Fishing, and hunting reports (share yours)

Brian77 said:
We are having a great season here in central Missouri. Archery season yielded a decent 8 for me. I would have passed but he was injured and blind in 1 eye.

Logan got his first buck. An 8 point. He was very excited.

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A sincere congratulations to the both of you!

That’s a great first Buck! Yours wasn’t to shabby either ;)
I’m taking my boy ( 8 ) out on Saturday for archery, hopefully we’ll see something, hopefully it’ll be as nice as one of the two you guys took. I’m just happy that he is showing the interest and that he wants to go, his older brother ( 11 ) went a few times and has decided to put his energies into fishing. There’s nothing wrong with fishing other than I suck at it and don’t have info to teach him. As frustrating as that is I’m looking at it as an opportunity for us to learn something together.
Good luck in the rest of your season, though that’ll be a hard day to beat.
 
IMG_3326.JPG IMG_3327.JPG My younger brother and son are catching Stripers somewhere, I think south jersey. Either Delaware river or Cape May. 32 inches was the size of one of them he said.

Fixed it, was thinking of strippers. Some are sicker than others. Lol
 
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Took my youngest son (8), my wife’s cousin, and his son (11) out for archery deer here in SE Michigan yesterday.
Two deer came within range while we were getting situated in the blind, moved across our shooting lane so quickly that there wasn’t an opportunity for a shot. I didn’t mind because the kids enjoyed it. We saw 14 deer in total with all but one being way out of range of the X-bow.
I ended up taking a shot at one at 72 yards off of a tripod. I’m only sighted out to 60 yards but I didn’t think he’d be coming in any closer. I can confidently say that my missing a shot is something that only happens every decade or so, well, I’ll be set for a while because I somehow threw that arrow right over his back. My boy loved every second of it so the loss of a $20 arrow with no meat is just fine.
Somehow, the shot convinced the deer to walk in towards us. We made more noise than ever while hunting, reloading the bow, Banging on chairs, moving around 4 people in the blind ( 1 sleeping kid ), etc. Once it was loaded I couldn’t turn to make the shot so my cousin in law took the shot, he stuck his support hand fingers up and the string on my Excalibur Matrix 380 slapped his first and second finger with some AUTHORITY!
This caused the shot to miss at 30 yards and his hand to turn black and blue in seconds. we were able to make an even noisier reload and the deer still wouldn’t leave, but, it hovered around 70 yards again and I decided that we had shot at it enough. We sat there hoping for it to come in closer while it mocked us silently with its glare.
It was an exciting day, the kids had fun, and I heard my boy say to his cousin that he would trade 5 birthday parties for a day like today.
Next week we can take the rifle and with any luck, I’ll have some pics from a successful hunt.
Oh, his fingers weren’t broke, or bled, or peeled, or skinned. Just took the equivalent of driving in an Indy car and not keeping your hands inside the vehicle. While a nasty painful experience that caused some impressive bruising, he’ll be okay.
 
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1AbominAble1 said:
It was an exciting day, the kids had fun, and I heard my boy say to his cousin that he would trade 5 birthday parties for a day like today.
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Yeah brother, that's awesome that the boys enjoyed it that much! I'm glad your cousin's hand isn't broke up, hopefully it's just giving everyone (but him!) a good laugh now. Thanks for sharing :thumbsup:
 
Hard Knocks said:
Yeah brother, that's awesome that the boys enjoyed it that much! I'm glad your cousin's hand isn't broke up, hopefully it's just giving everyone (but him!) a good laugh now. Thanks for sharing :thumbsup:
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Thank you very much!
It was a great day for us and the boys, I was even able to enjoy that ever elusive feeling of getting it right as a parent, which can never happen enough for me.
 
Filled out our tags quickly this year. We're looking at around 150# of processed (fat added) venison, In a combination of the following of my choosing:

Polish sausage
Breakfast patties
Ground with beef tallow

I'm a happy bear today.

I just wish I'd had a cpk with me to gut and skin em all. Oh well. Next year.
 
