How PC is YOUR Deer Camp?

[ColeK]

I think in my camp they would be mostly acceptance with a slight amount of hazing. 25 years ago or so several of us were shooting in CMP matches and it wasn't at all unusual for one of us to show up with a M1 or a M14 or a M1-A and no one ever said a word. The hazing would be about the noisy safeties or the pee shooting caliber.

 

[Deer Hunter]

Here, we have thick woods

Same here. Texas is a big state, lots of different terrain. I hunt in the thicket and pine forest areas of East Texas. We have a lot of forests with streams rolling through most of them. In East Texas, unless hunting on someone's pasteur, you will be taking mostly short shorts. I hunt in the woods mostly, so my shots are never over 100 yards.

 

[JShirley]

I have ambushed a "deer convoy" before, and fired on at least two deer on several occasions*. I can see occasion for quick repeat shots while hunting.

*with one or more moderators to witness the harvested deer

Bearhands, I might think that thick woods would lead to quick shots and a desire for repeaters. I know I've used fairly rapid (and by "fairly rapid", I mean my Mossberg 500 sounded like a semiauto) shots on running deer.

I've also used AR-15, HK-91, M1 Carbine, 1903, and Remington 700PSS while hunting. The HK-91 I only used once, because it was so cumbersome, a sharp stick would have been more useful. I took the PSS and an almost completely inappropriate round, the 180-grain Winchester SXT, because it was the only expanding .308 I could get my hands on at short notice...and I took the shot on a decent little buck the next day with the buttstock in the middle of my chest, firing one-handed*! My mojo was strong that year.


*the stand had little cover, and I was moving slowly so I wouldn't spook the buck. He ran about 35 meters, and dropped.

John

 

[Bearhands]

JShirley,
I get where you're comin' from.. but where I hunt, the opportunity to shoot at more than one deer during a particular season is not all that common, there are of course exceptions with hunters applying for multiple tags and at times, Buck and Doe seasons overlap. Get caught shooting more than one of the same sex w/out a special "permit/license" and it's deep Ca-Ca. The laws here seem to change every year. It gets very confusing.
The point I was trying to make w/ regard to heavily wooded hunting(smaller plots) is that there are just too many people on *state owned land that hunt for 2 days per year and practice maybe an hour before opening day. These are the scary types to which I referred.

*(pop density is about 277/sq mile in Pa, in Tx it's 91, Ga is 165)

So... back to the original post.... probably 75-80% or more of hunting camps around here would frown on someone bringing a semi-auto to Deer Camp just because it's illegal and punishable if carried, not because they're semi-autos.

 

[bang_bang]

Thankfully semi-auto's are not allowed in PA for hunting. I can't think of anything scarier than a "lead shower" from a high powered rifle.

Why are you hunting on my land again?

Ahh...so, if you dislike the fact that used the term "lead shower," be glad you're not on my land.

If I can use it, I'm going to. Sorry to hear about PA not allowing the cool rifles.

 

[paintballdude902]

i hunt with a bunch of good ol' boys here id probably get somethin along the lines of "look at all that plastic! was it made in china like my kids toys?" all in fun but thenm when i get the biggest deer id really start catching crap "too bad you had to buy that fancy plastic gun with 30 rounds just to hit it once"

 

[jbkebert]

About as advanced as our deer camp gets is front stuffers or single shot rifles. So yes we would give a fair amount of crap to the guy with a black rifle. No one would run them off or be pissed they might just get some heck all in good nature.

That being said just about every gun platform has had its roots as a military firearm. Lever action, bolt guns, even a sharps rifle got there start as once being state of the art military. The black rifles, ak's whatever are starting to gain some acceptance in the hunting world. I can't see why not. They are personally not my style but;they are every bit as able to take game as a bolt gun.

 

[usmc1371]

I would pack an ar10 for deer hunting in a heart beat. I have no doubt i would get some razzing but who cares its NO diffreant than packing simi remy 30-06. Leagle in oregon as long as the mag only holds 5 rounds, 223 is leagle for deer to but i don't much care for shooting varmint size rounds at deer.
I have a friend who elk hunts with a BAR 300 WM seems to kill elk exactly like my bolt 300 wm.
I probably get more crap for being a marine than what gun I carry, I fully intend to pack my cz 550 375 HnH this year in deer camp and it holds 6 rounds in the mag. (I won the rifle last summer in a pellet gun compition and its to nice to hide in the safe and not kill anything with).

I think How the hunter uses the rifle matters a lot more than what it looks like.

