Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 257 Wby Mag questions

On a couple. The deer were sometimes found at 40-60yds from impact with chest hits, but it was blind luck finding them in the thick stuff. Most of the time there were so many tracks on the ground that actual tracking wasn't much of an option, so we just busted brush and looked for dead animals. Exits were not the norm when bone was hit on a shoulder shot, although pure lung hits did generally exit and often left a blood trail. The shooter has recently moved to a 7mm-08 and has had less problems. I also loaded them some 100gr Partitions if they want to continue on with the .243win.

We (me, friend, nephew) haven't had those problems on deer with the 95 gr. SST or Bal Tip, or the Fusion in factory rounds. My friend may move to Partitions "just because." I've loaded the 80 gr. TTSX this season, but I haven't lined up on a shooter yet. My spot was crawling with small horned (even if not small bodied) spikes last weekend, and I didn't feel like paying a club fine.

What is a "club fine"? Just curious ...

Tom

I'd have more faith in the Fusion or NBT than the SGK in the .243win, but that's just me. The 165gr+ SGK is a great deer bullet in the 308 and 30-06, I know that for sure.

The club/lease to which I belong has fines for voted upon infractions like shooting undersized deer, button bucks, et cetera.

Tom[/quote]

The club/lease to which I belong has fines for voted upon infractions like shooting undersized deer, button bucks, et cetera.[/quote

This doesn't sound like a good management practice. TPWD encourages shooting spikes. Even more so if it is an older spike that may be genetic or past it's prime. This is not encouraging shooting fawns or button bucks but anything yearling or larger. Texas Parks and Wildlife has monitored spike bucks on several Wildlife Management areas and their reports are some spikes will always stay small, some can become decent deer, but all of them will be a year behind their peers.

Some areas of Central Tx. were over run with spikes before they became legal, hunting helped reduce the numbers and balance the population better. I have also watched as two mature bucks were fighting a spike would sneak in and breed the doe. This may be ranch lore but I have heard it more than once. If a big spike gets in a fight with another buck it can gore the other back. When full branched antlered bucks do this the depth of any woulds is limited by the other tines, although I have seen lethal wounds dealt by an eight pointer. That one gored his rival in the jugular vein.

Your Club should have a consult with a game management pro, some states offer this for free. Conditions could be different in Louisiana so if this is way off base my apologies as I have only hunted waterfowl in Louisiana.

I want to shoot larger spikes, but there are powers that be who are of the opinion certain members will abuse the idea. There were a couple of decent sized ones that would eat really well that I could have easily nailed.

A 2.5yr old spike always needs a bullet, but I can understand it creating more problems than it solves if there were exceptions to a "no-spike" rule.

Club? Lease? So ... you have to pay for a place to hunt? Are you in the United States?

It suits my present circumstances and I'll leave it at that.

Mathman understood. One rotten egg can spoil the whole bunch and the definition of a cull can be variable especially after the shot.

Taking a guess that this is Louisiana , 80% of the state is privately owned . With the exception of a few meager refuges , hunting is pay to play and has been for a very long time .

I thought maybe something like that.

We're lucky here (Oregon, but most of the west is the same) to have a great deal of public land managed by BLM, USFS, state forestry, and others which are open to public access.

Some of the very large timber companies are starting to charge for access to land which used to be open to the public as well. Frankly, I think we need to reconsider the breaks we gave those companies .. property tax, corporate income tax, zoning to minimize expense to them .. if they are not going to play nice with the people who are subsidizing them by paying higher taxes to offset what they are not paying for but consume .. law enforcement, firefighting, etc. They are would not like it at all if they have to pay the actual market value of the services they consume in the way they are expecting the public to pay for access we wish to "consume."

This is the biggest single reason I oppose sell-off / privatization of public lands. It forces a caste system where we should have none.

Thanks for the replies, gents. I'll step out and stop dragging things off topic.

Tom

A little over a year ago I left an Oregon based timber company ... we had open access to company lands for the most time but it had to be restricted the last several years because somehow , land users kept catching it all on fire ..

I can see both sides . But as a hunter I do envy much of the west and free land access

Sounds like a place I'd never want to live. Whatever happened to the "Southern hospitality" you hear so much about ? Looks to me like it's just a bunch of bullshyt and Southern folks in general are stingy as hell when it comes to letting folks hunt. I've never had to pay to hunt in my life and presently have permission on about a dozen different properties in 5 counties here. Didn't have to do anything but ask on any of them. These damned yankees are just rotten, stingy pricks I tell ya.

very strawmannish and uninformed but ok

Yes, he just doesn't want to deal with a lot of idiots on pubic land,,,

You need to get out more. East Coast vs West Coast hunting is another animal especially public land. If western hunters think their public land is crowded, try hunting some southeast public land.

You obviously use your abundant charm to gain access.