Well, I was able to get the wife to give me a pass in order to head down to Woodycreek's and hunt for the Saturday club hunt. My son, and two buddies from work went down with me and we camped at Brian's place on Friday night. Saturday morning had us getting the hunt lined up and figuring out where the hunters would be posted. This was a traditional hound hunt and man, Brian's club does it great. Very professional folks and very nice to people to hunt with. Since my son is still a young hunter, I have been sitting right next to him, just to watch over him. Well, we put the stands up in a hardwood swamp about 200 yards away from where Brian was posted. It is thick stuff.
To be honest, I kinda lost track of time, but I would say it was about 1000 that I saw some deer running on the outside of the hunt clubs property and blazing through alot of thick vegetation. I said dang it to myself as I was dieing for my son to put a shot on a deer. Being it was a doe day, I was allowed to shoot a buck or a doe and my son could shoot either as well.
Anyhow, those deer ran up and out of sight and I settled back into the stand. Just then, I noticed they were hauling butt, right back at my son and I. We were sitting in our stands facing opposite directions, and I didn't really have a good way of getting his attention. Well, I figured if I could knock the first one down, it would give him time to get turned on his stand and get a shot on one. Shooting deer that are being ran from dogs is pretty exciting, cause they are moving out, FAST! I had my 358 Win with 225gr PT's in my little BLR with 4 rounds (this will be important in a few moments)...
So, the first one came through at about 20 yards and I picked her up in the scope and shot her. Dropped that one on the spot. The noise startled my boy and he whirled and shot the next one with his 243, running. The third one had put the afterburners on and was about 40 yards out, well, I planted another 225 on her back side, dropping her, but not killing her. I put another one into her to finish it..
Well, the boys deer was not out either, and he planted another 243 round on the head at about 45-50 yards.. So in about 20 seconds, we had put three does down. My son was shaking so badly I thought he would fall out of his stand if he didn't sit down.
Anyhow, for those who have not hunted over dogs, it is something you have to do before you judge it. It is just a different tradition, like running bears or lions kinda. Brian's club does a 1st class hunt and everybody is pretty danged professional. It is more suited to shotguns with buckshot than rifles, but since a shotgun and me don't go along well, I would rather try my luck with a rifle.
I do have one unaccounted for 358 shell. Not sure which deer it got fired on, but I did fire it. Well, since I grabbed the 358 in the last second before getting into the stand, I only grabbed the magazine and not the rest of the shells. Well, I sat the rest of the morning with the 44! Oh well, we had three deer down anyhow, so I wasn't too worried. But, a lesson I have always tried to tell my son, make sure you have enough rounds, cause you just never know what is going to happen... Well, who was the dummy now?????
After all of the collecting up deer and getting them back up to the truck, we had a field lunch the club brought out. Some hotdogs and beans for the crew. Great lunch and now time for the work and tag call ins.
We started with a field dressing class for my son and my buddy, who has never hunted in the past and never taken a deer, so he wanted to learn and I was all about getting a free field dressing!
Well, once it was all said and done. We hunted in the evening, me with the boy again, and my buddies sitting in their stands. Nothing that I know of was taken in the evening hunt, but it was a great day. We went back and skinned and quartered up the deer, did some autopsy's got the meat loaded to head back home.
I spent the day yesterday cutting and packaging meat.. 3 deer was about all I wanted to do! It turned out well though and look forward to having a little of my son's deer this week. He is about as happy as a kid can get right now.. I am pretty proud myself. Hitting a running or just moving deer is tough and he had enough presence of mind to get it together. Wished we had some recovered bullets, but with my son shooting 100gr PT's and me with 225gr PT's, nothing stayed in the deer! I know, big surprise!
Brian does have a recovered 300gr Ballistic Silvertip from his 45-70 though. Shot into the frontal chest and recovered in the ham. Just stood the deer up and flopped him over. Bullet looks PERFECT... Just goes to show me again, water is a harder media for testing than actual game animals.
It was a great Saturaday and my son claimed a deer. Pretty happy for him and I think the fire is lit. He shot well for the conditions and made it happen. I think he saw where all of the shooting through the Summer prepared him for just about any decent shot he could take.
