The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting American Big Game Hunting My First Whitetail EverGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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. . . that weighed more than I do. This bruiser came in at 233 pounds on the hoof. I'd always wanted to take a whitetail that weighed more than I do, but such a large-bodied deer has eluded me until a recent trip to South Texas. The deer scored 170 gross and is a 6x5 without any kickers. Taken with a unique Sako, the GO Wholesale model (500 made) in .280 Remington. My load was the out-of-production Nosler Solid Base 150 grain at about 3,000 fps. 130 yards, one shot.  My hunting companion took a magnificent wide 10-pointer which grossed 166 with just two points of deductions to net 164. It is 25.5" outside spread. He was shooting a Sako AV 7x64 with the same bullets as I loaded in my .280. One shot did it.  | ||
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Very nice deer indeed! | |||
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Oh wow! Terrific bucks. ~Ann   | |||
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Outstanding deer!  | |||
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Some very nice bucks.....congrats to you both!!! DRSS | |||
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Awesome bucks, both of them. Congratulations | |||
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Great bucks. That ranch must of imported some northern white tail genes | |||
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Congrats on a couple of quality bucks. I would be very pleased if either were mine. I note you gents are very nattily dressed. Much more so than I would be be for hunting. Is there a dress code on the property you hunted or is that the standard for Texas ? Sorry, I know it's a bit of a cheeky question but I am intrigued. Cheers. Hunting.... it's not everything, it's the only thing. | |||
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Having hunted the brush country most of my adult life these are typical of what you might find on a well managed ranch in south Texas. A couple of solid south Texas bucks! Congratulations. I'd consider your taxidermist just gained some work! On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of ten thousand, who on the dawn of victory lay down their weary heads resting, and there resting, died. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch... Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! - Rudyard Kipling Life grows grim without senseless indulgence. | |||
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Well done. Congrats! | |||
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Now that I live in Texas, I'd be happy to just see a buck like that. Well done. There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t. – John Green, author | |||
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Obviously, PDawg is unfamiliar with South Texas Whitetails. Awesome bucks!! | |||
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Sweetwater? There are some excellent deer around you. Shackleford county north of Abilene has some studs and I just got back from Hartley County south of Dalhart and took a gross low 60's buck. Not alot of deer in that country but some solid ones! On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of ten thousand, who on the dawn of victory lay down their weary heads resting, and there resting, died. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch... Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! - Rudyard Kipling Life grows grim without senseless indulgence. | |||
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Uh, the rack is no slouch either! Well done on a fine pig-of-a-trophy buck!!! Best, Zeke | |||
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Texas has awesome deer, if managed, the gene pool has always been there.. The high fenced deer are normally larger of course, and much tamer I might add..and not allowed in B&C.. Ive seen some huge wild native deer in Texas, and all should check out the buckhorn saloon in San Antonio if you want to see a world champion whitetail deer. that boy has more points than the probably the last 10 or 20 whitetail deer combined that Ive shot..  Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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one picture has the rifle and I see it wears a Leupold. | |||
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Great deer! South texas has a ton of low fence bruisers. Good genetics. I've also noticed their body size is larger than the whitetail in my area "Let me start off with two words: Made in America" | |||
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Great deer!!!!!!!!! MARK H. YOUNG MARK'S EXCLUSIVE ADVENTURES 7094 Oakleigh Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89110 Office 702-848-1693 Cell, Whats App, Signal 307-250-1156 PREFERRED E-mail markttc@msn.com Website: myexclusiveadventures.com Skype: markhyhunter Check us out on https://www.facebook.com/pages...ures/627027353990716 | |||
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South Texas in the "Golden Triangle" has Whitetail in the 200 plus pounds and antlers galore! and they don't come cheap, They are low fenced and on 30,000 to 100,000 acre ranches, with some 5000 to 10,000 acre ranches tossed in. The fenced ranches are normally less than 5,000 acres and many are 300 to 400 acres.. A few scattered day leases for $125 per day, some decent and others terrible. In other words you get what you pay for.. Northern Idaho has good white tail hunting for the cost of a resident or non resident license and National forest to hunt in. Lots of deer.. Get an extra deer tag for $300. I hunt there as a rule. For you curmudgeons over 65, for a buck and a half, your allowed to shoot from the PU on forests land..Its high country and rough on old folks..Old age ain't all bad~! Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Congratulations on some stud deer! | |||
