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Post by M4Madness on Dec 16, 2023 9:01:28 GMT -5
The hunting section of our local Walmart is pretty slim to begin with, so not really much to clearance. I remember times years ago when I'd score big, but they've learned their lesson and don't over order. Their problem now is they under order and don't even have enough stock for season. I don't recall seeing any treestands or blinds this year.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 16, 2023 8:26:24 GMT -5
Ton of coyote pics overnight at all hours. I get one every few days, but not like last night.
My wife has been sleeping on the couch to avoid Covid, and I just got up to check on her and she's sick. I feel bad for her. I went to bed at 4PM Thursday and got up 20 hours later. I was up for 6 hours and went back to bed at 6PM last night, and am still there. In 64 hours, I've eaten a can of chicken noodle soup, KFC mashed potatoes, and two butterscotch pudding cups.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 15, 2023 17:09:14 GMT -5
6 does in the neighbor's horse pasture.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 14, 2023 15:06:45 GMT -5
Live from the walk-in clinic. I have Covid. Lol! Lucky you. Hope it passes quickly. It's my second time. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 14, 2023 14:55:50 GMT -5
Live from the walk-in clinic. I have Covid. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 13, 2023 6:01:52 GMT -5
Camera activity for me overnight as well. Three antlerless at 11:27 PM and a lone coyote at 2:29 AM.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 12, 2023 18:24:47 GMT -5
My last deer photo was a doe 4 days ago at night.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 12, 2023 16:25:31 GMT -5
Big doe walking around in my neighbor's field as I sit on the couch, so at least one deer is moving somewhere. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 11, 2023 20:43:27 GMT -5
Some interesting material regarding CWD and human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), if you skip past the tough technical jargon: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4484765/They've studied 20-some big game hunters who died of CJD. Mad Cow Disease, correct? Mad cow, CJD, and CWD are all similar diseases, but supposedly separate.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 11, 2023 18:29:11 GMT -5
Some interesting material regarding CWD and human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), if you skip past the tough technical jargon: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4484765/They've studied 20-some big game hunters who died of CJD.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 11, 2023 8:24:19 GMT -5
That's what we are running right now in those two smokeless I posted in the Season Prep thread. Velocity is right at 2400 fps. You fire that in BP or smokeless? Smokeless. A CVA Apex in .45-70 converted by Jeff Hankins. I'm using 56 grains of IMR 4198.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 10, 2023 18:13:42 GMT -5
Forgot to mention that I found my muzzleloading bullet yesterday while field dressing the doe. It passed diagonally through the entire length of the deer from the right front shoulder/neck junction to the inside left rear hindquarter. .40 Hornady bullet in a .45 sabot.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 10, 2023 17:21:04 GMT -5
I killed an 11-pointer on this date last year, and here I sit warm on the couch with a cat on my lap watching a doe out the front window in the neighbor's field. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 10, 2023 11:31:06 GMT -5
I own one and can vouch for its effectiveness. I haven't used it since that snowstorm on the opening day of firearms season last year, but I can state that it does keep me warm. I WAS SKEPTICAL OF THEM FOR YEARS BEFORE PURCHASING ONE AND THOUGHT THEY WERE SNAKE OIL.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 9, 2023 14:28:47 GMT -5
I just pan fried inner loins from my doe last Thursday. I could see myself killing a few more....dang it is good. Bacon grease, salt, pepper, garlic with a touch of Tony's. My buddy is cutting it up himself as I type. He's 56 and retired at probably 40 years old or so. He worked long hours and banked his cash, along with building a house for profit. He has 21 acres that was paid off when he quit work. He bought a cheap house trailer and had it put in way back there 500 yards off the road. He threw a woodstove in it and says his electric bills never exceed $45/mo. He chooses the hermit life and claims he lives on $10K a year. He's happy with a TV antenna and puttering around walking his dog on the property. He wanted a deer because meat has become so expensive. I admire the guy because he walked away from work and society, and doesn't desire material possessions. His younger brother is a millionaire and his elderly parents are both extremely well off financially.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 9, 2023 13:29:00 GMT -5
Back to buck hunting tomorrow. That was the only doe dying by my hand this season. And if it had been on the farms I hunt, it'd still be alive too. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 9, 2023 12:16:01 GMT -5
Had three does come in below me on the wooded ridge in a steady rain. The angle of the shot required me to kneel on the base section of my climber and rest the muzzleloader on the seat section side rail for support. It was brushy and the only shot I had before they headed to thick bedding cover on the neighboring property was a quartering to shot on the largest one at around 75 yards. I put the crosshairs where the right shoulder and neck meet and it was all over for her at 9:05 AM.
