Where you hunt how you hunt and what you use.

[H&Hhunter]

I do a lot of hunting in different terrain for different critters but for this thread I’ll limit it to my most common rifle hunts, I also hunt archery and muzzle loader so if you’re not a rifle hunter please feel free to include stick and string or muzzle stuffer etc.

My average mule deer, elk or antelope hunt is conducted in the in the Rocky Mountain region of the west, either in the mountains or in the high desert country that surrounds the mountains primarily on public, BLM or Forest Service land with the occasional big western 20,000 acre plus private ranch thrown in.
We don’t hunt in square acres we hunt in terms of square miles in a day. The thought of hunting a 40 acre plot of anything is completely foreign to me. Our primary method of hunting is to cover ground and glass, either on foot, horse or vehicle. An average day on foot will be 8+ miles walked, horse 10 to 20 miles and depending on the area it wouldn’t be unusual to do 40 to 70 miles in a day in a truck and never see the same place twice.

Once a critter is spotted a stalk is planned to get to a useable in range shooting location for the shot. Shot range can vary wildly but if you want to have better than average success on any of the species mentioned above in my country the ability to confidently hit the vitals at 450 yards should not be a problem for you or you’re rifle/scope set up.

Rifles used, I have a pile of them, however when I’m serious about killing a critter I generally grab one of three primarily. The most often used now days is a Steyr Scout with a 22” medium weight barrel, in .308 topped with a NF 2.5x10, I shoot 165 Gr Nosler Accubonds out of it. I’ve lost track of the number of deer and elk I’ve killed with it. Next up is custom built Model 70 chambered in .270 Weatherby Magnum, it’s topped with a Leupold VX-5 3x15. This rig tends to be my open country Antelope and deer rig. It also has many notches on its recoil pad. I‘ve printed 3” 5 shot groups at 600 yards with this rifle on several occasions. The rifle I’ve killed the most elk and everything else with is a Winchester Model 70 in .375H&H. It’s currently topped with a Leupold VX-6 in 1X6.

The .375 is the rifle I want in my hands when cruising dark timber for elk. It’ll put a 270gr LRX stem to stern on an elk, it’s fast handling for snap shots and perfectly capable of dropping them at 400+ yards too. I can get away with snap shots on big critters like elk or moose with a .375 that wouldn't try with a .308/.30-06. The crazy thing about a .375 is with a .270 Gr bullet such as the Barnes LRX it’s got the same exact same drop as a 308 Win or an 06 with a 165 or 180 Gr bullet respectively. It’s also world renowned for deep straight line penetration. I shot a big bull moose with it several years ago with a frontal shot at 260 ish yards. The bullet penetrated the thick muscles under the spine, heart, lungs, gut and stopped in the skin of its rump. That’s some no kidding deep penetration.

I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking that shot with a .308 and probably not even with a .300 with a 180 Gr bullet. It wouldn't even occur to me not to take that shot with my .375. I have ultimate confidence in that rifle and caliber.

That is the quick and dirty on what my average hunt looks like.

 

[red rick]

I deer hunt from a tree stand , or climbing stand during muzzleloader season . I live and hunt in a shotgun only county for deer . I use to belong to a hunting club and we run deer with hounds and pick a stand to sit at . I use to have some ladder stands setup and I also use my climbing stand . Sit and listen to the hounds and watch for a deer to come running by .

I moved 5 years ago and built a house on my land , now I just listen when other clubs hounds come on to my property and go sit where I think they might cross .

Deer season ended Saturday , so now I will be rabbit hunting with my and my nephews beagles . I enjoy rabbit hunting more now than deer hunting where I live . I don’t shoot rabbits on my property , I save them to run my dogs all year long . We have several friends that own big properties and they don’t have rabbit dogs and like to rabbit hunt so we get invited to hunt their property . We usually start rabbit hunting after deer season because they deer hunt , or lease their land to a deer hunting club . We have from today until the end of February to rabbit hunt .

