I hunted the 2013 firearms season deer opener near Mora, MN this past weekend with a co-worker buddy. His family owns a cabin and 80-acre section with a border formed by a small river so it is a mix of river bottoms, hillsides, and small sloughs.

I was carrying my Winchester 70 .270 with a new stock I'm making for it, and my buddy had his Remington 700 .30/06. Both have 3-9x scopes. Which is the better deer rifle??



On Saturday he sat in a stand over a clearing while I was in a ground blind overlooking the river bottoms. Weather was 30 degrees, cloudy, and windy. We got into our positions an hour before first light and the shooting started as soon as legal shooting hours began. The only deer I saw was a glimpse of a whitetail about 100 yards away and running away from me while my buddy shot a small doe that morning. I took an hour break around 1:00 and returned to the ground blind for the evening hunt, where I saw nothing again and my buddy filled his second tag with a button buck. The only noteworthy critters I saw during the day were a group of swans and a couple of ruffed grouse. It was very windy all day and icy flurries fell for a couple hours in the evening.

My blind.





Brushy river bottoms.



Trumpeter swans on the river. There were lots of geese around too.



Birch trees above a hill.



Yesterday he stayed in and slept while I took his productive stand. I watched squirrels all morning but saw no deer. Then in the evening I again sat there watching the fat gray squirrels, and once light started to fall I heard some noise behind me. I thought it was another squirrel at first but the sound turned into a more distinct stomp-stomp-stomp, and I slowly turned around to see a doe about 75 yards away and heading directly downwind of me.

Sitting in the stand, facing away from where I heard the deer.



It was walking slowly and relaxed so I had time to calmly sit down, grab my rifle, swivel back around to face the deer, and brace the rifle against the tree trunk for the shot. Once it entered an open area about 50 yards from the stand I clicked the safety off, waited for the deer to pause, and sent a 130 grain Scirocco into its heart and lungs with my .270. It fell over dead at the shot without a kick or flop and is now hanging in my garage.



You can see my yellow bag on the stand in the background.



All things considered it was a very successful opening weekend. I'll be back at it next weekend near Duluth, taking another friend out on his first deer hunting trip. I have a bonus antlerless tag so I hope another doe tries to sneak past me.

Which is the better deer rifle,
well your's of course, as you are the OP.

Beautiful country and great pix. aI for one love seeing the foilage and terrain where others hunt. Diggin' on the swans and the fall colors.

Glad ya'll were able to fill tags.

Thanks for posting.

Best,

GWB

Thanks GWB! I'm looking forward to putting that doe in the freezer. Should be very tasty.

Here's a little more scenery from the weekend. Not much game was moving so I had my camera out.

Love it.

What camera?

I do the same thing, prolly not as good though.

I never go afield without either my Canon SX260 or my T2i. Need to buy a couple better lenses though.



From opening weekend, Nov. 2, 2013

these two were taken about 30 minutes apart in the early AM







as were these about 30 minutes apart in the PM







I find that hunting with my camera can be quite fun, just hard to eat digital images, but they do last longer.





Best,

GWB

Thanks GWB. I really like your photos too. Great shot of the little buck. If I'm not shooting game, I'm shooting photos. There's way too many interesting things to see afield not to photograph. If anything it keeps me occupied to pass time. You're right it is nice to bring back good images and memories but fresh meat tastes best.

I was using an old Nikon 4800ED. My Nikon L26 recently bit the dust (damn lense error) so I've been using the 4800 in the meantime as a backup. Light wasn't best for photos this weekend but the camera has decent macro and action settings so I had fun with it.

A friendly little black cat showed up at the cabin on Saturday and drove my buddy's vizsla crazy.

great stuff.

I'll be sure and watch for more of your posts and pix as the season progresses.

I love Texas, but no way do we have the colors that ya'll up north have.

I'll leave off with these. My wife and I were chasing "covered bridges in Maine one day and I took this.




I fell in love with Maine, by the way. Never been to Minnesota. Bet it's pretty.

And since it's Veterans day, here is one from Grafton' Notch



Thanks to all the vets for their service.

Best,

GWB

Nice pics GWB, thanks. Likewise I've never been to Texas but it's on my list.

There's more pics of Minnesota in these threads: http://forums.accuratereloadin...7221043/m/7521001391 and http://forums.accuratereloadin...7221043/m/6211091081 and
http://forums.accuratereloadin...7221043/m/4371007571

Are you sure you haven't really died and gone to heaven?
It looks like what I picture heaven to be.

Years ago when I used to fish a lot, I would tear up the bass on our lake and in Peach creek with a bucktail Mepps spinner. Either gold or silver blade would work. Time to time, would get goggle eye perch also.

Once again great pix and photos. They have made my day.

Thanks for the links. I'm sure other will enjoy as well.

Best,

GWB

It is obvious which rifles better your buddies he killed his deer first.

Nice pictures and sounds like a good time I hunted on my uncles farm about 10 miles from Mora along the snake river in the early 80s for a few years.. A lot like northern Wis.

Still have relatives between Mora and Hinckley my mother was born and raised there back in the teens and 20s

Thanks GWB, you're welcome. Good luck getting me to move away from here. We have some great variety in MN between the lakes and land. A rainbow Mepps #4 is my go-to in the northern lakes for anything that bites.

P dog it sounds like we could have been hunting the same land. The water in those photos is the Snake river.

quote:

The water in those photos is the Snake river

It looked familiar.

A nice area the farm was sold off after my uncle and aunt died and I haven't been back.

A nice area.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

A nice area the farm was sold off after my uncle and aunt died and I haven't been back.

10/4 on that.

We had a place from 1961 until 2007. I grew up hunting, fishing our 4 acre lake and running the mile or so of Peach Creek that bordered our property. My five siblings,three kids and 15 nephews did so also. It was surrounded by 4,500 acres of undeveloped land owned by a couple of sisters that lived in Arkansas, IIRC. No neighbors for a couple miles.

We sold in 2007. The 4,500 acres around us was sold for a "red flag" residential development. They were breaking it up into 10 acre parcels. They wanted our place as a county road dead ended into our property. I've never been back either since we closed the deal.

Best,

GWB

I'd pick the custom stock. Nice pics guys. Too bad we can't record the smells of the outdoors. I took 3 rifles out to shoot today and the smell made me stop and appreciate the sweet smell of fall. Ray

Evan congratulations!
Beautiful country indeed thanks for sharing I enjoyed your photos too

Thanks fellas! This past weekend was tough... we hunted south of Duluth MN in some very wet and very windy conditions with no deer in sight. I really wish my buddy could've had the opportunity to take a shot but at least he still enjoyed himself, and I got mine last weekend. He couldn't hunt Sunday evening so we stuck around after hunting that morning to have fun hunting small game and got a few squirrels. Of course I can't hunt this coming weekend due to a wedding, so I'm done deer hunting for the year now.

I saw turkeys, squirrels, a few grouse, and found some wolf droppings on the property. I'll be back this spring for the turkeys- they were all over.

Some photos from the weekend:

















His first squirrel. Nailed it.

Great photos and scenery. Felt like I was there !!