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REDEMPTION!!!
The deer may have beat me last week with my missed shot with the X-bow but a 240gr 44 mag settled the score at 170 yards very nicely here in Mi. on this opening day evening hunt.
I really wanted to try out a CPK while field dressing a deer this year but felt that the MC would be a touch too large since I usually use a CRK Nyala for that job. Since I don’t have an FK yet I used the HDFK and it wasn’t nearly as unwieldy as I imagined that it would be, in fact, it worked tremendously well. That D3V is like a scalpel, the edge is as sharp as when I started. The handle was superb, I just love that knife!
Anyway, here’s a few crappy, bloody pics.
https://imgur.com/a/fqTkaIa
 
1AbominAble1 said:
REDEMPTION!!!
The deer may have beat me last week with my missed shot with the X-bow but a 240gr 44 mag settled the score at 170 yards very nicely here in Mi. on this opening day evening hunt.
I really wanted to try out a CPK while field dressing a deer this year but felt that the MC would be a touch too large since I usually use a CRK Nyala for that job. Since I don’t have an FK yet I used the HDFK and it wasn’t nearly as unwieldy as I imagined that it would be, in fact, it worked tremendously well. That D3V is like a scalpel, the edge is as sharp as when I started. The handle was superb, I just love that knife!
Anyway, here’s a few crappy, bloody pics.
https://imgur.com/a/fqTkaIa
Click to expand...
Sweet redemption! Very nice
170yds with a .44mag.. levergun?
Thanks for sharing. Having done most of my hunting & camping down S, I’ve always wanted to hunt those big beautiful WI deer, so thanks for sharing!
 
Fullflat said:
Sweet redemption! Very nice
170yds with a .44mag.. levergun?
Thanks for sharing. Having done most of my hunting & camping down S, I’ve always wanted to hunt those big beautiful WI deer, so thanks for sharing!
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Thanks!
Although I own a few lever guns I don’t have one in 44 mag-yet.
I’ve been using a Ruger 77/44 bolt action all weather model for a few years in our limited firearm zone, it’s a much nicer shooter than one would imagine. I paired it with a Silencerco Octane 45 after having it threaded by a local gunsmith. Although it didn’t need it I put a Volquartsen Target sear in it to make the already fine trigger an outstanding trigger.
Where I set up for the hunt my average shot is around 130 yards, I could get closer but the gun has no trouble hitting where I Point it at that distance and the deer don’t know where it’s coming from :)
Last season I took one at 185 yards and 135 the next day, simple old Winchester White Box works great for me out of this rifle.
Here’s a crappy pic of the Ruger. The lighting sucks but I’m in the blind hunting right now so it’s the best that I can do.
https://imgur.com/a/1y9cIef
When I’m up north in the rifle zone I normally use something that can stretch out a little farther and that has a little more oomph but this year I’m going to use a an AR chambered 7.62x39 ( similar ballistics to the old 30-30 ) with a Griffin Armament Reece 7 silencer and keep my shot within 100 yards. I have more traditional options but I want to take a deer with this SBR.
Here’s a pic of my youngest Son practicing with the SBR.
https://imgur.com/a/kj8H4bq
And one of the SBR doing a glamour shoot with a CPK.
https://i.imgur.com/X3y4RY9.jpg

I hunted in WV for about 10 years, they were definitely smaller deer than we have here on avg. That said, I don’t discriminate, the smaller ones taste the best;)
 
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I was blessed enough to be successful again today. I took a nice Doe at 170 yards again with the 44 mag, it didn’t walk 15 ft before collapsing in the tree line.
Dark took over while I was helping my Cousin in law search for his deer so I was happy to have a FLIR Scout, the mini, cheaper version- I think it’s called the TK. I spotted it with the thermal laying in the trees with no problem. That thing saved my old bones a lot of walking in the snow.
I had so much fun using the HDFK yesterday that I used it again today. It’s still razor sharp after field dressing 2 deer, I can’t say enough good things about this knife.
I’m really looking forward to a chance at an FK next Friday, the HDFK may be an awesome woods knife but it really is just a bit much for field dressing white tail- even if it is fun to use.
Here’s a pic of the HDFK and my trusty CRK Nyala with today’s Doe. https://i.imgur.com/PU7vy1K.jpg

Update,
We went out yesterday and received permission from 2 property owners to keep tracking my Cousin in law’s wounded doe. The snow made it pretty easy work, unfortunately the coyotes found it easy enough to find her before we did and there wasn’t much but a carcass with some bits and pieces left.
He’s really bummed about it but we followed every rule and he understands that sometimes that’s just how things go. His late fathers birthday is on the 22nd so we’re going to go out and do our best to get him a deer then, wish us luck.
 