 

[Show Me]

Way more exciting than sitting in the same deer woods , on the same 50 ac for the last 37 years. Buck , doe and alternative season.
Easy to get out two long weekends each.
That would be 666 days hunting. Good lord the stories. Plus a lot of non stories.
My family , her family. Our girls , their kids , husband's but most notably I have two ex son inlaws that are my hunting companions from way back.
The craziest is more often than not we sit in my biggest shack during alternative season eating tiny chocolate donuts, drinking coffee , freezing waiting for some poor deer to swing by and see it disappear in a cloud of smoke.
This was the last weekend. Freezing rain , sleet , blowing powdery snow.
Three bags of donuts, three thermos of Folgers. Muzzleloaders, 45 , 50 pellet and my TC Hawkins 50. A .357 , 44 mag single shot and my G 40.
The three antlerless came nibbling on buck brush berries. Facing west with a north wind they never had a clue. 35 yds at the closest point. After they wandered away we went back to visiting. Chicken stew for lunch and they shot my Garands out the back of the barn . Season over but the ex son inlaws are always a good time. If I had shot one they would have told me to get out of the way and gutted it in just a few.
This isn't what you probably wanted but it's a slow night and I have a snow day tomorrow.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I've hunted with a bit of everything, modern rifle, archery and muzzle loader. Now it's just me and my Jeager for the most part, maybe one day per season I'll take one of my others (MLs) out, or maybe the bow, but mostly now it's me and Brown Rosie, the Rose of Alabama. Last thing I shot with a modern rifle was a cougar with a .30WCF, and it was just a fluke that I took it instead of Rosie.

How I hunt, I just sneak around and hope to get a shot, sit down a lot, have some ground blinds here and there, and don't care if I do or not. I hunt up North, Northeastern corner of Washington state, on the Canadian and Idaho borders. Rugged remote country, I like to leave camp early morning, and not come back until it's getting dark or dusk. Since the introduction of the wolves, I have had a very low success rate, they have decimated the elk and deer, and exterminated a Woodland Caribou herd we had up there. But I love wandering those mountains. It's wild, and the GMU I hunt (GMU113) has a grizzly recovery area in it. (Harvey Creek Recovery Unit) (or "area" I forget) (google it!!!)

I did start hunting cougar, calling them in, and have got one. Been thinking of trying for another. One day when calling cougar I called in two wolves. !!! And I did get a bear not too long ago.

Close to home I hunt some fairly good state land, but wasting disease has decimated the deer, so it's 3-point or better on the deer. No doe tags anymore. But again, to wander the woods is worth it for me to hunt, and I won't shoot anything staying home. And it's two miles from my house. However, I have not seen a buck deer on the state land for years. A doe now and then. We have lots of Elk, but they know how to stay off the state lands during hunting season and stick to private land or the wildlife refuge. One of these days I'll get one, they randomly wander back onto the state land sometimes during season, or cross over it. And it's an "any elk" season, I can shoot a bull or cow, which is encouraging. We are crawling with moose here where I live, but they only give out a few moose tags per year, and never in my GMU yet. We have to sometimes chase them off our property. They kill my willow bushes and are not safe to have around. And I sure don't like running into the bulls when hunting. I'd rather see a Grizz.

What I use. Old Brown Rosie, Rose of Alabama. .600" ball and 110 grains of pixie dust. This rifle has NEVER miss fired/failed to fire from the first time I ever shot it. Yes, a flintlock can be that reliable.

 

[AWS]

I hunt coyotes and other predators, calling them a few different rifles and shotguns depending on cover and terrain. Duck hunt over decoys, Husqvarna 51 hammer 12ga. Quail, walk them up around strock tanks, 125 yr old French 16ga sxs.

 

[Jack Ryan]

White tails, turkey, coyote. I like to use a climbing tree stand but I think my knees are trying to tell me I'm to old for that. Last deer I killed, I carried a lawn chair and a piece of burlap out to the woods and shot one in about ten minutes. Shot it with my NEF single shot, 44 mag, used my own cast bullets. One shot, through the heart. Called home for my wife to get out the lawn mower and wagon to come carry it home. Only had to drag it about 40-50 yards to the trail.

 

[Wolfshead]

My favorite way is to still hunt the public lands near me.
I’m in the northeast and hunt whitetails.
I would love to track, but we just don’t get much snow where I’m at during the season any more.
Primarily a rifle hunter.
I can’t bow hunt anymore, as I can’t draw one back because of a bad shoulder.
Don't really like muzzle loader (to me it’s just a PITA).
A typic hunt would be getting out of the vehicle in the dark, get geared up, and walking in just as it starts getting light.
I will spend the day still hunting through areas looking for deer and sign. I might cover a half mile in the first half of the day.
If I see a place where I feel (hope) a Buck might pass through I may sit for a while, and maybe do some calling.
I’ll bring something to eat for lunch and usually while I’ve found an ambush spot. Then I may call it a day and go home or I’ll continue from there still hunting to the evening and find a nice spot to sit ambush at dusk.
I usually hunt mostly with my Tikka .308, but this season I carried my model 94 the most. I actually picked up the Tikka to replace the 94 as my eyes are aging. The Tikka is scoped while the 94 is not.
We also sit some ag fields and there I can take either a Buck or a Doe.

