Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Corn Eaters of Florida (w/apologies to Corbett)

Vero Beach here also, transplanted from the keys via PA.
Never fired a shot in Florida as i prefer some distance for my hunting.
So the steep ridges and wide valleys of N C PA still get all my attention.
As for the small Florida deer, pick up a copy of the june issue of florida
sportsman magazine or go on line and read the deer article. It just might
change you thinking on that.

Nice pics GWB....really nice axis bucks.

Ol mike - Thanks. I've got hundreds of theses pics showing some pretty cool interactions between various animals. Our fences are about 4ft high. The deer clear them with ease. This property is a cattle ranch and GWB is right, it's a good height to keep the cows out.
You mention the hogs running everything off. I've seen our Turkey's (Osceola's) run hogs out from under a scatter feeder on more than one occasion.

Very cool and welcome to Vero. There is a lot of great hunting around here and west to Okeechobee. I've been here about 15 yrs and hunting FL took some getting used to.....having grown up hunting the mountains of VA. There are some quality deer in this area of FL. Here's a pic of one of the nicer bucks that I've taken in this area.

MCT3,

nice buck.

Sounds like you guys got it goin' on.

Good on ya'!

I for one would luv to see any pix you wanted to post of the country you hunt, the way ya'll do things and any game cam pix you wanted to post.

I very much enjoy seeing how others do things.

Best,

GWB

No problem GWB. I too enjoy seeing pics and you've posted some great ones from Texas.

We have a lot a variety on this cattle ranch - oak flats, pine flats with lots of open palmetto areas and swampy, cedar areas.

Here's a pic I took from my climber over looking a winter food plot.





Took this buck that day with a 260 at about 200 yds







Some cam pics:



[img]http://i1232.photobucket.com/a...se/DeerSouthPetty4_zps26600a69.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1232.photobucket.com/a...Lease/Fishhole2010_zpsa7c3fd95.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/gausi641/GatorholehogsampBuck_zps5ba10d8b.jpg[/img]

that buck is the mount you showed is it not?

I do like the 260 cartridge among others. I shoot a 130 gr.
Accubond out of mine.



I'm amazed that the cows and hogs don't knock over that low feeder. All of mine are on 10' EMT legs and each leg has two pieces or #4 x 2' rebar driven into the ground then wired with tie wire.

Also quite diverse topography. Our country is so rocky that a food plot would involve a major expense......



and irrigation. lol

GWB

Yes it is. Nice country. Sako 260?

We've converted more to food plots which do well in FL as price of feed is getting prohibitive. Occasionally the feeders would get knocked over but it has never been too much of a problem.

The creek swamps offer some good fishing as well. My son is my guide now.

The Seminole indians inhabited this land at one time. One of the cool things about this ranch is some of the artifacts that you find and a lot of the small groves, grapefruits, oranges, tangerines that they planted in the middle of some of swampy areas are still flourishing. We harvest some fruit from them every year.

Looks like ya'll have your own slice of heaven.

Good stuff.

Yes,sir, Sako 75 Varmint. Love the set trigger.

GWB

I'll post tonight's adventure tomorrow after a Jack Daniels and a good night's sleep. But another east coast Florida boar fell to the old 7x57 this evening.

Till then.

Best,

GWB

Yesterday afternoon, my BIL and I went to the lease to fill the feeders and check on a few things. It was hot, and by the time we finished it was almost 6:00 p.m. and still around 90 degrees in spite of a thunderstorm moving through. Luckily, it went just to the west of us and we didn't get drenched as is so often the case this time of year. The ground lightning kept things interesting, though.

A little after 6:00 I dropped BIL at a ground blind and headed to a stand about 3/4 mile north. You can barely see the feeder in the picture below, just at the end of a natural shooting lane. Note the two small palmettos on either side where the lane narrows. That is exactly 23 yards from the stand. The feeder is another 15 or so yards beyond that.



