Everything posted by 686
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
I was able to get out a few weeks ago and get a decent bird. Also got a little time with my suppressed 450 bushmaster with the Sig electro optics, fun stuff.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
Here’s the suppressor cover I’m running: https://mantadefense.com/product/suppressor-cover/
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The Gun Owner’s thread
The guys next to me and the range officer were like “oh shit...” when I got the gun out of the bag without the suppressor; there was an audible sigh of relief when I put the can on (it’s a quick-disconnect style). But I do plan on plugs and muffs at indoor ranges just in case I’m next to a guy with a big brake pointed right at me.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
Jewel HVRT at 1.5 lbs if I recall
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The Gun Owner’s thread
Yeah I run it with a Sig suppressor, that’s an old pic. I got a silicone suppressor cover that also seems to help, I really like it. Here’s a screen shot from a slo mo vid one of my kids took.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
I fucking hate Tapatalk sometimes. it cut off my text and won’t let me edit. The rest of that post is supposed to to say : “...so 0.5 MOA should be expected. My eyes aren’t good anymore, but i think some better glass will tighten up my groups. I’m thinking a Nightforce NX8 4-32.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
Yes, 100 yards indoors. Full disclosure, This is a precision gun, not a lightweight rig, so
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The Gun Owner’s thread
If you aren’t into shooting; you might see if you can find any ammo he might have had laying around. Ammo is in extreme demand right now, so selling that soon would potentially be a higher priority than those guns. Those are mostly classics that aren’t going to go down in value anytime soon; ammo prices may drop in another six months or so. Condolences regarding your father. I wish I could have heard him tell some stories.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
Post some pics if available and we can be of more assistance. Various avenues are available. You could take everything to a gun shop where you will get more of a wholesale price or sell them individually on forums like here where you might get a little better pricing. You could also have a FFL (Licensed gun Dealer) list them on gunbroker.com or elsewhere for you on consignment. Doing a good inventory of make, model, and chambering with at least one photo would be worth your time. You can even have multiple guns per photo so it’s not so many photos.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
I found a load my 300 win mag likes pretty well, this is a 5 shot group. This is my new project, Ruger American in 450 Bushmaster. I want to shoot it subsonic with my Rugged suppressor, just waiting on the thread adaptor. I’d like to have it setup as a close range doe culling setup. I got one of the SIG BDX scopes that links to the sig binos I already have, fun to play with the elevation drop. The rifle needs some work. The magazine came apart multiple times at the range, I’ve gorilla glued it, so we’ll see if that holds. Not the most accurate either, so may need work there as well.
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The Gun Owner’s thread
Brass prep day. I feel a Bob Ross vibe come over me when I’m doing brass prep. “Look at all those little moments of happiness... Happy little casings ready to get cleaned up and ready for more excitement...”
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Yeah yeah. I bought Tapatalk Pro or whatever it’s called to get rid of the ads; when Im posting pics now it gives me the higher res option ( which previously was “VIP only”) or whatever. So I figured I would give it a shot and select the higher res on the Crane pic. After I hit “post”, Tapa freezes with just a circular “loading” type of icon I’ve never seen before. I wait a minute or two, lose patience and put the phone down and go to sleep. I check things mid day the next day and apparently it went berserk trying to load.
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Here’s a few stills from a video of a huge flight on Saturday. We cut 16 birds out of it.
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Damnation. Tapatalk Quintuple post must be a record. We did limit out again this morning, let’s see if Tapatalk goes crazy again:
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Limited out in Dimmit this morning
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Limited out in Dimmit this morning
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Limited out in Dimmit this morning
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Limited out in Dimmit this morning
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2020/2021 Hunting Thread
Limited out in Dimmit this morning
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Managing property for wild game hunting
Dr. Deer has a study showing that deer can have a range of only ~50-60 acres if everything they need is in that area (food, water, visual cover, thermal cover). That’s something else to consider with your layout as well with small acreage - you can minimize the deer’s range (and potentially keep them on your place more) if you have all of those ingredients in enough quantity and close proximity. On our 200 acres, we basically have a “southern herd” and a “northern herd” that each have the cover, water, and food elements in close proximity. There is some crossing over, but I can recognize individuals that spend the vast majority of their time on one side or the other.
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Managing property for wild game hunting
This is great advice. I use Google Earth to measure my plots and plan blind locations, etc. and get an idea of what’s going on over the fence at the neighbor’s regarding brush, feeder/blind/water locations, etc.
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Managing property for wild game hunting
Those are some fantastic bucks Reagan1k! especially for low fence Hill Country. I would have thought it was impossible 30 years ago. I really feel like we may be entering a new “good ole days” period for whitetails in Texas. Better hunter education, trail cameras, better range management, etc.
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Managing property for wild game hunting
From what I’ve seen, it varies based on the ecology and populations, etc. I’ve hunted south Texas places where things are much more like your experience, the deer don’t camp on the feeders. Stocking rates come into play here I think as well. We are way overstocked (approx 40-50 head) on the ranch at any one time. This will be our challenge going forward. My dad doesn’t want to shoot does, and I’m having a hard time keeping up with the numbers. Also, low fence conditions somewhat limit our ability to control numbers, i.e. we can shoot a bunch of does, but more from adjacent properties will come in to backfill, and since those deer haven’t been on a higher nutritional plane, I’d kinda be starting over trying to get to genetic potential. Hard to know what to do, and the land isn’t showing signs of over grazing yet; but at some point soon we’re going to have to work more on the doe population.
