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Deer Season 2012

Awesome job on the buck.

I miss my recon. It was probably about a 96 or 98 model ????
 
First deer in Colorado, it was to dark for Pic's in the field. Took him with 100 ATR .308 Win with 130 Barnes TTSX hand loads.
 

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John A. said:
I should've posted this a few weeks ago, but have been too busy to sit down and do it.

As most of you guys know, I've had a trail cam out for a few years now and have gotten a lot of pics during that time and I have enjoyed doing it.

I have seen a few really atypical racks, but two really caught my attention.

One being the buck I called Halo, which has since moved about 2 miles away and I have seen some trail pics of him this year from a buddy on the same mountain ridge, but not close to where I would've been hunting.

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And then this dude appeared out of nowhere back early oct. I knicknamed him 3.1 because he had 3 points on one side and a single spike on the other.

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I'll be the first to say that I'm not a head hunter and will always be a meat eater, but there are times when a cull needs to be taken and 3.1 was on that short list.

So a couple of days after season started, he wandered in and I had the opportunity so I took the shot.

I was using 120 gr Hornady SST in the 6.8 SPCII AR I built and he was drt.

I was also using the form 1 suppressor (which is legal in my state), although as is apparent, does nothing to increase first round accuracy and shot placement is key just like any other caliber or gun and he fell straight down in his tracks on the first shot with or without the silencer would've made no difference. The only advantage using a silencer when you're hunting is not to bust your ear drums and tinninitus.

The trail cam caught his last step. I also have it on video from the camera mounted on the rifle, but being about 60 yards away, doesn't show it too well. All you can see is a brown spot moving into the frame and a flash of white from his tail when he anchored.

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do you like that 6.8 spc ar i was looking at either building one or i found that double star has a nice camoed one the sale and was wondering how good the round is?
 
The round is very good at modest distances. I have heard of kills beyond 300 yards, but as you can see from the pictures, all of my hunting is within 100.

The bullet itself is a .270 bullet, and the brass case is a necked down 30 caliber case to accept the smaller bullet.

Depending on the specific bullet, the lighter 85 and 95 gr bullets travel at upwards of 2900 fps, and the heavier down to around 2450 fps as in the case of the 120 gr hornady.

But as with any bullet and any hunting situation, shot placement is key.

I have some autopsy pics showing the entrance and exit and the small amount of meat damage, but I chose not to openly post it on the forum, but the short answer is I do like the 6.8 for the type of close in hunting that I do.

There are a ton of pics of taken feral hogs, deer, elk, mountain lion, bear, etc on 6.8 forum. Lots of good helpful, and knowlegable guys there with more experience than I have under my belt with it so far.
 
This Deer Season absolutely stank for me... Saw one large doe and that was it...

Congratulations too everyone who has harvested a nice Buck or Doe! Wish me better luck next year! :D
Also as a Side Note... *Jealous* of the many users allowed to hunt with Semi-autos :p
 
thanks for the helkp most of my hunting is in side 100 yard also since its all heavily wood areas where i hunt so will give it some more thought and look at some 6.8 sites.
 
Itsricmo said:
This Deer Season absolutely stank for me... Saw one large doe and that was it...

Congratulations too everyone who has harvested a nice Buck or Doe! Wish me better luck next year! :D
Also as a Side Note... *Jealous* of the many users allowed to hunt with Semi-autos :p


Where've you been hunting? I've been seeing doe all over the place! I haven't gotten a deer yet or seen a buck since the one I shot at in archery. Flintlock season starts December 26 so brown it's down goes into effect at that point. Need to get one quick because ill be wanting to duck hunt with friends and I'm going on a couple day cyote hunt in early January.
 
I hunt up in Ebensburg, New Germany Road, to be specific. There were shots ringing out all over the hill tops but nothing close by. Working for the railroad I see more deer at work in one night, than I have all season on game cameras haha they are attracted to the wide open trail between the rail for some odd reason.
 
I saw quite a few doe out in mineral point which isn't too far from there. I heard a good many shots both Saturdays but the first day was pretty uneventful...
 
Yeah First day blew... My fiance's family made out really well, they got a 7pt, 9pt and the youngest hunter, 13, got a 4 point.

I haven't hunted Mineral Point before, I don't know anyone from over that way. My family is from Vinco (not a lot of hunting grounds), Clearfield (Not familiar with the land to go by myself) and Ebensburg (where I currently hunt lol).
 
This has been a weird season. Despite the fact that I have not taken any shots, this has been one the mose enjoyable seasons I remember having.

I've seen some big bucks "playing" in a field.
I've seen many does and button bucks.
I stalked two deer along the edge of an open field by moving slow when they were looking down and got closer than I thought they would.
I've learned a lot about scents and that a lot of what I thought I knew was bunk.
I cold called in a few deer for the first time.

