season's open, finally!

[dakotasin]

still coming down from the adrenaline high from this weekend. nothing can quite get the adrenalin peaked quite like a buck hunt can.

spent friday, saturday, and sunday hunting hard. it was hot, then it was rain and snow, then it was cool... weekend culminated w/ a very last minute buck on sunday evening - a 3-point mulie. not huge, but a decent sized critter.

i used:
remington 700 in 300 win mag.
handloads - 165 barnes xlc's, rl-22, fed mag primer, and win cases.
leupold 4.5-14 in talleys.
brunton eterna 10x50 binoculars.
i had the laser w/ me, but didn't need it (bushnell, for the record)
garmin gps.

shot was 150-ish yards, almost straight uphill. broke both shoulders, and deer rolled down to me. this is the first time i've ever had a deer do most of the hard work for me - and i did thank him... 'least, i thought it was awfully nice of him to come on down off the hill!

this hunt was very hard on my gear, and except for my camera, i had no failures. even the new scope came out of this hunt looking like it had spent several hours in a rock quarry!

anyway, just needed to brag a little! join me in my happy dance!
if you are interested in the non-readers digest version (read: long story, details): http://www.baitshopboyz.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9319&PN=1

next season starts for me on saturday. the final season opens for me the saturday after that, so 2 more deer openers. hope they go as well!

 

[bean357]

Congrats, Dakotasin!

I sat out in several rainstorms (even had one good batch of dime sized hail come through), lots of wind.....but it was all worth it!! I got this one on Sunday about 1:30 in the afternoon. I usually try to stay on stand as long as I can-all day if at all possible, and I am a big believer in the middle of the day thing. Believe me, I have had enough people tell me I'm cracked....

Used a Remington 11-87 with a rifled slug barrel, open sights loaded with Winchester 260 grain platinum tip sabots. Our slug season was over yesterday 11-15, but I'll be back out after 'em with the muzzleloader the Saturday after Turkey Day.

 

[bean357]

oh, and please forgive my picture...I forgot my camera, so couldnt get a decent one in the woods:banghead:

 

[dakotasin]

that's a fine looking whitetail! he looks perfectly symmetrical, tall, and wide... appears to have it all! congratulations!
the remainder of my tags are whitetail tags - more public land hunts. until sunday, it had been 3 years since i hunted mulies, and boy! do i miss it!

always amazes me how how big mule deer are - and i always get chuckle out of folks who think a 2 or 3 point mule deer may be a small critter... i was hunting river breaks one year, and busted a beautiful whitetail buck - a nice 4-pointer that i always wish i had mounted. anyway, across the draw from me was a father-son team. kid maybe 12 or 13. i started the drag out, and looked up just in time to see a 2-point mule coming down the draw across from us. i dropped my deer, and sat down, hoping the kid would get a crack at it... sure enough, he whacked that mulie at about 75 yards. i finally got my great whitetail over to where they were, and that 2-point mulie was taller and wider than my whitetail... lol! whaddaya do but laugh, right?

anyway, i think you are spot-on w/ the mid-day movement... i've busted at least as many deer between 11:00 - 2:00 as i have during primetime movement periods. good on ya, having the patience to sit thru all that - can get awfully tough when the weather gets sour!

best of luck w/ the smokepole!

 

[bean357]

Thanks much, Dakota! Yah, it was a rush! He was a 10 pt. I've waited a few years for a good one, and yes it does get to be difficult staying there all day, especially when you are seeing nada...even a bird or squirrel would be entertaining. 3 out of 4 of my largest whitetails were taken from a stand during mid-day, no drives involved whatsoever (that I know of anyway, who knows if someone uninvited decided to wander in) on our property.

This year was the worst I've seen for deer population, though. I say this because I did spend all day(s) in a riverbottom heavily wooded area stand where I would normally be able to see deer moving consistently, especially during morning and evening. Opening day I did not get out of my stand at all, and I saw 10 deer-far under half of what I have seen past years. I believe we have way more coyotes than deer, and I believe they are seriously hurting our deer herds. My husbands party also hunts in riverbottom area close to the LacQuiParle refuge, and they only got 1 for 7. This is unheard of in that area---they also had doe permits. They had coyotes howling alot, even during the day (as did I) , but they managed to shoot 4 of em Yeah!