My buddy wanted me to get him a deer and was gracious enough to let me hunt his 10-acre woodlot, so I obliged by killing him one. 🙂
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 9, 2023 7:39:33 GMT -5
Just had my first visitor -- a year and a half buck just walked in front of me at 20 yards. He eventually walked right into my wind stream and didn't even spook. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 7, 2023 11:46:16 GMT -5
I retired in August 1995... I thought "Oh boy! I can hunt every day from now on!" I tried to do just that. I hunted dang near every day. One early December sitting in my stand with a howling wind, 20 degree temps and frozen rain hitting me in the face I came to the realization that I had made hunting into work. I climbed down and went home. Since then I only hunt when I really want to. I sit out the rainy days, the extreme cold days and days I would just as soon stay home. I don't know how many deer I've killed, but I do know one thing - I don't NEED to kill another one. I might have hunted 10 sits in each of last season and this season and that's OK.. I really do believe that IF my grown grandson had not taken up deer hunting I would have probably quit by now. All my old hunting buddies have passed on and it is nowhere near the same. Many a times it is just me hunting my area. I've got friends I can call if I need help tracking and getting one out, and I appreciate that. The comradery and fellowship of fellow hunters is a VERY important part of the hunt. I miss that immensely...BUT I do live through that with this site. It's not face to face but it's still fellowship. I thank all of you for being such a great part of this site. Well said, Woody. You retired the year I began hunting. Lol! Like you, I miss the early days of my hunting career when friends would come over to the house the eve before the firearms opener and we'd eat snacks and watch hunting VHS tapes like the "Monster Buck" series. We'd dream about big bucks, but were happy to put a slug in the first deer we saw the next morning. We'd all climb down and give up our hunts to help recover a deer -- we all had those Motorola radios with a few miles range. We'd eat lunch at a local restaurant and hang out around truck beds at the check station. Lots of changes since then. Nowadays, I hunt alone. No one to spur me to get out of bed when I just feel blah. My wife is the only one involved in my deer recoveries. I check them in online, then drive them to the processor.
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Post by M4Madness on Dec 7, 2023 6:37:17 GMT -5
I started deer hunting in 1995 at the age of 27, so this is my 29th season. I used to hunt practically every day of season -- after work and weekends. I averaged four deer a year for the first 20 seasons. It's all I thought about. I'd count down the days on a calendar at work like a kid would leading up until Christmas.
You know what? I grew tired of the whole thing. Call it "burnout" if you like. Hunting went from being fun to being a chore. I've killed a lot more good bucks than I deserve (close to 20 shoulder mounts in my home), and felt pressured to keep that up. I had permission to hunt around 2000 acres of private ground surrounding my home.
Times change, people change. Deer hunting has become so trophy oriented that it no longer resembles what got my excited about hunting in the first place. Kids are being raised to believe there's shame in shooting average deer. Parents justify it by saying, "We're teaching our kids to be selective and let the herd mature", while in reality all they are doing is serving their own egos and taking the fun out of hunting. Obviously not all parents do this, but it's definitely more prevalent than when I was introduced into hunting. I gave up Facebook 5 or 6 years ago, and I don't regret it. Friends still send me screenshots of deer hunting pages, and it's the same old crap -- everyone talking down to each other -- the usual separation of hunting groups.
Today, I could care less if I even kill a deer. I used to be a hardcore bow hunter, and went the last five years without hunting archery season. Heck, two of those years I didn't even bother shooting a single deer. I haven't killed a deer this year (even though I've had dozens of opportunities), and I could care less. I may shoot a doe for a friend in muzzleloader season, but if the deer were for me, I probably wouldn't even bother.
I'm trying hard to regain the excitement of deer hunting. I really am. I even did something this year that I vowed I'd never do -- I bought a crossbow. I took my first November vacation from work just to hunt the rut. I've never taken off work to hunt. Still, with each passing day, I feel less and less like sitting in a stand. Make firearms season 5 days and put it the week of Christmas if you want. I won't lose any sleep over it. Ah, I feel much better getting this off my chest. Lol!
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