Deer season is over, except for those ranches which hold MLD (managed land deer) permits, which are mostly culling like mad to meet their quotas. I have been shooting on one such ranch which has to shoot 400 culls.
I am tired of shooting deer, but this kind of thing does give me a great laboratory to test the various cartridges and bullets. I want to know how they will perform on game before I tell you about them. I still haven’t gotten around to my pet project for the year – testing the performance of the 225-grain Ballistic Tip in the .35 Whelen. Hopefully I will be able to do so before time runs out, but if not there is always next year.
This reminds me of the nasty-gram I got from a reader a few years ago. I made mention in an article of the number of deer I had shot and the number of different guns and calibers I had used. He set down, figured out how old I was, how many licenses I could have bought, how many tags would have been on those licenses, and then wrote and called me a liar. Sorry, Charlie.
I truly have no idea how many deer I have shot in my lifetime. I do know that many years pass when I shoot a lot of deer without using a single one of my tags; every deer I shoot some years is on an MLD tag.
Not only do I shoot deer on the ranch mentioned above, I also assist several more ranches to remove their excess deer. To me such wholesale slaughter is not hunting, anymore, it is simply shooting, and experimentation.
For instance. In an effort to determine the true ability of the .243 Winchester to take whitetail deer, I set out to shoot deer with the .243. I loaded a batch of 95-grain Nosler Partitions and commenced to cull deer. I shot does and bucks, indiscriminately. At the end I had taken a good number of deer of various sizes at ranges up to about 200 yards, and every one was a one shot kill.
The first deer I shot this year was a 100-pound doe and I shot her with my little .243 Winchester Model 70 XTR. She was about 180 yards away. The ranch manager said shot, I shot, the deer fell so fast she bounced. I hit her just in front of the shoulder. The bullet exited the far side and kept going.
Yes, the .243 Winchester is plenty of gun for Texas whitetails, if used with the right bullets. However, do not run out and buy a box of 80-grain soft points and go hunting. Pick a good, tough bullet (like the Nosler Partition, Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, or Barnes TSX), intended for shooting deer, not some varmint bullet.
I also shot a couple of deer with my old 7mm Mauser using 130-grain Speer soft points. Believe it or not the 7×57, now well over a hundred years old, will still kill deer like a bolt of lightning. So what do we need all these new magnums for?
You know, it is getting so expensive to hunt in Texas nowadays, I can no longer afford to hunt. And my deep freeze is empty of some good deer meat. Do any of these places need another gun for these culls? I wont charge them to get rid of these culls, if I could put some in my freezer.
RD,
Where do you live?
Exactly right Steve, and put the bullet where it needs to go. My brother in-law almost sold me his daughters Browning .243 cause she had shot two south Texas deer in as many years. He recovered both deer in short order but was upset at the lack of a blood trail, at all. On this ranch they want them to shoot in the shoulder so the deer don’t go far in the thick scrub. I borrowed the rifle for my daughters hunt. Perfect shot placement at 80 yards, right behind the shoulder. The deer went approx. 30 yrds before piling up and the blood trail was so good Ray Charles could’ve followed it. Bullet Placement!
the forest is thier home and the deer is also thier food .id kill a rat in my house but if i see one in the woods id let it be. ive seen yotes take far more btrbias and birds than i have deer. i wouldnt coyote hunt all the time taking a large number of them. unless i was going to eat them. dont kill it if your not gonna eat it thats how most normal hunters were raised.i shoot squirrels i eat squirrelsi shoot duck i eat duckif i was to shoot a yote .. id eat a yote
Hazel thanks for your note. (LOVE The Sartorialist!!). All black is often the default colour because it’s the easier to unify (imagine an ensemble full of slightly different shades of red), it’s easy on the eyes, and the audience tends to focus more on the music than if the ensemble were wearing different colours. The problem with saying go for it, wear any colour is what one person considers stylish another will consider completely inappropriate. There there’s the issue of colour clashing. And in classical music, there are known stereotypes about what kind of dress is associated with certain types of music. Opera performers (and audiences) tend to go all out with style and flamboyance; Baroque performers (and audiences) tend not to consider fashion a big deal and are very low-key with their apparel. Ultimately, no, I don’t think ensembles should be able to wear any colour; then it looks like a rehearsal.
I’m sure the meat is going to needed familes or at least I would hope so? It would do good to state this so that the PETA people do not get your article and use it against you to the world. How does the average Texan try and find these type of ranches, with MLD and culling?
ML
Hey guys:
Yes, every bite of meat went to someone who needed it. The last deer I shot I brought home to skin and cut up, before I had it done my hunting buddy had made a call and a truck with 5 people in it drove up. They took not only the usual parts, but what was left of the neck and ribs. They probably would have taken the scalp and horns if I had not already thrown them away.
As for finding such ranches and getting in on the culling, I’m sorry but that is all but impossible. I have lived here since the mid-80s and have made many close friends among the ranchers of the area. They trust me completely and are aware of my skills in tracking, shooting, and field judging deer for both age and antler quality. That is the only way that I get to assist in these operations. Otherwise, they would just take care of it themselves, because they don’t want strangers on the place shooting the culls, and they don’t have time to guide anyone.
I almost did not post this blog for this reason. I knew readers would, understandably, want to take part in these operations and that is not possible. Any ranch that lets others shoot culls — and there are many — charges a pretty penny. If it is not part of their standard lease arrangement, or is not done by the outfitter who leases the ranch for hunting, they do not allow outsiders on the ranch.
One rancher friend of mine hires a biologist and his crew to do his culling. Another gives the ranch hands cheap rifles and ammunition and they do the culling as part of their everyday ranch duties. Mostly it is simply that the ranchers don’t trust anyone else, and simply cannot take the time out of their ranching to guide someone who is not paying to shoot a trophy. Sad but true.
I wish it were otherwise and have tried to persuade them that something like the Boy Scouts, the Take a Kid Hunting group, or some other worthy group, especially for youngsters, but just about anybody, would be a worthwhile way to cull the deer. But so far I have failed to convince a single one of them to allow such a thing.
Tony – yes, it is bullet placement, but bullet selection is important, also. I know of one instance where a hunter was hunting deer with a 55-grain varmint bullet in a .243. The 55-grain bullet is the standard weight for the .22 calibers, and is too light, in my opinion, even for that purpose in the .243. That is why I use the 95-grain Nosler Partition. I have never recovered a bullet (every one was complete penetration) and like you said, a blood train that anybody could follow.
Good hunting.
Steve