First hunt question

[CanadianEh]

For those wondering..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFtwFN5G4A&t=3s

This is that video.. great for noobs who need to gut a deer by themselves.

[scottywc]

Originally Posted by obsessed1

60 rounds is perhaps excess but 2 maximum to zero in my experience is also a bit of a laugh. It's possible for a seasoned shooter to get perfect zero with two shots but ime it takes new shooters quite a bit more rounds to be confident in their zero. The paper plates idea is good. I use dollar store balloons in the 8" range and pin them on path stakes hits are instantly known and you get to play around at different ranges. Tying the balloons to a short string will also add movement making them a bit harder to hit. The more rounds you put down range the more confident you will be when the big moment comes.

I like the balloons idea. Nice cheap way to put up some targets. Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

For those wondering..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFtwFN5G4A&t=3s

This is that video.. great for noobs who need to gut a deer by themselves.

Phenomenal video. I watched a half dozen videos like that but none of that quality. Exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

[Prairiewolf]

Originally Posted by scottywc

Hi, I have a question that might sound a bit odd to experienced hunters.

I am gearing up for my first Whitetail hunt this fall. I plan on bringing enough gear to last a few days in the bush.

I'm confused about how often I should/might have to pass on deer that I see? What if I see a suitable deer 5 minutes into the first day? I've brought days worth of gear just to harvest immediately. That seems strange.

How often do you pass on a deer waiting for something better? Any quick tips for knowing when to pass and when to take?


Any help would be very much appreciated!

Key words here are FIRST HUNT and SUITABLE DEER. If you find yourself in that situation five minutes in, consider yourself lucky and concentrate on putting a good shot together. Then take your time gutting and skinning.

If you really want to make use of the remaining days of your hunt, take care of your meat first and then go camping.

[mattthegorby]

Originally Posted by scottywc

I'm an idiot and over prepare. I'm also worried about missing a shot and having the animal suffer needlessly. But I'll remember what you said.



So it's a waiting game is it. I'm good at doing nothing. Doing lots of reading about after the shot. It seems to be the most crucial part.

I will be trying to get out shooting a bunch this summer. If you want to meet down South at some point in the Indian Graves area you would be welcome to run a schwack of rounds through my .22.

Also, do you have the ihunter app? It doesn't tell us newbies where the deer are, but makes it much easier to ensure we are on crown land.

Matt

[Masterchief]

If you have the time, it's helpful to get out to the hunting spot you choose and wander around to get familiar with the layout of the land, find game trails, and see what's out there. It will save you time when it comes to your hunting trip. I think it's fine to practice shooting with your 22, it will get you more comfortable with shooting, but you must shoot your 270 so you know how it shoots and are confident with it. Call around for a butcher before you leave and get their hours and contact info, it will be one less thing to worry about. Also, it's not always the best idea to cover as much ground as you can in a day, I find I'm more successful when I cover a little ground as slow as I can, take a few steps and look and listen, no sudden movements.

[gloszz]

Originally Posted by obsessed1

60 rounds is perhaps excess but 2 maximum to zero in my experience is also a bit of a laugh. It's possible for a seasoned shooter to get perfect zero with two shots but ime it takes new shooters quite a bit more rounds to be confident in their zero. The paper plates idea is good. I use dollar store balloons in the 8" range and pin them on path stakes hits are instantly known and you get to play around at different ranges. Tying the balloons to a short string will also add movement making them a bit harder to hit. The more rounds you put down range the more confident you will be when the big moment comes.

I agree haha. But as a new guy starting out I didnt know how to zero it in. Shot about 30 bullets haha. Now I zero most rifles my friends have since I have the experience. They always fine tune it themselves but the most important part when shooting, whether it's for hunting or competition; do not glitch and jerk shoot. Let the gun surprise you like a jack-in-a-box. I missed my biggest buck to date because I was scared of the gun recoil and kept just pulling to get it over and done with. That took me 5 missed shots.