 

[Ranger99]

I've used everything to take wt deer
and swine except a spear, and I'd
like to do that while I'm able.
Haven't hunted much of anything
that can be hunted afoot in a while.
The region where I've been hunting
you'll have to use your head to find
a well used trail and park yourself
for a while. The wary deer can keep
75-100 yards of thick brush and briars
between you and them blowing all
the while.
Used to get to hunt to the far west
and south of here where you could
have shots out to a couple hundred
yards or more, but that's not been
available for some years now.
Most of what I can access is 150
at the most. The accessible hunting
areas have become increasingly
crowded with the influx of
out-of-staters. People like me have
to adapt and change the way things
are done. One thing I can say for
sure about this area is that if you
want to see animals, you have to
be outside with them. They're out
in the weather 24/7 and you have to
be out with them if you want to take
any meat. Can't do it from the couch.
Need a proven method in hand and
stay alert, and not be napping or
reading a book or diddling with a phone.
I've got to where I prefer a firearm
that has a good sized hole in the end
since the projectile is already "expanded"
and helps drain much like a good
broadhead arrow. The archery and
B.P. muzzleloaders are already proven
tools used for centuries.
There's times I've been pretty uncomfortable out in the weather, but
that's what I had to do to be able to
take an animal.

 

[7mmRLC]

I've hunted several of the western states in my hunting adventures. Mainly deer and elk on public land up until the last few yrs. Myself and hunting partner have started booking with an outfitter in S CO for deer and elk. So he leases a private ranch with several thousand ac's that's surrounded by BLM. We travel the ranch in either a utv or trucks and glass from various points and if spot something we like then plan a stalk. I have some mobility issues nowadays so strapping on the day pack and heading to the next ridge is now behind me. But I enjoy still being out in god's country. I use to carry a 7mm mag as my primary hunting rifle. But I've used several different rifles at times. Now days my main one is a Rem Mod 7 in 270 wsm. Or for an antelope hunt i'm planning on this fall I may use my WBY Vanguard in 25-06.
Last night the wife and I had venison back straps for dinner seared in a cast iron skillet with a little salt and garlic powder.

 

[hq]

These days mainly roe and whitetail deer in southern Finland, within around 100 miles where I live. Most commonly, make that 100 yards, as I live smack in the middle of densest deer populations in the continent and I have a platform feeder and a 1300lb haybale within a spitting distance of my door. Seeing a dozen a day the year around isn't uncommon. I usually have a Mini 30 and a loaded magazine in a safe near the front door if an unexpected opportunity shows up but when I hunt on purpose, in a treestand or elsewhere, it's with a slightly customized Remington R-25 in .308 with a 4-12x50 Meopta scope.

On the other hand I like to hunt moose and bear in central and northern Finland. Usually 2-3 trips every year. While I usually carry the aforementioned Remington, I've had better luck with a Remington 7600 Carbine in .35 Whelen. It's much lighter to lug around and packs a bit more punch. Now that I've given the Marlin 1895XLR to my (left-handed) son, it has quickly become my go-to rifle for NDG of all sizes and DG up to brown bear. I'd love a 742 or 750 rechambered in 9.3x62 but as gun laws have gone down the toilet during last few years, I can't be bothered to buy another semiauto as it'd mean I have to document my hunting activities and report them to police or the permit will be revoked.

I've hunted in quite a few countries during my lifetime. Mainly northern, central and southern Europe but also southern Africa. I currently don't have time for multiple trips every year and I've skipped the once common red stag / fallow deer / wild boar hunts to Estonia and Hungary, monterias in Spain and all of Africa for quite a few years now. There isn't much I haven't seen and what's left of my "bucket list" mainly consists of mountain sheep, big cats and musk. As well as pronghorn, blacktail and elk in the US. I had a custom Weatherby Mark V built for me in 00's, in .375H&H, and even though it's seen some action with red deer and moose, it's been gathering too much dust over the years.

