Headed to Wisconsin for deer season.

[Dave King]

I'm off on another high-speed road trip... I'll be in/near Eau Claire, WI tomorrow night (17 Nov 2005), putz around on Friday and kill a big 'ol buck Saturday morning (maybe).

I'm going to be hunting near the Tiffany Bottoms opening morning. (Very near where the Chippewa River helps out the Mississippi River.)

I'll leave up there on Wednesday morning (23 Nov 2005) for a lightning trip back to Maryland and then on to North Carolia for training beginning noon Friday (25 Nov 2005) for 3 days.

Looks like I'll only have time for a few quick hunting shots, a couple of gutting jobs then a handful of cheese curds washed down with some beer and that'll fill up the 4 days in this years deer season for me.

Wish the deer some luck 'cuz I'm headed out hunt'n!!

 

[ss7mm]

Dave:

Sounds like fun. The deer and the curds don't stand a chance. Keep us posted on the results. Good luck /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Buffalobob]

You better hope the Maryland highway patrol don't frequent this forum because they have a very low tolerance for Thunder on Thunder Road ( or maybe it is just me they don't like).

North Carolina is a different story. Just get her up to redline and let the good times roll.

 

[Coyboy]

Dave, I've been in the Tiffiny bottoms one year just checkin it out. Talked to some locals and they say some BIG racked bucks have come off that public land. Good luck with your hunt. You said near the Tif. bottoms, so I infer your on some private near by?

Just to give you a weather report; right know 1 hour east of EC, it's 16 degrees and 30 mph. winds. Here we have about 3-4 inches of a very cruchy snow. Started as rain and turned over, very wet snow now frozen. I havent seen the news tonight for Saturdays weather but I would expect low teens in the AM. High might top 35 degrees. Tonight its supposed to drop to 8 degrees.

Even in the wind the deer were really pounding the ag fields this evening. I seen over 25 on my drive home from work.

Another plus with the wet rain freezing snow, all the marsh grass in my area has been broken down and is laying flat. For the first time in about 4 years this will give them alot less areas to hide, and ought to make for a very active opening day, as those bruisers search for concealment.

 

[Dave King]

I've hunted the Tiffany Bottoms before, on the Nelson side of the river between the RR tracks and river. My son shot his first buck in there, a nice 10, a little light on mass so about a 130 B&C class.

This time I'm headed across the river onto the side of Fivemile Bluff hoping to catch some big bucks headed out of the public into the private on top. I'll have about a 400 to 500 yard max shot across the ravine onto the next ridge. I'd imagine they'll be sneaking along on the sunny side or maybe I'll catch a lurker sleeping on the steep ridge. I don't believe many of the locals enjoy humping the hills and prefer to stay to the high or low flats... I'll drag (maybe ride) that critter on the snow down to the river, load up the waiting boat and motor up to Ella.

I'm taking my McMillan A5 Rem 700 300 WSM with the 6 x 24 x 50 IOR "Hubble" (just an image of the scope...not my rifle of course)

as a scope. I'll take along "The Monkey Blaster" as a spare rifle and of course I'll need my trusty (worn and rusted) 870 Wingmaster for Dunn County hunting.

 

[Dave King]

First day is done, I only saw one deer and it's hanging in the garage. My friend, Randy, made a short drive to me once we'd finished our morning stand and she ws the unlucky winner of event.

The bluffs were some hard walking for a couple of fat middle-aged fella but the real nice part is that we had about 3000 acres of public hunting to ourselves. (Randy saw one other hunter in the morning and I saw one in the afternoon). When we pulled the boat out we saw a nice (dead) buck at the landing, he'd score about 135-140 easily I'd say, 9 point, big body (had a hole in it somewhere though).

Today we're hunting flat land near Rock Falls, NSP (Norther States Power) land I believe, just near Meridean. Pines of various ages, rel easy hunt and plenty of folks moving to keep the deer traveling for a stand hunter.

I talked with by buddy Ron Nemetchek (Alberta) about his season, there was a hunter with him just then getting pictured with his ~ 199 B&C buck (particulars later I guess).

