2024 Deer Season

[Rem280]

I’d love a crack at a US deer but have no access or anyone to take me out. Currently in Oklahoma until November 29th.
I’d be happy with any - ain’t gotta be a trophy for me.

Ain't there a bunch of public land out there to deer and hog hunt?

 

[deewayne2003]

Deer season in Southern Oklahoma

Muzzle loader - 4 doe on the ground

Rifle season started yesterday; got a doe Saturday morning at my cousins ranch and this buck last night on my farm.

 

[HankBuck]

Meat on the table - Also my first deer. Try for a Buck tomorrow. Little doe

Hit high and spined her but died instantly it seemed.

View attachment 649292

@Certus - CONGRATULATIONS, you’ll always remember your FIRST DEER

 

[Field28]

Field28, those SC deer are some of the weariest deer I’ve hunted anywhere. When I hunted there they still hound hunted them on large private clubs. I was a member of two private hunting clubs in SC. I think the generations of hound hunting them made them nocturnal and spooky.

We killed a lot of deer using hounds. But sitting in a tree stand with bow and killing one was a challenge. They jumped the string like a warthog can do.

Dog hunting has become a very big controversy in the past decade. There used to be very well run dog clubs that were respected and did right by their neighbors. Lots of passed down tradition generation to generation. Unfortunately, now there is a outlaw if it's brown it's down mentality with no respect for neighboring hunters, dogs or the resource.

I grew up hunting out of stands at a pay hunting operation here. I worked off my hunting and guided. We had 95% out of state hunters. We hunted roughly 30k acres on various parcels. The operation was very professional and ethical.

I did on occasion hunt with some dog clubs and it is a blast when done the right way. Hearing the dogs coming your way really gets the heart pumping and hitting a deer with a shotgun running wide open is no easy task.

It is a shame that most of that long grand tradition has faded away, i guess it's like our culture overall now.

 

[Field28]

Taken out back this morning during opening day rifle. I like to use one of my vintage rifles. This year I used my first year 1962 Remington 700 ADL 7mm Rem Mag and Weaver K4.

View attachment 649296

Love those old ADL's, I've got a 1973 in 25-06, one of my favorite rifles.

 

[gbflyer]

Quick one on the high tide.

 

[K-man]

Opening day of gun season got this buck and my grandson got his second. One more grandson to go! View attachment 649294

Got to guide my other grandson to his first buck this morning. Using my old .30-.30 too. Then my son also got a nice old buck so 4 bucks and three does in 16 hours for 5 hunters. Lots of time loading deer into the tractor and skinning. We donated five deer to our local hunters against hunger organization. One of the best memories of hunting time.

 

[Corey0372]

Got this one near Libby, MT this morning. The horns have some neat character around the bases. Pretty sure it's the same buck a friend of mine missed 3 times last year while I watched in agony.

He was chasing two does around 0815, about 175 yards away, 300 Win Mag 180 grain Partitions. Admittedly I was a little rushed on the shot, because the way him and the does were moving around I was worried they were going to move out of there and I'd lose my window. Shot was a little far back but still in the lungs, he went about 45 yards and fell over. Got him cut up, in my pack, and back to the truck in one trip (only about 700 yards) before the grizzlies got to us!

 

[Field28]

Good stuff K-man!!!

 

[DPHunter4570]

Some nice bucks killed by all! We finished up first gun season here in IL today. Not much action for me, had some good bucks killed on the farm though. Had a 14 pointer killed opening morning, great looking buck with cool character. My dad had a banner weekend with a doe Friday night and a solid 8 pointer Saturday night. I saw the buck for about 10 seconds with no shot and was able to tell him to get ready to shoot!

 

[K-man]

Good stuff K-man!!!

