Hunting Season is fast approaching!

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Zac952
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:37 am

Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by Zac952 »

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I'm getting ready for the season! Saw these two yesterday, they had better be careful if I happen to have a Krag with me in November. I'm planning on using my Krag Carbine for a black bear this fall, September 15th is the start and I'll post a picture if I'm successful. I just think it would be a lot of fun to hunt with this Carbine, although the weather is not very firearm friendly after October early Bear season should be the ticket!

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butlersrangers
Posts: 9827
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by butlersrangers »

Nice looking Bucks! Which State?

Zac952
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:37 am

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by Zac952 »

Northwestern Montana

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butlersrangers
Posts: 9827
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by butlersrangers »

In Michigan, 'Firearm Deer Season' always opens on November 15th. (Archery season starts October 1st and there is a long muzzle-loading season, during the Winter).

November 15th use to be like a holiday with industry, businesses, and school systems making accommodations for vacation demands and absenteeism.

It seems the number of Hunters is declining. I've lost interest, in part from age and neuropathy, friends losing interest, and mainly the loss of our 'Deer Camp'.

I live in a rural, small farm area. Our local white-tail deer tend to be 'compact'. When I see Bucks, they are usually just 'spike or fork-horns'. There are lots and lots of road-kills in the area.

I think there is a definite genetic component to 'Big Bucks' and large 'racks'. Certain Southern Michigan 'big farming' counties and Western Upper Peninsula areas are notorious for producing 'trophy' White-Tails.

I've seen a few nice 'eight-points', but, not offering a good shot opportunity. We don't have Mule-Deer in Michigan.

Some borrowed photos of Michigan Bucks:
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Deer - Iron River.jpg
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Knute1
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Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2016 3:22 am

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by Knute1 »

What method are you using to hunt? What is the lay of the land like where you are hunting?

Montana seems like a good place for hunting. Good luck.

Zac952
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:37 am

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by Zac952 »

Thank you! I only hunt public land in Montana which is very high hunting pressure as of late, our town has quadrupled population in the last 10 years and good hunting has became quite scarce compared to the days when I was just starting. When I first moved out at 18 my then girlfriend now wife bought about 5 pounds of ground beef a year and between our occasional elk and two deer a year, plus you can pick up road kill here with a permit we only ate wild game. Definitely the times of money crunching and wild game saved us tons. Now it's been 2 years for me since a deer, although i have been focusing on elk mainly. Most of my hunting is steep country taking elk tracks once it snows and trying to get a shot, sure alot of miles but with deer I mainly walk game trails and gaited roads. Much of the public land is very dense brush and a shot over 150 yards is uncommon although in Eastern Montana the mule deer shots can be far, my last one was just over 300 yards with my 30-06. The public land genetics are hit or miss with some very large bucks known in certain areas. A couple years ago I shot a 4 by 4 buck, he was about the size of those bucks in BRs top photo and fish and game aged him at only 2.5 years old! But a few years before that my wife got another one about equal size in a different area that they aged at 5.5 years old. So it can be hit or miss, mostly the focus has been elk and my wife likely has more drive than me when it comes to elk, she has a old Remington 722 in 300 savage that was her Dad's first rifle that he shortened the length of pull for her and put on a limbsaver. She was able to get a very nice Cow elk a few years back that she both saw and shot before I even could catch up.

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by FredC »

You all have mighty impressive looking white tails up there. The can not even approach that size near here unless they are on some kind of feeding program on a high fenced ranch.
The white tail population here exploded when the screw worm program was done here to control the little beasts in the mid 60s. Sterile male larvae were released in boxes kicked out of airplanes. Used to see the empty boxes everywhere never saw a fly in one though. Screw worms caused great losses in ag animals also all wild mammals were decimated by them. Ranchers here used to be tough they had to catch new born cattle and pigs and paint their navels with some kind of black tarry stuff to prevent the flies from laying eggs on the open wound. Was that an issue up north?
Now we have an over population problem without the huge losses from the flies and over protection from the game biologists. Even with high protein crops like peanuts growing and the deer hitting it hard they just do not seem to get as large here. The other issue is the summer heat beats us down so we do not feel like eating probably the same effect on deer.

Zac952
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Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:37 am

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by Zac952 »

I have not heard of the screwworms before so I'm unsure if they were a problem here or not, the whitetail deer here are struggling with Chronic Wasting disease as the reintroduction of the wolf and reduction of logging has driven many deer to winter in massive congregations on private land. The logging both cleared up the woods for a lot more grass and feed to come through but in the winter it also gave them a food source as the trees they fell and limbed provided moss that they eat to be within their reach. Now with many of our forests overgrown and many of our logging roads being closed off, the fires get out of control, it is the life of a forest up here to burn and regrow in if left unmanaged as the fire is what opens up the lodgepole pine cones, when they logged they would burn slash piles to help reseed the lodgepole and that started regeneration without massive fires. Mule deer here are another deal with very large antlers, although the meat is not nearly as good. It is more gamey and has larger grain in the meat making it tougher. We usually don't shoot mule deer for this reason although if the season is close to ending I'm more likely to get one.
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Here is a Mule deer I mentioned a post ago

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by FredC »

I saw what I thought were big white tails in snow. My dad used to hunt mule deer in northern Arizona but i am not sure of their range. Seen so few maybe I am not distinguishing them well from white tails.
White tails here are supposed to be genetically the same as the big northern one I see in pictures. Just a lot tougher conditions.
Screw worms were completely eradicated here in the 60s so you can not even find one here now.
Last edited by FredC on Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Zac952
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:37 am

Re: Hunting Season is fast approaching!

Post by Zac952 »

All the above pictures were of whitetails except for my Mule deer picture that I had shot, it does take an eye to distinguish them in pictures but in the field they bound like a antelope, the whitetail up here can be very sizeable but a Mule deer with a spread of 25 inches or more is not uncommon, the 2nd largest whitetail my father killed is pictured here when I was 14 hunting with him. It has a spread of 24 inches
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