2006 Deer Hunting Photo Contest

[st.crioxfishin]

jerk bait,

you've got to consider perspective when looking at the photo. the guy is farther back in the picture than the deer, so he is going to look smaller, this is why his shoulders may look smaller (9inches) compared to the massive spread.

Nice Deer!!

[woody1975]

All I was saying is that - - I was taught when field judging deer, ear-tip to ear-tip on adult deer. Using 16" as a rule of thumb - And that has been very close from my measurements and then add the distance from the tip to the inside main beam on either side, 24 inches didn't look that extreme. In that case, 16 + 4 + 4 = 24 inches. The reason you took 16 + 4 and got twenty was because you forgot to add the other side.

Anyway you look at it, I'd like to have killed that monster.

[Shoot2Kill]

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We had a great hunt in Canada again this year. I shot this noce 140" Ten pt the second mornign of the Trip, Then Greg shot the monster 21 pt 176" deer.

the shed in the photo is from Gregs buck, I found it after I shot mine, Greg's buck actually walked up to us as we were dragging mine out of the woods.

[image]http://

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Finally a beautiful harvest photo! Nice job man.

[not_nuf_time]

If you lok at the guys hands, and figure about 4 inches per hand, it looks like you could get three hands and then some. May be a 24-26 inch spread. Looks massive to me. Or maybe he has 3 foot long forearms

[swampbuck]

thank you for the compliments on the photo.

We atually had too many good photos hard to choose.

I figure if you actually are lucky enough to get a nice buck (or any buck) take the time to get good photos!

We had to drag the deer a long ways out of the way to get a nice back ground. cleaned the blood off the animal and myself, smiled, and had the gun in a safe position.

I realize it is not easy or convienient to do this, but when I look back through the photos it is well worth it!

[Shoot2Kill]

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thank you for the compliments on the photo.

We atually had too many good photos hard to choose.

I figure if you actually are lucky enough to get a nice buck (or any buck) take the time to get good photos!

We had to drag the deer a long ways out of the way to get a nice back ground. cleaned the blood off the animal and myself, smiled, and had the gun in a safe position.

I realize it is not easy or convienient to do this, but when I look back through the photos it is well worth it!

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You couldn't have put that better. An extra half hour of taking photos is always worth it because after the hunt - besides the mount on your wall, the pictures are what tell the story. It's not hard to take quality harvest pics in the field and they look so much better than those in the back of pickups or hanging upside down it the ol barn.

[SupaMan]

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what was that last part......or something?

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It's a figure of speech, heard of it?

[thewalleyeguy]

Quote:

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We had a great hunt in Canada again this year. I shot this noce 140" Ten pt the second mornign of the Trip, Then Greg shot the monster 21 pt 176" deer.

the shed in the photo is from Gregs buck, I found it after I shot mine, Greg's buck actually walked up to us as we were dragging mine out of the woods.

[image]http://

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Man That is a HOG!!

[reddog]

Newbie here, first post...

Born N Raised in Mn.

Thought I'd try the posting some photos;

Heres my nephew with his first deer.

Heres a couple hunting buddies:

Our opening is tomorrow..

Gonna work on getting the nephew some horns..

[Cooter]

Welcome to the site reddog!! You probably have one of the best first posts ever! Looks like you have one heck of a hunting area, congrats on the season. Hope to hear more from ya soon, later.

[Bogsucker]

11/29/2006 8:10 am, just a few minutes after watching a big 10 pt that wouldn't present a decent shot, nice to see a big buck though. I couldn't see where he went after the shot due to the billowing clod of smoke but after a short tracking job I found him quite readily.

CVA Kodiak .50, Which happens to be my Brother-in-laws but he couldn't take Wednesday off so I borrowed his gun!!!

I called my pa and asked him if he'd like to help me drag out a buck out of the swamp and he said he'd be there in about 45 minutes. The buck ain't that big but 45 minutes later I had him less than half way out and it took another hour to get him to the jeep!!!

[reddog]

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Welcome to the site reddog!! You probably have one of the best first posts ever! Looks like you have one heck of a hunting area, congrats on the season. Hope to hear more from ya soon, later.

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Thanks for the welcome, Cooter.

Theres better places to hunt, thats for sure, but they aint home.

Heres a few more pics, from my albums, that you folks may enjoy.

Some of them arent real clear, but theyre clear enough to know what I'm looking at thru the scope.

I found the left tine shed of this buck last year, (drop tine)

I dont shoot much anymore, except with the camera, and its strictly amateur. My passion is spotting.

Sorry, if I derailed the thread.........

One more...

[Dag_1979]

Hey reddog, is that Tom Matuska in your last photo of "hunting buddies"?

[reddog]

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Hey reddog, is that Tom Matuska in your last photo of "hunting buddies"?

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Small world, isnt it..