Makes all those weekends putting in food plots and hanging stands and trail cameras worth it! Seeing the smile on an 11 yr old's face is priceless. Both son and son-in-law have worked hard too.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Grandson and I with our 9.3x62 buck this afternoon. I really like this cartridge.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

For @Bob Nelson 35Whelen. First real cool morning of the season so me and my son in law went. I took the new to me 35Whelen that worked so well last weekend. Took a full grown doe at 158 yards, bang, flop. She went straight down. Really enjoying this rifle so far. FView attachment 649299View attachment 649301

@Fatback
That the usual reaction with the Whelen.
What load did you use.
Bob

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Killed a whitetail tonight just after dark. A very large dry doe. Beautiful animal and should be great eating. However, I would prefer shooting my deer rather than clobbering them on the highway. Fortunately, very little damage to my Jimmy. The plastic bumper cover blew up (VERY cold today) and left headlight was knocked loose. I threw her on the hitch carrier and called the sheriff's office. The deputies made a report, took a couple of photos, and gave me the paperwork for a salvage permit. At my friend's heated garage I gutted her on a sheet of plastic. A lot of blood inside but no guts broken. Very clean. Very unusual for a road kill! She had one rear leg broken below the knee but otherwise no broken bones that I could find. I had earlier overdone it (severely) pheasant hunting and was hypothermic when the cops showed up. They thought I was shook up and kept asking if I was okay. Finally dawned on me what they were after. "I'm alright. Just need to get something to eat and a hot coffee in me and I'll be fine" Weather was six degrees F and windy. Ordinarily I would have pulled the deer into the ditch and gutted it. But not in windchill of thirty below and already shaking uncontrollably! I have gutted deer alone in the dark before but impossible in this scenario. I've been sorta looking for another vehicle anyway. Jimmy has almost 350K  miles on the odometer. Yesterday I broke the tailpipe off the muffler when I drove into a deep snowdrift (tailpipe now temporarily tied to leaf spring). Two days ago I ruined a tire on a rocky gravel road. And the transmission has recently started slipping going into gear from park. Guess it's ime to say goodbye to Old Red. The cop asked me if I thought the damage was $1500 or more (= more paperwork for him). Hah hah! That outfit wasn't worth $1500 five years ago.

Though I live in Ontario, since 2010 I have hit four deer with my Jimmy on this same hundred mile stretch of Montana highway. And I NEVER drive through there at night faster than 55 mph. Tonight I was only going 45-50 mph due to icy spots on the highway.

 

[HankBuck]

Dog hunting has become a very big controversy in the past decade. There used to be very well run dog clubs that were respected and did right by their neighbors. Lots of passed down tradition generation to generation. Unfortunately, now there is a outlaw if it's brown it's down mentality with no respect for neighboring hunters, dogs or the resource.

I grew up hunting out of stands at a pay hunting operation here. I worked off my hunting and guided. We had 95% out of state hunters. We hunted roughly 30k acres on various parcels. The operation was very professional and ethical.

I did on occasion hunt with some dog clubs and it is a blast when done the right way. Hearing the dogs coming your way really gets the heart pumping and hitting a deer with a shotgun running wide open is no easy task.

It is a shame that most of that long grand tradition has faded away, i guess it's like our culture overall now.

@Field28 - Hound Hunting deer is not very popular in Virginia either - unless You own Hounds. It is also a long standing tradition and I respect that. I have loved hunting rabbits/snowshoe hare, cougar, bear, and coyotes behind hounds and hearing the hounds “music” & the “chase” are the best parts of it. I’ve never hunted deer behind hounds and know I would enjoy it, beagles are sometimes used in Virginia and it creates a market for beagles that can’t run a rabbit because they chase deer too often. However, I would Never hound hunt deer on any property that I own - as others have noted, it wrecks other types of hunting (stand & food plots are avoided). Also, you need to own a very large tract of land (1000 acres is Nothing) otherwise you’re running deer onto others property and that’s where the current conflict lies. Surrounding land owners in Virginia resent Hound Hunters because it negatively affects their deer hunting on their smaller properties. Laws in Virginia do Not prevent Hounds from running thru your private property and even the Hound Hunters can trespass on Your property to “retrieve their Hounds” without permission — as long as they don’t carry a gun when doing it. They can also post hunters just off your property line while their dogs run deer thru & off your property - as long as they supposedly don’t do that “deliberately” (hard to prove). I really like hunting behind hounds but can see why it causes conflict when the chase carries across private property lines and wrecks others hunting….there should be a respect for tradition AND private property but I don’t know what the answer is??

 

[Altitude sickness]

The SC clubs I belonged to in the 80s leased thousands of timber company acres, and owned a lot of private ground. I was a Yankee and interloper. But tolerated by the generational members. They never allowed the hounds to get off the lease or club property that I can remember.