I sat watching a few squirrels nibble on some corn when a raccoon came in and began to eat. There was enough corn on the ground that he didn't feel like he needed to attack the feeder so I let him eat. He was going to be my signal when something bigger started to move in.

At about 7:35 I saw him freeze, look to the north, then scamper up a tree. I looked to my right and there was a pig moving towards the corn, but before he got there he disappeared into a myrtle thicket. Something spooked him. I know he didn't see or hear me, and while it's possible he smelled me - you gotta use a lot of DEET this time of year - I don't think so as I was far enough away and the wind wasn't blowing his way. But for whatever reason he never came back.

The racoon came back down the tree to eat, and just after 8:00, with shooting light fading, I texted my BIL to tell him I was climbing down. I'd no more hit "send" when the coon went back up the tree. I sat back down and about two minutes later five pigs, all in the 85-90 pound range, came in from my left. Oddly enough, they didn't head to the feeder but instead, crossed the lane single file just on the other side of those two small palmettos in the picture. The first pig, a brown one with black spots, started across, stopped for an instant, then continued on. The next pig, identical to the first, did the same. I had my rifle up with the crosshairs on where the third pig would cross. It did the very same thing as the first two, but when it hesitated I pulled the trigger. Once again, the old 7x57 did as expected.

Here's the boar, showing the entry wound.




Here's the exit wound.



As usual, the CNS shot anchored the pig where he stood. No tracking required.

My wife told me that I'm killing them faster than she can cook them. I told her they're reproducing faster than I can kill them. All in all, it ain't a bad way to spend a summer evening.

Great job Rev.....keep hammering them! I'd love to see a pic of that ole 7x57.

That shot will do it every time. By the look of that country ya'll probably have rattlers and or cotton-mouths. Seems like one would want to be careful where he placed his foot.

Great story, I can picture it in my mind.

I know it ain't hunting elk after humping 20 miles in, but it sure ain't a bad way to spend an evening.

I'm hoping to go to my place on the 19th. It will have been almost a month since I pulled the trigger on a critter and my SDD (shooting deficit disorder) is starting to make me itch, scratch and bite.

Question fer ya'll, do you ever use a thermo-cell to ward off mosquitios and gnats. I use one here, mainly in bow season when it can be in the high nineties.

GWB

Thanks. It's the cartridge that's old. The rifle, not so much.

We call it "going to group therapy" when it's just to the range; but I like SDD when the itch to take a pig needs scratched. I just bought a Therma-cell last week, but haven't had a chance to use it yet. Everyone I know swears by them. After a while DEET makes stuff go numb!

7x57's come and go, all that is except this one.



A friend who was an itenerant gun-crank built it. Mauser 96 action, douglas air gauged barrel, timney trigger.
The guy that built it hand carved (so he says) the stock out of Mesquite. It is a shooter. I pretty much load 140's in all my other 7's, but 150 gr. ballistic tips is what it feed this.


GWB

Very nice Win 70 in a great cartridge to boot!

GWB beat me to it. I started using a Thermacell a few years ago....works great when you are going to be stationary for awhile. It's been a game changer.
It's miserably hot and humid already and the time of day Rev was out when he shot his hog is when the mosquitos, Horse flys and No-See-Ums are out in force.

Sweet custom Mauser GWB!

Although its hot in the hill country I've hunted near the Texas gulf coast all my life. It can be 100 degrees in September and October and the humidity be 95%. Sitting in a Tri-pod 8 foot off the ground in long legged and long sleeve synthetic leafy wear cammo with necessary face mask and gloves with not a puff of breeze and sweat trickling down your back between your shoulders and into your eyes, glasses fogging up and trying to ignore the biting flies while waiting, waiting waiting waiting then seeing a doe coming in, coming to full draw, she gets hung up, your muscles are burning and then she gets your wind, snorts, flag goes up and poof..........



Best,

GWB