Ultimately unprepared.

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WestKentucky said:
I will be carrying a shotgun with slugs that I have shot 2 slugs through... before I put the red dot on it. It functions. I bore sighted it tonight, in the dark with 3 kids running around wild. I have hopes that the gun shoots true. I will keep my shots close if I pull the trigger.

The terrain I’m used to hunting is flat, and open. I have hunted woods, but generally I hunt over crop fields or hay fields. This is steep, mountainous, and not at all open. I will just have to adapt.
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Sounds like a sure-fire recipe for disaster/failure.

On the other hand, I love your photos.

Check for sign, find a downwind location, sit and be patient. The deer will move at some point. Just stick it out and be ready AFTER you sight your gun in at 75 yards.
 
569673B6-2899-4CFF-BB94-96CBBA9A264F.jpeg 5535AD42-0BB6-4236-BA99-92B6B8D7D79D.jpeg The saga continues. Got out for a couple hours before church this morning. No luck again on deer, but I did a bit more exploring. If nothing else I found an awesome spot to just sit and watch the world go by, which I did for an hour or so.

The ridge where I park drops off very suddenly with only a couple possible routes up. There’s one way up that deer are clearly using, but I don’t see how they do it as it’s nearly vertical. If I walk the ridge out to the point it does slope off but the last 20 ft vertically will still be tough.
I sat in my buddies blind for a bit and quickly realized that it’s not where I want to be. Sitting on the edge of the bluff was nice, but I saw no critters below.
 
You think you're unprepared? I just moved across the country and most of my ammo, and all of my hunting gear (in woodland camo as opposed to the desert I now live in) is in a storage unit.

I'm not even eligible for resident license/ tags here for another 5 months. Out of state license/tags are a little out of the budget right now, and I missed the lottery for this season already anyways.

I do however have my hunting rifle dialed in, and plenty of the handloads it likes. But even it a 44mag carbine, isn't particularly well suited to the area.

My 308win R700 might be zeroed. I'd have to get it on the range before I could say with any certainty.

So you could have been less prepared. I would have jumped at the opportunity you had. It's nice to just get out there, even when the cards aren't exactly stacked in your favor.
 
My truck daily rifle is zero verified monthly a 243 Rem 788 it never changes but I check if often. Hunt with a handgun will work also.
 
WestKentucky said:
Seriously considering that option, but the slug gun is sighted in now and I think it better to have a repeater than it would be to use the contender for where I’m hunting. As hard of a hike as it is though, light weight is very appealing.
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Sounds like you are blindly passing up quite an opportunity! Allow me to assist, handgun for lightweight convenience, distances not demanding a long gun, need a repeater, sir it is time for a new revolver!!!!
 
horsey300 said:
Sounds like you are blindly passing up quite an opportunity! Allow me to assist, handgun for lightweight convenience, distances not demanding a long gun, need a repeater, sir it is time for a new revolver!!!!
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No, time to finish the ones I have at home. I have a 16” .357 that will very soon be a revolving carbine. I even have a donor stock and grip frame to chop up and make work. That’s been a long term project that just hasn’t moved in a year. Next year I should be hunting with that one in completed form. I need to make a sight base for it which will likely be the toughest part of the build.
 
WestKentucky said:
No, time to finish the ones I have at home. I have a 16” .357 that will very soon be a revolving carbine. I even have a donor stock and grip frame to chop up and make work. That’s been a long term project that just hasn’t moved in a year. Next year I should be hunting with that one in completed form. I need to make a sight base for it which will likely be the toughest part of the build.
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Model?
 
Enjoying the story and pics. Thank for posting. Looks like fun. Enjoy.
 
Oh by the way, here’s today’s pic... best day in the stand I have ever had, and big sister will be tagging along next time I get to run to the farm. I guess I will give my 5 month old a pass for a few years.
8703DA20-E0C6-4462-A4E5-B6E937D384C0.jpeg
My 3 girls mean more to me than anything. I will be there for them and we will do the things that families do. I will support the mother of my kids, and I will not leave mid November and show back up in January. It’s not right and it’s not fair to anybody.
 
@WestKentucky well said, hunting is far down the list in importance to who is sitting next to you in your blind. Society is going downstream fast it’s refreshing to see someone swimming against the current.

Oh by the way cute kid, and by your other posts I assume you adopted her. Well she’s lucky to be out of the system with a dad that prioritizes her. :thumbup:
 
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It’s different all over. Growing up in KY we had a rifle season that was 16 days. Started on a Saturday morning and closed on Sunday evening 2 weeks and 2 days later. That puts hunting on a time crunch. Here in TN rifle season is a month and a half so much less of a time crunch, and as such it’s less of a push to be out all day every day.
 
WestKentucky said:
I’m quite certain that being a father comes before being a hunter, and it’s about damn time that a whole bunch of people in this world
realize it. If you actually run the numbers then the amount of time and money spent to kill a deer usually doesn’t save much over buying beef, so in the end hunting is a hobby. Just like basketball, knitting, or golf, its a leisure activity that you do because you enjoy it. There are far too many people out there that have somehow gotten so twisted about whatever hobby they have that they think it’s more important than doing something with some actual meaning, and they neglect their jobs, their kids, and their families just to be a self centered greedy jerk and sugar coat it by pretending that it’s something more than it is.