It's a balmy 34 degrees this morning and pretty warm yesterday too... no snow left here.

 

[Len Backus]

The snow was gone by noon today here in Waushara County, Wisconsin.

Yesterday my son hunted with me on my perennial favorite stand. I spotted for him while he used my Chris Matthews rifle to take his first long range buck...at 453 yards. That was fun for me. Last December Andy spotted for me in Wyoming when I took my mulie at 670 yards.

 

[Dave King]

Congrats to Andy and you.

I tried to get to my stand on NSP but a deer was in it! I didn't want to shoot the critter unless it was a big buck or a doe and it managed to have it's head stuck into a pine row far enough to be safe...

Today I'm off to Nine Mile Island.

 

[Ian M]

This is completely unfair - you two guys are having all the fun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Len Backus]

It takes a lot of guts to complain about fairness when you hunt as much as Ian does! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Dave King]

Ian

Like Len says "Lots of guts.."

Good to hear from you, got any new rifles or ammo to dep shoot with??



Status Report:

Wisconsin DNR reports three (3) less deer on Nine Mile island. Randy shot a nice buck and I came across two does. Bad part was that my does were on the non-boat side of the island so a little over 900 yards of dragging on leaves and dirt. I shot mine with "The Monkey Blaster" and I can now tell you for certain the a 375 H&H is plenty of cartridge for Wisconsin Whitetail. The deer came as a set, a doe and her yearling fawn and Randy had mentioned it'd be a long drag if I shot one (or two). I was in a small scrub oak in a cobbled-up "permanent" stand, a 12" piece of 2x8 across a few large limbs and the "crotch" of two other branches for a seat. The does came in from behind so I needed to shoot with the rifle between the two large branches and of course they soon pushed the limits of the range allowed by the branches and my follow the deer swing came to "all stop" when the rifle whacked against the right side upright limb.... I elected to shoot the doe at that point and managed to get her in the liver even when limited in rifle movement... bad part (real bad) was that the bipod and tree came together real quick like on recoil and my left middle finger thought that same spot was safe!!! The fawn ran closer to me and I recalled Randy's statement about a long drag but the need to tag out so I elected to shoot her, about a 20 yard shot with her facing directly away from me. About an hour after we got the deer out to the boat Randy and I had burned a hole into my fingernail to let the blood squirt out and I experienced the second most pleasurable feeling I can recall...

We made a few little drives to each other during the day then made our evening stand. Randy had a buck show up at about 4:25 and it met it's maker in short order... another drag (155# buck) of about 400 yards and we called it a day.

I have managed to get a few little video clips that I'll upload to my web-space when I get back.


Well... I still have nine good fingers and more bullets so I'm headed out today to lay-waste to some more deer... stop at three today they're telling me.... no dragging though..

 

[Buffalobob]

I wouldn't have thought a person would complain about dragging the remains of a fawn. I can't imagine that there was more than a few ounces of it left in one chunk or did you gather it up and put the pieces in a bucket. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Ian M]

Dave,
I have a nasty mental image of you holding up your left middle finger with its glowing red-tip showing people your big "boo-boo" (as our two year old grand-daughter would call it). Ouch - Harris bipods can do ugly things to fingers. You going to leave any deer alive in Wisconsin? I can send down some more ammo if you start to get low /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Got the hots for one of those Weatherbys, maybe a boomer. Arranged a 2006 heavy barrel in the mighty .308 Win. for some evaluations. Way toooo many guns, not enough time.

 

[Dave King]

Ian

These should help your mental image.

These are a few video clips, these are large files and may take a while to load.

Randy and I looking over the first doe on NineMile Island. Includes shots of Dave's smashed finger!!

www.longrangehunter.com/Video/2005ninemile-doefawn.avi

Randy and I at the boat landing. Caution graphic dead deer video.

www.longrangehunter.com/Video/2005hurlsboatlanding.avi

Randy and his buck.

www.longrangehunter.com/Video/2005ninemilebuck.avi





You might just "right click" these and save them locally for viewing.