Hey, that is great that you could help a youngun get a mulie!! I bet he was a happy little dude

 

[dakotasin]

oh, i didn't do anything except tried to not spook the buck. it was he and his dad that did the grunt work of sitting on that hill all day, watching whitetail after whitetail go by (wt's were thick that year, mulies were lean)!

the coyotes are awfully thick here, too. it is not at all unusual for me to find deer remains around coyote tracks - and now that we have snow on the ground, and consecutive days w/ single-digit lows and heavy winds, it looks to me like friday (wind s'posed to die, and s'posed to warm up) is prime coyote dumping time... the 300 win magic is primed, so it should be a good day - last chance to wring out my gear before round 2 begins (river break hunts are something else... right next to where i deer hunt is my favoritest prairie dog town).

 

[bean357]

My hubby said that people in airplanes--piper cubs--were shooting the coyotes from the planes this past year in the Sturgis area, and it appeared as they were from a Government agency. He and my bro were out there gettin' some of the prairie dog action. Do you know anything about them eliminating 'yotes from planes? Might it have been SD game & fish or maybe feds? I sure wish they would do something about them here. Our county tried to implement a bounty, as they are so thick that they are heavily impacting livestock and taking pets, etc, but that did not go through. As for some saying coyotes won't take down a full size deer, I don't buy it, not here. If they get hungry enough and considering the size of some them.....not to mention the now verified wolf sightings

 

[dakotasin]

my in-laws live in sturgis... brother-in-law is headed here (east river) for round 2 opener (be here friday night) - i'll ask him what he knows about it. however...

there's a dog town just outside sturgis that i make it to maybe twice a year, and the guy that owns it also owns an airplane - as do quite a few of the ranchers out there. 2 years ago (i think - might be 3) a rancher was shooting coyotes on his own property using an airplane. gf&p caught him, and i don't recall for sure how much trouble the rancher got in. but, the end result was 1000's and 1000's of acres were yanked from the gf&p's walk-in-area program by that rancher and several others... they were miffed because the coyotes were killing their livestock, and because fur prices were so low, nobody was hunting them. so, the ranchers would go up in their planes over their own land to solve the problem. created a huge problem (law states you cannot shoot anything out of an airplane, period.... ranchers maintained it was their property, and their livelihood, so they not only could, but had a right and obligation to do so).

so... what your husband saw could very well have been ranchers handling their own problem... but, gf&p is also responsive to coyote complaints now, especially west river, so it could have been gf&p trying to prevent a problem - though it is unusual for gf&p to conduct culling operations from the air in the summer - usually done in winter, and usually try trapping first.

as for coyote vs. deer... yes, coyotes take deer routinely, and that includes mature bucks. i've seen it, i've seen evidence of it, and i've tracked coyotes tracking deer... sit out w/ a fawn in distress call or even a doe bleat sometime, and you can call a coyote in.

 

[bean357]

Thanks much for your info.
In all the people I've talked to regarding the deer hunt in the two counties I work in as well as surrounding area, every one mentioned the lack of deer this year, yet most people saw coyotes....
I'd be interested in those plane snipers....and getting them HERE
gotta get some piper snipers

 

[bean357]

and a rancher not being legally allowed to protect his livelihood, well..imo that is just WRONG. Good thing they had the equipment to do it.

I did not mentionthis before, but Dakota, your sig is too cool
it is way more important than that =:-D

 

[PCGS65]

Nice Buck!! Congrats!

 

[MNgoldenbear]

bean357 - Congrats on the nice buck. We're up in Traverse, and the deer were okay this year. Saw lots more than last year, but then nearly all the fields were still in last season. Didn't hear too many complaints about coyotes, but I saw one each morning of opening weekend, and we heard them all the time when we were on a farmsite about 2 miles out of town. Pheasants definitely seem to be doing well, though. Kicked dozens of them up while walking filter strips.

 

[bean357]

Thanks, PCGS65 and MNgoldenbear!

I hunt in Chippewa and Swift Co, and we had the opposite situation with fields in our area -this year they were almost all out. You're correct on those pheasants though! That's my plan for Thanksgiving and the Friday after, then back in the stand with the smoke gun on Saturday.

Dakota, how did you do this opener?