 

[mbt2001]

Depends on the camp...

Piece of advice though, IF you take your AK, get a 5rnd or 10 rnd short mag for it. We do raze folks about the Banana clip...

Anti EBR type camp story:

My old man and I went hunting with a "buddy" from work. This "buddy" was an ex-special-forces-marine-hunting-guide-park-ranger type. South Texas Hog hunting and Dove hunting. I showed up with a 12gauge beretta pin tail and an SKS along with my 4" .357 gp100. My old man was outfitted pretty much the same. I mean, in brush country the shots are close and the hogs don't usually get over 300 or so lbs. Anyway, the idiot's kid kept geeking out about the sks... Then the idiot started chiming in.

"SKS was designed to kill soldiers, it won't work on a hog. See, the bullets disintegrate when they hit creating a shaped charge wound channel.... You can't use select fire on the lease, I bet it is against the rules." Blah blah blah, every idiotic rhetorical statement you can imagine came out of this dude, while his Beavis impersonating kid kept giggling... "SKS... he he... Cooool. Hey, let me shoot it, can we stab your dog with the bayonet??? he he, that would be cooooool." twitch twitch

That was the LAST hunt I went on with fuds or whatever you want to call them.

 

[JShirley]

Bearhands, I understand your point. Different places. And I don't hunt with folks who wildly shoot up the countryside.

Hell, I could have taken at least twice as many deer in my first few years hunting as I actually did- I was actually too reluctant to shoot! A couple of years in the infantry cured that, by instilling confidence in my ability to "engage" ( ) deer from other than the stereotypical perfect profile shot.

John

 

[MCgunner]

Well, there's gotta be a reason that the military doesn't issue ARs to snipers, instead they get "Remchesters" and lately, Barretts. Also, you don't see many ARs at benchrest matches.

Still, I hunt with handguns that are less powerful than 7.62x39 and less accurate or at least harder to shoot than an SKS or AK. My Contender is infinitely more accurate than my SKS, but not my revolvers. Depending on terrain, why worry about what the guy is using so long as he can safely and humanely use it, regardless of platform? It ain't the gun, it's the guy behind it. In the gun club I once belonged to, they sent a guy down here to talk to and evaluate me before they let me join. Now, they wanted my money, but they had standards. LOL Anyone who was a spray and pray moron didn't get in if they could figure him out. It didn't take much to convince that guy I was a conscientious sportsman when he saw some of my shooting trophies on the wall and my degree from A&M that says "Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences" in the corner. Guess he figured I was a dedicated sportsman to have wasted 4 years on a worthless degree in wildlife management. LOL!

Anyway, I think, JMHO, that there's probably more baffoons that shoot black rifles than "Remchesters". A guy comes into camp with an AR, you just gotta be suspicious. All my "mall ninja" alarms go off. If he comes into camp with a flintlock .58, I don't get those alarms. LOL Call me biased, don't care. The guy with the AR is going to have to prove to me he's a safe hunter that knows how to shoot. I'm going to figure the guy with the flintlock probably knows how to use it. And, if that AR guy is a kid (under 30 is a kid to me) and if he's from a city, well, more alarms. LOL! Now, I killed my first buck at age 11, but I was a country boy raised by country folk that had hunted their whole lives. I was shooting something nearly every day from the age of 6 when I got my "Red Rider". Now days, there ain't many situations like that, it seems. Some grow up thinkin' the proper way to hold a handgun is sideways. Ain't sayin' he's going to be a boob, just saying until I find out for sure, I'm suspicious. That's what this poll is about, right? That's just how I, one old man, feels about it.

 

[shaggy430]

I don't think anyone in my deer camp would ever say "cool beans" to anything other than some lukewarm pintos.

 

[MCgunner]

Good lord.....WHAT?

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

And why didn't you add to the poll ?; I don't care what you think! I'm using what I feel "right" using!
Maybe you did,and I didn't grasp that?

Different subject altogther. Regardless of what YOUR particular internal or external response might be to the actions and words of the other hunters in camp, this poll and thread addresses ONLY the reaction you would receive from others in camp to your bringing said armament, and covers the entire universe of possibilities (in a general way, at least).

Good lord.....WHAT?

Lol, +1.

 

[Deer Hunter]

Post # 38 needs a translator.

MC, you and I grew up in a fairly simular way, it seems. I got my first buck at age 11 as well. And I hunted with my red rider and killed plenty of birds (If my grandmother only knew...), lizards, etc with it.

Although I'm a bit younger than you are. A big bit.