I've still got a few weekends to hunt here but the journey has been fun this year whether I connect or not..
 
MikeD said:
This has been a weird season. Despite the fact that I have not taken any shots, this has been one the mose enjoyable seasons I remember having.

I've seen some big bucks "playing" in a field.
I've seen many does and button bucks.
I stalked two deer along the edge of an open field by moving slow when they were looking down and got closer than I thought they would.
I've learned a lot about scents and that a lot of what I thought I knew was bunk.
I cold called in a few deer for the first time.

I've still got a few weekends to hunt here but the journey has been fun this year whether I connect or not..


MikeD, the thrill of the hunt is what keeps me going back.

what exactly did you learn about scents?
 
John A. said:
MikeD, the thrill of the hunt is what keeps me going back.

what exactly did you learn about scents?

I've always used them sparingly believing that overuse would have an adverse effect on the deer.

I took my girlfriends brother up hunting. They guy never showered. During the three days we hunted he used 3-4 bottles of hot musk, some mixed with pop cans of his own urine (his own special mix as he called it), a bottle of Tinks 69, and a gallon of ammonia. He he used cotton balls in the trees to get some of the scent in the air and he poured the rest all over the place.

He saw ton of deer, they had trails in the dirt (through the foot of snow we had) and he ended up bagging a buck.

He also uses the can call every 20-30 minutes, even when the deer are 10 yards in front his blind.

He's now 2 for two at my place using this method.

The first time I took him up I laughed my ass off that he put that much stuff out. I figured he'd scare every deer withing scent range with all the scent he had out but he still managed to get one. I figured dumb luck. This year I'm not laughing so much.
 
Hunting Sunday. I had a doe come in right at dark, just minutes before the end of shooting hours. I'm zoomed in as much as I can on this deer in the dying light just waiting for it to turn. Finaly it does and I send my 300gr sst-ml down range. After the muzzle flash and triple-7 smoke clear I see nothing. I wait a bit and wander out to where I last saw the deer. Nothing..not a hair...not a drop of blood anywhere.

Afted an hour and a half of looking everywhere for any sign of blood the propery owners wife yells that she sees a little spray on a trail about 60 yards into the woods leading away from the field.

We follow this trail through what seems like the thickest stuff possible in the dark for another hour. By this time I'm sweating like crazy and have boots full of water from my trek through a small swamp. The blood trail is not getting much better so fearing a less than desirable shot we decide to call it a night and pick it up again in the morning......

Sent from my Mossberg 930 using Tapatalk2
 
I know how you feel, wounding a deer and not finding it earlier in the year was one of my all time low moments in hunting...
 
Monday morning we pick up the trail where we left off. It starts to look a bit more promising. We find a few bigger spray marks and a bed. We keep on the trail and find a few more bigger spots of blood. About 80-100 yards in we see a another bed with blood everywhere. After this the blood trail starts to peter out and just as I'm starting to think he clotted up and we lost him I see him folded up near a tree about 30 yards in front of us. He was down but had not been there for long. The eyes were barely glazed and he was not in rigor yet.

Looking back it was a wise choice to stop where we did the night before or else we may have pushed him and not found him. I feel sick that I didn't make a clean shot but I'm gad we lucked on to the trail and eventually found him.

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(I guess I should paint that scope. LOL)

We lost the tenderloins but most of the meat was still good. I thought it was a doe but it turned out to be a buck with no discernible antlers. He ended up only about 200 yards from where I shot him as a crow flies but it was probably a about a mile drag back to the house. Fortunately we were able to use a the neighbors field and the gas pipeline easement to get back rather than drag him the route we had to take to find him.

The Hornady SST passed through but I did find a couple pieces of the jacket when field dressing him. My gun is a older 50 cal CVA Eclipse Hunter loaded with 100 grains of Triple-7 (2 50 grain pellets and a 300 grain Hornady SST bullet The deer was 99 yards out as per the range finder I had borrowed from my buddy. I'm sighted in dead on at 100 yards. I'm not sure if I misjudges the angle in the fading light or if he stepped just as I shot but I'm gad we found him in the end.
 
Meat in the freezer is always a good thing.

glad you found it.
 
Glad to hear that you've found your deer. Meat in the freezer can't hurt at all.
I've been out quite a bit since flintlock came in on wednesday, and haven't seen a damn thing. I guess the full moon is to blame, it really doesn't get dark in the woods with this big full moon and all the snow on the ground. Between when I leave at night and get back in the morn there are always deer going by my blind but nothing during the day. I have Monday - Wednesday to hunt deer here before I leave to go on a Coyote hunting adventure. Then I'll have the last Saturday of the season and that's it. BROWN IT'S DOWN!
 
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