular brand of bullet I use but my rifle is sighted in for 75 yards because of how and where my stand is situated but my .243 is incredibly accurate compared to others I've shot. In fact, I think I've got a picture somewhere of the groupings showing how closely bunched they are.

...of course it helps if the person shooting is a good shot and though I'm not in the class of a sniper, I'm pretty damned consistent. I've made quite a few head shots and generally speaking the deer dropped where they stood and therefore there is no "stress"...no tracking either. Me and my hunting partner (I never hunt alone) simply load the deer on the Rhino and take it out of the woods. Depending on the time of day we either skin and dress it out and quarter it in my yard and put the meat in a large cooler with ice for 3-4 days. And once or twice a day we drain the bloody water out and replenish the ice...either that, or we take it to a nearby processor who charges $55 to dress the deer, hang it for a few days in a walk in cooler to bleed it out and then debones the hams/shoulders and packages all the meat...I season and grind some into sausage or burger and load it all into a freezer and I'm good.

 

[yankeesince59]

...I guess it's that time of year...those damn "things with no shoulders" are on the move and trying to get fat for the winter when they go underground.

...just killed this one in my driveway...4 1/2 foot timberback (pretty damn big for a t-back)...6 rattles and a button...fat SOB.

 

[Lanny]

"The scientific basis for the phenomenon is well-established, and it’s frequently been discussed as a reason to make slaughterhouse practices more humane. The key ingredient here is lactic acid: in an unstressed animal, after death, muscle glycogen is converted into lactic acid, which helps keep meat tender, pink, and flavorful. Adrenaline released by stress before slaughter uses up glycogen, which means there’s not enough lactic acid produced postmortem. This affects different kind of meat in different ways, but in general it’ll be tough, tasteless, and high in pH, and will go bad quicker than unstressed meat." (Lactic acid helps slow the growth of spoilage bacteria.)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-scared-animals-taste-worse


Although like I said, my next purchase will be a 30-30 (mainly for portability) but as for now, overall, I still prefer .243. And in my experience it doesn't tear up tissue as much as say a 7mm short mag which was my first deer rifle. For me, it's all about accuracy and maybe it has to do with the particular brand of bullet I use but my rifle is sighted in for 75 yards because of how and where my stand is situated but my .243 is incredibly accurate compared to others I've shot. In fact, I think I've got a picture somewhere of the groupings showing how closely bunched they are.

...of course it helps if the person shooting is a good shot and though I'm not in the class of a sniper, I'm pretty damned consistent. I've made quite a few head shots and generally speaking the deer dropped where they stood and therefore there is no "stress"...no tracking either. Me and my hunting partner (I never hunt alone) simply load the deer on the Rhino and take it out of the woods. Depending on the time of day we either skin and dress it out and quarter it in my yard and put the meat in a large cooler with ice for 3-4 days. And once or twice a day we drain the bloody water out and replenish the ice...either that, or we take it to a nearby processor who charges $55 to dress the deer, hang it for a few days in a walk in cooler to bleed it out and then debones the hams/shoulders and packages all the meat...I season and grind some into sausage or burger and load it all into a freezer and I'm good.

I like the .243 because of the light kick but for accuracy, I'd go the .30=06 with either a Redfield or Leupold 3X9 post scope.

Here's what I like about the .270, if you use the right Dupont powder then you can't accidentally double charge a shell when loading your own because the powder takes up more than half the space. A double charge overflows and you instantly know what you did wrong.

 

[yankeesince59]

I like the .243 because of the light kick but for accuracy, I'd go the .30=06 with either a Redfield or Leupold 3X9 post scope.

Here's what I like about the .270, if you use the right Dupont powder then you can't accidentally double charge a shell when loading your own because the powder takes up more than half the space. A double charge overflows and you instantly know what you did wrong.

...that's why I depend on Federal/Hornaday to do the job for me...tried doing my own reloading seeing as I usually don't shoot but 4-5 times a year it didn't make sense.

 

[Lanny]

...that's why I depend on Federal/Hornaday to do the job for me...tried doing my own reloading seeing as I usually don't shoot but 4-5 times a year it didn't make sense.

Sierra boat tails.

 

[yankeesince59]

Sierra boat tails.

...Spitzer?...never tried them.

...I've tested probably 6-8 different brands and though it's fairly cheap, the Fusion has had the best results in my particular rifle...not sure if it has to do with the twist or what.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Learning a lot in this thread, thanks.