Hunting Season!

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Ogie Ogilthorpe

Ogie Ogilthorpe

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Never too early to talk about hunting season coming! Fall is in the air!

What's on your calendar this year for hunting, whether it be the annual thing or a special trip?

Outside of my regular 7-10 days of pheasant hunting in South Dakota, I drew my first ever bull elk tag this year, archery. Been a lifetime goal/dream or bucket list thing to take a bull with my bow after taking a lot of MN whitetails with my bow in my earlier days. Absolutely cannot wait! It will be my first ever elk, first archery elk, the whole works.

So what's on your hunting calendar this year?
 

Congrats on the Elk tag! That will be 1 fun hunt.

I have a 4 day trip to south dakota planned after thanksgiving, nothing beats SD for pheasant. Archery deer and I've had a lot of turkeys in my food plot so I may buy a fall archery turkey tag and see if I can't stick one of them. I'll do deer firearm season too but hopefully at that point I'm just trophy hunting and have filled my freezer with my bow. Lots of pheasant hunting in western MN on public land. The one special thing I'm going to try to do this year (it's a goal right now at least) is a blast and cast trip up at north for grouse and walleyes.

I do have some pheasant legs left over from last year still, some venison brats ,sticks and summer sausage but I think that's all the wild game I have left. Time to start filling that freezer up again!
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Never too early to talk about hunting season coming! Fall is in the air!

What's on your calendar this year for hunting, whether it be the annual thing or a special trip?

Outside of my regular 7-10 days of pheasant hunting in South Dakota, I drew my first ever bull elk tag this year, archery. Been a lifetime goal/dream or bucket list thing to take a bull with my bow after taking a lot of MN whitetails with my bow in my earlier days. Absolutely cannot wait! It will be my first ever elk, first archery elk, the whole works.

So what's on your hunting calendar this year?
Click to expand...

Did you get the elk tag in SD? I understand that is like winning the lottery.
 

I would assume his elk tag is for out west. Are you hiring a guide?
 

howeda7 said:
Did you get the elk tag in SD? I understand that is like winning the lottery.
Click to expand...

bottlebass said:
I would assume his elk tag is for out west. Are you hiring a guide?
Click to expand...

My draw was for here in Nevada. I did end up getting a guide. I didn't have to, but I got a line on a good one, small outfit that doesn't take many people, friends with one of my employees. For my first, and how important it is to me, I just didn't want to leave anything to chance.

This was my fourth year of putting in so I had 4 points built up, but my first that I switched my choice to archery instead of "Any Weapon". I have to make it count, after drawing one, successful or not, I can't even apply for the next 7 years for a bull elk in Nevada.

It's got me interested in archery hunting again, not having done it since I left MN 15 years ago. Some great big game around my place in Flagstaff, AZ that I'm just starting to look into and explore. I'm actually going to change my driver's license to AZ in a little bit, buy a lifetime hunting license in AZ, and then even after I switch back I can apply in AZ as a resident for big game tags for life. Kind of a "loophole" but I'll be more than happy to take advantage of it.
 


This thread is going to be eerily quiet.

75% of the posters on here don’t believe in the 2nd amendment.
 

John Galt said:
This thread is going to be eerily quiet.

75% of the posters on here don’t believe in the 2nd amendment.
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You can hunt and own guns without believing in the 2nd amendment... but let's not hijack this thread with politics and just keep it about the hunting.

An Elk hunt would be a bucket list trip for me, doing it archery would be even cooler. Man that would be intense. What range are you comfortable shooting at?
 

bottlebass said:
An Elk hunt would be a bucket list trip for me, doing it archery would be even cooler. Man that would be intense. What range are you comfortable shooting at?
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That is definitely the $100,000 question. I'll be prepared for at least 50, maybe 60 yards. I have 3 weeks left and haven't done much long range shooting, been working mostly on good consistent repeatable form, even took several shooting lessons even though I've shot most of my life. But a longer shot would more than likely come on the last day or second to last day, something like that. I'm a pretty conservative high-percentage shooter. I don't like wounding animals on half-ass shots. It's not worth it, not even close.

I know guys that will shoot at 80, even 100 yards, and if I was routinely shooting at that range, with consistent results, maybe I think about it but no way.

Good grief, if I'm shooting at much distance at all, my guide probably isn't doing his job. They will be rutting and bugling, certainly not out of the realm of possibility to get a shot at 15 yards, staring down the snot coming out of his nostrils.

Short answer; whatever range I feel like I can consistently put 5 out of 6 shots in a roughly 4-inch circle or so, maybe 5 inches tops, I would take that shot.
 

Yeah I was thinking your guide will tell you to be prepared for a 50-60 yard shot. Obviously the goal is much closer but nature doesn't always comply. I'm pretty consistent out to 40, anything over that and I just go to sh!t. And I'm with you, also conservative in my shot selection. Its not worth just wounding the animal and I really don't want to have to track for forever either.
 



