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Opening day with GM .58

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doulos

40 Cal.
Joined
Feb 9, 2007
Messages
367
Reaction score
14
Yesterday was opening day of the NY southern zone firearms season. Since many of my old hunting areas are being subdivided and sold off I have been scouting some state land. I picked up my much younger hunting pal and headed down. We decided to hunt a hill of state land just due to the fact there were hardly any cars there. I had scouted it earlier and found a way up the very steep hill. When I scouted it was loaded with deer sign. Our plan was to get high and sit amongst the plentiful oak and hickory stands. We kicked 3 deer up on the way up including a broken racked buck. After climbing for about an hour we spread out found some deer runs and sat.. By 11 Am I had seen about 12 deer browsing along the hill all within 100 yards but no shots I felt comfortable about. My partner actually tried a shot but had a misfire with his INLINE.!! And I watched him fire 3 caps earlier before loading. Goes to show nothing is 100% reliable.
About 11;30 the broken racked buck was chasing a doe about 60 yards in front of me. He went out of sight and I didn’t see him again but other does appeared out of nowhere. They were within 65 yards but the best shot I had 2 of them were lined up and I didn’t want to risk hitting 2 with a pass through. They disappeared over a knoll. About 5 minutes late I stood and a doe ran up the trail right towards me. She was quartered slightly to me about 60 yards I took the offhand shot and saw her run down into a very steep area with 2 other deer I didn’t even know were there. After waiting a while I went to the spot she was standing found some hair and followed a little way I didn’t like the looks of the blood trail after 60 yards so I backed off. I went got my hunting partner had coffee and a sandwich and decided to go after her . It was about 2 hours after the shot. It was so steep where we were tracking we uncapped our guns not to take any chances. We were actually hanging onto trees while looking for blood sign so as not to fall down the hill. It was very difficult to walk without hanging onto branches. I could tell the hit wasn’t that good. This is the first deer Ive shot with open sights in 10 years . I need more offhand practice.
Anyway, finally we got to a very steep drainage I crossed it following very small drops of blood and there she was dead and stiffening up . We probably followed about 200 yards from the shot. I did pull the shot farther back but caught liver. It was quite an ordeal getting her out of there. Actually sliding down the steep hill on our butts much of the time.
I don’t know how much of this type of hunting I have left in me at my age and 3 stents in my heart now but it was a blast.
By the way; Gun--- TC Renegade. With Green Mountain .58 on it.
Load --105 grains Goex Ffg Hornady .570 ball .
Pillow ticking patch and mink oil patch lube
Sorry so long
 
Sounds like a tuff hunt there doulos. Glad to hear you stuck with it and found your deer. I love tracking and it sounds like she took you for a hike. Glad you shared your hunt with us. I'm getting one of those GM 58 cal barrels for my Renagade.
 
Congratulations on a fine bit of tracking.

Tell you young friend he has to clean the oil and grease out of the bottom of his barrel with alcohol before putting a new load in it. Firing caps just cleans the flash channel, as short as it is. Particularly with in-@!@!@#s, with the centered ignition, the flame does NOT do a good job or getting into the corners of the breechplug face, to burn out the oils and grease that collect there, particularly when a gun is stored on its butt, barrel up. The same thing happened to the college aged son of a good friend of mind, who didn't bother to get home soon enough to fire the gun a few times before opening morning. His in-@@#$ misfired on a deer that was less than 25 yards away. That is just one more reason why those " zip guns " are not discussed openly here.
 
Doulos, good hunting, a good story, kudos for sticking with the trail and doing it all the right way...good role model for your companion too. I also have a GM .58 (Flint) on a Hawken stock...great caliber.

From a quadruple bypass survivor to a guy with 3 stents...deer hunting kills an awful lot of men with clogging coronaries...you really, really need to be careful in that terrain alone, much less dragging one out.

Congratulations on your deer !
:thumbsup:
 
Hello from Germany!

Nice story! Congrats and Waidmanns Heil!
Do you have pics?

