[moleman]

The firearms deer season is a month away in Michigan aside from the various early hunts. I have 3 tags at the moment, but can buy more doe tags if wanted. I've narrowed my rifle rotation down to: the same 400FUW rifle as last year; a 16" 375FUW from a few years ago; a 44mag Marlin and 44mag S&W 629.

What's everyone else using this year?

 

[Tommo]

Those are some great looking guns moleman! Cannot hunt until I get a hip replacement, hopefully this winter. I used to use my 98 Mauser sporter in .308 with a 20 inch barrel, post front, aperture rear sight, Hogue stock and a Weaver 3x power scope in see through mounts. Sorry do not have a photo of it.

 

[moleman]

Thanks Tommo! Hope you get your hip fixed and can make it out next year. It sucks missing deer season for whatever the reason. Your Mauser seems like a great setup for most deer hunting. Most of my "deer rifles" have a scope on them, but most of the deer I've got have been taken within the same distances as I've taken deer with that S&W.

 

[dutigaf]

good luck & happy hunting.

deer here are looking small this year. lots of doe's & young uns... no real big racks though.

 

[moleman]

Haven't seen any really big ones yet this year either. Lots more small yearlings here too that seem noticably smaller than normal for this time of year. It doesn't look like they've got the mass or fat reserves to make it through the colder than average winter they're predicting.

 

[ashhoe]

Maybe the 450 Bushmaster but probably the 32 Winchester special, that thing carries really nice.
Spent the weekend up in Pellston and there was no shortage of dead deer on the highway, some big ones too.

 

[driswalds]

good luck

 

[moleman]

Maybe the 450 Bushmaster but probably the 32 Winchester special, that thing carries really nice.
Spent the weekend up in Pellston and there was no shortage of dead deer on the highway, some big ones too.

We go to Pellson every year when we go camp at the Maple Bay camp ground on Burt Lake. Last year my girls and their cousins bought Pellston Hornet football hoodies for some weird teenager reason. Pic from Maple Bay towards the state campground. Seems like the northern pike fishing gets worse there every year.

 

[twa2471]

One tag filled with a 8 pointer on day #2 of bow season here on my own land here in VT.

Weighed in @ 188 clean dressed at one place and 192 where I'm entered into a buck pool. Not to shabby for a VT deer at all !

Life is good here @ the High Mountain Homestead !
Now I'm going to try to get one of the bear roaming around up here. I have a big female with 2 cubs, and 2 her year old @ around 150ish that will get a free pass and a big male that has to be in the 325-350 range that I'm going to concentrate on next .

 

[AKarl_12]

I hunt public land with my 350 Legend AR. It a great gun very accurate & almost no recoil. It puts a large hole in the sides of deer so there is almost no tracking, now if I can get a gun to drag it out for me.......................LOL

 

[moleman]

Congrats twa2471 and AKarl_12

twa2471, that looks like a nice sized buck with a thick neck, how old was it? I'm still just seeing little bucks which we pass on or does. I generally wait until the doe only season in late December to shoot those. Good luck on the bear. None where I hunt, although they're moving closer to us. Perhaps some day. Relatives have given us black bear beer sticks and meat before which was good.

Akarl_12, hope to get a couple doe during our december doe hunt as the freezer is almost empty. The 350L does seem to do a good job and hit harder than you'd think it would. It's extremely similar to an older wildcat the 357AR which I started hunting with first. For dragging the deer out get one of the folding aluminum deer carts. Unless it's super muddy it makes dragging out the deer much easier.

 

[moleman]

How is the season going for everyone? Got a 8pt opening morning with the 400FUW with a suppressor. Still quite loud as it's supersonic but the sonic boom is spread out over the whole distance and bounces off of the trees so it's hard for the deer to pick out where it comes from. 90yd heart shot, buck jumped and kicked and trotted 20' to the next group of trees and looked around. Turned around walked back to the tree it was shot near, looked around again. Started walking again and dropped. Whole thing took just a few seconds. Waited on the boy to shoot something before taking another deer, but he thinks he has to shoot something bigger than I got so he let a lot of deer walk by. General firearms season is over now and it's our muzzleloader season although the DNR regs let you use any legal firearm that you could of used in the general firearms season.... So it's really more like general firearms season #2. It ends on the 11th, then late doe from the 12th to New Years day.

Good luck to those that are still hunting!