In September, my 8 year old son will be my squirrel spotter. He spots, I shoot. Pump .22 shooting shorts. Open sights. Gun older than both of us combined. Small game is abundant p, fun, and tasty. It’s like taking a kid fishing. Crappies are better than muskies.
 


saintpaulguy said:
In September, my 8 year old son will be my squirrel spotter. He spots, I shoot. Pump .22 shooting shorts. Open sights. Gun older than both of us combined. Small game is abundant p, fun, and tasty. It’s like taking a kid fishing. Crappies are better than muskies.
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I haven't hunted squirrels in a long time. I should maybe do it again because there are some giant ones up on my hunting land and listening to them rustle in the leaves when you are waiting for deer is annoying. I do occasionally rabbit hunt. It's more to get my dog out and get him exercise in the winter off season once pheasant closes but we are successful quite often. Usually he is 100% successful and my shot is just off or I can't get a shot because he's right on em and I don't want to risk shooting my dog.
 

bottlebass said:
Yeah I was thinking your guide will tell you to be prepared for a 50-60 yard shot. Obviously the goal is much closer but nature doesn't always comply. I'm pretty consistent out to 40, anything over that and I just go to sh!t. And I'm with you, also conservative in my shot selection. Its not worth just wounding the animal and I really don't want to have to track for forever either.
Click to expand...

It's also been almost like starting over for me; It had been so long and with my bow still with a relative in MN, I bought all new equipment, so it's definitely been an adjustment. I also switched to a hand-held thumb release instead of the older more traditional index trigger release that wraps around your wrist. That took a little getting used to but I guess there are some advantages; although reading on the internet, it looks like for hunting it's an even split, basically people argue for what they have just become more comfortable with.

It always fascinates me what you run into when you dive into a completely different world or culture with different hobbies or activities, like when I started doing triathlon and multisport. There is a unique group of people that I see shooting at the archery range. Everything from hunters like me getting ready for hunting season to people practicing for competition shooting. Definitely way more of the latter. Just like you see on tv, people shooting with bows that have those mega-long stabilizers, both recurves and compound, men and women, different ethnicities. I had no idea archery was still pretty popular, hell, maybe even more popular than when I was younger.

Anyway, people fascinate me, probably the same reason I'm on this board.
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
It's also been almost like starting over for me; It had been so long and with my bow still with a relative in MN, I bought all new equipment, so it's definitely been an adjustment. I also switched to a hand-held thumb release instead of the older more traditional index trigger release that wraps around your wrist. That took a little getting used to but I guess there are some advantages; although reading on the internet, it looks like for hunting it's an even split, basically people argue for what they have just become more comfortable with.

It always fascinates me what you run into when you dive into a completely different world or culture with different hobbies or activities, like when I started doing triathlon and multisport. There is a unique group of people that I see shooting at the archery range. Everything from hunters like me getting ready for hunting season to people practicing for competition shooting. Definitely way more of the latter. Just like you see on tv, people shooting with bows that have those mega-long stabilizers, both recurves and compound, men and women, different ethnicities. I had no idea archery was still pretty popular, hell, maybe even more popular than when I was younger.

Anyway, people fascinate me, probably the same reason I'm on this board.
Click to expand...

I'd think if your bow as pretty old it would require quite a bit of work to get it back to hunting ready status which can be pretty expensive so I would have just bought a new one anyway. It's kind of why a lot of guys buy new bows every few years instead of maintaining theirs. Interesting about the thumb release, didn't know a lot of people were using those for hunting. I'd say whatever you are more comfortable with you will shoot the best with, repetition is key. And I don't see too many hunters at the archery ranges around my house, not sure if it's a product of living in the cities or what. I guess I do a lot of my practice up at my hunting land so maybe other hunters do too?
 


Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Never too early to talk about hunting season coming! Fall is in the air!

What's on your calendar this year for hunting, whether it be the annual thing or a special trip?

Outside of my regular 7-10 days of pheasant hunting in South Dakota, I drew my first ever bull elk tag this year, archery. Been a lifetime goal/dream or bucket list thing to take a bull with my bow after taking a lot of MN whitetails with my bow in my earlier days. Absolutely cannot wait! It will be my first ever elk, first archery elk, the whole works.

So what's on your hunting calendar this year?
Click to expand...

My dad and brother went elk hunting in Montana. They said the best part was backpacking it all out at 8,000 feet. :D
 

mplarson7 said:
My dad and brother went elk hunting in Montana. They said the best part was backpacking it all out at 8,000 feet. :D
Click to expand...

Hate to admit it but that's a big part of why I'm paying the guide.

They didn't have horses? Wow. Very far from camp, I'm not sure I would do a hunt like that without horses to haul out your elk. That's a damn big animal
 

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