how did everyone do

[MG - Fishin']

Well we were up in 170 by Leech Lake and did pretty good. We had 6 guys and got 7 (3 does and 4 bucks). There were tracks, rubs, and scrapes everywhere, but I didn't manage to see a live deer during shooting hours until Monday morning. One guy took a shot on Monday at a doe from a long range an didn't think he hit it, but saw 4 other deer heading into the woods with this deer. So since I hadn't pulled the trigger yet, they got me to go up to the stand while they made a drive to me. Then in the middle of the drive they found fresh blood from the doe he shot at. They kept on the blood trail and managed to push a doe and a fawn right to me. They both popped out at about 50 yards. I sat there for a good 5 minutes and waited for Bucky to come out behind them, but nothing. Finally she kept on walking closer and closer to me with her head down and then looking back some more at the fawn. Now she stood at about 20 yards and I just couldn't take it any more. Blasted her in the neck and down she went. Even found the bullet in her neck right against the bone. Never did see Mr. Bucky that was chasing them around, but maybe this weekend he'll be there. No big bucks yet, just some spikers and a six pointer, but the seasons far from over still. Good luck all and be safe out there.

[Benny]

We hunted 170 also but only 2 does and one 8 pointer for 6 hunters, only saw two other deer all weekend.
Sure was quiet for having a record number of deer in the area.
Benny

[Insp Gadget]

Well my 13 yr old has his first 2! doe Saturday about 8 at 50 yds, didn't get a shot at the fawn. Sun I shot a big 8pt at 135 yds through the needle after he missed twice at the doe that my buch was following. later sunday the fawn came back but never gave a shot, and we let a small 8pt walk at 15 yds! Monday got to the tree at 6:25, the fawn came back at 6:35. 6:40, Jr. took it at 50 yds. (one shot for each deer, no tracking! ) 5 minutes later, a different 8 pt comes out on the fawn trail! We let it walk. Had 2 tags each, now one left for Monroe this weekend! (area174) had another interesting event.

Monday, taking a walk trying to kick something up for our other guy (who'd seen nothing but tracks!) I stepped out into a clear cut and stopped to relax after pushing through a willow swamp and took a look around. Here, 20 yds away at sticking out of the hole under the roots of a blow down just looking [PoorWordUsage]ed at me is about a 500 pound (well it looked that big then!) Black Bear! I didn't stay to chat or rest just started to walk with a purpose due south!! No kidding, the head was huge like a pumpkin and the ears were right on top and very little! Talk about needing clean shorts! As I walked, I kept one eye over the shouulder and one finger on the safety but he just said good, you're leaving and layed his head back down on the massive paws that were hanging over the dirt mound.

Well, that was all the excitement for this weekend, we'll see what happens Saturday!

Gadget

[Boar]

Boy was that a cold sit or what? felt good for a change, nice to see deer moving all day, passed on a six to grow up, pass on several does an fawns, finally took a dry doe for my grandpa, he's 92 and still out there but cant shoot to well, missed 7 shots a does 30-50 yrds away, figurted I'd plug one for his freezer for him. Can't wait to get back to bow. Later,boar

[barebackjack]

Well, it was a tough opening morning sitting through the big chill, managed to shoot one smaller doe on saturday, got one on sunday and our party was done by 10 am on sunday with 8 deer for 6 guys, tortured ourselves with some beers and football, terrible day!

[Iceman77]

I hunt back home with my family in North Dakota for rifle season. We had a great year also and saw way too many deer. Unfortunately deer out there have become overgrown rodents. We shot a nice 6X7 that was 19.5" inside spread with good mass and G2's of 10" in length. My dad and I both shot him at the same time 1 bullet went into the liver and the other into the lungs when he was on a dead run at 350-400 yards. We had another nice 4X4 that was 15" inside spread and nice tall tines. This one was an easy broadside shot standing at 150 yards. The rest of our tags were doe tags and we were able to fill those. My doe was 300-350 yards out and shot with my 6mm. We saw equal amounts of bucks and does and most of the bucks were over 14" inside spread and 4X4's. It is nice to see a lot of deer with near equal buck/doe ratios and the land being able to support so many without stunting growth and development. But the most important thing was I am able to return home to hunt with family and enjoy our time together doing something we enjoy.

[Fisher Dave]

I'm glad to hear there has been so much success, and so much story telling to go along with it... I guess its all part of hunting... especially the rifle season.