Oh, you Northern hunters can't make too much fun of the little deer we have down here in Va! I know they don't weigh much more than a quarter or two of your deer, but these are what we have and man oh man, they eat just as well. Just gotta take a few more of them to fill the freezers! Scotty
To be honest, I kinda lost track of time, but I would say it was about 1000 that I saw some deer running on the outside of the hunt clubs property and blazing through alot of thick vegetation. I said dang it to myself as I was dieing for my son to put a shot on a deer. Being it was a doe day, I was allowed to shoot a buck or a doe and my son could shoot either as well.
Anyhow, those deer ran up and out of sight and I settled back into the stand. Just then, I noticed they were hauling butt, right back at my son and I. We were sitting in our stands facing opposite directions, and I didn't really have a good way of getting his attention. Well, I figured if I could knock the first one down, it would give him time to get turned on his stand and get a shot on one. Shooting deer that are being ran from dogs is pretty exciting, cause they are moving out, FAST! I had my 358 Win with 225gr PT's in my little BLR with 4 rounds (this will be important in a few moments)...
So, the first one came through at about 20 yards and I picked her up in the scope and shot her. Dropped that one on the spot. The noise startled my boy and he whirled and shot the next one with his 243, running. The third one had put the afterburners on and was about 40 yards out, well, I planted another 225 on her back side, dropping her, but not killing her. I put another one into her to finish it..
Well, the boys deer was not out either, and he planted another 243 round on the head at about 45-50 yards.. So in about 20 seconds, we had put three does down. My son was shaking so badly I thought he would fall out of his stand if he didn't sit down.
Anyhow, for those who have not hunted over dogs, it is something you have to do before you judge it. It is just a different tradition, like running bears or lions kinda. Brian's club does a 1st class hunt and everybody is pretty danged professional. It is more suited to shotguns with buckshot than rifles, but since a shotgun and me don't go along well, I would rather try my luck with a rifle.
I do have one unaccounted for 358 shell. Not sure which deer it got fired on, but I did fire it. Well, since I grabbed the 358 in the last second before getting into the stand, I only grabbed the magazine and not the rest of the shells. Well, I sat the rest of the morning with the 44! Oh well, we had three deer down anyhow, so I wasn't too worried. But, a lesson I have always tried to tell my son, make sure you have enough rounds, cause you just never know what is going to happen... Well, who was the dummy now?????
After all of the collecting up deer and getting them back up to the truck, we had a field lunch the club brought out. Some hotdogs and beans for the crew. Great lunch and now time for the work and tag call ins.
We started with a field dressing class for my son and my buddy, who has never hunted in the past and never taken a deer, so he wanted to learn and I was all about getting a free field dressing!
Well, once it was all said and done. We hunted in the evening, me with the boy again, and my buddies sitting in their stands. Nothing that I know of was taken in the evening hunt, but it was a great day. We went back and skinned and quartered up the deer, did some autopsy's got the meat loaded to head back home.
I spent the day yesterday cutting and packaging meat.. 3 deer was about all I wanted to do! It turned out well though and look forward to having a little of my son's deer this week. He is about as happy as a kid can get right now.. I am pretty proud myself. Hitting a running or just moving deer is tough and he had enough presence of mind to get it together. Wished we had some recovered bullets, but with my son shooting 100gr PT's and me with 225gr PT's, nothing stayed in the deer! I know, big surprise!
Brian does have a recovered 300gr Ballistic Silvertip from his 45-70 though. Shot into the frontal chest and recovered in the ham. Just stood the deer up and flopped him over. Bullet looks PERFECT... Just goes to show me again, water is a harder media for testing than actual game animals.
It was a great Saturaday and my son claimed a deer. Pretty happy for him and I think the fire is lit. He shot well for the conditions and made it happen. I think he saw where all of the shooting through the Summer prepared him for just about any decent shot he could take.
Oh, you Northern hunters can't make too much fun of the little deer we have down here in Va! I know they don't weigh much more than a quarter or two of your deer, but these are what we have and man oh man, they eat just as well. Just gotta take a few more of them to fill the freezers! Scotty
Those BLR's sure point and handle great don't they, those guys that haven't shot them don't know what they are missing. How did the 225 gr PT do for meat damage and blood shot meat?
