Any Ideas?

[JW76]

First let me say hello from Kansas and that I've enjoyed lurking the site for the last couple of days.

I have a delima. The spot that I had previously scouted for this season has had alot of hunting pressure from bird hunters and who knows who(tons of four wheeler tracks) Ive seen nothing no new tracks or anything. I think it's safe to say they've moved on.

Any way, I talked to an old family friend with some farm ground out east that said he had a small group of deer (two bucks three does & a couple fawns) tearing up his crops. So I asked if he needed some one to come shoot 'em for him. It's a mile long stretch of wooded draw adjacent to various crops and pasture.

So should I jump ship in favor of a sight un seen prospect. And if so how do I go about gettin in close withonly second hand knowledge to go by.

I haven't hunted deer since high school (I do alo of bird hunting though) and I'm hunting with a brush gun so beanfield shots from the road really aren't an option.

Any Ideas?

[rdrader2002]

I would want to walk "the lay of the land" before attempting to do any hunting. I'm a firm believer in "Murphy's Law", you know, if something wrong can happen . . . and Murphy has plenty of cousins out there. I want to know where my bullets are going when I pull the trigger. You can't get the bullet back after you pull the trigger.

The walk also gives you a chance to look for any deer signs, trails, etc. to let you know where they are coming from and where they are going. It also gives you a chance to figure out where the best place would be for setting up some sort of make shift blind or something to find when you try to get into place in pitch dark while waiting for dawn to break. 'Cause we all know that's one of the best times to catch deer munching on whatever they can find.

Sounds like you have a lever action, by the way you described your "brush gun". I had some really good results using Hornady's LeveRevolution rounds. They're specially designed for lever action with all the latest in modern technology. Something about that plastic tip causes tremendous response and mushrooming when it hits the deer. Let's put it this way, the exit wound was about the size of a quarter.

If the land back east is anything like Texas, I hope it's not a public road you were thinking about when you said "beanfield shots from the road really aren't an option". Game wardens will give you a phone call while you're wearing your skivvies, 'cause you just 'donated' everything else you had with you if caught hunting from a public roadway. But that's just my two cents worth.

Best of luck in getting one this season!

[timberghost]

Welcome to the DHC JW. It's hard to hunt an area without the proper legwork but as long as you get in there the chance in your favor goes up a tad.

[JW76]

Couldn't agree more on wanting to know here the bullit is going. Very sound advice. It's pretty wide open around the draw and was going to go by sattelite photos and what my friend told me about. But I think I will spend my first morning scouting. Better to spook the deer than to have an accident.

As far as bean field shots from the road go, It's fairly standard practice around here. Unless you get into wildlife management areas it is mostly
1 mile sections of farm land. Very little open range and/or wooded area, and what is is mostly posted or leased. As long as you stay away from the highways your pretty much ok.

Heck, I knew one guy who's prefered method of hunting was to drive around looking and when he saw one he would he would get out of his pickup and have his buddy drive slowly down the road while he crouched and walked next to the pickup. When he got close he would jump out and shoot it. Not my kind of hunting but he took alot of deer that way. Also helped that he knew and had permision from every one in the county I think.

White tail around here are pretty spooky when they see a vehicle stop.
Muleys on the other hand you could walk up and throw a beer bottle at 'em and they'll just stand there and look at you. My stamp is for white tail either sex so if I don't get anything in the last two days of rifle season I can always go back out and try for a doe in leftover season.

Any way thanks for the advice
JW