rgarand3006

I grew up with assorted guns in my hand, shooting water moccasins and armadillos in S. La. Never did go deerhunting and plan to start this November. About all I have fired since I was 18 were little black rifles for Uncle Sam that don't kick or have scopes. So far, I have purchased a Rem. Mod. 700 in .30-06, tried to zero it, and spoken with my deerhunting brothers-in-law. I plan to hunt on my in-laws' farm in East Texas. I have my old Army camoflague uniforms and plan to wash everything in scent-kill soap from Oshman's. I tried zeroing the .30-06 with elk-rated 180 gr. ammo and forgot how I used to shoot my .303 Enfield. When the Enfield kicked back, I went with it back when I was 155 pounds. That recoil didn't bother me and I was always standing when I fired. Now I'm 200 pounds, seated on a stool at a rifle range, and forgetful, so I tried to stand my ground with the .30-06 and have a yellow/green shoulder as a result. Next time I will "give" with the recoil and am downgrading to deer-rated 125 grain bullets. I figure that's a large enough bullet to do the job if I will stop flinching at the prospect of recoil. (I caught myself once as I had forgotten to release the safety and flinched as I pulled the trigger.) I was always a dead shot as a teen and then as a soldier and expect to get back on track with practice and this lighter load. The rifle came with a Maverick scope that seems unimpressive. It will probably do for the short range shots I expect on the farm. Saw a nice entry-level Leupold at Academy that might be worth its 200 dollar asking price. I plan to scout the farm out for wind patterns and deer haunts the next chance I get, but the place has had no deer hunting preparations (unless you count the peach trees they like to eat up!) I need guidance on field dressing a deer. I plan to take it from the field to a nearby wild game processor.
My son is a big 9 year old who wants to tag along this year. Should be interesting to see him holding pretty still for hours on end. I guess he and I will be learning deerhunting together.

m.t.hands

good luck to you and your son, on the field dressing issue do a search and you should be able to get enough info to get you through it, also you may want to rely on you relatives that you'll be hunting with, you'll propably need them to help you locate the animal also if you've never tracked a deer, on a good shot they can still cover some yardage..

again best of luck, and welcome to this board

1dahunter

Welcome to the forum and the sport! Field dressing isnt that bad just got to be carefull not to puncture any of the guts, I am sittin here trying to figure out how to put the procedure in to words and am not doing very good. If you have deer hunting relatives I would ask them as its easier to be shown on paper than say it in words at least for me. We have a great bunch of folk here and maybe some one will chime in with some graphics. I am sorry that I wasnt much help but again Welcome!!!!

m.t.hands

same as 1da, i could show you but i hate to try to tell you how to dress a deer, so here is a little something i dug up, hope it helps


http://www.angelfire.com/bc/canuck2/gutting.html

SCRIDER1

Hey, rgarand... congrats on joining the club. I know you will have a fantastic time with deer hunting. Here's some advice on how to handle the hunts with your son. I have an 8 year-old who has been going with me since he was 5. My advice to you is this: on any hunt that your son tags along, make the entire hunt all about HIM...not you, not the deer. The most important thing you want to accomplish on this hunt is for your son to have happy memories about it. Boys that young get uncomfortable faster, get cold or hungry sooner, have to go the bathroom more often and just plain cant sit still as long as adults can. If you go to the stand with him and he wants to head back to camp and play with the campfire after an hour, let him! I've seen too many dads force their kids to sit in the stand too long, get angry and wind up with a trip the kid hated. Remember, you want your son to have happy memories about this trip long after your gone. The "real" hunts with him will come later, when he's older. For now, leave him home when you plan to spend all day in the woods and hunt hard.
Also-- "safety first" is the most important lesson you can pound into his head now. Good luck and let us know how things go!
SC from LR

rgarand3006

"on any hunt that your son tags along, make the entire hunt all about HIM"

That sounds like excellent advice to me. I know I loved just running around in the woods and swamps when I was a child and would love for him to be more mindful of his surroundings when he is walking through the East Texas woods. Deer hunting will certainly instill that in him if I don't get too worked up about filling the freezer. Besides, he will have plenty of Grandma and Grandpa to keep him entertained if I want to hunt hard for a day or two. I sure don't want to burn him out.

I am surprised nobody commented on the 125 grain ammo as I know that is near the bottom of the scale for shooting deer with a .30-06. I still think the placement of that bullet is going to be the most important thing, not its sheer weight. Reading around on the site reminded me that it is more subject to deflection than a heavier bullet.

timbercruiser

I started carrying my grandsons last year, and that part was better than me killing a deer. Glad to see you are already considering upgrading your scope. I'm not familiar with the Maverick, but most of the cheap scopes are just that, a cheap scope. Low light conditions and clarity will probably not be good with any cheap scope. You usually get what you pay for. Shot placement is imperative. Take out the lungs and you will find your deer close by. I would stay away from the ballistic tips and go with a good bonded bullet.

eamont

You're never too old to get in this game. As the song goes-"too old to rock & roll, too young to die." I'm 43 this month and this is my second season hunting. I got a Sako in 270 win that was putting a bruise on me. It's a fairly compact, light gun, so the 140-150 grain silver tips put a wallop on me by the time I had put two different scopes on it to compare them and see how I liked them. I put 80 rounds down range in that one afternoon. I wound up putting on a Sims Vibration Laboratory "limb saver" recoil pad. They made a H-LL of a difference. They made that thing shoot lighter than my .223 mini-14! There's a slip on version, that will fit over your existing stock, or you can get one to replace your existing recoil pad. I went that route. My gunsmith did it, cause I didn't know how it would have altered my eye relief and trigger pull mechanics. I spent about $55 for it, including the gunsmithing to change the stock length. My smith remeasured me for it and cut down the stock to keep it the same length. I strongly recommend it! Works like a champ, and the folks told me that it was better than the Pachmayer decellerator. They sold them both and recommended the Sims Limbsaver over the other one. Go for it and see what you think. -Ed

Moose_Maximus

Good luck.

I'm in my 40's and going deer hunting for the first time in 2-1/2 weeks.

Can't wait!

thecontractor

don't feel bad about flinching with the thought of pulling the trigger. i find myself doing this when i neglect my resonsibilties as a sportsmen to go out shooting every once in a while. infact, i found myself doing that this year with my 12 gauge, it's not that i'm scared of the kick as i'm sure you're not either, it's must the anticipation or excitement about the whole situation. sometimes i have to talk myself through it for the first few shots, but once you got old drop tine in your sights, all of that goes away!!! good luck to you and welcome!!!