But... my real love in hunting? Northern grouse hunts. Capercaillie, black grouse, willow grouse and hazel grouse. A metric crapload of walking in pretty much the worst terrain you can imagine. Swamps, bogs, fells, "rakka" (endless fields rocks the size of small cars), gorges, streams... you name it, it's there, and everything freezes over after mid-October. 10-12 hours of walking in this mess every day. I've had trained gun dogs that have made things a bit easier but not a functional one right now, which means that when you hear a grouse take off, you have 2-3 seconds to pinpoint its location, raise the shotgun and take a shot or it'll be gone. And it you miss the shot, it may well be that you won't see the next during the next 2-4 hours of walking.

Grouse hunting is called an excercise in frustration and northern grouse are pretty much the ultimate. And I LOVE IT. Formerly 3+ weeks a year, recently only one or so. I prefer the Benelli Centro Supersport for this. It's very light to carry, quick to point and even with a 28" barrel it's nimble. Perfect for the job. I also have a few roughly similar shotguns (Beretta 1201F, Stoeger M2000, Benelli M3...) for this, as well as SxS and O/U, but none are quite as lightweight as the Centro SS. The recoil with 12/76 2oz magnum shotshells is brutal so I've settled for the fastest 1 1/4oz #5 ones I've been able to find, by shooting everything through a Chrony and choosing by a combination of shot pattern and speed with the very shotgun I hunt with.

I have access to some seaside marshland for waterfowling but I don't do it anymore. It's mainly because ducks and geese require a lengthy stewing for tenderizing the meat and when you have a backpack full of mallards it automatically means endless of hours of cooking.

Varmints? Heck, yeah. Raccoon dogs, badgers and minks can be trapped but I kind of enjoy sitting in a treestand with beer in the cooler, glassing the surroundings with a thermal scope and letting anything that raises its head have it. With pretty much any rifle I happen to grab from the safes; AR:s, AK:s, Sako bolt action (.243 loaded hot with Barnes 62gr Varmint Grenades make things gory), Ruger Deerfield, Marlin 1894, anything, and if it's warm and I want to avoid using earplugs or muffs, a suppressed .22 rifle or pistol. I've stopped shooting foxes lately, one of our dogs is a Canaan, she looks like a white giant fox and loves to play with the (semi-domesticated) foxes that live nearby. So let them harvest the mice, moles and other rodents.

Now that one of our daughters has moved to Texas I'd love an opportunity to finally hunt somewhere in the US. She doesn't hunt so she isn't of much help and I'll be busy with our company for the next 2-3 years but I'm keeping my eyes open. I've missed a few invitations, whitetail hunts in Wisconsin and, most regrettably, a ruffed grouse hunt in Oregon. The CEO of one of our clients was thrilled that someone else besides him is seriously into grouse hunting but I was on a tight schedule and couldn't postpone my flight.

All in all I consider myself a "foodchain" hunter. But I certainly never turn down an opportunity for a nice trophy either, that's just not a priority.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I hunt the lazy way.
The only medium sized game I hunt is whitetail, and that is done from a box stand, most of the time over a pile of corn or rice bran.
I haven't killed nearly as many deer as many folks have (25-30), but most of them have either been shot with a Weatherby Vanguard in .30-06 topped with a Leupold Rifleman, or a muzzleloader. There have been a few sprinkled in with a .243 Win or a .280 Rem.

I have never hunted as you describe and cannot imagine covering that much ground (or even having that much ground to cover).
Here if you don't own private land you have two options, join a hunting lease or hunt public land. I refuse to hunt public land because of all of the horror stories you hear each year about dealing with other hunters. So I am a member of a club where we lease 3,900ish acres from a timber company. We have our own spots that are ours and no one can hunt them without prior permission.

It's not ideal, but I don't deal with idiots (usually), and it gets me out enjoying nature. And sometimes the great spirit smiles on me and I get to take a deer home to eat.

 

[H&Hhunter]

These days mainly roe and whitetail deer in southern Finland, within around 100 miles where I live. Most commonly, make that 100 yards, as I live smack in the middle of densest deer populations in the continent and I have a platform feeder and a 1300lb haybale within a spitting distance of my door. Seeing a dozen a day the year around isn't uncommon. I usually have a Mini 30 and a loaded magazine in a safe near the front door if an unexpected opportunity shows up but when I hunt on purpose, in a treestand or elsewhere, it's with a slightly customized Remington R-25 in .308 with a 4-12x50 Meopta scope.

