Anyone else out there shaking with excitement ready for deer season! Only 7 more days to go! Anyone have some pics of there blacktails they would like to show off in celebration of the opener here soon!

Climber3256,

The shaking with excitement doesn't happen much anymore. But recently I discovered how important hunting is to me. The doctor wanted to do surgery on my shoulder. When I discovered how long recovery and rehab would take I told him it would interrupt my deer hunting. Now, the surgery is scheduled for November 8. To get ready I have fired a couple hundred rounds. Next Tuesday I will fire a few more to verify the zero. If posting photos was easier, I would post a couple.

What are you using to hunt with? Binocs? Firearm? Scope? Cartridge?

I remember that feeling. Three grown kids and 28 years f marriage later. I’m just glad I can still get it up. LOL

Was out at the range today killing more paper today in preparation.

I'll be shooting savage 7rem mag with Leopoldo vx3i pushing 140 Barnes ttsx and vortex 10x50 for the binos! how about you ringman?

Hey Ringman, you sound like me but I'm in Northern California. Told Doctor he could do my shoulder in November after I get back from hunting up north with my Daughter. Did get a nice eating Buck last week though.

I'll be hunting blacktails but my season doesn't start 'til Nov 11 since I drew the Applegate muzzle loader tag. Looking forward to it, yes, excited, no. Since my rifle (.45 cal TC Seneca) has a wood stock and the humidity will change a lot between now and then, there's no point in sighting in yet. The only choice I have to make is between PRB vs conical. Prep-wise, there's a lot more to do getting ready to camp in the snow and rain where the Oregon Coast Range and Siskiyous collide in November/December than there is for the hunting part. There's no point in scouting, I know the area well and the deer behavior will change a great deal from what it is now around the end of October. Many of the roads in to my favorite areas are ... well, not technically closed, but "they" are asking us to avoid the area if possible because of heavy fire fighting traffic. Nothin' to do right now but hurry up and wait. ... and maybe fish.

I wish everyone good luck and stay safe during next weekend's opener, both blacktails on the west side and mulies over east.

Tom

Hi neighbor! We drew 200M2 Elk this year, and are hoping weather cooperates for it. I'll be honest, I've never heard anyone say that regarding muzzleloaders and humidity. I do understand that the wood will flex with moisture, but none of our rifles have ever changed their zero due to the weather (we all hunt traditional). I wondering if there's a different wood or method of sealing that TC used that made the seneca more susceptible to that sort of thing?

I'm jacked.

I'll be shooting either a 250-3000, .284, .375 Winchester, or maybe a .358. Plan on doing some hiking in and getting away from the roads. All downhill unfortunately. I'll hold out for a good one.

Like the last several years I put 119a as second choice. And again I drew 177. So I am forced to hunt Mule deer. About 40 miles east of where I hunt Black Tail.

Just noticed your post count. Welcome to the 'fire. I'll be using a .270 using Barnes TTSX 110 grainers. The scope is a Bushnell 4 1/2-30X50 and the binoculars are Steiner Navigator 7X30. Lat year I used Nikon Monarch 7 8X32. But over the last year I picked up the slightest old man quiver. I can no longer see the the wire on the fence 100 yards away with the 8X but I still can see it on 7X.

I'm hunting blacktail this year! Psyched. My revamped .358 should get some run, my 6.5 SAUM as well. Pumped for some late season still-hunting in the rain and mist...

I'll be out there chasing those little devil deer - but they mostly always win I might be one of the worst blacktail hunters ever, but I also hunt an area that just doesn't hold many deer anymore. The north section of the Santiam unit is nasty stuff with not much that isn't super thick. But there are still some nice bucks if you get lucky!!

Neighbor, huh? Cool!

I don't know if this particular gun has a problem or not. I simply don't risk it. I don't trust one piece wood stocks. I had a bolt action with a wood stock move 12 MOA in 48 hours. At first I thought maybe I'd whacked the scope but rather than re-adjust, I just left it as-is. Over the next 6 months the stock slowly dried and it returned to the original zero. I've had POI move about the same with muzzleloaders over the course of a year. Sight in, hunt, clean 'em up, put 'em away, then go back the next summer and they don't hit where they did the year before. I got rid of my .58 TC Renegade 'cause not only did it shift a bunch, it decided to quit grouping with its old load ... and I couldn't find another that would work. Wound up essentially eating a 200M2 tag that year.

The Seneca has a couple quirks .. feels like there's a larger open chamber at the bottom of the barrel which the cleaning jag and patch want to drop into, then not come back. I lose a lot of patches down there that require a wire patch grabber to retrieve. Sometimes it'll decide to grab the jag and patch and it requires pliers on the cleaning rod to retrieve it. Pain in the ass gun unlike any other ML I've owned. I like hunting with it, it's really light, don't really like shooting it at the range much.

