It's Hunting season

[Zinergy]

Our stands are mostly at ground level well within 3ft of the ground. we do have 3 that are 10ft high as well.

Lucky for you those southern deer are small/short. Like southern people. Haha I kid

I do hunt out of ground blinds as well as ladder stands, hang ons and I have a climber. I have had the best luck with hang ons because of all the different places and trees you can get them into.

[SMWS6TA]

Most deer in the south are the size of Dobermans.

You'd think they be bigger with all the crops they can eat down here, but no.

[0rion]

I got in the stand today for a few hours....zero deer.....497 squirrels. I have seen more deer on the roads here than I've seen in years. Yesterday from 2:30 until dark I saw 12 deer on the roads as I was driving around cutting wood.

[SMWS6TA]

Damn near pulled a Dawn this evening. Had a Doe jump out unexpectedly. Wasn't expecting it in the area I was in.

[SMWS6TA]

New scope and iron sights are on the 6.8. Ready for range day in morning. New scope is too big for the case. Looks like I need a new case......

[0rion]

Did something this morning I haven't done in years. I was down there with no kids and only 1 of my hunting buddies. Got up this morning and instead of heading to the stand I grabbed Zach's 20 gauge and just went squirrel hunting. It was fun as hell and reminded me why I enjoy hunting so much. It was 35 degrees and a hard frost. The woods were just nice to be in. No hustling around and climbing a tree and shit like that....no pressure. Sometimes deer hunting starts feeling like a job. Today I didn't have any of that. I got 3 squirrels, missed a 4th, and saw about 10 others in the distance. Stalked 100 yards to get my third. I'm definitely doing that again in the next week or so before rut starts firing up

[SMWS6TA]

Happy, not happy. I think I'm being hard on myself.


Range day on Sunday. Focused on the 6.8 mostly, but also the 30.06 because of new scope on 6.8 and wanted my son to get more comfortable with both.

For me it was to see which one I'll be able to handle after the hand surgery. It's only been a week since the pins were taken out. I know I'm a dumb ass... Surprisingly I handle both.

My issue was I think with my grip strength in my hand. As I shot more I see my pattern spread widen.


On the 6.8. Got it sighted in good enough to hunt with at 100 yards (which is 95% of our shots at our stands or much less). Once it was sighted in all my shots were within 3-4" pattern inside the 6" ring (the next ring group outside of bullesye). Not my standard but that could be because of my hand. I'm used to having a shooting pattern of 1" with all in the Bullseye ring at 100 and 200 yrds. I plan on going a couple of more times to see if I can tighten it up some as my hand heals. But I was able to hit 400 yard 16"x18" steel plates too, soooo...

On the 30.06 - same issues as I shot more the more the pattern widen. After about 16 rounds my hand ached so much I had to stop for a while in order to grip the stock again. All were again with the 6" ring with a 4" pattern, I'd used to shoot 1" patterns within the bullesye.

I feel with a single or follow up shot I should be good with either but as it is right now I think the 6.8 has less recoil and shock in my hand.



My son did very well, needs to practice more on breathing control and get used to different trigger squeeze between the 2 rifles but other then that his shot pattern is 2-3" at 100 yrds with both rifles all close to bullseye.







Side note - can't believe how stupid ppl are. The first 2 hours we had the range to ourselves with the group we came with, The range manager knows me well enough to let me run it as Range Safety while we're there. On one of my shooting breaks I was helping a buddy sight in his iron sights on his AR. Range is hot and we're sending lead down range. This dipshit on the bench 20 ft down from us walks out in front of the table to retrieve a target stand to move it up. It was at the 75 yard mark, we're shooting at the 50 to dial it in. I called cease fire, and yelled at the guy :WTF: man are you fucking stupid?!? He blows me off saying he's all right, just keep shooting. I signal for the range manager to come up as we are arguing and hears us out. Tells the guy if he does it again he's banned from the range. Seriously

[0rion]

That's why we can't have nice things. Never underestimate the ignorance of people.

[Y2KArcticSS]

Youth hunt this weekend. Both boys want to go, good excuse to get sights for my .300 and let them test it out.

[SMWS6TA]

My Dad got a 140lb hog on Monday and then a coyote shortly after. It must have been hungry or stocking the hog already. It pop up within a min of the hog squealing after it was shot.

Two less vermin


He also said there's a 12 pt, 10 pt, 3x 8 pt Bucks and several spike bucks so far and a lot of Doe on the trail cams around our stands in day time. Of course on opening day they'll just turn invisible and never be seen again till after deer season.

[0rion]

Zach works, Chloe is on a Washington DC trip with school, and wife is going to a wedding. Looks like me and Pickle will be holding down the woods this weekend. Going to go after some more tree rate with him. Hoping next weekend I can start how hunting serious. Should be about the right time.

[SMWS6TA]

Went this morning and greatly improved on both. The 6.8 more so over the 30.06. I figure because of less recoil. I'm still in kill shot territory but again I like to be much tighter in my grouping. I hope we can go again next weekend one more time before we head out. It will be our last chance.

Cody did very well too. Worked on his breathing control mostly. His 30.06 grouping much improved over last week, he's getting used to the recoil and trigger difference between the 2. The 6.8 has a JMT 3lb trigger vs the 5-6 lb the 30.06 has. I'm feeling better about our chances.


My dad sent me a pic of the 10 and 8 points he's been seeing. I hope those fuckers don't do a Houdini on opening day.

[Y2KArcticSS]

My oldest bagged a nice doe in the first hour hunting Friday, my poor youngest didn't see much and what he did see was too far for him to take a shot. Good news is his tags will still be good come rifle season so we'll try again.

[SMWS6TA]

Damn Tx wants to make $$$ off of out of state hunters. For me I'm free due to being a Disable Vet, however my son it's $315.

[SMWS6TA]

Can't figure out which was worse the anticipation of getting my cast off a week out or waiting on the next week for Hunting season to start.

[0rion]

Rained all day here with wind blowing 15-20 all day. Didn't even go out. Hate hunting in wind...never have any luck. Rain I don't mind too much but on windy days it's a waste of time.

[doberman 152]

still to early for me, there moving but i'm good i'll wait

[doberman 152]

Zach works, Chloe is on a Washington DC trip with school, and wife is going to a wedding. Looks like me and Pickle will be holding down the woods this weekend. Going to go after some more tree rate with him. Hoping next weekend I can start how hunting serious. Should be about the right time.

I see Zach's following his mother's foot steps on getting a job.

[0rion]

Yeah....he has car/insurance payments to make. When he gets a little older I'll teach him how to not have to work but for now he has to pay his way.

[doberman 152]

Most deer in the south are the size of Dobermans.

You'd think they be bigger with all the crops they can eat down here, but no.

dobermans really