On the other hand I like to hunt moose and bear in central and northern Finland. Usually 2-3 trips every year. While I usually carry the aforementioned Remington, I've had better luck with a Remington 7600 Carbine in .35 Whelen. It's much lighter to lug around and packs a bit more punch. Now that I've given the Marlin 1895XLR to my (left-handed) son, it has quickly become my go-to rifle for NDG of all sizes and DG up to brown bear. I'd love a 742 or 750 rechambered in 9.3x62 but as gun laws have gone down the toilet during last few years, I can't be bothered to buy another semiauto as it'd mean I have to document my hunting activities and report them to police or the permit will be revoked.

I've hunted in quite a few countries during my lifetime. Mainly northern, central and southern Europe but also southern Africa. I currently don't have time for multiple trips every year and I've skipped the once common red stag / fallow deer / wild boar hunts to Estonia and Hungary, monterias in Spain and all of Africa for quite a few years now. There isn't much I haven't seen and what's left of my "bucket list" mainly consists of mountain sheep, big cats and musk. As well as pronghorn, blacktail and elk in the US. I had a custom Weatherby Mark V built for me in 00's, in .375H&H, and even though it's seen some action with red deer and moose, it's been gathering too much dust over the years.

But... my real love in hunting? Northern grouse hunts. Capercaillie, black grouse, willow grouse and hazel grouse. A metric crapload of walking in pretty much the worst terrain you can imagine. Swamps, bogs, fells, "rakka" (endless fields rocks the size of small cars), gorges, streams... you name it, it's there, and everything freezes over after mid-October. 10-12 hours of walking in this mess every day. I've had trained gun dogs that have made things a bit easier but not a functional one right now, which means that when you hear a grouse take off, you have 2-3 seconds to pinpoint its location, raise the shotgun and take a shot or it'll be gone. And it you miss the shot, it may well be that you won't see the next during the next 2-4 hours of walking.

Grouse hunting is called an excercise in frustration and northern grouse are pretty much the ultimate. And I LOVE IT. Formerly 3+ weeks a year, recently only one or so. I prefer the Benelli Centro Supersport for this. It's very light to carry, quick to point and even with a 28" barrel it's nimble. Perfect for the job. I also have a few roughly similar shotguns (Beretta 1201F, Stoeger M2000, Benelli M3...) for this, as well as SxS and O/U, but none are quite as lightweight as the Centro SS. The recoil with 12/76 2oz magnum shotshells is brutal so I've settled for the fastest 1 1/4oz #5 ones I've been able to find, by shooting everything through a Chrony and choosing by a combination of shot pattern and speed with the very shotgun I hunt with.

I have access to some seaside marshland for waterfowling but I don't do it anymore. It's mainly because ducks and geese require a lengthy stewing for tenderizing the meat and when you have a backpack full of mallards it automatically means endless of hours of cooking.

Varmints? Heck, yeah. Raccoon dogs, badgers and minks can be trapped but I kind of enjoy sitting in a treestand with beer in the cooler, glassing the surroundings with a thermal scope and letting anything that raises its head have it. With pretty much any rifle I happen to grab from the safes; AR:s, AK:s, Sako bolt action (.243 loaded hot with Barnes 62gr Varmint Grenades make things gory), Ruger Deerfield, Marlin 1894, anything, and if it's warm and I want to avoid using earplugs or muffs, a suppressed .22 rifle or pistol. I've stopped shooting foxes lately, one of our dogs is a Canaan, she looks like a white giant fox and loves to play with the (semi-domesticated) foxes that live nearby. So let them harvest the mice, moles and other rodents.

Now that one of our daughters has moved to Texas I'd love an opportunity to finally hunt somewhere in the US. She doesn't hunt so she isn't of much help and I'll be busy with our company for the next 2-3 years but I'm keeping my eyes open. I've missed a few invitations, whitetail hunts in Wisconsin and, most regrettably, a ruffed grouse hunt in Oregon. The CEO of one of our clients was thrilled that someone else besides him is seriously into grouse hunting but I was on a tight schedule and couldn't postpone my flight.

All in all I consider myself a "foodchain" hunter. But I certainly never turn down an opportunity for a nice trophy either, that's just not a priority.

I find your post fascinating!

I’ve got a couple questions if you don’t mind.

You say you hunt whitetail deer? Is this the same species of whitetail that we have in the Americas? I can’t imagine that it is.

Also what is a “raccoon dog”?

I have no idea of the gun laws in Finland can you give us a quick overview?

I am really enjoying all these posts, it is good to see how others hunt around the country and the around the world.

