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Post by giblett on Dec 4, 2021 14:56:00 GMT -5
I carry both with me but try first with the handgun. Pulled up this morning to a different stand to get card from camera and a nice buck standing at feeder. Could have shot him with rifle no problem. 500jrh in backpack so we just had a staring contest. This deer probably will get a pass this year done broke one tine off. Now the one I got a picture of Tuesday is a better one and he is on the hit list with the pistol. Can't hunt this stand till Monday when we should have a north wind. The rifle is mainly for pigs.
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KRal
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,030
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Post by KRal on Dec 5, 2021 22:11:10 GMT -5
I’ve been handgun hunting since 1988 - handgun only since 1990. Long guns are just cumbersome, although, I can shoot ‘em.
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Post by parallaxbill on Dec 6, 2021 10:52:04 GMT -5
I hunt my place in South Carolina since 1984 but have hunted sometimes handgun, sometimes rifle and nowadays more often than not I hunt with both. I like the idea of opening up my opportunities on seeing deer up close or at rifle distances and not being limited to either. I've had too many experiences with carrying only a handgun and seeing a nice buck that I could not make a safe shot on due to the longer range. On the other hand I have shot a 100 lb doe with a 26" HB Encore in 7 Rem Mag at 15 yards when a hot 357 revolver would've made much more sense.
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Post by seminolewind on Dec 6, 2021 11:58:39 GMT -5
If I HAD to hunt deer with a rifle, I might bother to go hunting once or twice a year to put meat in the freezer. With a handgun, I try to hunt every day I can during our 85 day gun season. Probably 45 days in the woods with a handgun in my hands.
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Post by harold89 on Dec 6, 2021 22:40:57 GMT -5
I use or have used bows, shotguns, muzzleloaders, smokeless muzzleloaders, rifles and handguns to hunt. I like bows best.
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Post by wildcatter on Dec 11, 2021 21:59:47 GMT -5
I've been handgun hunting since it became legal during Ohio gun season, that was the same year Ruger introduced the standard Redhawk, guess what I took my antlered only deer with that year? Yes, but there have been years I've tagged out with a bow, other than that M/L only allows only long guns, but I seldom hunt M/L season, when I do, I use the same cast 270 grain HPSWC in a crush rib sabot I load in my Colt for deer. Pigs get the same treatment, but I do like to do a little long range varmint eradication every year, about the only time use any long gun for anything other than target competition.
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Post by depcon3 on Dec 13, 2021 11:50:29 GMT -5
I have to say that I am a part-time handgun hunter. I was a rifleman first and I still love looking at wild country with a good rifle in hand. Having no place of my own to hunt deer and hogs, I need to be ready to make good on the few opportunities I am offered. Some places I am invited to hunt are not set up for close up shooting, or are only late season accessible. If I need to get some meat in the freezer and it’s late season, I’ll use a rifle. I will still have a capable handgun ready to use if the chance arises. I much prefer to hunt with the handgun, but will use a rifle if that is the best tool for that situation.
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Post by reflex264 on Dec 13, 2021 12:28:54 GMT -5
I don't plan to carry rifles. My hunting is 99.99% handgun. When I do take a rifle it is a special one like my late best friends rifle or my late uncles rifle. Most years I don't do that. When I head to the woods it is handgun time. That includes revolvers scoped and not scoped, semi autos with and without optics and handguns chambered for rifle cartridges such as 30-06 and 260 that are scoped.
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Post by taffin on Dec 13, 2021 16:16:57 GMT -5
It was one of those afternoons that can only occur in the late fall days known as Indian summer and especially only in the mountains of Southern Idaho. The type of day that one feels so lucky to be alive. Crisp cool mornings with a touch of frost, the welcoming of the sun as it rises to remove the chill in the air, and the arrival of a day that allows one to hunt in comfort wearing nothing more than regular clothes, longsleeve shirt, jeans, Stetson, and loggers, all topped off with a down vest. I'm sure others will try to tell me that such beautiful days are also found in their part of the country, and I will accept that, but I will never believe that anything, anywhere, could be better than this. Even the down vest proved to be more than I needed as I worked my way from the creek bottom to the top of the canyon. It was time to rest and cool down. An old log, the folded up vest for a pillow, and I had a perfect resting place that no amount of money could purchase. As I lay there very close to a short nap while contemplating the joys of life, I looked across the canyon and there he was. I didn't need binoculars to see that this was not just a mule deer, but a very large buck, and the sunlight glistening off his antlers caused my heart to skip a beat or two. He was a long ways off from me, and if I were careful I could slowly roll off the log, move behind it, use my down vest as a rest for the long-range scope sighted rifle that the situation demanded, and with one well placed shot I would have winter meat and a nice trophy as a bonus. All very simple except for one thing. I didn't have a rifle. Yes, I was hunting, and yes I did have a gun, but it was the wrong gun for this situation. Years before I had replaced my scope sighted, a 4X Weaver K-4, .30-06 Remington 700 with a sixgun, an iron-sighted .44 Magnum sixgun, which now rode very comfortably and securely in a Al Goerg shoulder holster. I did not get excited when I saw the buck. I did not reach for my10” Ruger .44 Magnum Flat-Top, even though it was certainly capable of downing any mule deer. I did not try to move behind the log. I simply savored the moment like a good steak enjoying every morsel of it. I knew the mulie was at least six times farther away than I would feel comfortable shooting with an iron-sighted sixgun even with a solid rest. I knew he was too far away for me to get to him by dark even if he did allow it. I did not feel cheated. I did not feel handicapped. The choice was mine and once I decided to be a handgun hunter, my attitude had to change. There would be no long shots. There would be no regrets. There would be an honest appraisal of my ability to not simply hit game, but to precisely place my bullet. There would be a lot of days such as this in which I was simply a spectator. It is part of the real picture for a handgun hunter.
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Post by reflex264 on Dec 13, 2021 16:32:38 GMT -5
Mr. Taffin you just won the daily prize. I have felt the same way many times but never managed to put it in writing. Thank you.
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Post by 500fksjr on Dec 13, 2021 17:19:55 GMT -5
I use a HG 75% of the time and a Short bbl shotgun or a .327 carbine the rest of the time...Depends on location and whats being hunted...
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Post by bearskinner on Dec 13, 2021 20:00:02 GMT -5
A little response to Johns recounting above. Just the pleasure of being outside in wild places, Hunting, but mainly just enjoying the crisp breeze, the warming sunshine, the smells and sounds from just being an observer, this is heaven on earth.
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Post by 45MAN on Dec 13, 2021 20:58:22 GMT -5
Mr. Taffin you just won the daily prize. I have felt the same way many times but never managed to put it in writing. Thank you. YUP, JOHN DONE PUT MY FEELINGS INTO PRINT
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Post by contender on Dec 13, 2021 21:36:32 GMT -5
I think most of us who've chosen to hunt only with a handgun have a story or three that would be similar. I know I do. It's hard to describe to a hunter who's never even tried to become proficient with a handgun,, much less a hunting handgun how it feels.
Well put John,, truly,, well put.
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Post by sixshot on Dec 14, 2021 2:30:28 GMT -5
Well stated John, and as your old buddy Terry Murbach would have said, "And So It Goes"
Dick
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