I was talked into joining by a friend and did not think I would enjoy it.
You draw your stand location from a bag of coins. Numbers are stamped on the coin. then you either choose your spot in order or placed your luck to fate. Hoping the hounds would bring a deer by you.

This is a very traditional hunt. Brought over from Europe when England still owned much of the east coast. It’s more sporting than I first imagined. They hunt sections at a time and surround as large of a piece as possible depending on the number of hunters.

So you are dropped at your spot and then may or may not ever hear the hounds or see a deer. Usually not. Mature deer learn a lot of tricks to avoid the dogs, lose the dogs or not be pushed across an open two track. They often circle back inside the drive Instead of crossing openings or roads.

It can be very difficult to narrow down where the deer will appear. Often well ahead of the dogs. And get a shot. Shotguns only. And no slugs allowed. That means 30-40 yards max at a running whitetail. Then if the deer gets “out of that drive” everyone must be re positioned for the next potential spot the deer may cross.

Mature experienced bucks are known to do large circles inside the drive then when they have the hounds doing circles on their own tracks they slip out.

I took my visiting brother in law to the club for a hunt. We were posted next to each other on a two track miles from where the dogs were loosed. I eventually sat down, then layed down.

The next memory is being woken by a shotgun blast. Which ended up being the second shot of two my brother in law took.

I sat up and yelled down to ask if he shot? He said yes twice. (Man I must have been out) I walked down to see that he had shot two nice bucks with two shots. And the were both laying dead already. My first thought was Holly cow great shooting. He was a Jarhead, I guess those Leathernecks Can shoot.

The next thought was some won’t be happy that a Yankee guest just shot two nice bucks at once. I couldn’t have been more wrong. They of course gave him crap but all in fun. And congratulated him. Wanting to hear what happened.

He heard the dogs in the distance getting closer and closer. Coming his way. They kept getting louder and louder until it got him all nerved up. And suddenly there are two mature bucks running together 300 yards in front of the hounds. He instinctively shot them both with a borrowed gun from me. The meat from each day is divided evenly and numbers are drawn again for 1st pick and so on of the meat cuts. At that time there was no daily or seasonal limit on deer in that area. It was so thick they couldn’t manage the deer.


That story got told many times at the club.

 

[Fatback]

@Fatback
That the usual reaction with the Whelen.
What load did you use.
Bob

Factory loaded Federal premiums with 225 grain TBBCs. That’s 2 deer with that load this season. Real pleased with the rifle/cartridge combo and I’ve got enough of them to last me many years.

 

[Field28]

Altitude, do you remember what County you were hunting in?

That was pretty typical of the 80's.
Back then the biologists from SCDNR would survey the land and issue doe tags per density, we got hundreds of tags every year, you had to fill the quota or you would lose tags the following year. I had a couple of years that I shot over 30 does.
We had a deal set up with a processor and a local food bank and soup kitchen, we donated tons of meat.

Shooting that many deer I got to use many different rifles and calibers, pretty good experience. Some we had at the lodge some borrowed from clients.

We are still allowed to kill around 13 a year i believe . They issue you a certain amount of buck and doe tags free with your license and you can order more.

For those who don't know...
The lower part of SC's deer season opens August 15- January 1rst, rifle , primitive, whatever. It's one of the few places that you can shoot a buck in velvet with a rifle.
My part of the state, the upper coast is August 15 primitive weapons, September 1rst rifle- January 1rst, doe shooting starts September 15th both zones.
The Upstate starts a little later for everything.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Colleton and Orangeburg counties I think. Long time ago.

It’s funny. The story of my brother-in-law killing two bucks on one stand. I still had not even killed a deer yet on those clubs let alone a buck.

I was not very lucky at the dog deer hunting. I just remembered the deer down there being very spooky, especially when I would go out and hunt from a tree stand with my bow.

I think the most I killed down there in one year was nine

 

[BJH65]

I would have loved experiencing a traditional southern deer hunt with hounds. Have experienced bear hunting and coon hunting with hounds, very enjoyable, some of the most memorable and exciting hunting I’ve done. Having worked with dogs a lot in a previous career, it never ceases to amaze me their amazing abilities.