Regards

Kirrmeister
 
Thnaks guys. The hard tracking job was my fault but I allways try to be persistent to find it. I have a relative I wouldnt hunt with anymore because he was lazy about following up shots allways assuming he missed if he saw no reaction to the shot. I dont go for that stuff.I always felt I had to give animal recovery nothing less than my best effort. Actually I cut it up this morning so no pics. Roundball , I wouldnt attempt to hunt at that place alone. I dont think anyone should the potential to get hurt is big there much less having a heart episode. The terrain there definitely keeps hunters away but there is a lot of deer there if you put in the work. Paulm my pal said he did swab with alcohol first. I actually think either he didnt seat the cap well or it was just a bad cap. He didnt try to fire again he just flicked off the cap and recapped. I reiterated you have to check everything before a hunt TWICE and still sometimes things go wrong.
 
Roundball, One other thing. Once I got the deer down the hill we were still quite aways from my truck and still in an area you couldnt drive. I had a deer cart in the truck. It was easier to go get it than to drag it out of there. In fact I was suprised how easy this thing wheeled along on the bottom logging road. About 20% the effort of dragging maybe less. If you dont have one of these things get one.
 
doulos said:
The terrain there definitely keeps hunters away but there is a lot of deer there if you put in the work.
That's what I was thinking...they probably get very little prssure up there on high ground...sounds like you may have a good spot to go again.
 
doulos said:
Roundball, One other thing. Once I got the deer down the hill we were still quite aways from my truck and still in an area you couldnt drive. I had a deer cart in the truck. It was easier to go get it than to drag it out of there. In fact I was suprised how easy this thing wheeled along on the bottom logging road. About 20% the effort of dragging maybe less. If you dont have one of these things get one.
And another strategy tip could be:
Hunt high, slide deer downhill, and put a go-cart engine on the deer cart :grin:
 
Doulos, Congratulations and good tracking job. :thumbsup:
A lot of guys wouldn't track 50yds off a tote road. :shake:
 
Good for you. I know what you mean about hard to get at places. At 51 I am starting to slow a bit, but I still like to get away from most of the hunters, and that means dragging them out. Up here we usually have snow and they skid on it ok but this year no snow, and I could have used your rig. Congrats on the tracking. :thumbsup:
 
If you can find one of those plastic, or rubber " sleds" with the grommets on them, they work beautifully for dragging out carcasses, over both snow, and over leaves. They are not as handy as that wheeled carrier, and of course, nothing beats a 4 wheeler for bringing out a deer from steep country. The plastic skid is easy to pack, doesn't weigh much( a huge factor), and is easily roped to the carcass so it slides over logs, roots and forest clutter. It even makes dragging it uphill much easier! The one advantage I found for the plastic sled is that it gets into spots, and out of them, where you can't always manuever a cart.
 
If you can find one of those plastic, or rubber " sleds" with the grommets on them, they work beautifully for dragging out carcasses, over both snow, and over leaves

Paul I had one of those a while back and it worked pretty good.It fit rolled up right in a back pack. I cant find another one that size. the newer ones are bigger.
 
Way to go Doulos!Good Job on that hunt!About your Cart?Is it one of them ones that Cabelas sells?They look like the Cats Arse!I am going to be doing most of my Hunting alone in the next few years(Weekdays anyhow)and one of them carts might be the way to save myself from a Heart attack!Got any pictures of it?
 
HALFTAIL. First Way to go on your buck! the cart is from Gander Mountain. The guy in their archery dept actually talked me into the cheaper one having used both it and the more expensive one. Mine is made of steel not aluminum and is a little heavier. I think just about any model will work though and cabelas has some nice ones.
 
Congratulations doulos,

I enjoyed reading your story. Sounds to me like that bigger caliber paid off in this case, you guys with those .58's have me thinking about getting one myself.

I'm sure the .58 is a little lighter to carry in the woods too? I have a GM .54 that isn't bad, but just picked up a .40 and that sucker is HEAVY. :grin: Oughta put some new life into an old Renegade though.

Spot
 
Congrats on the deer and way to go on the tracking! :thumbsup:

As for the game cart, I finally broke down and bought one this year. Wow! I can't believe how nice they are to have. I got one from Cabelas that folds up into a backpack, taking less room in the pick-up and making it simple to haul in.
 
The more I hear about them Carts ,the more I think I will get one before Next Hunting season.
 

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