My experience with other hunters is that I have to watch the guys that have just the generic glossed up hunting rifle. Those are the ones I see violating safety rules.

The hunters with AKs, ARs, SKSs, M1s, as well as guns that look very well used, regardless of type, are the hunters that I have seen, in my own experience, to be the safest.

At my camp, I use EBRs. My dad pulls out his old SKS occasionally, which is what I used to kill my first deer.

 

[3pairs12]

Hardluk not all EBR's are .223 for one. For two some properties need a certian amount of deer taken out of it for heard quality. So if somebody wants to use his EBR with a silencer than more power to him. Not only that I don't think any of us on this board are spray and pray type hunters so lighten up a little.

 

[MCgunner]

Not only that I don't think any of us on this board are spray and pray type hunters so lighten up a little.

I'm not sure how well the net translates impressions, but I don't think, of the folks that post here a lot, I'd worry much about any of 'em regardless of what they're hunting with.

BTW, poster named "Caribou" uses mosins and such. Is that considered an "EBR"? I think of bolt milspec guns as just bolt milspec guns, myself, not really evil to look at. Some of 'em are amazingly accurate, the Mosins, the Swede Mausers in K98s, and such. I've been known to "bubba" a military bolt rifle, because I prefer optics on a rifle for hunting.

 

[41magsnub]

I'm one of the folks who is automatically suspicious of the new guy showing up with an EBR with a big magazine until I get to know them. If they seem cool about it and are not going start having 'Nam flashbacks lighting up a herd of deer then we are cool with it. If the guy shows up in a tactical vest or LBE with a full basic Infantry load out of magazines the eyebrows will definitely go up.

My biggest fear is coming across another guy like I experienced antelope hunting several years ago who needed 2 magazines out of a mini-14 at 150 yards to drop one with at least 5 hits and still had to do a finishing shot. It sounded like WWIII had started, or an A-Team episode with lots of shooting and no hitting (unless it was a tire). Had I had a safe shot to do so I would have put it out of its misery much earlier.

For me personally, I own a standard AR-15 and am not all that comfortable with the .223 round for big eastern MT mule deer hunting so I would never use it under normal circumstances. I keep threatening to take my garand out (even have the adjustable gas plug) but always end up deciding there will be a lot of walking and take a much lighter bolt gun instead. Someday I will use it just to say I shot something with it.

 

[mbt2001]

Honestly, I judge more by the knife than the gun.

That gets a snicker... Southern hospitality says I have to be nice, but certainly can laugh later.

 

[hardluk1]

To much dam much coffee ,re read ,think it's cleaner now. Point is not many want a quick shot, silenced shooter, on a managed piece of property. That type is not a hunter, just a shooter. Don't care the gun type just the hunters ethics behind the hunt. A guy with a single shot can be just as bad. If on property with other people you do not need to shoot a silenced gun so know one can hear you if they are somewhere down range. If you are on a management program then you will be doing the job of thinning the herd all through the season and no one will feel they have to shoot 3 deer at a time. Most people need to look at the deer a while just to deside if it is what your look'n to take not just a deer, so shoot. I have shot deer at a close range and had other deer walk right up to the first and sniff it to see why it went to sleep at 200 yards in the middle of a dirt road. again no silincer needed if a second deer was to be take'n.

 

[mbt2001]

If someone wants to use a silencer, it ain't no different than if he likes silk boxers (provided it is legal), but imo it shouldn't make a bit of difference to anyone. Preference is preference.

 

[CoRoMo]

Thankfully freedom is allowed in Colorado for hunting. Semis are welcome.

Every time I'm in the woods and hear gunfire close by, I don't duck or worry about which direction that fire is coming from. I get ready to intercept fleeing game animals. If I can hear the gunshots, the bullets have already been stopped. Ducking at the sound of gunfire would be silly. If you think the report will reach you before the bullet could, you don't know much about velocities.

 

[Bearhands]

Ducking at the sound of gunfire would be silly.

May be silly for the 1st shot, but maybe not for the 3rd, 4th and 5th

 

[CoRoMo]

May be silly for the 1st shot, but maybe not for the 3rd, 4th and 5th

Are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th shots somehow traveling slower than their respective reports? Or are you able to foretell that another shot will be taken? Eating dirt after hearing gunfire is silly unless you are in a firefight.

 

[frogomatic]

to echo a previous poster...

we don't so much care what you use, how you use it is the important factor. It's the guy behind the trigger that I'm most concerned with, not what's at the end of his trigger finger. (so long as what's at the end of that finger is capable of performing the task at hand)