Hunting AAR

As I mentioned, I shot a couple of deer this past weekend. 

The first one I shot, was a long (for Central TX) shot.  Right at 130 yards, right as it was about to cross a fenceline.  When approached, I was pretty disheartened- he was a medium sized body 6 point, but was all skin and bones.  He had a compound fracture on his rear leg, and it appeared to be infected.  It was good to cull him out, and put him out of his misery.

Shot details: 130 yard neckshot with a 168Gr Hornady A-MAX

But, about an hour later, another good buck came in and I took the shot.  It turns out that this might be the best buck we have taken off the property.  Which is good, since we have been grooming this herd for YEARS.  It looks like it is finally paying off:

Shot details: 91 yard neck shot, same gun and ammo

Shot details: 'Bout 10 yards with an iPhone.

Hard to tell from those pics, but the rack was VERY wide.  Probably 20" inside spread.  Very heavy body as well.  I'm a bigger guy, but it took me and my brother to lift him.

Now, because this was turning out to be a good weekend, we had to have a wrench thrown into the mess.  On our way out of the property, the wheel bearing on my brother's truck takes a dump on him.  So I end up taking the quartered deer in to be processed... in a Prius.  It was kind of funny.

unhook that goddamn, and replace it with this sh!tbox... and DONE!

Got that fixed, and did not miss any hunting.  It was a great weekend in the woods. 

Weekend- Hunting Prep and first Coyote hunt

Friday night, I drove down to 45er's compound so we could do some hunting season prep on the lease and try our hands at trying to call in some coyotes.

Friday night, we tried a couple of good beers.  45er had a couple that I'll let him intro, and I brought this  new-to-our-area brew:

Sixpoint 'Resin' Double IPA

If you like floral and very hopped IPAs, and you can get this in your area, try it.  I had tried Sixpoint's 'Sweet Action' cream ale on one of my all-too-frequest trips to New York, and was impressed.  This one lives up to the expectation.

Saturday morning, we went to stock up on corn for the feeders.

Needs sugar and a still.

In this area, hunting from blinds over feeders is the way to hunt.  Spot and stalk is almost impossible due to the terrain and local flora.  It's just too dense to sneak up on anything.  There are cleared areas that you can do it on, but the deer are VERY wary of getting in the open.  They stay in the dense cedar and scrub oak.

Ever wondered what 900lbs of corn in a truck bed looks like?

After we were done with clearing out the blinds, feeding the cows, we set up the game cameras.   I was pretty impressed that the Solar setup I had in my blind was still fully operational.  My brother had left his camera hooked up at his blind throughout the spring and summer.  Caught this cool pic:

pretty impressed the batteries lasted till June

Even though it was the middle of the day, 45er and I decided to camo up and try to call in some coyotes.

I took the new AR-10, and 45er took his old reliable Savage 110 in .243, which is scary accurate and has probably killed more deer than most people have ever seen.

A well armed shrubbery

'I don't see any either'

We tried a mix of recorded calls off of Varmint Al's website played through my phone hooked to a GoalZero speaker and 45er blowing on a wounded rabbit call.  The only thing we were able to call in was a very stupid whitetail doe.  If it had been the right season, there would be more bones added to the boneyard, and jerky in the smoker

So we got completely skunked on coyotes.  The only thing anyone caught was 45er caught a really good nap while I was running the calls.  Either there were no coyotes in the area, or we just suck at calling 'yotes.

It was good to be out of the city, out in the woods and just having a good time with guns out in nature.

EDIT:  Forgot to add this.  45er's dad decided to up the redneck skill at his blind, and added an automatic watering trough for the deer.  Check this out:

A huge water reservoir with a float valve filling up a torch cut water heater tank.  This is what ranch engineering is all about

Redneck and geek collide- Solar powered hunting blind

Going green- while shooting poor little woodland creatures.

I went nuts this weekend, and put solar power in my hunting blind.  This started out because my phone kept running out of power in my blind.  I was researching portable power solutions and it kind of snowballed from there.  Solar cells were procured, deep cycle marine battery was bought, LED lights for RVs were pressed into service... and I ended up with a totally redneck solution.

working the wiring

Here you can see the major components. Battery, fuse block, master power switch, 12v outlets, and USB power.

That Kid throwing the master power switch for a test

Final product. Lights and cupholder

Now, I have a proof-of-concept of doing off grid power on the cheap, a way to charge the cell phone, and a way to keep the spotlight running for the midnight pig hunts!

New definition of 'Canned Hunt'

Texas just legalized the use of suppressors in hunting game animals!

45er has a pretty good writeup

What does this mean to That Guy?  Well, I have a .45 caliber suppressor.... it's not going to work on rifle calibers, but it will work on .357 and .45 Colt.  I don't think it will work on .44 Magnum.  Need to check with Yankee Hill Machine and see if it will.

Since I don't think I can come up with the $200 for the stamp and .308 suppressor that I want in time for hunting season.  So I guess I need to thread my NEF .45 Colt or NEF .44Mag and get optics on whichever gun I choose.

Taking the can on a hunt!  w00t!