The best way I can recommend to zero a shot in 2 shots is this: get yourself a rifle shooting rest. Have a store bore sight your rifle just to get you on the paper target. Have a friend adjust for you while you look through the scope. Take your first shot at the bullseye and then look at the bullseye again and make your friend adjust it so the crosshairs go where the shot actually hit. Then take your second shot and you should be quite close. Then to make sure you're good, aim at a new area on the target and give off three shots and make sure there is a grouping of at least 2 inches. If so I think that's good enough as you'll get better with your groups with experience.

[fallen1817]

If you haven't already, go buy Steve Rinella's "Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering and Cooking Wild Game." I've been hunting a few years, and even I found some useful info in this book.

Scroll through the forum back to September-ish and read stories of people's hunts. You will start to see trends of what people are doing and what is working for them.

Best of luck, and welcome to the addiction!

J

[scottywc]

Originally Posted by Prairiewolf

Key words here are FIRST HUNT and SUITABLE DEER. If you find yourself in that situation five minutes in, consider yourself lucky and concentrate on putting a good shot together. Then take your time gutting and skinning.

If you really want to make use of the remaining days of your hunt, take care of your meat first and then go camping.

I think I'm really looking forward to the whole deal, including being out camping and hiking as I love that already. So imagining finding a deer right away and missing out on being out there kind of worries me in a way. But you're right, that would be really lucky of me. Hard to complain there.

Originally Posted by mattthegorby

I will be trying to get out shooting a bunch this summer. If you want to meet down South at some point in the Indian Graves area you would be welcome to run a schwack of rounds through my .22.

Also, do you have the ihunter app? It doesn't tell us newbies where the deer are, but makes it much easier to ensure we are on crown land.

Matt

Sure sounds good, that's not too far from me. I'm in the far south end of Calgary.

I don't have that app. Sounds super useful though. I'm gonna get it, thanks.

Originally Posted by Masterchief

If you have the time, it's helpful to get out to the hunting spot you choose and wander around to get familiar with the layout of the land, find game trails, and see what's out there. It will save you time when it comes to your hunting trip. I think it's fine to practice shooting with your 22, it will get you more comfortable with shooting, but you must shoot your 270 so you know how it shoots and are confident with it. Call around for a butcher before you leave and get their hours and contact info, it will be one less thing to worry about. Also, it's not always the best idea to cover as much ground as you can in a day, I find I'm more successful when I cover a little ground as slow as I can, take a few steps and look and listen, no sudden movements.

Finding a butcher. Totally forgot about that. I would've felt pretty stupid if I got home with a dead deer and nobody to help me with it. Any recommendations for a butcher?

Originally Posted by fallen1817

If you haven't already, go buy Steve Rinella's "Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering and Cooking Wild Game." I've been hunting a few years, and even I found some useful info in this book.

Scroll through the forum back to September-ish and read stories of people's hunts. You will start to see trends of what people are doing and what is working for them.

Best of luck, and welcome to the addiction!

J

I'm always in for good reading material. I think that's the same guy who made the amazing video somebody else posted.

Great idea reading old posts though, I never would have thought of that.

[scottywc]

Just wanted to pass along my resource for free reading material. The Steve Rinella book is on there.

www.b-ok.org

Tons of books on here for download. If it's a text only book there's an easy way to load it on to a Kindle. If anyone is interested let me know and I'll send you a PM.

[Masterchief]

Originally Posted by scottywc

Finding a butcher. Totally forgot about that. I would've felt pretty stupid if I got home with a dead deer and nobody to help me with it. Any recommendations for a butcher?

I use Savory Meats in Sundre. I can call him on the way to town after hours and he will meat me at the shop. Excellent service and they have a great selection of sausage that they make with the deer. We were camping one hunting season and shot a deer about a half hour before dark, hauled it out of the bush, drove to the butcher and were back at camp in time for dinner. The convenience of that is priceless.

[35 whelen]

If I was you I would learn how to butcher your own meat pretty simple to do and then just take your Cuts in to get sausage made a lot cheaper and a lot more gratifying.

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[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by 35 whelen

If I was you I would learn how to butcher your own meat pretty simple to do and then just take your Cuts in to get sausage made a lot cheaper and a lot more gratifying.