350-400 yards ... takes about 1/2 second for a bullet to get there for most bullets .. a deer running 35 mph (dead run) is about 50 fps .... so I would really have to commend anyone that could make a shot at 350-400 yards on a running deer and hit it anywhere .. let alone in the vitals. Two shots in the vitals... that should have been on camera and been in a record book somewhere.

How far did you guys lead that deer .. somewhere between 20'-40'?

[STILLNOFISH]

I can back up what Icemann77 is saying. I too hunt in ND with my relatives and it is not uncommon to shoot running deer at 300yds, most of the time they stop for a brief second and you can get a shot off. That is the way hunting usually goes out their with the open terain. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of missing going on as well. Like you Icemann our group shot three bucks over the weekend with two being 5x5's and 1 a 4x5. Good luck to all.

[leechlake]

I must be too much of a woods hunter but I couldn't even think about shooting at a deer standing still at those distances. I know my SD buddies do a lot of long distance shooting at running animals. I also know that more often than not it's shot somewhere other than an "ideal" place. I also know a lot of these deer are taken "driving" deer. Pick up style. Drive around, see a deer and drive like a mad man to catch it, jump out and start blazing. Not my cup of tea really, but it is more than common in the open fields (although illegal, I know). I don't mean to intend that's what anyone here was doing, by the way. Good shooting, a bit of luck and probably a lot of experience at long distance shooting on moving deer.

[SCCO9803]

While I may be a bit of a skeptic, I take your word for it, heck of shot! Good job! I slug hunt so I can't relate to rifle accuracy and range, so I can't elaborate. I do that is a long way though.

[Iceman77]

There are always a fair share of hunters driving around in trucks and is my biggest complaint in that area. Whenever they see someone pushing deer they will cap the ends of the CRP fields and wait for deer to come running by. Those guys are just part of the experience and in some cases are a good laugh. I saw 4 guys jump out of a suburban this weekend and each shot at least twice at a very nice buck that ran 50 yards from them. In ND you definately will not see many 30-30's, .300's, or .308's. Almost every rifle out there is a .270 or less. My dad was a gunsmith for a hobby job and built his own .243-06 which with the current handloads are 3800 fps. We found he has to use hollow points to get the bullet to expand quicker otherwise the bullet would start expanding towards the exit of the deer due to its speed. At about 400 yards and if the deer is running hard I will lead 2.5-3 deer lengths with my 6mm and horizontally level with the top of the back. I sight in dead on at 200 yards(since that is the average range for a shot) I will be 2" low at 300 yards and a little lower at 400 yards. Dad's .243-06 is faster than my rifle and needs to lead a little less. My next rifle will be .25-06 and will probably buy that for my wife next year. I learned how to shoot at prairie dogs and currently have one with a 50 cal. rifle at over 1500 yards. After that running deer at 300-400 yards is rather easy. You just need to practice and know the ballistics of the weapon you are using and stick to smaller calibers for your long distance shots. Out of 10 years of rifle hunting for me I have missed 3 deer. It's amazing what your equipment can do if it's shot fairly often(I shoot 25 rounds a month on average with my rifle) and you know what the rifle and you are capable of. And most of all don't pull the trigger... just a nice light squeeze until the shot goes off. Otherwise there would be no way I could hold a respectable group at longer distances. My in-laws never believed that anyone would shoot that far at a deer until I went hunting with them up by Wright, MN 2 years ago and dropped a buck at 300 yards running across an open area where power lines ran through. As stated before, in ND different weapons are preferred and greater accuracy is required for the longer distances. That's the way it works out there, since there are extremely few trees, and without shooting that far it would become difficult in filling your tag. Hence, the reason why I practice shooting on a monthly basis to keep that edge.

[Steve Foss]

Iceman:

I spent years hunting around Harvey/Fessenden and Grand Forks, and I'm with you on the differing needs of calibers in different places.

Up here in Ely, I'm shooting 12-gauge slugs, because a shot longer than 100 yards is very unusual.

Where were you hunting? I'm assuming you were after whitetails, but maybe it was mulies?

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Iceman77]

I hunt for whitetails down where my mom was originally from in Napoleon. Most of my relatives now live in Bismarck and it's a convenient place for everyone to get together to visit. I am actually from the Fordville-Lankin area originally(1 hour NW of Forks). As a side note, while we were deer hunting CRP I have never seen so many grouse, partridge, and pheasents anywhere. Each 160 acre area of the thickest CRP with corn fields nearby we would kick up around 100 birds!!! I've usually kicked up a few but nothing like we saw this year.

