Opening Day Blacktail: Pics (mildly graphic)

G

gedenke

New member
Ok, guys, here's a 4x5 Blacktail that I dropped on opening day here in SW Oregon. And now the fun part: This was my first deer, taken with a brand-new, never-fired, not even sighted-in Savage Model 111FCXP3 in .30-06, borrowed from my hunting buddy. Scope was a Simmons 3x9x40. Talk about rookie everything! I just hope I didn't burn up all my luck on this one! He weighed approximately 200lbs and the shot(s) were from about 20-25yds. Both shots were taken on the run (first one not so good in the belly, second one split his heart).

Sorry about the poor photo quality, all I had was my cell phone camera.

Geoff.jpg
 
Beautiful buck! But yes, you just used up all of your hunting luck for the next two lifetimes. Seriously, that is an amazing blacktail. Where in the heck were you hunting that had snow on the ground????
 
So you didn't sight in your rifle, and you gut-shot the deer while on the run. You are precisely the kind of slob hunter who gives other hunters a bad name. You got lucky. I just hope your ethics improve tremendously. :mad: :mad:
 
And now the fun part: This was my first deer, taken with a brand-new, never-fired, not even sighted-in Savage Model 111FCXP3 in .30-06, borrowed from my hunting buddy. Scope was a Simmons 3x9x40. Talk about rookie everything! I just hope I didn't burn up all my luck on this one! He weighed approximately 200lbs and the shot(s) were from about 20-25yds. Both shots were taken on the run (first one not so good in the belly, second one split his heart).
Click to expand...

Congrats on your deer, thanks for giving us a further example of why some folks hate hunting.

WildhopefullyalessonlearnedAlaska TM
 
gedenke: Sir; It looks like you have been frolicking in snow.
We in the south are enjoying? bumping 90dg.
You are making our suffering less manageable:)

Good Post::) We wont catch up with snow; we might have a winter
 
Congratulations:

Now you know what the term Buck Fever means! Your honesty is appreciated and your excitment to post has raised some ire which is unfortunate. Those of us that have been in the situation understand and yes things could have gone differently and probably will in the future. Nice work on the follow up shot, trailing a wounded animal is never fun for either party involved. Good hunting to you in the future and send me the name of the guy that mounted that scope!
 
First Deer

Its a event that you will carry with you and never forget you whole life, I took my first one 50+ years ago and it seems like yesterday. Congrats, don't worry about the first shot, that can happen to anyone.
 
Congrats on the buck, Ged! That's one heck of a deer! Good job with the second shot!

OK everyone, he's a beginner, so let's cut him some slack. After all, he killed it with the second shot. It didn't wander around for miles while wounded.

Ged, in the future, always sight-in a hunting gun before you go hunting. You got lucky that the bore-sighted scope was pretty close. I missed the biggest buck of my life by trying to shoot a rifle with a scope that had only been bore-sighted; I was told that it "should be close enough." It was not anywhere close to being close enough; later, I discovered that the scope was off by about a foot. :( Learned that one the hard way!

I usually won't shoot at a running deer. Next time, take a buck grunt with you, and see if you can stop a running deer by giving a good grunt (alternatively, some people whistle to stop 'em). Then shoot him while he's stopped.

Thanks again for the pic, and make sure that you keep those antlers. There's nothing like your first deer! :)
 
I don't think he should get a break at all. I was once a beginner, and it was patently obvious to me at that time that in order to make a clean kill, you

-check and double check your zero/sight-in personally, and
-as a beginner, wait for a good shot, on an animal standing still, with a good rest.

The first one is the big one, and absolutely inexcusable. Frankly I find it baffling that everyone else is not jumping his case severely.

This is a perfect example of the slob hunter we don't want in the woods. The good news is, it doesn't make gedenke a bad person, just a slob hunter at a single point in time. He can and should reform his ways. The questions are:

-will we jump his case so that he knows he needs to reform his ways (or conversely, say good job to some pure luck that prevented a gut shot animal from dying a slow painful death never to be recovered)?
-is he willing to change his ways?

We cannot control the second question's answer, but we can and must control the first question's answer.
 
I have to agree; It's hard to congratulate you (even though it's a great buck) when your approach to hunting was irresponsible in many ways. Please don't do this again, and if you do, dont post it on a public website.
 