[harvey lee]

Reddog

Welcome to HotSpot Outdoors and Fishing Mn. Looks to me like you have found a great buck area. I enjoyed all your deer photos.

We look forward to your future post.

Again,Welcome.

[Stratosman]

I love that corn shot....

[bassNspear]

Those are some great pictures. I would love to be able to take shots like that, the corn one by far is the best shot.

[reddog]

Thanks, Guys, I do appreciate hearing you like them.

I have lots more, but dont want to step on the thread.

Like I said earlier,

Opening day is this morning.

Gonna try to get the nephew some horns this year.

Met my brother and nephew in the cafe this morning at 6.

5 degrees, and about a 25 mile wind, out of the northwest.

It was a real biting kind of cold.

I had told them to call a landowner I knew and ask if they could hunt. Not a big piece of ground, but private and seldom hunted for positives . Notoriously, it hasnt been available to anyone but family hunting, but I thought that the family only hunted pheasants, so I told him to ask.

He called the landowner, and explained the situation about it only being his son, and they needed a place to sit in the morning. He explained to said landowner, that he would understand if he said no, but if he didnt ask, then he would never know.

The landowner agreed to let them in, but for deer only, and only them, no others.

It pays to ask!

My brother hunted alot in his youth, but has been on kind of a sabbatical from hunting, for about 25 years, raising kids. This is his only son, and he has lit the fire up again, big time. My biggest problem is the exodus of my guns out of my home at a alarming rate.

Not really, I'm glad to be able to do it.

We scouted it last night and a nice buck came out at sunset and went south into some other land that I could hunt.

They sat there from 7 till about 8:45,and had 3 does come by and seen the nice buck move laterally across the property and up into a farm grove.

I spent the morning doing chores and then a bit of driving around, looking for any kind of horns that could present a sneak for the nephew.

I found a buck bedded in a series of terraces, on some land that I have hunted in the past, but last year there were some others on it, so I decided I had better go chase down permission, so there was no question about it and just in case thay had granted permission to others.

I had seen this buck there on Tuesday, alone, but from Wed on there were several does in the terraces and no horns.

This morning, he was there, and alone. No other deer to be found. Which is a good thing.

I located the farmer, about 5 miles up into Minnesota and after talking with him, secured permission. He was going to deny permission because he had two archery hunters that had permission, but since the archery season closes down in Iowa for the gun season, he allowed us to go.

When I came back to the section the buck was in, I found the north road littered with trucks and posted hunters.

This buck was bedded about 250 yds from the north road when I left, but you couldn't see him from anywhere except the extreme southeast corner or from straight south. He had himself a pretty good hiding spot, I'd say.

I figured that the hunt was over and they had him going in the section to the north, but it ended up only being a drive in that section. They had no idea the buck was there and never did.

I stopped back at the stand spot and went in to collect my brother and his son. They were already out and in the truck warming up. '

It was less than a mile over to show them the bedded buck, and a plan was made.

Sneak in, from the north road, one terrace down from the buck. Stay real low, in hopes of not being seen when going over the small slope that hid him from the road.

They drove over, parked and headed in. I was off to the south end of the section to watch.

Very quickly, they found themselves at the end of the wrong terrace and backing up, to head to the next one west, one terrace east of the buck.

A excellent sneak was made to the top of the terrace and a perfectly placed 75 yard shot to the left front shoulder, passed completely thru at a quartering angle and exited the right side, low in the neck.

The buck make a big jump out of the bed upon being hit and when he came down, collapsed into a pile with two broken shoulders and a double lung wound.

All the while, the road warriers were wondering what the heck was going on in that section.

Had a hard time wiping the smile off my face.

Brother and nephew are ecstatic!

I love it when plan comes together.

Marlin 512P, 3 shot clip Slug rifle.

Brand new Leupold VX1 2-7 shotgun scope.

Winchester Supreme, 2 3/4" 385 grn sabot slug.

MV 1900 fps.

I'm on my 3rd scope for this outfit.

Started with Simmons, and it couldnt handle the punishment of the Winchester Supremes,

Upgraded to a Nikon, Pro Staff 2-7 and it lasted three years, about 16 rounds, till it spread lead all over the place last week when sigting the rig in.

Bit the bullet and bought the Leupold this week and was right back on track, with 2moa accuracy again with the slug rifle.

Will the Leupold hold up? I cannot say, but the punishment of those Supremes will test the mettle of any brand of scope.

Time will tell.

To date, the scope has 8 rounds by it, 7 for sighting in, and one for the nephew.

Sorry for the typos, but Im in a hurry, as Ive got a deer to skin this afternoon, and a Christmas party tonight, that I told everyone we'd bring chislic.

[Code-Man]

Hey Reddog you should got to photobucket and put some of them on there and just put links down instead of filling the thread. Seems like you got some good photos and I would like to check them out.

