Opening Weekend of Prairie Deer, AKA “Christmas”

Opening morning on the river is like a battle field, deer running all over, shots going off left and right, you can see orange in every direction. Your first plan should be not to get shot; it sounds simple but I know people who have got shot, and I’ll tell you that nothing will ruin a hunting trip faster than a bullet wound.  

And if you want to see lots of good deer the thing to do is to set in a spot where the deer feel comfortable and safe. The smart deer will run there as soon as the shooting starts, but the experienced deer will already be there, so be alert and never stop moving your eyes. Opening morning I shot a little buck with my .44mag at 15 paces, he came in and felt safe he never even looked for me; he looked from where he came from to see if he was being fallowed. When I gutted him I found fresh corn in his gullet, the nearest corn is over 8 miles away. The deer travel and anyone has a shot on any deer. Sitting still and keeping your eyes up and moving are the tickets to opening weekend.

I have noticed some pre rut activity, aggressive sparing, bucks running with their head down and their nose up, bucks chasing does in circles. A buck running with three does in a heard instead of the bucks traveling together. Any of this can be signs that the rut is near or is happening. This is when you pull out the can and bleat, and my favorite the roar; All this and more next week.

Good luck and good hunting 

How to Prepare Your Riffle for the Big Weekend

Is cleaner really better? When it comes to the inside of your riffle boar, the answer is almost. Almost clean is the best way to go into hunting season. This is the procedure by witch you will have the best accuracy and reliability come opening weekend.

First go out and sight in just like you would before hunting season. I sight in or, “Zero”, my rifle to 200yds. I prefer to sight in at 100yds and 1.5 inches high, this allows my bullet to drop in to my cross hairs at 200yds. Then go test it at 200 yards.

After sighting in I go home and clean my riffle just like everyone. But the secret to this whole prosses is I go out and re fowl my barrel. Fowling a barrel is simply shooting the riffle once or twice to clear the whole riffle of cleaning chemicals and not too much that you have to go clean again. Fowling is important because the chemicals used to clean a riffle are still present even if you run 100 dry patches you can never get it all out. These chemicals take up a certan amount of volume wich can cause the riffle to over pressure in some cases. These chemicals also attract dust and dirt witch can also do nasty stuff to your riffle, such as send brass back through the bolt and into your eye. 

This is no joke, my grandpa was on an elk hunt, and in South Dakota we know how rare that is, and his riffle over pressured and put a ton of brass in his eye. He was hospitalized for a week and he still killed the bull. This ritual of refowling  will keep you from such miss haps in the upcoming moment of truth. It’s the big weekend get time to leve the deer to themselves and wate for opening weekend.  I will glady post any pictures of your hunting season thus far and any future success.

Good luck and good hunting.

How to Prepare Your Riffle for the Big Weekend

Is cleaner really better? When it comes to the inside of your riffle boar, the answer is almost. Almost clean is the best way to go into hunting season. This is the procedure by witch you will have the best accuracy and reliability come opening weekend.

First go out and sight in just like you would before hunting season. I sight in or, “Zero”, my rifle to 200yds. I prefer to sight in at 100yds and 1.5 inches high, this allows my bullet to drop in to my cross hairs at 200yds. Then go test it at 200 yards.

After sighting in I go home and clean my riffle just like everyone. But the secret to this whole prosses is I go out and re fowl my barrel. Fowling a barrel is simply shooting the riffle once or twice to clear the whole riffle of cleaning chemicals and not too much that you have to go clean again. Fowling is important because the chemicals used to clean a riffle are still present even if you run 100 dry patches you can never get it all out. These chemicals take up a certan amount of volume wich can cause the riffle to over pressure in some cases. These chemicals also attract dust and dirt witch can also do nasty stuff to your riffle, such as send brass back through the bolt and into your eye. 

This is no joke, my grandpa was on an elk hunt, and in South Dakota we know how rare that is, and his riffle over pressured and put a ton of brass in his eye. He was hospitalized for a week and he still killed the bull. This ritual of refowling  will keep you from such miss haps in the upcoming moment of truth. It’s the big weekend get time to leve the deer to themselves and wate for opening weekend.  I will glady post any pictures of your hunting season thus far and any future success.

Good luck and good hunting.

How to Prepare Your Riffle for the Big Weekend

Is cleaner really better? When it comes to the inside of your riffle boar, the answer is almost. Almost clean is the best way to go into hunting season. This is the procedure by witch you will have the best accuracy and reliability come opening weekend.

First go out and sight in just like you would before hunting season. I sight in or, “Zero”, my rifle to 200yds. I prefer to sight in at 100yds and 1.5 inches high, this allows my bullet to drop in to my cross hairs at 200yds. Then go test it at 200 yards.

After sighting in I go home and clean my riffle just like everyone. But the secret to this whole prosses is I go out and re fowl my barrel. Fowling a barrel is simply shooting the riffle once or twice to clear the whole riffle of cleaning chemicals and not too much that you have to go clean again. Fowling is important because the chemicals used to clean a riffle are still present even if you run 100 dry patches you can never get it all out. These chemicals take up a certan amount of volume wich can cause the riffle to over pressure in some cases. These chemicals also attract dust and dirt witch can also do nasty stuff to your riffle, such as send brass back through the bolt and into your eye. 

This is no joke, my grandpa was on an elk hunt, and in South Dakota we know how rare that is, and his riffle over pressured and put a ton of brass in his eye. He was hospitalized for a week and he still killed the bull. This ritual of refowling  will keep you from such miss haps in the upcoming moment of truth. It’s the big weekend get time to leve the deer to themselves and wate for opening weekend.  I will glady post any pictures of your hunting season thus far and any future success.

Good luck and good hunting.

How to Pattern Your Big Buck Withot Disturbing His Patterns

Imagine you are a mature buck... You stay up all nite feeding; you are the last one into the field and the first to leve. Your company is constantly changing from groups of bucks to a few does to no one. When these bucks go out on their own, just before the rut, they start to change their paterns almost on a weekly basis. This means that you need to be out researching reguarly. Your presance however can change his paterns defeating the perpose of being out their. Durring the day the bucks will be beaded, they dont care if you say go hunt ducks. I personally have never seen paterns change because of duck hunting, they feel safe and not threatened by you because you arent nessarly presureing them. This not only alowws you to be out there gatering information but this also lets them get used to seeing you and their by feel less startled by you when they actually should be!

This is a tatic used by my grandpa and my dad and now me to make a presance whiout to much presure. Plus  duck hunting on a river is prime! the twists and turns alow the tall grass to hide you untill you want to be seen. Also take your field glasses, I know I know, their just ducks; but if you can gain the uper hand and spot conflicting riples you will determin where you need to strike. I used this method this fall with doves to pattern deer for bow season, works like a charm, every time.

Good luck and good hnting.