I'm going to one of those spots in the morning......and I have to work tomorrow night. I am going in with the mindframe to kill something and I dont care if I have to drag it .8 miles or more out. However CLS, I think taking distance of the drag into account makes sense based on a lot of factors...time to hunt, injuries, other obligations, etc.
hunt first, drag later. Shot my best buck in a swamp 1 mile in on public land. Never been more exhausted in my life after I dragged him out, but I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Never consider that when looking at a spot. If you get too deep you can always quarter the deer or debone.
Always hunt first, worry about getting it out later. That is just how I have been raised though. My family has always hunted public land and if you want a deer, you do what you have to do to get it.
Headed south tomorrow for a public spot. The conditions will almost be identical to when I took a good buck a couple years back on this piece. I was hunting a traditional scrape area, near bedding with dropping acorns. I am not sure if I will hunt that same set up or a different one with the same qualities. I do know it will be one or the other. My buddy Frank will be coming along ad well. Here is the buck mentioned above. Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Heading out in just over an hour. 55 with a NW wind gusting in the low 20's. Not the ideal wind speed but direction is good. Get a taste of this spot in the evening for my hunt tomorrow. Probably going to toss the lonewolf and sticks in the truck tomorrow for a midday switch if needed.
I don't drag deer, nor do I gut them. They fit nicely in a backpack using the gutless quarter and debone method. If you process your own deer going gutless and deboning/quartering in the field is no big deal. It'll come naturally once you get started. It takes me about 45 minutes - 1 hour by myself to get one in the backpack. About half that with help. That's four quarters, backstraps, tenderloins, brisket, rib and neck. I don't leave any edible meat behind. I don't hurry or rush around, I actually sort of enjoy the process. It's an important part of the hunting experience for me. Get a good frame pack to haul your meat out. You get about 40% edible meat from a deer so for me that may be from 40 - 80 pounds in the pack and a good frame meat hauler makes that doable. What you are leaving behind is guts, skeletal structure, hide, head, ect. all the throw away stuff that you would otherwise have to deal with later at home. A nice buck can be caped out for a shoulder mount or just the head and antlers brought home for a Euro mount. That increases the weight on your back... I like Euro mounts. I bring my stuff back to the truck where I have a 150 qt. 5 day Extreme Coleman outdoor cooler. I have that partitioned off with a removable piece of 1/4" plexiglass on the drain hole end. This small end section has ice in it with drinks and lunch. About 80% of that cooler is dry until I put meat in there. The nearest place to get ice is about 15 miles away and on the trip home. Home is about 30 - 60 miles or better depending upon how far into the timber I drove. Dump some ice on the meat and it's good from there on. Even for a couple days if you need it to be. Later at home all that's needed is a couple hours or less from setting up the butcher table and garden hose to final clean up to cut that meat up ready for the freezer. It is much easier to cut up when it's chilled, way better than working on warm quarters in above 45* temperatures. We have a Food Saver vacuum sealer that does quick work and the steaks, tenderloins, backstraps and meat for the grinding goes in the freezer immediately. The sum total of the scrap trimmings can be put in a small plastic Walmart bag as opposed to having a whole deer hide, bones, head, ect. to deal with at home. Years ago before I started using this method I would look over topo maps and find great places to hunt back in away from the roads and any hunting pressure. The problem was how to get a deer out. Dragging a field dressed deer up and down these steep slopes with heavy timber and brush for a mile or more was an ornery chore. Especially so by yourself. It's the limiting factor for many hunters. Not now, I hunt where I want. If I can walk in, I can walk a deboned deer out with proper equipment. Nobody in my area does this and I have tons of secluded acreage completely to myself to hunt. But keep this to yourself, it's our little secret... wink _________________________ Doing the Right thing isn't always easy, but it's always RIGHT!
MOGC, That's very good stuff. When I travel for work (I cover the whole bottom half of the state of MO for my sales job), I put the same cooler in my back seat, my LW climber and bow in the trunk and throw a pack frame inside the cooler. It's pretty cool walking out with a full pack of whitetail meat to your company car hours after dark.
For Buckeye and anyone else really. What's the percentage break down of run and gun hunting vs going to spots you scouted in the offseason?
In WI that would be considered illegal. Quartering Your Deer Deer must be kept intact, except for field dressing, skinning and quartering prior to registration. Hunters may divide a deer into as many as five pieces to facilitate removal of the carcass from the field, but the head must remain attached to one of the five parts of the carcass. The hide and lower legs, if removed, do not count as one of the five parts. Only one deer that has been quartered may be stored or transported at a time prior to registration, but quartered deer can be transported with other intact deer. The lower legs up to the tarsus joint (ankle or hock) on the hind legs and up to the carpus joint (wrist or knee) on the front legs may also be removed. If the skin or legs are removed prior to registration they must be kept with the carcass until after the deer is registered. All parts of the deer, except the entrails, must be removed from the field and exhibited at the time of registration.
In 2005 Missouri began a tele-check system that makes quartering and deboning legal and an excellent option on big blocks of rough country closed to vehicular traffic. Big blocks of rough country closed to vehicular traffic describes public ground in the Ozark's. Greg, Keep it on "the down low." If people catch on...
Don't you guys have electronic registration now? So as long as you have service, and can call it in, couldn't you then cut it up?
Not sure how Wi would look at or enforce it anyway. I doubt it is something that has been enforced that tight to begin with Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
wi does have phone registration now. so if you have cell service you can call it in then debone and get it out.
i would say over 75% of the time i have found the spot from scouting in the spring time rubs and trails are easier to see then and i dont worry about scent control just walk till my feet have blisters. aerial photos are good but i have found my best spots by shoeleather express that wouldnt be found by aerial photos.
I've found pre scouted spots are better on average...on average than going in blind. Now if acorns are dropping I'm heading in a couple hours early and slowly scouting my way in to find the hotspots.
I was in last evening and heard some leaves rustling about 60yrds behind me just before dark, but I never saw what it was. On my way out I'm following my trail and find 2 scrapes that weren't there on my way in! I can't wait til the rut!!!
Seen 5 bucks and 1 doe this morning. Passed up a 4 and 7 point at 25 yds. Had a big 8 point buck with a high rack come into 34 yds but it was on the border line of private and public. I elected to pass it since there was a hunter on private land and I didn't want any conflict between us on the situation
Probably shouldn't share these photos then... This buck is admittedly a lot smaller than most I pass on. He's WAY smaller than a couple I've let walk this year... but that wasn't the goal for this particular hunt. I was on the other side of the state, five hours from home, and I wanted to walk into a big patch of public land I'd never set foot on before and kill a 2 1/2-year old buck or better on the very first sit -- just to prove to myself I could do it.