[The_Duckslayer]

Reddog... I am in awe of the buck in the corn. I just can not imagine how sneaky (read stealth) you have to be to get a shot like that! AWESOME! Thanks a bunch for sharing! Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[reddog]

Thanks guys,

If you right click on the photos, it will give you the pathway to my photo hosting site, if you want to view more.

I wont post the link, unless someone tells me its OK.

I have spot and stalked predators for almost 40 years, but didnt start hunting deer till I was well into my 20s. Never could see the reason to, till I ate some that was handled and prepared the right way. Needless to say, being a stalker, didnt bode well with deer hunting from a stand. Even though I had some premier ground to hunt on, when I tried traditional tree stand hunting, I always found myself on the ground, closing the gap and rather than fight a losing battle, I gave up stand hunting.

I'll post a couple others, since it appears no one is posting anyway.

Here is the bedded buck, when I halved the distance, and he decided to leave.

Heres another buck, that I got too close to, because of how many corn leaves were hanging in the row to get a picture of.

Heres a doe, thats feeding, about 20 feet away.

I learned cornfield hunting from one of the best ever,

Its harder to hunt the corn now, with 18 and 20 inch rows, ridge till and modern day farming practices, but... its very, very exciting, and you never know what youre going to see.

I sliced a foxes forehead one day, when I shot straight down on him, from one row apart in a blizzard.

We always shoot cross rows, ( edited to note archery here, gun hunting,its OK to shoot down the rows, because a neck shot is usually pretty easy at 15 or 20 yards.) usually about 3 rows apart. Sometimes theres an angle , sometimes youre directly across from him, depending on where an opening in the corn plants facilitates a shot to the vitals. Its not uncommon for them to come out of their bed sideways, across several rows of corn, either at you, or away from you, depending on which way they are laying. Youve never seen any eyeball as big as a whitetails, when your 12 feet away, and it first comes into view thru the stalks. It looks like a baseball.

Its nearly impossible to get a picture that looks like anything, crossrows. Its a game of inches at that range.

Oh well, I could go on and on, but wont. I'm glad you enjoy some of the photos.

[Shad rap]

red dog are you from the lakes area? I grew up in Spirit Lake. I seen a few nice bucks down that way this year and herd of a few nice bucks taken. I wishing I still hunted round there.

[evntam]

I shot a doe on the second weekend of the MN rifle season. She was chased onto the field by this nice buck, and the smaller 7 point buck. The big buck stayed and guarded the downed female for over a half hour while the smaller buck tried to nose in on his turf. After a half hour, I had to get out of the stand and go get the doe before it got dark. I threw an apple at the buck, but he still wouldn't leave. I chose not to shoot him, as I wanted a younger member of our party to have a "shot" at him.

Once I was within 40 yards of him, I had to chamber another fresh round into my gun before he grudgingly walked away. [image] [/image] [image] [/image]

[BigWadeS]

Reddog,

How do I get the picture to take me to the other link?

[reddog]

Big Wade.

Its not a commercial site, so there shouldnt be any objection from the moderators if I post it.

Hunting and fishing pics

Shad Rap, Yes, I am from the Lakes region.

I spotted a buck today, in a chiseled corn fiel, and made a stalk. It was a rough sneak and as I was making my final approach, I didnt think I could make the shot, as looking thru the stubble,(ie. hard to guess) it appeared to be about 230 yards, which is too far for me.

I decided to top the hill, get the bipod set down, and make a decision to shoot or not at that time, if the situation arose.

I extended the legs of the bipod down slithered my way to the top of the hill.

I flopped the gun up on its legs, and centered the scope on the buck.

He had no idea I was there, so I took a little time, to look at that actual yardage. It was deceiving, across from hill to hill. I guestimated it to be slightly under 200.

He was laying in such a way, that his body was away and I had face, neck and left front shoulder.

I decided that I would attempt a neck shot, which would either be a solid hit or miss, with a smaller margin of error.

I had a slight cross wind, from left to right, so I held at the base of his left jawbone. Through the Leupold scope, it appeared to be a nice sized target, so maybe the range was less than anticipated.

I squeezed the trigger, and the slug rifle barked and I was greeted with a solid "whack" sound. When the gun settled back down, the buck lay dead on the sidehill.

I bolted another round into the chamber, and lay ready, in case it wasnt as solid of a hit as it sounded.

A few kicks of the hind legs, and he lay still.

I paced it off at 160 paces, so it was probably more like a 150 yd shot if you take out the up and down between the hills.

I took some field pictures, but when I got back here to add them to my album, I found that I had no CF card in. I hate that when that happens.

Anyway, the hide is off, the inside loins are in the fridge, and I'm taking off for a couple days of fishin.

Next up, is to get my daughters boyfriend a sneak in this weekend.