Who's going deer hunting Saturday morning ?

[bearfan454]

It's opening day for rifle season in Tx. I wait all year for opening day.Mrs bearfan likes having some weekends for herself too. Maybe this forum will get a few more posts after opening weekend. Good luck to everyone !

[Redneck Socialist]

1. Me! Me! Me!

Muzzleloader season opens Saturday in my neck of the woods and my vacation just started about 30 minutes ago.

The state next to me opened their season last weekend but due to work obligations I've only been able to get out in the woods one day so far. I didn't see any deer but I did see a mess load of turkeys.

[Mojorabbit]

2. My hubby called me last night

and he got a hog and a deer yesterday with his bow. I am dreading cleaning that deer, it takes me half of the day to do it when I can do a pig in no time..

[SteveM]

3. Got one in Coryell County Texas -- sad story that ended happy.

As the sun set I took a 200 yard shot across a cow pasture and hit a large (for this area) doe. The deer ran off slowly, but way beyond the usual 50 yards. When she stopped I saw that I had broken the right front leg. I tried to track her down, but she was no longer inside the fenced pasture and figured she jumped the fence and took off. Next morning, my companion was hunting the same area and heard noise near a little spring-fed creek and found the deer just as she died. Not a good last night for the animal, but I was able to recover the deer and she sits in the ice chest as I type this.

A few years before, another hunting companion shot a deer who leaped over a goat fence and disappeared into a ravine. I helped out by spotting blood spots on the rocks. Eventually we dragged the deer back up and over the fence.

Good kharma comes to Coryell!

[SlowDownFast]

4. Rifle season in Michigan is not until the 15th.

Bow season is open, though.

Time to sight the guns in...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. I'll be out there on the 15th

If you hear snoring, it's probably me. My normal hunting "style".

[SlowDownFast]

7. Hey, for many, it's a just a chance to get away

from the whatever-you-need-ta-get-away-from.

Work, the wife (or husband - I know of quite a few female hunters), the kids, the city...

Of course, some hardly even leave the camp with it's ample beer supply.

;-)

[bearfan454]

5. I didn't get a deer

I saw 3 does but let them walk off. The property owner next to me got a nice 9 pointer a couple of weeks ago with a bow. One guy got a fat 6 pointer from our group.

[SteveM]

9. My next hunt: Balcones Canyonlands NWR in Travis County. Yikes...

I've hunted this before with no luck, but this is a Refuge designed to protect two endangered birds and a few rare plants and not a "wildlife ranch." Once again, I hunt a 3,700 acre unit whose geo survey map looks like brain coral (over 400' of relief). I think I can still manage a 200' walk up a 1/3 mile trail; but I can't get to the top of the Great Wall o' China-like ridge which bisects this unit and have enough time to settle in and get quiet. So, it's haunting a lower-level saddle and hoping some other Elmer Fudd scares one up out of the draws on either side. In any case, if I get a deer I will have to drag it (or thumb down an ATV) nearly a mile back to my van.

The saving grace? Absolutely beautiful and rugged Central Texas country which by December has turned New England yellow, orange, purple and red. Not to mention two creeks (still flowing) which I must hop over. When you hear the coyotes way up on the ridge and you are sitting in the cold dark next to cactus and thorn brush, you know literally what it was like a century earlier.

My hunt the week after? Fort Boggy State Park. You don't need an explanation.

[Redneck Socialist]

8. I had one cut behind me, scent me and take off.

I had been doing some rattling, heard movement behind me and was pretty sure I'd been busted. Sure enough heard the snort, some stomping, then movement away down the ridge.

Ah well, I've got the rest of the week off and the season doesn't end until Dec. 9th, so plenty of time left yet.

[SteveM]

10. Twice on opening day I had two yearlings snort near by...

but they couldn't I.D. me and just stood there until they moved off aimlessly. I did see two bucks chasing a doe across the field I was hunting; one with the largest rack I've ever seen on this property. Later, I heard the bucks banging away at each other in the woods. Quite a nature show.