Backyard Deer Stand

[Ej3]

I repurposed part of an old swing set and some deck boards as a deer stand in my backyard. It is about 75 yards to the corn pile, which is near my 100 yd target location when shooting off the bench.



I seem to get plenty of deer, but just not at the right times. It’s like they know exactly when it is outside the legal timeframes and when it is too dark. In SC legal hunting time for deer is the time between one hour before official sunrise until one hour after official sunset. But regardless, I have a Trijicon AccuPoint TR22-1G and for me I can only see about 30-35 minutes max before sunrise and after sunset. I cannot really justify another scope, but it would be nice to have something that gives me another 10-15 minutes.



No deer came out this morning, but I did have a visitor. It is really peaceful in the morning as nature wakes up.

 

[stillquietvoice]

Nice looking place, was it reperpossed as a shooting range first. One question though, Jodi's you get the blue bird to pose for your pic?

 

[alsaqr]

Neat.

 

[Ej3]

I finally got a buck.


I was using a Nosler 165 gr Accubond in .308 Win (COL 2.80”, 42.3 gr IMR 4064, Starline brass, WLR, 22” barrel 1/12 twist, 2610 fps at 59*F).

It was low light, he was initially facing me, turned to my left and started walking. One more second and he would have been behind a tree out of sight. I took the shot. I was aiming for the back elbow. It entered slightly off aim and exited at an angle. Maybe because he was moving. Not much blood. He ran 140 yards before falling. I found the bullet yesterday. I believe hitting the sand deformed it after exiting the deer. I was shooting suppressed and at 6:24 am, and that’s a good thing.

 

[22BR]

Great job of persistence! Hard to beat seeing/hearing nature come alive in the morning (I guess the other 50% of it is actually retiring at the same time!). Suppressed is the way to go ...

 

[Highland Lofts]

Nice deer, I live in Washington State forty miles north of Seattlen one of my friends goes to South Carolina deer hunting every year. They also use feeders. They have the same problem with the deer coming in to early or to late. It would seam they would have timers on some feeders to set when you want the feed dispensed. I would keep moving the morning dump later & later until it releases feed an hour after day light.
The afternon dump I would go the other way so that it dumps the feed an hour or to before dark.

 

[Ru4real]

I seem to get plenty of deer, but just not at the right times. It’s like they know exactly when it is outside the legal timeframes and when it is too dark.

Nice setup!

You can train deer. The technique I’ve used is to place corn mid day, and only enough that the first few deer get it, starting a few weeks before season. I’ve had area deer shift from your situation to one where does were pulling in bucks an hour before end of shooting time.