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Managing property for wild game hunting
Some thoughts on feeders and results from our management efforts. These are all just one man’s opinion, based on my experiences. I grew up in the 1980’s hunting on low fence Central Texas deer leases. We’d fill corn spinners sometime in the summer/Labor Day and then top off a few times during the season and let the feeders go dry after the season. We were on places with little to no tillable dirt, and my family didn’t know enough about farming even if there was some to try and food plot. We almost never paid for leases and got on by doing heavy equipment or construction work. I didn’t shoot a buck for probably 10 years of hunting, only does. Mostly because I never saw mature bucks, and even a kid I wasn’t interested in shooting little fork bucks. We never saw Turkeys either. Fast forward and my folks bought their own place in 2006, and I wanted to try and increase the antler inches on the little low fence ranch (100ac) and bought my first protein feeder. It was a double barrel free choice feeder; about 700lbs capacity. I learned from trail cameras that the deer could drain this feeder in 10 days in the summertime and they would “camp out” on this feeder at night even though we were running three other corn spinners and eventually a second small protein feeder. So the issues in my mind were: A. I don’t make it to the ranch often enough to keep free choice feeders from running dry unless they are big B. I’m feeding free range deer here, and we have at least one little shit neighbor that will shoot anything that crosses the fence; so I’d like to keep the expenses reasonable I didn’t have a good solution, so I would feed as my budget allowed and usually let the feeders run dry in Jan-Feb. I did see results though; we only saw 8 pointers for years, but finally in year 5, I got a nice 10 pointer. My folks sold that ranch that year and a few years later bought the 200ac place in Lampasas. We’ve been running 3 corn spinner setups and two protein feeder setups in Lampasas. I bought a 1300lb timed protein feeder. This is a Krivoman feeder with The Hammer timed unit; basically a gate valve that I can control the open/close times. I usually only leave the valve open ~10 minutes morning and evening, which would help ration the protein out and stop deer “camping out” on the feeder at night. As you can see, the bucks figured it out and would loiter waiting for the valve to open. We only had 8 pointers on camera the first year, but we have had a few 10 pointers ever since. About 4 years ago I wanted to build two bigger times protein setups, so I had a fab shop make these up for me. I used The Hammer again, and have been very happy with them. These will hold 3000lbs each, so we only have to fill a few times a year, and try to run them year-round. The only time I may let them run dry is when the pasture conditions are good and the deer are in the food plots (they prefer the food plots to protein). I designed these so that they are loadable both by bulk trailer and from the bed rail of a pickup truck. We have bulk delivery available from a local feed store, but sometimes I’ll put 30 bags of feed in the bed of my truck and load it to save a little money and boost my ego. Other than the timed protein feeders, we run three corn spinners, two 55 gallon drums with “The Timer” and solar panels, and one ~350lb All Seasons unit. All Seasons makes first class feeders, and I really like the unit, I just wish I’d gotten a bigger one. The Timer is also a great unit, and feeder maintenance is a lot less for me now than it was years ago. Between the food plots, brush management, and feeding, our bucks have added noticeable points and inches. We have moderate hunting pressure from adjacent properties, but this is another aspect where I think the timed protein and food plots are helping - the loiter time for deer in our pastures is a long time. The longer they’re in our field, the less likely they are to get shot by the neighbors; and I know a lot of deer that hit our feeders bed down over the fence. Here’s a couple bucks from the last few years. We’ve got a nice ~4 year old this year with several splits and another ~4 yr old mainframe 10 with symmetrical drop tines. They’ll be nice if they make it to next year. I’m really looking forward to the next few generations. I think Dr. Deer says it takes 3-4 generations living at a consistently higher nutritional plane to really start to see the genetic potential, these bucks we’re probably born the first year after we started managing. As stated by Reagan1k above, I’ve also gotten more into the management aspect and enjoy watching the game grow more than shooting it.
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Managing property for wild game hunting
A couple other note on pasture management: Our pastures are a little wider/lacking in occasional trees than optimal for my taste/for deer cover and we’ve been planting a dozen or so every year. Cedar elms have the highest survival rate. At some point I’d like to run an irrigation line from the well down to a close by field and put in a few dozen fruit trees. Great wildlife food and I like tending fruit trees as well. Anna and Ein Shermer are good varietals for Texas that I’ve grown at the house. My dad hates prickly pear. He/we went on a spraying blitz a few years back and really knocked the pear way down. The upside is obviously improved grazing, the downside is, in our area, big pear plants are quail habitat. Side note (warning, graphic): we were clearing some land about 30 years ago, my dad was loading a huge prickly pear plant into a dump truck with a skid steer loader, and didn’t level the bucket fast enough as he was raising it, and the pear fell over the back of the bucket and into the cab on him. It was a fucking horror show. It took me and two other guys several minutes to pull the cactus out of the cab and off him. His arms were pinned down by the pear. So many needles it was just insane. He had one go in the top of his knee and come out under the kneecap. So, I can excuse his hatred of the pear.