 

[Armored farmer]

Where i hunt is the breaks of a small river that runs through our open farm country. The only timber is the small tracts near the river, that are too rough to farm.

The year begins with turkey hunting.
Our turkey population swings wildly for good years and bad years... On the years that our little river floods the bottomland during spring rains, the population drops with the destruction of nests. The last few years have been good, and we have turkey and deer out our ears!.


In 2014 I bought a tract of farmland that included 40a of timber. There i built a small cabin hunting blind. I go there the evening before opening day of deer season, spend the night, and wake up hunting. Since I have had my cabin, I have taken a nice 8pt or better on the opening weekends. Thus is my goal to put a nice buck in my freezer for the years venison supply. I have killed trophy bucks and have the mounts to prove it. My sons are into trophy deer, and I am not. If o e offers himself to my 45-70Handi-Rifle then of course, ill take him. I like getting my deer early on. Having the time and nice weather to properly care for the meat.

After tagging a deer, I have taken to waterfowl hunting lately. We have spent some exciting days in duck and goose blinds from Reelfoot, Tennessee to chitek lake Saskatchewan. My #1 son is big into waterfowlhunting and has a great dog and a nice boat and I enjoy tagging along.

 

[Armored farmer]

In addition to my post above, it would be a crime if I didnt mention another favorite hunting season of mine. One that doesn't require a permit or special clothing, gun, or gear. It does provide some of the most tasteful bounty of all.
It happens in April, often concurrent with turkey season. One of my favorite hunts of the year........

 

[hq]

I find your post fascinating!

I’ve got a couple questions if you don’t mind.

You say you hunt whitetail deer? Is this the same species of whitetail that we have in the Americas? I can’t imagine that it is.

Also what is a “raccoon dog”?

I have no idea of the gun laws in Finland can you give us a quick overview?

I am really enjoying all these posts, it is good to see how others hunt around the country and the around the world.

Thanks.

Whitetail deer is an introduced species in Finland, courtesy of finns emigrated to the US in 19th century - in early 20th century they got this great idea that what's needed is whitetail deer in Finland and shipped over a bunch of them, in at least two batches. The rest is history, there are at least a hundred thousand of them around now.

Racoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_raccoon_dog) is another introduced species, mainly a pest from the far east. A real pain in the you know where, especially to nesting waterfowl and small game. Nice fur but a toxic character. My son wiped out a whole litter on our yard last spring and now there have been quite a bit fewer sightings lately.

The gun laws in Finland used to be GREAT until late 00's. You had to apply for a permit each time you bought a gun but with proper paperwork pretty much anything was possible. The best feature was registering yourself as a collector and filing a plan. Once you got approved, anything in the plan was ok - modern machine guns of any type or manufacture date, launchers of any kind, even artillery. Heck, I've seen a licensed ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILE SYSTEM in private hands. After two hardcore lefties were promoted to "modernize" the gun laws around that time, everything went south in a few years. Two years of "supervised practise" at a certified range required for handgun purchases, requirement to document your gun use every five years if you have a handgun permit issued after June 2011 or a semiautomatic firearm permit of any kind issued after 2018-ish (can't remember the exact cutoff date). No more 10+ round magazines for newer gun permits and you need a gun permit to purchase a suppressor.

Fortunately everything earlier was grandfathered so I'm safe. So is my oldest son, who managed to get a bunch of fun stuff before everything changed, including but not limited to an actual FEG AK55 and some AR:s, with a permit to buy normal capacity mags. His application for handgun permits in spring 2011 were rejected on a bs excuse so he'll have to jump through hoops with pistols and revolvers. The unofficial bs excuses are numerous, you'll pay more than €100 for a permit and it can be denied easily. A proper police state, thanks to progressive politicians and EU directives.

As a result unlicenced, illegal firearms have become a phenomenon like everywhere where draconian gun laws have been enacted. In the 90's they were rare because you could get a permit for just about anything as long as you didn't have a criminal record and provided a letter of recommendation from two existing licensed gun owners. And people were on their best behavior to maintain the ability to buy guns. Not so much anymore.

 

[courtgreene]

This is the best reading I’ve had in a while

 

[red rick]

In addition to my post above, it would be a crime if I didnt mention another favorite hunting season of mine. One that doesn't require a permit or special clothing, gun, or gear. It does provide some of the most tasteful bounty of all.
It happens in April, often concurrent with turkey season. One of my favorite hunts of the year........View attachment 1244920View attachment 1244921View attachment 1244922View attachment 1244923View attachment 1244924View attachment 1244925View attachment 1244926View attachment 1244927View attachment 1244928View attachment 1244929

What is it ? I can’t see it that good on my phone .

