Nebraska Whitetail

[Gus McCrae]

Got this one last Friday around 10 am. We watched him make his way down the creek bottom for about 3/4 of a mile. He stepped out in front of us at 414 yards and the 140 gr. Barnes TTSX out of my .280 Rem did it's job after I did mine. One shot to the spine and it was over.

The red dot in the first picture is where I took the shot from.

 

[sbhooper]

Good shot and a decent deer for sure. Game and Parks here has checked in A LOT of big bucks this year-both mulies and white-tails. I am wondering if there are really that many, or because of lots of the does dying off, are the bucks roaming more and getting shot in the process? Next year will tell the tale, but I am betting next year sees fewer mature deer being harvested.

I have to hunt public land, which is a joke in Nebraska. The only reason that I even do it, is because I live right next to the area. I did manage to fill my center-fire tag and the bonus doe. I was not going to wait when I saw a two-year-old buck coming up the fence. The doe came off private land.

I am having orange flash-backs due to all the hunters around.

If you have private land to hunt, you are very fortunate indeed. Good job.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Is there not much public land in Nebraska? I've passed through it but never looked into hunting it much. I grabbed some literature last year but didn't find much in the way of public land.

 

[Gus McCrae]

Thanks.

I had no expectations coming into this year with the EHD outbreak last summer. The weird thing is we saw more bucks in the 2 weekends of rifle season than I can remember, and I've been hunting this property for over twenty years.

I don't think we had near the die-off that other parts of the state had, but it was still nice to see some horns running around. The landowner has really cut down on the number of people he lets on the property, and between the 3 of us he gives permission too, we've really tried to let 'em grow. It looks like it's starting to pay off because we've taken 3 really nice bucks out of there the last 2 years when in the past we'd be lucky to run across 1 every 2-3 years.

 

[Derek M.]

That's a great whitetail! Nice shooting. I have some 140 TTSX also and a new 280. Planned on playing with the 2 soon. What is your load if you don't mind?

 

[Gus McCrae]

That's a great whitetail! Nice shooting. I have some 140 TTSX also and a new 280. Planned on playing with the 2 soon. What is your load if you don't mind?

56.5 gr of R-22. Bullet seated deep (0.100" off the lands). Getting a hair over 3000 fps mv.

 

[sbhooper]

Is there not much public land in Nebraska? I've passed through it but never looked into hunting it much. I grabbed some literature last year but didn't find much in the way of public land.

No. There is not a lot and most is in small pieces. It gets hammered by hunters. There are some large areas up north, but they, too get hit pretty hard.

It used to be that you could hunt lots of places with a knock on a door, but those days are largely gone. Many outfitters and other out-of-staters are leasing the land, or it is hunted by friends and family.

A lot of areas got hit real hard with EHD. Many people aren't seeing near the numbers of deer that there have been. The mule deer area where I was able to hunt last year, has virtually lost all of its deer-both mule deer and white-tail. I don't know if it was EHD or something else, but deer that have historically been in the hills and valleys that we hunted are completely gone.

 

[Bravo 4]

Congrats, that's a great buck! A buddy of mine just got back from Nebraska on a deer hunt. A friend of his invited him to come hunt his family farm. He said there were about 20 people hunting a small farm, but he managed to kill a good 8 point.

 

[Gus McCrae]

Congrats, that's a great buck! A buddy of mine just got back from Nebraska on a deer hunt. A friend of his invited him to come hunt his family farm. He said there were about 20 people hunting a small farm, but he managed to kill a good 8 point.

Thanks.

What part of the state did your buddy get his?

 

[sbhooper]

Sometimes land owners allow so many people in, that it makes it almost like public hunting.

There are some good deer in Nebraska-even on public land- but I really get tired of the amount of other hunters in most public areas. For me, it takes a lot of the fun out of it when I start feeling crowded.

 

[Gus McCrae]

I know how that is. We've hunted some private ground in the past where the landowner didn't like to say no. It was like I-80 through there all weekend. It's a little frustrating, but not much a guy can do about it.

 

[grovey]

Great buck, congrats.... I assume with a spine shot you didn't catch the ttsx, even at 400+ yds?

 

[Gus McCrae]

Great buck, congrats.... I assume with a spine shot you didn't catch the ttsx, even at 400+ yds?

Nope...no bullet recovered. I didn't even think about looking for it until the next day.

 

[dirtking]

Congrats on the big buck and a hell of a shot! We were also surprised at the amount of deer (especially bucks) that we saw during season this year.