Since I know what I'll be shooting .. either 65 grains of FFg under a PRB or 70 grains of FFg under a home-cast conical .. I don't have to do any load workup, just wait for a week or two before the season, check sights, and go. With humidity changes and all, the conditions will getting ever more like it was when I put the gun away at the end of last season as this season gets nearer. If there's no problem, there's no problem, if there is a problem, it should be getting to be less of a problem. No "lose" in that!

Tom

Understandable! They all have their own little quirks. My primary .50 (home made Hawken) has the same chamber issue as your Seneca. I ended up installing a pinned brass endcap on my ramrod that I could screw in a threaded ball to. I used to use pliers every single time I'd deep clean it. I can run a lube patch down it in the field no problem. But the moment I drop it in a basin and start drawing water through the flash hole, the patch would vacuum to the bottom and I'd be hosed. I think that can happen if it isn't cleaned soon enough and gets a touch of corrosion at the bottom of the barrel. But, that's pure speculation. At least it works when you point it at a critter! We have a lovely tendency to pop and fizzle when elk hunting cause it's been so wet the past few seasons we've drawn tags. My dad finally made a leather wrap that attaches opposite the hammer and wraps the lock. Fairly waterproof, but comes off quick when you need to shoot.

Started seeing bucks the last couple of weeks... some nice racks on a few of them...

we'll see what wonders by here locally...

well probably take some time and go up out of Butte Falls..
deer are in there... but there is a lot of nice hiking where I go

to just get out and enjoy the area.... although they were logging in
some of that area last year......

just west of Crater Lake about 30 miles as the crow flies...

All the gear is strung out on the garage floor ready to pack up. Changed plans a little and am packing in to an old mining site with a caved in cabin to pitch a tent. There's a big bear scratching tree 25 yards downhill from where I'll pitch the tent, and they sleep on the floor in the cabin where the sun comes thru the hole in the roof. I wouldn't normally tempt fate in such a way, but this happens to be some of the best blacktail hunting known to man. If I don't return I had visitors in the night and they won.

Good luck to all my northern neighbors. My season is already over as of last Sunday. I didn't hunt this year (first time in 55years) because of health reasons but was able to take my sister in law out to take her first buck.

Being a NW Oregon native I've hunted them every year since I was 12. It's a dream of mine to harvest a bruiser someday I just can't let a legal buck walk and have a garage full of forks and little 3's to prove it. Maybe this year will be different...





Wish I could take credit for these two but I can't, they're my dads one killed in the late 80's the other early '00's


10/26/12


First buck 11/7/98



10/31/14 She's 4 now. I'm gonna be dragging her along this year to let her watch me fill my Willamette LOP tag. First time in a lot of years I'll be happy to take a doe if I can

These guys keep me going...

Sounds like a whole lot of shooting in anticipation for a deer hunt. I've been shooting my AR's too much lately. Finally shot a bolt action again for the first time in about 5 months. Fired about 10 rounds out of my new Tikka T3X 7mm rem mag. That's all I needed to know we are ready for the hunt...

Blacktail are my favorite deer. I don't get too horned up til about the 28th-29th of October...

Yep, but you can't win if you don't play, so I play all season. Last year it ended 2 hours into the hunt with a nice 5x3.

First doe (Willy tag) for me in 10-15 years, but this was a special exception; I had my little princess with me she turned 4 in august and loves spending time outdoors with me. We got to the farm with just enough time to take a lap to "hunt" which usually consists of lots of flower picking and cheeto eating while I just check cameras. It was almost dark and she was wet and cold, but still being a trooper, so we were on our way bag to the rig when I spotted this lone doe.

"Jo! Look! There's a deer, do you see it?
"Yaaa!!!" (Shrieky 4yr old girl voice)
"Should we shoot it?"
"Yaaa!!!" (Shrieky 4yr old girl voice)
"Plug your ears"
(I check to make sure ears are plugged)
BOOM-flop
"Daddy we did it! We got a HUGE deer! We're gonna have so much meat for the whole family!!! This is the best day ever!" (And she begins jumping and dancing and giggling like excited 4yr old girls do)

We said a prayer of thanks together and thanked the doe for giving herself to us. Had a talk about the circle of life and an anatomy lesson. I've never seen her listen so attentively. Watching her tell the story to Mommy and her little brothers when we got home was as priceless as the whole experience.

Parenting win



To top it off it's the first deer I've taken with that rifle, a Ruger 44 Carbine, I grabbed on a whim out of the safe on the way out the door, I got for my first Father's Day when my wife was pregnant with her. It's shooting my handloaded 240grn Hornady XTP's and H110 topped with a Leupold VX-1 1-4

One on MY best days-and "hunts"- ever

General season is almost over! Where’s all the pics?

Nice buck, dig those diggers off the back, like caribou.. grats

That’s what I’m talkin about👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