 

[Armored farmer]

What is it ? I can’t see it that good on my phone .

Morel mushrooms

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Grouse hunting is called an excercise in frustration and northern grouse are pretty much the ultimate.

Oh yes, I'm a grouse addict. But to make it even worse, that's what I've dedicated my bow-hunting to. I often see them on the ground, but have not got one yet. I've missed one yet, but not by much. !! A dog makes a big difference, one of the best breeds I've found for grouse is most unusual, but it the Yorkshire Terrier. They have no quit in them, can get into really tight places and heavy brush, and love the rugged outdoors. If trained for it, they are not a woman's apartment dog.

"Killer" or "The Killer" in his old age. Grouse dog SUPREME.

Sir Charles Mackenzie-Lopez. His replacement. (can't turn the bold off. ??)

Bessie is a good grouse gun. These were all flushed up by the Killer. Still can't turn off the bold print. ?

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I usually hunt mostly with my Tikka .308, but this season I carried my model 94 the most. I actually picked up the Tikka to replace the 94 as my eyes are aging. The Tikka is scoped while the 94 is not.

Kudos on using the 94. Put some fiber optic sights on it and you won't miss having a scope.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Don't really like muzzle loader (to me it’s just a PITA).

Oh but such a pleasurable wonderful delightful PITA. And when you bring something down with one, that pain goes away. But yes, not for everyone. One actually has to enjoy the extreme attention to detail, and have blind faith in one's only shot.

 

[hq]

Oh yes, I'm a grouse addict. But to make it even worse, that's what I've dedicated my bow-hunting to. I often see them on the ground, but have not got one yet. I've missed one yet, but not by much. !! A dog makes a big difference, one of the best breeds I've found for grouse is most unusual, but it the Yorkshire Terrier. They have no quit in them, can get into really tight places and heavy brush, and love the rugged outdoors. If trained for it, they are not a woman's apartment dog.
[...]
"Killer" or "The Killer" in his old age. Grouse dog SUPREME.

Interesting! While I've hunted with flushing dogs, they're not the dog of choice for nordic grouse. The birds tend to flush on their own at quite a distance unless there's something to catch their attention. Enter pointing or barking dogs. We started with a gordon setter back in the day (the flying scotsman, they come in goofy and extra goofy, ours was the latter) and graduated to long haired weimaraners a little over 20 years ago.

It goes something like this: I release the dog, throw my shotgun over my shoulder on a sling, light up a cigar, look around me, decide which way to go and start walking. The dog automatically places itself 20...60 yards in front of me and starts working, looking for a scent, preferably in the air. Once it finds something, it comes back to me and indicates there's a bird, at which point I put out the cigar, grab the shotgun and follow the dog at a distance to the location of the bird(s). The dog stops and points at a suitable distance, without flushing the bird; just making it try to stay put. When I reach the dog I give command, FLUSH, and am ready to shoot. At the gunshot the dog stops and lays down on the ground. If the bird is down or wounded and running, I tell it to fetch. If I miss, to never mind, my bad.

Well... at least in theory. Our former weimaraner was a fowling machine. I shot 400+ birds to her, including a honest to God 10lb+ capercaillie. Our current one blows - during last seven years we've shot three birds when she's been out, combined, and that's in spite of her, not thanks to her. She's a bit of a mess and can't concentrate so we've retired her to couch warming duty.

I'm currently about to take on a major challenge. Our new canaan dog puppy will arrive from Israel in a couple of months. I'm about to train him to work as a barking dog for grouse hunting. See above for how it works and substitute the dog staying with the bird once one is found, barking it lungs out as a distraction so you can approach unnoticed. That's something select spitz breeds are used for, not the home turf for a wild/feral/pariah breed, but I have decades of experience with canaans and I'm well aware that they can be trained to do ANYTHING. That and their combination of resilience, frugality and ability to survive pretty much anywhere has made them the breed of choice for Mossad K9 operations. I talked to the current OG breeder of canaans, Myrna Shiboleth, an old friend of mine and she first told me that I'm nuts. But said that it's doable once you've built a trusting relationship with the dog and he has chosen you (not the other way around, this is how it works with canaan dogs).