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Beautiful bucks! Nice to see the old classic Sako’s getting a workout. When are the prime rut hunts in south Texas? 4WD | |||
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The only thing better than 1 is 2. Wonderful. | |||
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Typically, mid- December but varying pasture and weather conditions can be from just after Thanksgiving to the end of December On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of ten thousand, who on the dawn of victory lay down their weary heads resting, and there resting, died. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch... Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! - Rudyard Kipling Life grows grim without senseless indulgence. | |||
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Ive seen the rut in full swing in the Big bend area as late as February, It has to do with the moon and weather..I always seemed to me the pre rut was in Dec or Jan, and hard in late Jan or early Feb on the Rio grand big bend Mule deer..The coues rutted early after the first or second cold spell or snap and a full moon started it or long periods of daylight..Just my opine on ranches in the trans Pecos and Big bend. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Great deer! Guns and hunting | |||
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Outstanding! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ J. Lane Easter, DVM A born Texan has instilled in his system a mind-set of no retreat or no surrender. I wish everyone the world over had the dominating spirit that motivates Texans.– Billy Clayton, Speaker of the Texas House No state commands such fierce pride and loyalty. Lesser mortals are pitied for their misfortune in not being born in Texas.— Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Texas in May, 1991. | |||
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Beauties! Frank "I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money." - Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953 NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite | |||
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Shackleford eh? My barber is a native of Fisher County, where my grandmother was born in 1893. He tells me the same thing -- not a lot of deer, but some very fine bucks. There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t. – John Green, author | |||
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Fisher County! How about that. I'm a native of Fisher, own property there, and am headed there tomorrow to hunt. There are now LOTS of deer in Fisher County, and we need to shoot more does and fewer bucks. Here's a buck taken on my Fisher County place last season. Not too shabby, eh?  | |||
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. . . . and the binocular is Leupold also -- the good ones that are no longer available with the individual eye focus feature which eliminates the troublesome and often out-of-focus center wheel/diopter system. The IF is also sturdier, having no moving mechanism connecting the tubes, and is easier to make water resistant since there are fewer openings.
It is true that some ranches import "breeding stock", but the rancher on whose place this one was taken is VEHEMENTLY opposed to transporting deer. I can assure you that the deer on this place are native. He does make supplemental protein available, culls heavily to keep a sexes in balance and population within the carrying capacity of the range, and lets the bucks reach trophy age before taking them. | |||
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I guess those antlers make everything in the photo look better. I'm just wearing jeans and a camo jacket, while my friend is in Wranglers (jeans), with a fleece vest he likes to wear. The only dress code in Texas is that you wear a "gimme" cap (which can't be seen in the photos), preferably one with someone's advertising on it, lest you be suspected of being some kind of high-brow. | |||
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Stonecreek--I've not used Leupold binoculars but I have been well pleased for over 50 years with my Rochester NY made Bausch & Lomb. | |||
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Yep, the Rochester B&L's, both scopes and binos, had some of the best optics made. I briefly owned a 6-24X B&L target scope, which was the only scope I've ever used with which I could resolve .24 caliber bullet holes in a paper target at 400 yards. | |||
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What are those awesome Rochchester spotting scope worth these days, bet its bunch..I have two and I might sell one on AR or guns Intl., but not sure yet.. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Ray Atkinson--You can go to EBAY and get an idea about what the B&L spotting scopes sell for. EBAY now will have a bunch of way out of this world overpriced stuff before you get to the realistic part. | |||
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Very nice deer Mike Legistine actu quod scripsi? Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue.  What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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That is a beautiful buck! I take my boat up to Hubbard Creek and around your area often. Love chasing those crappie. "Let me start off with two words: Made in America" | |||
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