Posted: 8/13/2024 7:27:50 PM EDT
[Last Edit: -Blue-][Edited]
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This past weekend my buddy and I went deer hunting. Neither one of us have shot a deer but we went out a couple times last season and did some "learning". This season we did a lot of research on where to go, and came up with a couple good spots. We got up to the area late at night, and found a turn out on the side of the road just like it looked like on OnX. There was a little metal bridge that crossed a dry creek bed. My buddy says "fuck it dude! Let's drive the truck across the bridge and camp on the other side!". So I get out of the truck, put my headlamp on and scope it out. I get to the other side, and think alright we can do this, and spook a giant buck out of his bed and he goes barreling off down the creek bed. Scared the shit out of me when it happened, but it's the first buck I've seen in years. And it looked huge. So the morning comes and we decide to head off down the creek bed in the direction the deer went. There's deer shit everywhere. We follow the deer shit and ended up on top of a ridge, and once we get to the top and look out we try and decide what our next move is. I put my pack down, and start glassing the hill to our west figuring the way the wind was blowing maybe we hadn't scared off anything in that direction. My buddy starts saying "buck buck buck!!!" He's got his rifle pointed to the ridge on our east. I tell him to shoot it, while getting proned out and finding the buck in my scope. Seemingly an eternity goes by, and I tell him to shoot it again. C'mon man shoot it!!!. Finally I had enough waiting the buck was going to be out of our sights if we wait any longer. I go to pull the trigger and I forgot to click my safety off  By the time I get myself together I can see the rack disappear behind the ridge  I still don't know why my buddy froze and never got a shot off. Half his excuse was he was waiting for me to shoot it, but he spotted it first so I didn't want to hog it and take an opportunity that rightfully was his. The deer was 238 yards away. His 6.5PRC should have been an easy shot but maybe he didn't have confidence in the distance as he's never shot that far. I've been reliving the gun not going off when I expected it to ever since it happened. I've had dreams about it. It's consuming me. I need to get back out there and get this buck or I feel like I'm going to feel this way forever  I'm a duck hunter, most of my hunting time is in a boat with my gun pointing in the air while I wait, I almost never have my safety on in the boat unless I'm laying the gun down and doing something. It never crossed my mind that gun safety would have caught me like this but the possible alternative would be even worse. If I mess up my next opportunity again, I'm really gonna feel it.
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Watching the kids shoot Pieeater's 1919 was great. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a little kid kneeling in a pile of brass and links.-Pthfndr after the Nov 13th NorCal shoot
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I've only been hunting for 20 odd years, but I've seen buck fever strike even very experienced hunters. I try to glass deer in the off season and practice aiming and firing even on immature deer that I have no intention of shooting. So by the time I'm ready to shoot a mature buck or doe, the process is automatic----start taking deep breaths, rifle up, safety off in one smooth motion, wait for the best shot I can get.....be it broadside or transverse, and when the deer stops....sometimes I'll make a "Meep" sound, and at that moment I'll break the shot. Just about every deer I've shot, with a crossbow, shotgun with Sabot's and now a .450 Bushmaster, with a solid heart-lung shot, walks about 10 yards and keels over. Last years 5.5 year old massive 8 point buck fell dead in the laneway between two fields, I field dressed it right there. Hunting is not rocket science. |
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Take deep slow breaths when you see one and please don't rush a shot. You'll regret that wayyy more than not shooting at all. I get shaky as shit when I even see a little buck but just gotta breath and squeeze and you'll be good. I've missed some "easy" shots and I still think about them but I don't let it consume me because when it's done, it's done. Can't change a damn thing from the past but you can practice for the future. |
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Originally Posted By jmt1271: Where are you located that there is a rifle season currently open? California |
Watching the kids shoot Pieeater's 1919 was great. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a little kid kneeling in a pile of brass and links.-Pthfndr after the Nov 13th NorCal shoot
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Originally Posted By jmt1271: Damn. I had no clue any state opened this early for firearms. Hope you get the next one. Yep, August 10th this year A zone rifle season opened. I don't know when the other zones open up but D6 for example opens up at the end of September. |
Watching the kids shoot Pieeater's 1919 was great. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a little kid kneeling in a pile of brass and links.-Pthfndr after the Nov 13th NorCal shoot
Doesn't matter what or how many you shoot, you'll always remember the one that got away. 
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"You want perfection, or nothing. The revolution was never perfect....We fight because we believe, we leave because we are disilliusioned, we come back because we are lost, we die because we are committed.