I've had hunting bows for shooting beer cans for almost forty years now. They may be great for treestand duty but if I even think about taking one grouse hunting, I'll go hungry. I've determined that I can't shoot bows worth crap and trying to hit a flushing bird with one is akin to hitting a coin thrown in the air. And I'm no exhibition shooter either. I do have considered picking up black powder handgun hunting (dare to be different? Remington 1858 in 8" cap and ball configuration is gorgeous to boot) but as the nearest locations where it's legal are on a different continent, I haven't put much effort to making it happen.

 

[Gerd33]

I have 80acres of family land that I hunt, primarily for deer, though I have hunted Turkey and Squirrels there in the past, and the odd Coyote if the opportunity presents itself.
Since it's not a particularly large area we usually hunt it by sitting near one of the established trails and waiting/hoping for a deer to travel by.

Two seasons ago I asked my daughter if I could repurpose her old playhouse as a deer blind, which I set roughly in one of the spots that has been the best for me over the last 5-7 years or so.
It sits on the edge of small opening in some thick hardwood forest and I do utilize it myself but I put it out as much to make it easier for my father and daughter to get out hunting as it was for myself.
I like to sit in various other places around the property at times although it's getting harder to sit on the ground since my legs tend to fall asleep when I do.



I'm primarily interested in putting meat in the freezer though I certainly won't mind if a trophy comes by.
The past few years I've been hunting our entire deer seasons with Crossbow (Barnett Stalker), Regular Firearm (.444 Marlin) and In-line muzzle-loader (TC Omega).



This was from the 2023 season and not from the box blind location. Deer was standing in front of the brush pile in the second pic.



The TC Omega from a couple of years ago, same location as the box but prior to putting the blind in.

It happens in April, often concurrent with turkey season. One of my favorite hunts of the year.

I was out Turkey hunting one spring, sat down by a tree and as the sun came up I saw that there were 4 or 5 Morels about 6 inches from my boot.
I lost interest in the turkeys real fast that morning.

 

[.38 Special]

I started out rifle hunting, with pigs the usual quarry. The revolver bug bit pretty early, so I switched to a custom .45 Colt Blackhawk Bisley after the first couple of years and branched out to smaller cartridges from there. That lasted a few decades, and then flintlocks became my weapon. A few years after that I switched to recurve bows, then laminated longbows, and finally to one-piece yew "war bows".

I finally decided that big game hunting was too much work, too much travel, and too much expense - at least for a guy living and running a business in Southern California - and so that was that. I still get a hankering for quail hunting now and again, and with a longbow, flu-flus, and Judo points, the nearest legal and productive grounds are a ten-minute drive plus thirty-minute walk from my doorstep. That's the extent of my hunting for the foreseeable future.

 

[jmr40]

Typical Eastern whitetail and black bear habitat most of the time. Shots from 5 yards to 500 yards are possible, but 20-200 are most common.

I do most of my hunting in the northern mountainous part of GA. Not a lot flat ground. It ranges from gently rolling to steep mountains. IMO any type of elevated stand is useless. If I were in an elevated stand, I could look uphill and be at the same level as I'd be sitting on the ground a few yards uphill.

I've mostly hunted on public land. National Forest or Wildlife Management areas. I joined a hunt club this year for the 1st time. It was about 5000 acres. We were in the middle of a home renovation during the best times to hunt so I didn't spend as much time in the woods this year as I'd have liked.

I've had the opportunity to hunt Colorado 3 times, New Mexico and Mississippi once.

It is just too hot here for me to be serious about archery season. I have a bow and get into the woods a few days but don't take it too seriously. Never got into primitive weapons. I can hunt that season with my bow and do.

Twenty years ago, I stumbled onto a huge beaver pond full of waterfowl on public land that no one hunted. For about 5-6 years I became a pretty serious duck and goose hunter. My brother and were the only ones hunting it. But once others found it they overhunted it. Technically I could still hunt there, but some of the public land was sold and it's hard to access. What was a 1/2 mile walk is now a 4-5 mile walk.

I spend a lot of time in the woods during turkey season. That style of hunting suits my personality. I like to call and hunt one spot for a while and move. I've gotten used to hunting on 20,000-100,000-acre tracts of land. Hunting on 100 acres would seem like hunting on a postage stamp to me.

I've mostly hunted with a bolt action scoped rifle. Started with 30-06, shifted to 308 several years ago. My Go-To rifle is a Winchester Extreme Weather sitting in a McMillan Edge stock. But I've dabbled a bit with just about everything.