Oh by the way, here’s today’s pic... best day in the stand I have ever had, and big sister will be tagging along next time I get to run to the farm. I guess I will give my 5 month old a pass for a few years.
View attachment 959229
My 3 girls mean more to me than anything. I will be there for them and we will do the things that families do. I will support the mother of my kids, and I will not leave mid November and show back up in January. It’s not right and it’s not fair to anybody.
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I grew up hunting religiously, and truly I enjoy being outdoors, especially in a prairie dog town or hunting coyotes, even chasing lopes ain't half bad during the late season, our deer main firearm season is only 1 week, with a 2 week doe season in January (muzzleloader and archery have their dates as well) and realistically, I only only buy tags cuz my kids want to go. I have plenty of beef and eggs on the ranch, I make enough money to pay for groceries, my kids enjoy my fried rabbit and still, deer hunting is not a top priority. My animals and kids come first, then their continued practice at proficiency with firearms and livestock handling.
Edit,
Since Walkalong cleaned things up, I'll rephrase some of this to include congrats to westkentucky on getting the kids out there with ya! That's some great quality time!
 
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Before I got married and had family responsibilities, I was all about living in the woods or on the water when I had off time. I grew up got married and put priorities in order. I shelved hunting for 16 years as my sons vision was not conducive to hunting. We started fishing and chasing football. Last year he said he wanted to try hunting. So as soon as football season was over and he came home for Christmas we started. I don’t push him too much on it and really just enjoy the ride to and from as much as the hunt. We are getting to hunt more this year as the season was only 4 games with the rest to be played in the spring, maybe.
Enjoy the company in the blind and time spent together in and out of the woods. You are on the right track.
 
Just a suggestion but with that old farmstead on the property I would bet my last dollar there is an old overgrown apple orchard near by. If there are apples there will be deer nearby. If you find it move your popup blind to overlook it. Good luck and I sincerely hope one of your children are with you when you tag a deer. Good hunting.
 
9x56MS said:
Just a suggestion but with that old farmstead on the property I would bet my last dollar there is an old overgrown apple orchard near by. If there are apples there will be deer nearby. If you find it move your popup blind to overlook it. Good luck and I sincerely hope one of your children are with you when you tag a deer. Good hunting.
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Your right. There are 6 apple trees on the property, and they are about 10 ft off of the road immediately across the road from a house where kids play in the yard pretty often. Hunting the apples
Is pretty much a no-no
 
9x56MS said:
Just a suggestion but with that old farmstead on the property I would bet my last dollar there is an old overgrown apple orchard near by. If there are apples there will be deer nearby. If you find it move your popup blind to overlook it. Good luck and I sincerely hope one of your children are with you when you tag a deer. Good hunting.
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Since his season ended on Jan 3, odds are it will have to wait till next year.


WestKentucky said:
This is where the fun really began. I knew that there was a couple old buildings on the property and I found the barn. I think I know where the old house is based upon the terrain and the areas I didn’t explore today. Not a big deal for hunting, but it was a neat place. Hand hewn logs mixed with a few logs that had obviously been cut more recently to replace damaged pieces. Right next to a small flowing creek, and curiously there were a couple scraps of very old copper mixed in with the old horseshoes.... maybe not so curiously... looked like an old still site. Really really cool place.
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Years ago, barns were put next to spring fed creeks not only for the water, but for refrigeration. Used to be when farming was done with oxen and horses on small parcels, it was easier to walk them to the flatter land where the small amount of crops were grown, than to carry water to them. Wells were hard to dig in the hills when there is rock underneath and when springs and seeps(as you found out) are common, folks used them for deciding where to homestead instead of how good the land was. The possibility of a still is good, but probably dates to much later than the original farmstead. My son's property is on a site like the one shown. There are numerous flowing artesian wells on his property. It was originally homesteaded during the Civil War and then became almost worthless in the 70s when recreational land was unheard of and farmers needed flat land not prone to high erosion from modern farming practices. A pair of hippies bought it for next to nuttin in the early 70s and lived there without power or a septic system till the husband died 12 years ago, when it came up for sale. Farther down his springs run into the larger creek which is named after a prohibition practice. Pure, clean and cold spring water makes for good distilling.


BTW, West Kentucky....how did hunting go?
 
buck460XVR said:
Since his season ended on Jan 3, odds are it will have to wait till next year.




Years ago, barns were put next to spring fed creeks not only for the water, but for refrigeration. Used to be when farming was done with oxen and horses on small parcels, it was easier to walk them to the flatter land where the small amount of crops were grown, than to carry water to them. Wells were hard to dig in the hills when there is rock underneath and when springs and seeps(as you found out) are common, folks used them for deciding where to homestead instead of how good the land was. The possibility of a still is good, but probably dates to much later than the original farmstead. My son's property is on a site like the one shown. There are numerous flowing artesian wells on his property. It was originally homesteaded during the Civil War and then became almost worthless in the 70s when recreational land was unheard of and farmers needed flat land not prone to high erosion from modern farming practices. A pair of hippies bought it for next to nuttin in the early 70s and lived there without power or a septic system till the husband died 12 years ago, when it came up for sale. Farther down his springs run into the larger creek which is named after a prohibition practice. Pure, clean and cold spring water makes for good distilling.


BTW, West Kentucky....how did hunting go?
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Saw 4 deer. 3 does and a buck. The does kept coming by at the end of season but where they were would be very hard to pack out so I passed. I know it’s the same ones because one of them has a limp. The buck was a little 4 pt. I think I saw another buck once but it could have been him, through really thick stuff I saw antler move and could barely make out the outline of a deer amongst the brush. I’m looking forward to turkey season now. I have no qualms about packing a bird up the ridges, much easier than packing a 100+lb deer.
 
WestKentucky said:
Saw 4 deer. 3 does and a buck. The does kept coming by at the end of season but where they were would be very hard to pack out so I passed. I kn
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You saw more than I did this season, I did manage to tag one, but I passed on the second one, shot I was presented was too risky. Thick brush obscured him and only saw his back half.
 
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