Thread: First deer hunt in 30 plus years.

Great story! Similar to me, been 20 years since I deer hunted. Although my result was different. I got a 6 pointer. Day 2 the big doe got up , nose dived, got up again and I never found her.


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Around here it's shotgun or muzzleloader. No rifles. Although I do want either a 30-06 or 308. Leaning toward the 308. I like shooting long distances. Unfortunately the local range only goes out to 200 yards. I'd like 500 yards, 300 would be nice.


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Like my friend Hanr3 said, here in Illinois only shotguns with slugs or a muzzleloader here. I myself am a muzzleloader fan and even thou I have both I only use my smoke stick. To me, you train yourself to be a better shot when you only have one but I have before shot reloaded and shot again end up having 2 laying dead in the field.

I do love the anticipation of waiting for the smoke to clear to see if I have made a good shot. As far the choice of dropping a deer in its track or not, I prefer to track a blood trail, I think it the second best thing of a hunt only to watching a deer working its way to you, but that's just me.

Originally Posted by "D"

I had a grand time. The miss did not bother me at all. I know I can shoot, I have the medals from the military to prove it. And I have killed deer in the past. I will put in a little range time. That was the first time I pulled the trigger on my brother's gun that had not been shot in forever until SIL checked it a couple months back. I thank you all for the comments and will probably have a new 308 and 4 wheeler next year. I will mount the scope with see thru mounts so I can free aim for short shots. If you guys notice I mod this forum and really wanted to share a story. I am going again 2 more times this week. I will shoot a few times first and hope to post one. Don't be disappointed if it is a small doe, that is what I want for the freezer. "D"

go get ya some sir , big or small they eat about the same , whacked a many a yearling myself ....
lower the KABOOM on one for us ....good luck brother

Originally Posted by Hanr3

Great story! Similar to me, been 20 years since I deer hunted. Although my result was different. I got a 6 pointer. Day 2 the big doe got up , nose dived, got up again and I never found her.


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had one or 2 leave for parts unknown after being clearly hit to never be seen again myself and not a drop of blood to be found
I have a video somewhere of a doe my friends wife shot with a 22 250 , I was on video that day and she shot it in the head at about 75 yards . it went down ,did four or five flips in the grass and got up running like the wind . We all sat there for a bit astonished and then went to the house to get all of our trackers and some short range weapons . so off we go into the brush and about 100 yards in we come up on her and she is laying down looking in our direction . at about 25 yards the man whos wife shot it the first time shot it in the head again with a shotgun and a slug !
that deer came up like a bolt and about ran me and another guy over , ran right between us so close I could have touched it !
we tracked her for about 2 more hours and never saw her again after the blood trail let up .
they have a will to survive that is beyond what is real for sure .

Huntinslabs nailed it..forget the see thru mounts....with practice a scope on a low power works fine.. The 308 is very efficient with bullets up to 180 gr. After that the 30-06 shines because of increased case capacity...I own three 30-06, and five 308s...you can't go wrong with either...

Originally Posted by huntinslabs

D if you shot in the military and have medals to prove it then you know consistent and proper cheek weld is paramount, forget the see thru mounts. Bad cheek weld and very weak mounting system. The clarity of optics and large field of view offered by variable scopes negates the need for iron sights on short range target. A high quality 3X9 from Leupold, Zeiss or Nikon will get the job done.

Your partly correct. The scopes you mentioned would be just fine, assuming you can see thru them.
Hunt someplace where snow is common, and it wouldn't take long to see the merit of having iorn sights as a backup.
I doubt see thru mounts or flip mounts were designed with southern hunters in mind.
Yes flip mounts, just grab the scope and push it out of the way.

Well we did not get to go again, but I have been assured next year, I can go whenever I want during season. I will have new rifle and probably a 4x4 side by side. Think the wife and I would enjoy that more than a regular 4 wheeler. I also may not have mentioned, but the limit in west Tn. was 2 bucks a season and 3 does a day. That's right 21 a week. Think they not thick. Mae and I went out just to look a couple days ago and we saw 14 turkey, 2 small bucks and 20 does in 30 minutes. I am already drooling for next year. haha