Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Hunting/Trapping 2013-2014

Might as well start it again.

My nephew texted me this a.m. asking "Two yearlings bedded down 10 yds away. Both clear shots. Pass or go for it?"

I replied "Wait until they stand up for a clearer shot, but where's Momma?"

His reply. "Good thinking!"

An hour or so later he replied "I just shot a button buck at 7 yds, and Momma jumped and stopped. I strung another arrow and shot her at 12 yds. She went about 15 more yards and keeled over."

No pics.........

I got soaking wet duck hunting today. That sums up my hunting season so far for the year...

Yeesh! My rain gauge was empty at this time yesterday. It was at 4.7 inches when I came in at sundown this evening. The duck's feathers are probably saturated with rain water. I hope your gun/guns was/were well protected against water.

80's here and clear blue skies.

We NEED the rain for the groundwater levels, but the farmers don't want it because they are picking at a tremendous pace. Almost everyone that I see is picking soybeans up here, with only a select few picking corn. In Arkansas, they were going to town picking rice. I saw a lot of cotton down there that was still green, and about every soybean field was green too.

I already posted this in another thread, but I shot this big girl on the opener for us here in Indiana. Haven't been able to get back out much lately because my little angel has been pretty sick. Hopefully tonight I can get back in a tree. Here is the pic of her from my camera.

Haven't gotten out yet for deer, planning on going this weekend. Been is Saskatchewan waterfowl hunting. No big shoots this year, average about 30 birds between the 4 of us each day. The snow geese where not around in large numbers, thinking that a bunch where still further up north. The freezer is empty so the does better not get too close.

No stand time yet but we did take 133 Doves off of my little 1/2 acre sunflower field this year.

I'm looking to hopefully put some brown down this weekend. It's supposed to cool off here so I'm going to plug in the cooler and see about filling an antlerless tag.

Hunted this afternoon. Had 5 toms come within 20 yards this afternoon and they never gave me a chance to stand up. So I draw at them sitting down. They saw me draw and started walking away, one stopped at about 25 yards and I let the arrow fly. To bad it was low and only clipped a couple of feathers. They walked off but weren't really spook as it took them 10 minutes to feed out of the food plot. I also had 9 deer come through (2 fawns/doe less, 1 doe/2 fawns, 2 doe/fawns). None of the does came closer than 40 yards. Problem was they all feed east of me along with other deer I didn't see in the newly harvested cornfield and I had to walk that way to get to the house. I waited until an hour after dark before walking in and still spooked them out of the field. Well tomorrow will be another day.

Hunted a tree on a new property yesterday that I'd prepped earlier. Turkeys were putting at me while I hung the stand in the dark and when it got light, there were a bunch of 'em above me in the trees. I've had them take off before when I disturb them in the dark, but these hung in there and then after it got light flew down into the pasture.

Rained all day and didn't see a thing until half hour before dark a doe and twin button bucks came down the trail. Just before she got broadside, she spotted me. Felt good to have the heart pumping again!

Oldest got a his first this morning... Had a spiked close last nigh but couldn't get a clean shot..

Wow, look at that kid - cool as a cucumber. All I can say is, them deers in Illinois are in trouble! Good job, Dad!

Congrats!! How far away was the shot?

I have a trail cam pic of what used to be an 8 point. Whole left side is busted off, all the tines on the right side are busted off too.

I think rattling now would be a good way to get them to come in.

Thanks guys...

It was a slight quartering to shot at maybe 10 yards... A doe was behind him on alert, but I told Mitchell if he wanted to shoot the button buck to do it because the doe would probably bust us if she can into the opening...

As for mister too cool to smile, he made that comment that he had to look tough for the picture!!! LOL

Picked up these 2 today. I found 2 more, but since they just popped up, I'll let 'em get bigger. One is growing in the exact same place that I picked a 15 lb. one last year. Can only clean so many in a day as it is. These are #3 and #4 for the year. The others were used up in scrambled eggs and as a side dishes with venison.

These aren't that huge, only between 4 and 5 pounds each.

Those things taste so good!

Took this girl in our food plot today with my Savage ML10 muzzleloader in the early season in PA. She was surprisingly fat for as few acorns as there are in the woods this year...

Wow...she does appear rather well fed!

Score!

Scott while you where messing with fungus, I was shooting sky carp. Thousands of geese around us Saturday for the opener. They didn't work real easy but we shot our 7 man limit by 9 AM. This morning was slower for some, I limited out right away but we had 8 guys today and could only get 12 geese. We didn't see a tenth of the geese today that we saw yesterday. Oh well that is it for my waterfowling till thanksgiving. Time to get back in the tree stand with the bow.

How do you like your ml muzzleloader do you shoot black powder in it or regular powder how far does it shoot. I have been thinking about buying one since they shoot regular powder and it would be easier to keep clean.

We have deer all over the place. Need to take 30 does as per biologist. I won't happen even with help from the family.

I love my Savage, I use smokeless powder out of it. No messy cleaning and 1" groups at 100 yards. 4 shots, 4 kills with this gun so far... Scott (esshup) put me onto this gun...

I heard they will shoot 400 yards with a good scope?

Modern muzzle-loaders are pretty amazing. Anything within 150 yards is a gimme shot if you are a good marksman. After that the wind and distance have a huge affect on the bullet. If the deer was standing still on a calm day I might shoot a couple hundred yards. After that you need to be very accurate on distance and wind. The farther you get out the more accurate you need to be. 400 yards is probably very realistic for range shooting on a stationary target, but not for hunting. I am sure some will disagree but I would say 200 yards is about as far as you would want to go without jeopardizing a clean kill on the animal.