Deer season, opening day for rifle season, kicked off with a "BANG" on Saturday, November 15th here in upstate NY.
My adult son, and another hunter, a great friend, hunted with me on the hunting/recreational property.
My son (age 43) successfully harvested his first deer ever, a nice big doe by 07:15AM.
My friend harvested a four point buck and a nice big doe, both by 11:00AM.
Tagged out by 2PM on opening day!
The buck required blood tracking on dead wet leaves on the forest floor (the snow melted) and it was a great learning opportunity for my son. The buck ran around a quarter mile before expiring, and it took several hours before it was located. It was a very tough tracking situation, one of the worst/most difficult that I have ever seen. Very minimal blood spots on wet leaves.
When field dressing the buck, only one lung was hit, and both the entrance and exit bullet holes were about the size of a # 2 yellow pencil.
It sure was nice having a younger pair of eyes when doing the blood tracking.
Here in New York State, they are "pushing" lead free deer hunting ammunition, and some locations require it. So far that lead free ammo thing is only a "request" when hunting on privately owned land.
I was not impressed at all with the lead free projectile performance my friend used in his 30-06 rifle.
He "bought into" the lead free ammo "Kool Aid" rhetoric, and now understands why I laughed at him when he told me his story about the State paying for his $85 box of lead free rifle ammo, 20 rounds in the box.
The State actually paid for the box of lead free ammo, via a rebate coupon.
I spent a wonderful weekend with my son!
My deer hunting time duration for opening day weekend was only 1.5 hours.
The remainder of the time was spent doing multiple deer dragging with the little Honda ATV, tracking the buck, and gutting/loading deer carcasses into vehicles.
Several deer went to the commercial processor.
Sunday weather was vile, and my son & I stayed inside the cabin near the big wood stove.
I have until January 1st for harvesting a deer of my own.
We are going back out later in the week.
BW.jpg by
cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr
My son used his new Ruger American Gen 2 Ranch rifle (budget bolt action) in 6.5 Creedmoor.
I was highly impressed with the new rifle/scope and ammunition performance at the range when sighting it in, and the field performance. The deer ran about 10 feet before it dropped.
That budget rifle put three shots under a dime at 100 yards from the benchrest using relatively inexpensive commercially available hunting ammunition.
RF.jpg by
cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr
My friend used a Thompson Center Encore rifle chambered in 30-06 Springfield.
He suffered a detached retina some years back, and is quite careful now with sudden/violent cranium movements. (this includes induced head motion from centerfire rifle recoil)
I actually check his rifle at the range for being sighted in now for him. It shot billiard ball sized groups at the range from a benchrest just about one month ago.
He commented when we were looking for the buck, that it was the first time he had ever shot a deer and it didn't drop within 35 or so feet after being shot.
After we recovered his buck, I asked him if he had noticed anything different for this year compared to previously shot deer.
He said that this year he waited until he had a good broadside presentation and took the shot, and was genuinely surprised when it didn't drop quickly.
During field dressing of the buck, only one slightly destroyed lung, and # 2 yellow pencil entrance and exit holes.
That was when I pointed out to him, the only possible explanation was the lead free ammo, which did not appear to expand at all.
