i love hunting too, i live in washington. i hunt deer, elk, grouse and coons. the woods have been closed up here for a while but now the rains have shown up i just may be able to get out there. plus i have a young pup i wanna get out in the woods and get on sum coons. thats a blast to do! i hunt bow, but this year im gonna try rifle. dont have the time for bow this year, plus the woods were closed during opening season.

 

Only got 1 partridge over the weekend. I couldn't go bow hunting because my scope on my crossbow decide to not to work and won't adjust left to right. Going tonight to Fleet Farm to buy a new scope. If anyone have a red dot scope I don't like it and have nothing but trouble with it. I am looking at getting a Truglo crossbow scope tonight.

 

Stick gun called a bow, he he he

 

I used to get out for goose, quail, rabbit & squirrel quite a bit before I was old enough for big game. Now I only get out for deer season. I had time to get out 5 times during shotgun season and that's the extent of the hunting that I've done this year.


So how did everyone do this deer season? Shotgun is officially closed here in NY.

 

I didnt go out this year... We had this wicked law here . The deer needed 3 points on one side of the rack at least an inch long to be legal.

SO the 4 pointer Ive been spotting was not legal here SO i never renewed my tags. Hopefully he gets bigger for next year or they drop the law next year.

 

Had an 8 point jump the string on me back in mid October(Compound, not crossbow ). Went out a few times during gun and only saw does. Still some season left. Hoping to get it done with the muzzle loader in the next week.

 

I shot a doe the Tuesday before Thanksgiving that weighted in at 165lbs hanging (picture). She was a 3-4 year old. I could only call the group of them in to 120 yards away from my stand, but I was shooting from a near perfect rest and my new scope made it an easy shot. She only went ~20yards before she nestled down into a ditch which made for an interesting time of finding her, then getting her out, but wasn't too bad.

Then on the last Saturday of shotgun season (December 8th), I shot a 9-point buck that weighted in at 166lbs hanging (picture 1 & picture 2). He was probably a 3-4 year old as well judging by the black stripe on his chest. I had to work my calls to get him broadside to me and I couldn't shoot from a rest due to some branches in my line of sight, but I still was able to get a good enough hit on him from 60 yards. He went about 70 yards into the woods and with it raining, tracking him was a royal pain.

I managed to hit major organs in both of them without hitting any major muscles which has always been my goal when I've been hunting. I only pierced one lung on the buck, but I hit both lungs and the very top of the heart with the doe.

In the off-season I want to try out some other ammunition to see if I can get out to 200 yards with any kind of consistency. I also want to see how repeatable the quick release risers are; if I can remove the scope for close in-the-woods stuff and then put it back on and expect the shots to still be on at 100-150 yard ranges or if it will throw things off.

I'm shooting a Remington 870 with a rifled barrel with a few modifications recently added:

• Remington Pistol Grip
  Remington Pistol Grip
• UTG M87 Picatinny mount
  UTG M87 Picatinny mount
• UTG quick release medium profile risers
  UTG quick release medium profile risers
• Bushnell Trophy XLT 2-7x36mm scope

 

Nice deer kyle. I have not gotten a decent buck in 2 years. The last buck I got was an 8 Pointer with an 30-06

 

Swartlkk - Try Remington copper solids or Hornady SST's out of that 870. I've done a lot of research and it seems that most barrels like one or the other. Shooting 2 3/4 copper solids out of my 870, I can group pretty well out to 150.

 

I am shooting Remington Copper Solids 3" sabots now. When I sighted in the scope, I held a nice tight group at 100 yards, but that was as far as we could shoot at the range we were at. I know that the RCS drops like a rock after that.

I have a few boxes of Hornady SST's that I am going to try out.