Tomorrow is opening day, i will be heading out at 6:30 AM and legal shooting time is about 6:45 will be plenty of time to be in position, as i will be hunting behind my house. My gf will be joining me in the morning, toting my mdl '94 30-30 with a 3-9x32 bushnell sports view scope, and 170 grain corelokts. I will be be carrying my M77 mkII .338 WM with a leupold vxII 3-9x40, with some 225 grain corelokts.

I will update this thread with pictures when something is hanging. Would like to see other PNW members to post there pics too, goodluck to everyone.

good hunting to you. hope you bag one each. deer doesn't open hear for a bit but I'm heading out to do some scouting this weekend.

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

Trying to knock them right off of their feet!??, I only use the 210grn Partitions out of my 338 for Elk.
I'll be toting my Marlin 336A .35 Remington with 200grn Core-Lokt hand loads, I know they will produce a DRT on out blacktails!

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My gf was carrying my 30-30 this morning. Found more bear sign out back than deer, mountain lion have moved in as well. saw one giant coyote or maybe the wolves are making there way out here didnt want to take the shot, prolly would blew his butt apart. Over all a pretty good first day, looks like i will be doing as much bear hunting out back this year as deer hunting.

you aught to shoot the yotes. think of the fawns you'll save.

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

I normaly do, just had a horrible shot and at best would have hit it in the hip. Those suckers are tough and it prolly woulda ran off and died in the next few days. I do hunt the yotes though, right now my main concern is mountain lions, theyr taking out a good amount of the deer. This winter i will put a nice dent in the yotes, hopefully get a few this deer season too.

Also, when i first saw it for a second or so i was trying to figure out if it was a dog, it was very large.

By the way Barkbuster. Our deer season finally opened. I had a chance to go out all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon but didn't see anything worth shooting. Found lots of sign and followd some but those blaktails are spooky beasts. I'm going to head ove to the wenatchee national forest next week to look for white tails and possibly muleys.

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

I have only went out 3-4 days, hoping the rain picks up, then i will start putting more time in. I try not to tramp around too much when its dry, because i hunt a small property and too much traffic will put the bucks nocturnal. I have been going behind some gates in the mean time. 15 days left of deer season here.

Hope you have a good time at wenatchee, goodluck.

Ah you guys in states with reasonably long deer seasons should be counting your blessings. Our general firearms season opened on 10/16 and closes on 10/31. ONLY 15 days!

As for game it has been pretty sad the last few years. I've seen more wolf tracks than deer tracks and only a few deer on the side of the cascades that I live and work. I'll head to the east side for 3 or 4 days next week where there is supposed to be more game. I wish I had private land that I could hunt. Unfortunatley around here a 10 acre parcel is considered huge and that is the biggest anybody in my family has but where we live deer are even more scarce than where I normally hunt.

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

i have roughly 80 acres to myself, with another 500 or so connected that i can hunt with minimal pressure. Problem is Mr. Mountain Lion has claimed my ridge as his own, and my deer Horrible deer hunting the last 2-3 years, used to see 7-8 does ever evening, now only a doe and yearling occasionally, shes a wiley old doe and much be smart enough to keep her fawn and herself alive. Cant wait for this cycle to turn around.

that must be nice. I found out the season closes out in eastern WA a week earlier than western WA so no trip to the promised land for me...

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

Last sunday went out with my dad, right at day break we saw around 30 elk, few minutes later a doe and twins, everything was moving thanks to the previous nights storm. Around 8:30 am we see 2 more deer, a doe and yearling. at around 8:45 a coyote gave us a very easy shot oppurtunity, not hunting yotes though. We get to where we want to be around 9:15 am, First spot was a bust, over run by hunters. 9:20 am, we see a spike buck, 25 yards away, not legal. We got into a pretty nice area, all spur roads with 45 year old timber off the sides, and wide grassy roads, with buck rubs littering the edges. 10 am, my dad spots two large deer at 70 yards , on an intersecting spur road, binos up, buck. Was a good 70 yard broadside shot, but was made more difficult due to the fact there was a narrow shooting lane, littered with vine maple. After my experience last year with shot deflection from elderberrys during elk season, i took as much care as possible to avoid another deflection. 2 seconds later and i watch him hit the ground before i lose sight of him in my scope. His partner, a very large doe, basicly had to be scared off.

My shot was a bit high, busting the spine, 5 ribs, 2 of which did not come in contact with the bullet (kinetic energy??) While feild dressing this buck, i found the lungs to be entirely bloodshot (bullet fragments??? or K.E??). I used my Ruger M77 MKII SS/Boatpaddle .338 WM, using 225 grain corelokts.

Age of buck is estimated 10 years by taxidermist, i sent in the tooth for aging so hopefully i will find out how accurate the estimation was, oddly enough it was also the largest bodied deer i have taken.

Today is the last day of deer season, it has been difficult getting the girlfriend out hunting, but will get her out a few hours before dusk to watch a trail with a nice rub line on it. Hopefully i can get her on something, been a very slow season.. feels weird now, having to wait till next year. Elk season is coming up quick though.

Well, went out this evening with the gf, seen 3 grouse, and a couple squirells. Theres always next year, was hoping to get her a deer.

nice deer, congrats on the kill!!!

good looking specimen. I bet the extra damage was due to the high velocity your bullet impacted at which could have fraged the bullet. Did the round exit the far side? if it exited I doubt it was bullet frag that blood shot the lungs. more like "temporary wound channel" from hydrostatic shock. the broken ribs were probably due to the spine hit. the bullet energy traveled through the bone. If the round didn't exit frag could be a possibility did you recover any pieces?

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

The Bullet entered at a slight angle, allowing it to penetrate a good 6-7 inches. The bullet initially struck the spine/rib, upon exiting it struck 1-2 ribs, it left an exit hole and wound channel a little bigger than a silver dollar. While butchering it i found two small lead fragments.

Coastal Blacktails sure are good looking, thats for sure.


Btw, is your season still going? Do you have the extended buck over there?

225 grain says it all. that'll take down everything.

Our general fire arms season closed out on 10/31. I had taken thrusday and friday that week off to hunt those days and saturday and propbably sunday afternoon but I sprained my ankle good on Thursday morning and spent the rest of the weekend around the house. I'm still limping around on it. We do have a late buck season for like one weekend mid Nov. the GMUs open are a long long drive from where I live and I'm out of vacation days for the year. I think I'm done deer hunting for this year.

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.

Thats too bad helix, I'v always wanted to hunt extended buck, always hear about a lot of people slaying them, full on rutting. I was in a pretty bad ATV accident on the way back from bear hunting a week ago or so, entire right side bruised badly, im just now recovering from it, it has cut into my elk scouting big time.