No deer to post yet. But raising hell on any pig that crosses my path

I started my 2nd season mule deer doe hunt a day later than planned because I was in LA for my Uncle's funeral on the opener.

Uncle Mac was like a grandfather to me since my maternal grandpa died when I was young and my paternal one and my dad did not speak.

When his son was delivering the eulogy, he talked about Uncle Mac's belief in "MacFarland luck" that would cause him to do things like wear a knee brace long after the injury was healed because the SF Giants had won their first playoff game while he was wearing it (the year he did this they won the World Series).

I took a small picture of him with me on the hunting trip for some of that same luck, and filled my tag before I even made it to camp! Turns out a 147gr ELDM out of a 6.5 Creedmoor turns organs to jelly on a 30 yd frontal shot.



I got to send that photo to my Mom, who is still in LA with his family.

This is my first time hunting with a truck, normally I'd quarter and pack out, but it's nice to gut and put the deer in the bed. Temps in the 20s-teens help out too.

Amazing antlers....not a big antler guy myself, but those are really really cool

Mule deer does are not a fan of McFarland luck. Uncle Mac was riding along with me on this one, a little bit more work but more satisfying.

280 yards, one round of Hornady 147gr ELDM, dropped in her tracks.



I also got to see over 100 antelope and at least 200 elk, all coming across the Wyoming border. Found some older Ukrainian guys that had been up there since 2nd season kicked off. One had a cow elk tag so I clued him in to where I saw the herd. A game warden came and checked us while we were talking, super nice guy. All of them said they hadn't seen any deer. It pays to be lucky.

Posted the entire story in the Western hunting thread. First DIY public land deer, second rifle season in Colorado.

First animal for me to take with my 25-06 that I inherited from my grandfather.

My dads fifth anniversary of his passing was Thursday. Went out and smoked a pig for him. Little bit of emotions and definitely let out a little battle cry after I put him down haha

Hunt, Tx. Opening morning. No WT present but lots of Axis showed up before daylight. Was going to take a doe but I could not pass him up.

Shot my biggest deer ever on Saturday morning. I call it Lauren's Broken 9 as this was the deer that my youngest daughter almost pulled the trigger on during youth weekend. He was a swamp donkey of a deer - by Brazoria County standards, he's huge. By south Texas or north Texas standards, he's not all that big. But far and away the biggest and best buck I've ever taken.

I ended up hitting him twice - he was crossing one of my ROW's pretty quickly and I had to put a round at about 165 yards through a 6"-8" gap between trees as he never really stopped to give me a good shot. That shot hit him, but hit him forward and a smidge low - went through his front right leg and into his chest, but no vitals were hit, so it didn't put him down. Slowed him a bit.

I got out of the stand and waded down the ROW to see if there was any blood to track - nada. I was pretty dejected at that point because I knew I had likely missed a really good opportunity on a massive buck that myself and one of the other guys had on camera all summer and were hoping to get a shot at. About the time I was resigned to going back to the stand to wallow in misery, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye - he was coming back across the ROW at 110 yards away. I took a freehand/offhand snap shot as he was going under the fence to the neighbor's place - I had a split second to do so. Hit was high and back a little, but it was enough to drop him in his tracks. For the internet snipers out there - DGAF, he went down. I ate bacon wrapped tenderloins that afternoon and have him on ice, rack is already at the taxi and I'm proud as hell of my swamp buck.

NM desert mule deer.

schmellba99 said:

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Shot my biggest deer ever on Saturday morning. I call it Lauren's Broken 9 as this was the deer that my youngest daughter almost pulled the trigger on during youth weekend. He was a swamp donkey of a deer - by Brazoria County standards, he's huge. By south Texas or north Texas standards, he's not all that big. But far and away the biggest and best buck I've ever taken.

I ended up hitting him twice - he was crossing one of my ROW's pretty quickly and I had to put a round at about 165 yards through a 6"-8" gap between trees as he never really stopped to give me a good shot. That shot hit him, but hit him forward and a smidge low - went through his front right leg and into his chest, but no vitals were hit, so it didn't put him down. Slowed him a bit.

I got out of the stand and waded down the ROW to see if there was any blood to track - nada. I was pretty dejected at that point because I knew I had likely missed a really good opportunity on a massive buck that myself and one of the other guys had on camera all summer and were hoping to get a shot at. About the time I was resigned to going back to the stand to wallow in misery, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye - he was coming back across the ROW at 110 yards away. I took a freehand/offhand snap shot as he was going under the fence to the neighbor's place - I had a split second to do so. Hit was high and back a little, but it was enough to drop him in his tracks. For the internet snipers out there - DGAF, he went down. I ate bacon wrapped tenderloins that afternoon and have him on ice, rack is already at the taxi and I'm proud as hell of my swamp buck.

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Great story.

**** happens.

I feel like this is one of those times that we need NW80 here. He would never have let this pass without ****ting on you.

Don't worry - plenty of others did for my being human and not taking an absolute perfect shot like everybody else in the world has done 100% of the time in their entire lives. I'm possibly the only one that has ever graced this earth that was not better at shooting than our military snipers in the various special forces are. I'm good with it.

One of the 3 "spikes" we had on our list came out Saturday evening. It was nice to let him hang overnight, he will make some dang good summer sausage

Broke out the 32 Remington carbine with thumbnail safety this afternoon. Built in 1914 and still punching holes!

We don't need no stinking vortex!

Biggest buck of my life Sunday morning

Blanco County
Low fence
172 3/8"

Here's my Coues buck - already posted in another thread, but figured I'd add him to this one too!