Ok guys, this is getting ugly. It should be our job as members of this site and the hunting community to encourage new hunters and help teach them. Everyone of us learned to be a good hunter, and because of that, we should help others learn to be good hunters. FirstFreedom, didn't your dad of someone close TEACH you to check your equipment and wait for a standing shot? Obviously this guy wasn't blessed with someone to show him the ropes. The only guy who "helps" Ged out is the friend who hands him an unsighted gun and tells him to shoot something.

Because of the anonymity of the internet we can sit back and call this beginner a slob. Instead, we should take this opportunity to tell him about what it means to be a hunter and what he should do better next time. Lets take the venom out of our condemnation and help this newbie become an ethical hunter.
 
I agree that this poster was wrong for not sighting in the rifle before hunting; but I blame the person who loaned him the rifle and took him deer hunting more. The experienced one should have known better and helped gedenke sight in the rifle. We have all made mistakes when hunting and hopefully we learned from them.

I can honestly say that I never really understood how to sight in a rifle properly when I first started hunting. The first deer I ever shot I used a differnt bullet weight to hunt with than I practiced with. I had been shooting some 85 grain bullets out of my .243 getting used to it and when I went hunting I grabbed a box of 100 grain because I had shot up all of my 85 grain ones. I went hunting and came home with a deer on the second day of season. I now know better than to do that as I've learned different bullets perform differently out of the same rifle.

I never had anyone to teach or mentor me on how to hunt, I've learned most of everything by trial and error. Luckily I've never lost a game animal I've shot, but I've made some pretty poor shots in my time hunting. I expect I'll make a few more mistakes before I hang it up.

Before insulting the man offer up some constructive critisim, I'm sure he will listen to it. He admitted to being new to the sport and not knowing much about it. Give the man a little credit for finishing the job and not going home and leaving a wounded deer in the woods.
 
Firstly let me say thank you to all of you who left comments, both positive and negative. I think it's great that alot of you are so passionate about the sport we all love so much. Granted, we can do without the name-calling, but your opinions are welcome.

Oh, and allow me to make a couple of corrections to my first post: 1) I should have said "ironic" part instead of "fun part". 2) The buck wasn't in a full-tilt, tail-up sprint, it was more like a casual "trot".

That being said, let me add this: I completely agree that taking an unsigted rifle out and firing it at an animal was a mistake. A mistake that I unintentionally made, because the weapon is not even mine. It was a loaner from a friend, and my mistake was in assuming that it was sigted and ready for the hunt. If I had known it was not properly prepared, I wouldn't have even taken it out of the safe. Shooting at that deer could've been disasterous and I feel lucky that the factory bore-sighting was as close as it was.

I'm not the kind of hunter that would just run out and buy the first gun I found on sale, and go out and shoot anything that moves from the back of a truck with a beer in my other hand. That's an exaggeration, of course, but hope you see my point and maybe even find some humor in it. Now, do I feel like I took a risky, irresponsible shot? Absolutely not. If I knew the rifle wasn't properly prepared, would I still have taken it? Absolutely not! I saw what I thought was a good opportunity, and took it.
 
FirstFreedom, didn't your dad of someone close TEACH you to check your equipment and wait for a standing shot?
Click to expand...

No, I self-taught. I learned mostly from the internet, and a little from my friend who is decidedly much LESS ethical than myself. I just don't think there's any excuse for someone with access to the many hunting boards on the internet.

Anyway, sorry so harsh, but I thought it absolutely necessary. Glad to see that you are using it constructively, and for that I thank you very much. Good hunting to you.

Oh, and I am sorry for name-calling - I shouldn't have said "slob hunter" - should have said "poor unethical practices, in my opinion", or similar. I was pretty angry at the situation presented as a bragging post.
 
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Last thing Ged-where in the world of southern Oregon were you hunting that has snow right now????????!!!!!!!!!
 
tyra, we got about an inch on Friday night above 6000ft. Just in time for opening day on Saturday! Oh, yeah we were up a little south of Mt. McLaughlin, near Hwy 37.
 
Oh, and FirstFreedom, no offense taken here. I'm a man and I can take little critisism. To tell the truth, I was a little annoyed myself that my friend who I trusted, would lend me a gun that wasn't even ready for the hunt. I didn't find out until after we had him (the deer that is) in the truck on the way back to camp.

On a side note, though, it was not my intention to "brag" on the fact that I got lucky with only factory bore-sighting, I just wanted to show off my first deer to you guys here. Hope that clears some of the mud here.
 
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