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1AbominAble1 said:
Thanks!
Although I own a few lever guns I don’t have one in 44 mag-yet.
I’ve been using a Ruger 77/44 bolt action all weather model for a few years in our limited firearm zone, it’s a much nicer shooter than one would imagine. I paired it with a Silencerco Octane 45 after having it threaded by a local gunsmith. Although it didn’t need it I put a Volquartsen Target sear in it to make the already fine trigger an outstanding trigger.
Where I set up for the hunt my average shot is around 130 yards, I could get closer but the gun has no trouble hitting where I Point it at that distance and the deer don’t know where it’s coming from :)
Last season I took one at 185 yards and 135 the next day, simple old Winchester White Box works great for me out of this rifle.
Here’s a crappy pic of the Ruger. The lighting sucks but I’m in the blind hunting right now so it’s the best that I can do.
https://imgur.com/a/1y9cIef
When I’m up north in the rifle zone I normally use something that can stretch out a little farther and that has a little more oomph but this year I’m going to use a an AR chambered 7.62x39 with a Griffin Armament Reece 7 and keep my shot within 100 yards. I have more traditional options but I want to take a deer with this SBR.
Here’s a pic of my youngest Son practicing with the SBR.
https://imgur.com/a/kj8H4bq
And one of the SBR doing a glamour shoot with a CPK.
https://i.imgur.com/X3y4RY9.jpg

I hunted in WV for about 10 years, they were definitely smaller deer than we have here on avg. That said, I don’t discriminate, the smaller ones taste the best;)
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Which winchester white box are you using? Jhp or Jsp? I just picked up a Jm proofed marlin 1894 in 44 mag, and I'm picking up an all weather Ruger 77/44 just like yours from I guy I hunt with in a week or two.
 
jackal_727 said:
Which winchester white box are you using? Jhp or Jsp? I just picked up a Jm proofed marlin 1894 in 44 mag, and I'm picking up an all weather Ruger 77/44 just like yours from I guy I hunt with in a week or two.
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I use the SJHP ( —edit— turns out it was the SJSP’s, oops ). Easy to find and cheap enough at Wally World.
My first 77/44 was a lemon, it shot 10 inches to the right at 50 yards with the sight adjusted as far as it could be drifted before it fell off of the barrel. It also kicked so hard that it made a 300 win mag feel like a 223 in comparison. I’m 6’3 225#’s so there’s enough of me that I handle recoil pretty well but when I shot that thing I had to rock back in the chair and check to see if anybody was looking before I let out a howl- it hurt!
Being a glutton for punishment and it being my first 44 mag I talked myself into 15 more shots before calling it quits and sending it into Ruger. The green bruise on my shoulder lasted 6 weeks, about as long as it took Ruger to call me and say that they’d be buying it back. The second one has been a very nice rifle for me and the recoil is very mild. I’m certain that I’ll be using that one for a very long time.
I reload 240gr rounds for it that cruise along around 1,050 FPS, just below the sound barrier. They are almost silent through the Octane 45 and a joy to shoot but outside 35 yards I find them too weak for an ethical shot on white tail.
Congrats on the Marlin!
I almost bought a Win 94 in 44 mag from the pawn shop but it had the ugly cross block safety so I’m saving pennies for the Chiappa Alaskan Take Down model with the 16 inch barrel.
 
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jackal_727 said:
Which winchester white box are you using? Jhp or Jsp? I just picked up a Jm proofed marlin 1894 in 44 mag, and I'm picking up an all weather Ruger 77/44 just like yours from I guy I hunt with in a week or two.
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I double checked and it turns out I’m shooting the SJSP’s. I picked up two fresh boxes this year to let my Cousin in law practice and didn’t pay attention enough to realize that they weren’t the SJHP. These are putting a much more effective thump on the deer than the SJHP’s did. I’m going to use these going forward.
sorry for giving you the wrong info the other day.
 
Awesome thanks for the info. I just got the marlin today. I will be picking up the ruger this weekend. I ordered a couple boxes of jhp and jsp just for kicks. I figure I'll be using the soft points for hunting. I'm eager to shoot the ruger. I've heard accuracy can be hit or miss. This one should be ok as the guy I'm buying it from has used it hunting quite a bit.
 
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