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#1
10-31-2006, 02:17 PM
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Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
I live in a pretty remote area of SE Montana (75 miles to the nearest stoplight or McDonalds). I do a lot of hunting. My wife hunts as well. I archery hunt as well as with a rifle or shotgun. My wife just rifle hunts. I also hand-load all my own ammunition
We hunt Deer (Mule Deer and Whitetail Deer), Elk, Antelope and turkey. I have also killed 4 buffalo in the last few years, three with a rifle and one with my bow. We fill a freezer in the fall and pretty much just eat wild game throughout the year. I am not doing this to have a debate about the merits of hunting. If you are an anti-hunting person that is fine but this is not meant to debate that issue. If you want to ask about how we hunt, why we hunt, what it is like to field dress an animal as big as a buffalo or elk or what it is like to pack a big critter out of the woods or mountains fire away. 
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#2
10-31-2006, 02:24 PM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
1. Whats your best turkey hunting story? (far and away Ive found the best hunting stories to be about turkey)
2. Details on your gun inventory? 3. Tell me about the bow that you killed a buffalo with? 4. What is your transportation of choice when packing out in the field? 5. No bird hunting besides turkey?
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#4
10-31-2006, 05:14 PM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
[ QUOTE ]
1. Whats your best turkey hunting story? (far and away Ive found the best hunting stories to be about turkey) [ QUOTE ] The best turkey hunt had to be my first. My buddy and I had scouted a bunch out and went in to the area on opening morning. He kept telling me that we were going to set up and then I shouldn't move because they see really well. Well, I was new to this and after we got set up he started calling and just like he said a bog old gobbler came down and started strutting and gobbling right in front of me. There was a bunch of brush and stuff and I wasn't sure if I had a good shot or not but it was just a really great show. He ended up going off in the other direction when a real hen started talking to him in the opposite direction. It was just like on TV and worked out really really well with the exception that I should have MOVED and taken a shot at him. He left out that part of the instructions! We used to employ a method called the Toyota Charge for turkey we might come across while we were driving. This involved putting a charge on the bird and then slamming on the brakes, hopping out and blasting the bird. The scariest one was when I was actually in the back of the pickup and a bump was hit during the charge. I was in the air for a moment! Not the smarted thing we ever did but we sure laughed about it after everyone survived! [/ QUOTE ] 2. Details on your gun inventory? [ QUOTE ] Winchester Model 70 Featherweight 30-06 Remmington .244 Ruger Mini-14 .223 Marlin .22 Semi-Auto Springfield Stainless 1911-A1 45Auto Pistol Browning .22 Buckmark Pistol Benelli Nova 12 Gauge Pump Shotgun Winchester 20 Gauge Pump Shotgun A couple of other single shot shotguns that I just never use I plan on adding a Tikka T3 in 300 WSM before next fall. [/ QUOTE ] 3. Tell me about the bow that you killed a buffalo with? [ QUOTE ] I shoot a Martin Phantom II Bow with Carbon arrows topped with a WASP Jak-Hammer 100Gr mechanical broadhead. The Martin shoots at 310 FPS. I got it as a present to myself after a particularly good Poker trip! I had to shoot the buffalo twice. I hit him a little far back on the first shot. He was bleeding well but I put another arrow in him and it went right behind the shoulder in the chest and that one got his heart and he bled out really quick with that one. He went about 100 yards and laid down in a creek bottom, put his head down and that was it. Dressing him out was the cleanest buffalo we ever did. He had no blood left in him at all! [/ QUOTE ] 4. What is your transportation of choice when packing out in the field? [ QUOTE ] If I have one along a game cart is the best choice, short of using a horse. I have had two elk packed out with a horse and that is the best! I have taken deer and elk out with a cart,a long way, and the cart works really well. Usually though, I just use a drag strap that I can keep in my pack. It has a rope that goes around the animals neck and that goes to a strap that goes around the shoulders kind of like straps on a pack. It works really well too and is very easy to pack with me. [/ QUOTE ] 5. No bird hunting besides turkey? [/ QUOTE ] Oh Yes, we occasionally hunt pheasants and grouse and then Ducks and Geese sometimes. Our Upland birds around here are just coming back from some pretty tough times the last few years. We have had 7 or 8 years of pretty bad drought and a couple of really bad storms that killed a lot of birds. I kind of forgot about them as we haven't done much of that hunting for awhile.
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#5
10-31-2006, 05:24 PM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
[ QUOTE ]
Shouldn't your name be "Huntswhenican"? Do you fish much? [/ QUOTE ] Yes it probably should be but I took the "Fishwhenican" name years ago when I lived in WI and I fished a lot more than I hunted. In WI, I could be on a lake fishing in about 10 minutes and that included launching the boat and parking the car. So I fished a LOT. Now, in MT, there is not a lot of water near us and so I do not get nearly the chances to fish as I used to. The nearest lake is about 90 miles away so I do not make that kind of run all the time. When we go now it is usually a long weekend that we spend camping and fishing. So it still kind of fits as I still can only fish when I can, not as often as I would like to!