- Jesus Raza, The Professionals
- Jesus Raza, The Professionals
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Went back out yesterday and found some good trails that are being used and even found some sheds. I spooked one buck out of the brush but he was gone so fast there was never a chance at him. I think I’m in the right area. Attached File Attached File Attached File |
Watching the kids shoot Pieeater's 1919 was great. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a little kid kneeling in a pile of brass and links.-Pthfndr after the Nov 13th NorCal shoot
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My late Grandpa (God rest his wonderful soul) got buck fever so bad that it didn't matter if the buck was 20 yards away or 200, it was getting all 5 rounds of 44mag out of his Ruger carbine. He never could tame it even after all those years. I've been deer hunting now for over 30 years. I still get a little excited, but really it's more just an extremely intense focus. Like everything else in the world is suddenly gone and it's just me and the deer I'm going to shoot. It's fascinating, really. You'll get to a point that it's just like shouldering your shotgun to smoke a mallard that's cupped and committed. . . total muscle memory. Also, Big bucks (4.5 and older) generally will only tolerate one human interaction on a parcel or piece of public land before they go nocturnal or just book it for a new spot. Not sure how the hunting pressure is where you're at but it's extremely high by me. |
Somewhere in the United States is a little girl…whose mother is a stripper, her father is a crack head, and her grandfather is President of the United States.
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Don't shoot at deer on the ridge. It's too easy to send a round into the great beyond. Even if you make a direct hit, that round is likely coming out the other side with enough energy to be dangerous. I've seen a few deer silhouetted on the ridge and have to have real self control not to take the shot. Deer like that location because they can see you, and where they're going to go to get away from you. |
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Well I got my first deer. Wasn’t the giant I saw on opener, but I’m happy for myself. My birthday was last Thursday, and Friday morning after a side job I told my wife I was gonna shoot a birthday Buck and it happened. I drove over three hours to get there, had about two and a half hours of shoot time left in the day when he walked out. I wasn’t there more than 5-10 minutes before he came into view. 180 yard shot with one of my 308 TTSX reloads and down he went. It was a 300 yard drag out to the road which really showed how out of shape I am but it was an experience I’ll never forget. An A zone public land deer out here doesn’t happen to many people. D6 zone opens up this weekend and I’m going to try and punch my second tag out there hopefully on a bigger deer. Attached File Attached File Attached File |
Watching the kids shoot Pieeater's 1919 was great. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a little kid kneeling in a pile of brass and links.-Pthfndr after the Nov 13th NorCal shoot
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Originally Posted By Tradhntr: Nice buck op! Dang, 3 hour drive to your hunting spot? You want it don’t you? That's life hunting where I'm at unfortunately. Public land is far and few between. |
Watching the kids shoot Pieeater's 1919 was great. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a little kid kneeling in a pile of brass and links.-Pthfndr after the Nov 13th NorCal shoot
| Congratulations, OP! Now you're hooked for life. And that's a pretty nice deer. |
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas Jefferson
"He didnt punch anybody. He punched an idea." DrFrige
Thomas Jefferson
"He didnt punch anybody. He punched an idea." DrFrige
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Congrats! You'll never forget your first. As far as buck fever, I don't have it. I have deer fever. If I have a weapon in my hand and I'm hunting I get excited at every deer I see. Does, fawns, bucks.... it doesnt matter. I get genuinely excited. Bow hunting is the worst. I've watched a nice buck come into doe estrous scent by my stand and it took him 2 hours to get to me. By the time he was 21 yards away I was shaking so bad I thought my teeth would fall out. I was able to draw, and promptly whizzed an arrow over his back as he jumped the string (or I flat out missed ). Better that than wound.I've been pretty lucky with the amount of game and deer I've harvested in my 40 year hunting career. I don't get "buck fever" really anymore while in the process of shooting, but DAMN I still shake like a freak AFTER the shot is taken. Sometimes to the point I have to hold onto the tree while in a stand because I'm afraid my knees will buckle and I'll fall out. I'm pretty sure that when that STOPS happening, my deer hunting career is over. I live for that shake, plan all year for days off to do it. Spend tons of money and use up all my vacation time to do it. There is NOTHING in this world that excites me so intensely. THATS what makes it awesome! |
"One does not hunt in order to kill, quite the contrary, One kills in order to have hunted"
I got sunshine in my stomach, like I just rocked my baby to sleep
I got sunshine in my stomach, like I just rocked my baby to sleep
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