Hide & Seek & "There's no such thing as overkill"...

[Old Ironsights]

So, I spent the last 2 days from dawn until dark playing hide & seek with the Deer for a State Park's "Brown & Down/Doe & Fawn" Depredation hunt.

Monday was a balmy 35 and falling with a 17-36mph wind and mid-afternoon icefall (not nice enough to be called snow) keeping the deer hunkered down in the swamp.
8:00am

4:00pm

(Back to the "what do you wear thread: that's Hip Waders, Black Drizabone Clone, Wool Swiss Army pants, US Issue Wool sweater& a silk underlayer. The hipwaders were needed as the swamp was mid-thigh deep in places... lots of places…)

Anyway I’m back in the swamp about ¾ klik or so off the trail and roust a do & fawn from their yard about 62 paces through the trees. Got one clear shot at the fawn. The doe was behind cover and got out of shooting range fast. Oh well.

But that 180 spun the fawn around and nearly knocked it over. (Bullet exit is higher than the entrance.) It went about 20yds spraying out of both sides. (Yes, it’s little. This was a Brown & Down Depredation hunt.)

So, let’s talk overkill…
Entrance Wound:

Lung:


That’s a ½” hole – through and through. No contact with bone (well, it brushed some soft ribs but I don’t think it punched any. Not immediately noticeable anyway)

There was one recoverable lung (as pictured). The other one was mostly sucked out the exit wound.

Have I mentioned how much I like this bullet/powder combo?

Only saw 2 other deer. One was a clear, but unsafe shot (straight down the trail) and since there could easily be someone within range down that trail I declined, and the other was a cagy old doe who let me pass her before spooking up so I had to do a 180 before only getting one chance at the back of her head as she bounded straight away.

Oh well, at least I got about 50lbs of meat out of 2 days wading through freezing water & pancake ice.

Better than work.

[gunslinger598]

Fawns sure are Good Eatin!

[WCF3030]

That double lung will do it every time. Got too love those cast bullets.
Good luck on getting the 50lbs of meat.

[Old Ironsights]

That double lung will do it every time. Got too love those cast bullets.
Good luck on getting the 50lbs of meat.

We'll see. I'm pretty good with a knife and get tallow-free grinding meat off of parts other people throw away.

I'm guessing dressed weight was in the 80lb range. Sans head and hiosting the thing onto the gambrel-hook I'm guessing about 65-70. I really need to get a proper scale.

[rjohns94]

nice report. i bet that will be some kind of tender. table report is due next.

[TedH]

Good shooting OI. That should be some good tender meat there.

[pharmseller]

I'm guessing dressed weight was in the 80lb range. Sans head and hiosting the thing onto the gambrel-hook I'm guessing about 65-70. I really need to get a proper scale.[/quote]

80 pounds dressed, so do you figure 105 to 115 live weight?
You guys have big fawns. Out here a decent blacktail buck goes 125#. A good mulie is around 180#.


P

[Old Ironsights]

I'm guessing dressed weight was in the 80lb range. Sans head and hiosting the thing onto the gambrel-hook I'm guessing about 65-70. I really need to get a proper scale.

80 pounds dressed, so do you figure 105 to 115 live weight?
You guys have big fawns. Out here a decent blacktail buck goes 125#. A good mulie is around 180#.

P

I'm going by relative weight. She weighs more dressed than my 60# dog did, and about how much in WW I like to put in a 5gal bucket to move the things around.

It's a SWAG, but I don't think I'm more than 10# off.

I'll take her down & stand on the bathroom scale tonight. Was too tired from Hiking & dragging Mon & Tuesday to do it.

[pharmseller]

I shot a blacktail fawn in a depredation hunt years ago. Like veal!


P

[Borregos]

OI, that is going to taste real nice

[nemhed]

Good job, O.I.! Did you have much competition out there with the poor conditions? It's nice to have something to show for your efforts after spending the time out in less than ideal weather.

[Old Ironsights]

Good job, O.I.! Did you have much competition out there with the poor conditions? It's nice to have something to show for your efforts after spending the time out in less than ideal weather.

Not really. I don't have the total hunter numbers, but by the last count by the DNR only 21 animals were taken over the 2 days.

My best guess on hunters is less than 30 each day . Maybe less than 20 on Tuesday when the weather was better but the deer spookier. I personally spoke to/saw only about 6/day

Next time I get drawn I'm wearing chest waders and going deeper into the swamp... even if recovery sucks hard (and with all of the fallen trees... it sucks HARD. It took me over an hour to get that fawn the 3/4 klick back to the trail...)

[Old Ironsights]

I took the fawn off the gambrel last night and stood on the bathroom scale.

The scale read 250.

Minus the 185 for me that leaves 65lbs for a fully dressed fawn (no head, skin, or forelegs)

So, I was about 10 lbs off of my SWAG.

She's got some pretty good fat, so that will cut the meat down some too.

[Nath]

Well done Old Irons, erm what did you shoot it with again?

Nath.

[Old Ironsights]

.357 Rossi. 180gr cast WFN at 1800fps.

[Nath]

Cool

Nath.

[Rusty]

Sounds like feral veal. yum, yum!

That is good performance.

[jschance]

Looks like some tender vealison to me!

Personally, I've always figured they all pretty much look the same once they're wrapped in the white paper.

I though I had it bad dragging my deer out a swamp this year, but it was no way as swampy as what you're describing (I didn't have to wear hip waders, that's for sure). What state park were you hunting?

I too am using the 180 grain rnfp gc bullet over Lil' gun powder, but I stopped at around 1700 fps. Still got complete penetration, so I'm guessing it was enough.

Good Shooting.

JSChance

[Old Ironsights]

...I though I had it bad dragging my deer out a swamp this year, but it was no way as swampy as what you're describing (I didn't have to wear hip waders, that's for sure). What state park were you hunting?...

Dunes State Park. What isn't straight up & Down Dune is more or less swamp.

[jschance]

I was hunting in the Koontz Lake area, just outside of Walkerton. I'm from the Granger area and have been in the Dunes State park. Didn't realize that there was that much swampy area there, but did know the up and down parts.

JSChance

[Old Ironsights]

I was hunting in the Koontz Lake area, just outside of Walkerton. I'm from the Granger area and have been in the Dunes State park. Didn't realize that there was that much swampy area there, but did know the up and down parts.

JSChance

Look at the map: http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/dunes_trail.pdf (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.66518 ... &t=h&hl=en) I was north of Trail 2 and west of the Boardwalk - only about 50m in from the actual "marsh"/standing water.

Next time I'm going deeper in on the South-East side.

[AJMD429]

Let us know how much actual meat you get from the 65 lbs of dressed deer. I always wonder what yields to expect.

[CEMENTHEAD]

AJMD429, generally expect 30-35% of live weight in boned meat. Always used this as a rule of thumb and it's fairly accurate. Thanks, Tom

[pharmseller]

AJMD429, generally expect 30-35% of live weight in boned meat. Always used this as a rule of thumb and it's fairly accurate. Thanks, Tom

+1.
That's been my experience as well.

P