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Extreme Long Range Hunting & Shooting (ELR)
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<blockquote data-quote="Old teacher" data-source="post: 735144" data-attributes="member: 48420"><p>My partner and I used to hunt about 60 acres of brushland on one of the San Juan islands in the Pacific Northwest. Sixty acres doesn't sound like much, but the estimated population of this island was 11,000 deer. The problem is that it is heavily human populated, and hunters are not popular, for some good reasons. It is shotgun only, but sabots make that kind of a moot point in brush. I personally knew folks with bullet holes in their refrigerators. We just happened to work with a guy who owned the 60 acres and we were they only people he would let on. The myth about island deer being small is just that, a myth. We hunted there for eight years until a 115 mph windstorm leveled the entire area. But in those eight years, we took sixteen bucks. Two things were interesting about hunting there. There are no natural deer predators to control the population, and a lot of inbreeding takes place. The first year we shot bucks with the most screwed up looking horns imaginable. But as the years went by, the quality of the deer increased as did the difficulty in hunting them. We were the "introduced" predators that took out the weak and deformed the first couple years, allowing the good bucks to do more breeding. By the time we had to stop hunting there, we were shooting beautiful deer with perfectly formed antlers, but it was tough to find them. It was Darwinism in action. What was also interesting was that if you chose a good spot on a good run, and stayed very still and very patient, the whole quiet woods just came to life. I had birds land on my shoulders, squirrels running up my legs to get to their favorite tree, and all sorts of wildlife that stayed hidden and silent if we moved through the area stalking deer. It was fascinating and very rewarding. I actually (and this is a true story, I swear) had a doe step over my legs as she went down the run. As soon as she smelled me, she exploded. We were in all camo gear since we were the only ones there. The biggest deer I shot there was a nice 3 point blacktail that dressed 150, and 150 is a nice blacktail. I missed a nice 4 point because I fell asleep, and when I woke up, he was just standing there, 20 yards away. I total blew it and probably missed him by ten yards. They are not very big deer. That was some of the most fun I ever had deer hunting, and only ten miles and a ten minute ferry ride from home.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Old teacher, post: 735144, member: 48420"] My partner and I used to hunt about 60 acres of brushland on one of the San Juan islands in the Pacific Northwest. Sixty acres doesn't sound like much, but the estimated population of this island was 11,000 deer. The problem is that it is heavily human populated, and hunters are not popular, for some good reasons. It is shotgun only, but sabots make that kind of a moot point in brush. I personally knew folks with bullet holes in their refrigerators. We just happened to work with a guy who owned the 60 acres and we were they only people he would let on. The myth about island deer being small is just that, a myth. We hunted there for eight years until a 115 mph windstorm leveled the entire area. But in those eight years, we took sixteen bucks. Two things were interesting about hunting there. There are no natural deer predators to control the population, and a lot of inbreeding takes place. The first year we shot bucks with the most screwed up looking horns imaginable. But as the years went by, the quality of the deer increased as did the difficulty in hunting them. We were the "introduced" predators that took out the weak and deformed the first couple years, allowing the good bucks to do more breeding. By the time we had to stop hunting there, we were shooting beautiful deer with perfectly formed antlers, but it was tough to find them. It was Darwinism in action. What was also interesting was that if you chose a good spot on a good run, and stayed very still and very patient, the whole quiet woods just came to life. I had birds land on my shoulders, squirrels running up my legs to get to their favorite tree, and all sorts of wildlife that stayed hidden and silent if we moved through the area stalking deer. It was fascinating and very rewarding. I actually (and this is a true story, I swear) had a doe step over my legs as she went down the run. As soon as she smelled me, she exploded. We were in all camo gear since we were the only ones there. The biggest deer I shot there was a nice 3 point blacktail that dressed 150, and 150 is a nice blacktail. I missed a nice 4 point because I fell asleep, and when I woke up, he was just standing there, 20 yards away. I total blew it and probably missed him by ten yards. They are not very big deer. That was some of the most fun I ever had deer hunting, and only ten miles and a ten minute ferry ride from home. [/QUOTE]
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