[Steve Foss]

Iceman:

The last deer I shot in N.D. was processed in Fordville by Curtie (can't remember his last name). I was living on a farmstead between McCanna and Niagara at the time.

Good buddy of mine named Jim Durkin was from the Lankin area. He and I worked together at the G.F. Herald. He's at the Star Tribune now.

I hunted with him and a few others on his folks' farm not far from Midway school. Man, that takes me back. Though it's only been a few years, seems like a long time.

------------------
"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 11-12-2003).]

[Fisher Dave]

Iceman .. I was in no way attacking you . just having a little fun. Most of us who have hunted for years has observed people popping off shots hopelessly at deer at long range running across a field, or several people at once for that matter. My 1st year deer hunting (12 years old) we had 3 deer come running out and do a semi-circle around us at about 100 yards or a little more as we were going to start a deer drive (open field at edge of woods). There were 7 of us, 21 shots were fired, only 2 shots hit .. both mine with a .44 rifle. Even at that age I was shooting competitively on KD ranges (with a .308) and had a good idea of what my rifle was capable of at a somewhat reasonable range... If a target is moving, it makes no difference if you can keep all your shots in a pie plate at 600 yards .. the pie plate doesn't move.

I never said long range shots were impossible on a moving target, but a person would have to be very lucky if they didnt know exactly what they were shooting. Most hunters are more likely to put a bullet in a farm house, or lobbing across a road before they would hit the deer (desperately shooting forgeting about backround).

[RowShow]

Impressive.

[Ruttin' Buck]

Hey Iceman...you ever know a Jeremy McGlaughlin from Fordville/Lankin? He was a roomate of mine at NDSU. He was a civil eng & I'm a mechanical.

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"Aim small...miss small"

[Bogsucker]

The Super-Blackhawk spoke well yesterday. I shot a decent 8 point about 2:30 pm yesterday. I took off of work at 1:00 pm and hunted some public land near Rochester. I still hunt the area as it gets a lot of hunting pressure and the deer usually don't move unless your right on top of them. The Wind was blowin snow and rain at about 40 mph when I shot him at about 30 yards. Knocked him down instantly then he tried to get up so I popped him 2 more times just to make sure, probably wouldn't have had to shoot him again though. Now I have to wait until Muzzleloader season to shoot a doe (all season lic.)!

[This message has been edited by Sarge (edited 11-15-2003).]

[Iceman77]

Yep, I knew Jeremy. Their farmstead is 1/2 mile from ours. He is a couple years older than I am and was in my sisters class but I knew him very well. Anyways I am a mechanical engineer out of UND. GO SIOUX!!!

[Steve Foss]

Sioux are rated 1st in the nation. Just mopped up the Gophers last weekend. Yes!

------------------
"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Bogsucker]

Thanks Sarge! Are you hunting the second season?

[willowcat]

Passed up a lot of small bucks, Must have had a nervous twitch when I shot at the big one. (I missed). Never saw another big buck after that.

[Sarge]

Yep 2nd season, I can already taste the fresh venison. I'm going increase the picture size when I get home tonight, thought I did it right, but I never seem to get it done right the first time.

[Ruttin' Buck]

Hey Iceman....I'll spare you the standard Bison response since you did at least choose the right engineering degree. Hutch Tech or 3M...has to be one of those 2?

I think Jeremy's sis was older. Also dated a Jamie Lovaasen from Park River for a few years. Everybody knows everybody up in those parts! For some reason, she just couldn't put up with my hunting/fishing ways...go figure.

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

Here's my story. Last Saturday, the 2nd to the last day of season, I decided to hit the woods miday while everyone else stayed at camp. It was cloudy and misty so I figured they may move around. About 30 minutes in the stand, and worried I didn't bring any water so I could stay till dark, a decent 9-pointer sneaks out of a swamp bedding area. It was paced off at 108 yards and not what I would hope for with my bird gun lobbing slugs. I adjusted for drop but missed the first one. Try hitting a small object that far away with a bead!! The deer made the mistake of freezing in the small opening and looking my way. I re-adjusted and lobbed another at his chest. It hit him square in the neck and dropped him instantly. Lucky.
Next year I'm getting a scoped slug gun. I only hunt slug country second weekend so it has been hard to justify the cost for one weekend a year but that incident convinced me. Man are those back straps yummy.