Well, my hunt is over. I had one antlered tag and two antlerless tags. As it turned out, I took three bucks, two of which qualified as antlerless (a button buck and a short spike buck). This is strictly a meat hunt, so I don't bother with pictures.

Friday was opening day, and it was sunny and hit a high of 65 degrees. I went into the woods after lunch, settling into a ground blind (the east blind of three strung out east to west in the woodlot where we hunt) around 2:10pm. At 2:30 two bucks and a doe came crashing through the grass to the south and hooked around the blind to the east. The bigger buck kept going, but the smaller buck stopped southeast from me and looked back on his trail. I shot him with my Merkel K-1 in 7x65R with a Leupold M8 4X, loaded with 140-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips at 2475 fps, distance of 35 yards. He ran about 15 yards and piled up about 20 yards behind the blind. He was quite big-bodied and was the largest of the three deer I took. I succeeded in hitting
the top of the heart, which is what I prefer.

Saturday I butchered the buck in the morning and went out again around 2:00pm to the woodlot. It was overcast and 45 degrees at that time. This time I was in the middle of the
three ground blinds (we call it the "stump blind" because of a large tree stump at that location), facing north. A lot of fawns running around and a few bucks, but since I only had antleress tags left they were safe. It drizzed lightly for about 40 minutes in the middle of the afternoon, and there was a moderate breeze from the northwest. Then just after 5:00pm, with about 20 minutes of legal hunting time left, a button buck came in from the north straight toward me. It was watching
me as it approached, starting from about 65 yards and kept coming in slowly toward me, finally stopping to graze around 45 yards out. Because I shot such a big buck
the first day, I decided that this smaller button buck was of adequate size and dropped
him when he presented a broadside shot at his left side. I was using my Remington Model Seven "Scout" in .260 Rem, loaded with 125-grain Nosler Partitions at 2700 fps, and wearing a Burris 2.75X Scout Scope. At the hit the buck didn't even flinch, step, or jump. It just flopped over on its side and never moved. Another top of the heart hit.

On Sunday morning I butchered the button buck. In the afternoon it was back to the woodlot, and I was back in the east blind. Temps were in the high 30s. The first time I had mostly faced east and had a 180-degree shooting zone, but because the wind was coming from the northwest again, I faced into the wind and my zone was 180-degrees the other side. Saw nothing until about 4:50pm, then three fawns
and a big doe came down the slope from the north. The fawns circled my stand to the east about 15 yards away and headed to the south. The big doe hooked west at the base of the slope and disappeared into the brush. Then I saw a nice buck to the west through an "alley" in the trees. He stood broadside to me, an
easy shot at about 35 yards, but of course I only had an antlerless tag. Then what
appeared to be a doe trotted in to the south about 15 yards from me, heading east. As I turned to look, it spotted me, turned, and headed to the northwest. I brought my rifle up in case it showed itself in the "alley" to the west and sure enough it appeared in the alley and headed straight away down that sight line, stopping about 80 yards out, facing away and angled slightly to the right. I decided to
take the shot, again using the Remington .260, and it fell in its tracks at the shot. As I got out my rangefinder to see how far the shot was it started flopping around, so I quickly packed up my gear and walked over to it, then put it a finisher. I'd shot too high and had hit just about the spine, so I'd paralyzed its rear legs but hadn't killed it. The second shot went in at an angle, entering just behind
the elbow and exiting the middle of the chest on the other side, taking out half of the heart. It turned out to be a spike, but the spikes were short enough to be hidden by its ears and therefore qualify as antlerless. He was bigger than the button buck but smaller than the racked buck I shot on the first day.

Three days, three deer, three males: large, medium, and small. I finished butchering
the third deer Monday morning and all three are wrapped and in the freezer. The Merkel
K-1 was a joy to carry and the 140-grain NBT at 2475 fps was very effective at these close ranges with no bullet failure that I could see. It didn't exit, but we couldn't find the bullet. The Rem Model Seven "Scout" in .260 is my regular whitetail rifle; the 125-grain NPTs at 2700 fps continue to be reliable killers and have accounted for 5-6 deer during the last three seasons.

sounds like a good hunt and a lot of fun.

Our gun season opens saturday and I am hopeing to rack up a few for the freezer.

quote:

This is strictly a meat hunt, so I don't bother with pictures.

I've done that in Wyoming and it's still a lot of fun.

They all taste great regardless.

Our group of five had four buck tags and seven doe tags. We ended up with four bucks and six does. Two bucks weighed 185 lbs. dressed, one 195 lbs. dressed and the one with the biggest bones (ten point eastern, 155 gross) weighed 175 lbs. dressed. My buck was a seven point (eastern) because of a broken brow tine and weighed 185 dressed. Will have pictures by December.

Where in ND were you hunting?

I ask because I am originally from Minot ND.

Riodot:

We were hunting near Portland-Mayville, about half-way between Grand Forks and Fargo. My hunting buddy's family comes from the area and we hunt on their farms.

That's a nice area of the state. Sounds like you had a great hunt. Did you see a lot of deer, they seem to be everywhere in ND.

Well I hate to say this but you shot two bucks and one was not legal. See section 7 below.
http://www.nd.gov/gnf/licenses/deerguide.html#limits

We were told that "visible" meant longer than the ears for a spike, i.e., not able to be hidden by the ears. Several of us saw this deer before it was shot, and none of us could see the spikes. It was being chased by a 3x3 buck and acted like a doe.

I was just letting you know what the rule states. If you talked to someone from the game and fish and that is what they told you then you should be fine. If you heard it from a buddy or someone else then I would not take it to heart.

Thanks, Dakor. If I messed up, I messed up and I'm perfectly willing to pay whatever penalties are involved.

Here are the results of our North Dakota hunt. Our party of five got 4 bucks and 6 antlerless. The locals got the another 7 does and were waiting for bigger bucks.