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X2
Never understood why someone would pay to get their wild meat cut. The net weight off a deer makes it really expensive compared to beef. If deer is the only thing your after a hand crank grinder is fine.( We used ours to process tones of deer also 2 elk and 1 moose) it's crazy slow so one year I bought a cheap electric grinder from CT for 99$ it's been used now for the last 6 seasons and has processed 2 moose 7 elk and who knows how many deer. Between my wife and I we can process an entire deer in less than an hour.

[West O'5]

Originally Posted by scottywc

My plan was to enter a WMU, wander aimlessly for days until I found a deer to harvest, and then drag it out.

Haha....kinda sounds like my plan for 1st attempt at sheep hunting this fall. 😝
My "plan" (if you can call it that?) is to drive my truck as high as I can,unload my quad and tow an ATV trailer as high as I can with wall tent,grub et al,set up spike camp,then do day hikes and maybe an overnighter or three from there with a liteweight sleeping bag,small tarp,Jet boil,and MREs.
Epic adventure if nothing else,lol. 😂

[scottywc]

Originally Posted by 35 whelen

If I was you I would learn how to butcher your own meat pretty simple to do and then just take your Cuts in to get sausage made a lot cheaper and a lot more gratifying.

Originally Posted by obsessed1

X2
Never understood why someone would pay to get their wild meat cut. The net weight off a deer makes it really expensive compared to beef. If deer is the only thing your after a hand crank grinder is fine.( We used ours to process tones of deer also 2 elk and 1 moose) it's crazy slow so one year I bought a cheap electric grinder from CT for 99$ it's been used now for the last 6 seasons and has processed 2 moose 7 elk and who knows how many deer. Between my wife and I we can process an entire deer in less than an hour.

I think I would like to get into butchering them myself. For this season I might stick to a professional. The learning curve seems pretty steep for all of this and it's one thing off the list for this season. Next season I will probably feel more confident.

Originally Posted by West O'5

Haha....kinda sounds like my plan for 1st attempt at sheep hunting this fall. 😝
My "plan" (if you can call it that?) is to drive my truck as high as I can,unload my quad and tow an ATV trailer as high as I can with wall tent,grub et al,set up spike camp,then do day hikes and maybe an overnighter or three from there with a liteweight sleeping bag,small tarp,Jet boil,and MREs.
Epic adventure if nothing else,lol. 😂

Sometimes the best way to learn is to just say **** it and go for it. I'm sure there will be many lessons learned for next time.

[35 whelen]

Originally Posted by scottywc

I think I would like to get into butchering them myself. For this season I might stick to a professional. The learning curve seems pretty steep for all of this and it's one thing off the list for this season. Next season I will probably feel more confident.


Sometimes the best way to learn is to just say **** it and go for it. I'm sure there will be many lessons learned for next time.

Exactly you got your skin your bear anyway just cut off the quarters watch a video on how to do the Alaskan cut. Works for all big game species

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[35 whelen]

Try punching in the gutless method on YouTube

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[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by bibbs

I’m a little confused as to why you’d be spending a few days in the bush looking for whitetail? Are you planning on packing a stand/blind in with you and hunting the same spot (away from your camp) for a few days? Whatever your plan I’d be looking to harvest the first decent buck I saw and/or a supplemental doe if you’re in a wmu that allows it.

There are many reasons to spend a few days in the bush looking for a whitetail, its not necessary by any means but I'd never discourage someone from trying. This year I'll be canoeing a river looking for mulies, totally unnecessary but sometimes its not just about shooting an animal.

IMO if you are going in to a strange chunk of bush, or any good sized chunk of bush for that matter, staying mobile and flexible is generally a better plan than worrying about blinds and such. In the past I've brought along a lawn chair and some camo netting to use on ocasion, but anything more cumbersome than that is generally an unneeded burden on a timber hunt. Its been years since I even bothered with a lawnchair, when I find a good area I just hunt it real slow.

I agree, with shooting the first deer he's happy with. I guess my advice would be to hunt a WMU that allows supplemental doe tags, take the first doe you can, and/or the first half decent buck... if you happen to find a spiker and decide you are happy to shoot it then by all means do so, otherwise take a doe and spend the rest of the season learning what you can by looking for a decent buck. Only thing I would add for a newb, if you use your buck tag and continue to hunt for a supplemental doe make VERY certain that there isn't 4" spikes hiding behind those big ears before you shoot.