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#6
10-31-2006, 05:50 PM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
Tell me the minimum caliber needed to comfortably hunt various game, preferably including big-ass game like Grizzly, Elephants, Rhinos and such.
If a bullet of a certain caliber costs 50 cents how much would you spend for the same caliber bullet if you re-loaded it? Swede
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#7
10-31-2006, 06:21 PM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
[ QUOTE ]
Tell me the minimum caliber needed to comfortably hunt various game, preferably including big-ass game like Grizzly, Elephants, Rhinos and such. If a bullet of a certain caliber costs 50 cents how much would you spend for the same caliber bullet if you re-loaded it? Swede [/ QUOTE ] I have never hunted Africa for their big game but I would take and use a .30 caliber (30-06, 300WSM, 30-338) for most plains game and a 375 H&H as a minimum for Buffalo, Elephant ect.. I have not ever hunted Grizzly but I wouldn't feel terribly under gunned with a .30 Caliber but would probably feel a lot better with a 338. I carry my 45auto when we are bowhunting in grizzly country but it is more a last ditch effort kind of thing. I also carry bear spray and have a feeling it would be more effective in stopping "ol' griz" but I still would want to go down with a pistol in my hand if it came to that! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I'll be honest, I never calculated how much it costs me to reload bullets. I really do not reload to save money. I do it because it gives me a lot more flexability to tailor a load and bullet that works really well in a given rifle. There are a lot more options when you hand load than just buying a box of bullets from the store. For my 30-06 I use 56gr of IMR4350 powder and a Hornady 165gr Interbond Bullet. Works really well in my rifle! Also reloading is fun!
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#8
11-01-2006, 06:34 PM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
2. Details on your gun inventory?
Quote: Winchester Model 70 Featherweight 30-06 Remmington .244 Ruger Mini-14 .223 Marlin .22 Semi-Auto Springfield Stainless 1911-A1 45Auto Pistol Browning .22 Buckmark Pistol Benelli Nova 12 Gauge Pump Shotgun Winchester 20 Gauge Pump Shotgun I plan on adding a Tikka T3 in 300 WSM before next fall. Did you use the 30-06 on the buffalo? I'm sure you load them hot but damn it's buffalo. Can you get close to buffalo? If so why not something like a 444 or some some other huge round? Describe a typical shot on a deer. I am from the south and from watching hunting shows on TV about your area it seems like everybody is taking 250-400 yard shots across some big valley. Down here 150 yards is a long shot for pretty much everybody I know. I know it has a lot to due with the terain but 400 yrds would make me nervous, and I'm a pretty good shot.
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#9
11-02-2006, 01:03 AM
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Re: Ask Fishwhenican about hunting
[ QUOTE ]
Did you use the 30-06 on the buffalo? I'm sure you load them hot but damn it's buffalo. Can you get close to buffalo? If so why not something like a 444 or some some other huge round? [ QUOTE ] Yes, I did use my 30-06 on all three buffalo that I took with a rifle. I really do not have a real hot load for it. I shoot a 165gr bullet and it is only going about 2800fps. The trick with Buffalo(bison) is to shoot them right behind the horn. All three dropped where they stood and that was the end of it. Two of the three I shot on the same day within about 30 seconds of each other. The smallest round I ever saw used on a buffalo, other than bow and arrow, was a 243. An older native american guy who always had used a 243 on elk and everything else dropped his in one shot. [/ QUOTE ] Describe a typical shot on a deer. I am from the south and from watching hunting shows on TV about your area it seems like everybody is taking 250-400 yard shots across some big valley. Down here 150 yards is a long shot for pretty much everybody I know. I know it has a lot to due with the terain but 400 yrds would make me nervous, and I'm a pretty good shot. [/ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Shots on deer have been anywhere from 25 yards (in the woods) to 400+ yards. Fist deer I ever shot we lasered at 309 yards. Longest shot I think I have ever had to take was an elk I shot a couple of years ago. I was up on one dise of a draw and she was up on a point on the other side. I sat down and got a good rest on a tree and held even with the top of her back and squeezed one off. I thought I had missed her at first but when I went over to check there was a big pool of blood right where she had been standing. I turned and started to track her and saw her piled up just down the hill from where I hit her. I would say most shots on deer are between one and two hundred yards but it just really depends on where we are hunting and what the terrain is. We try to get as close as we can but sometime there either isn't time or you run out of cover. We also practice pretty longs shots (1/4 mile) and zero in at 250 yards which lets a guy hold right on and be good out to a little over 325 yards. [/ QUOTE ]
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