Mount

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Got one of last seasons mounts back, tried a new taxidermist who lives down the street. I am pleased with his work

[mowbizz]

Looks great!  Congrats on the nice buck!

[800stealth]

Big fella, looks like he has plenty of friends there with him as well. Good stuff Frank

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Big fella, looks like he has plenty of friends there with him as well. Good stuff Frank

I have a few on that makeshift wall in basement until I finish down here. All Maine and NH bucks

[800stealth]

Holy sh... lol, Very nice wall, gonna be the trophy of trophy rooms.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Holy sh... lol, Very nice wall, gonna be the trophy of trophy rooms.

Yep already ran cable and power and built bar. When I actually do it it will be sweet. I can just cut into the forced air ducts and bang heat too it won’t be bad to do just need time.

[Hottuna5150]

What a beaut! Nice deer and mount!

[Tony Thunder]

Nice wall Frank! Buck looks nice! What was the weight on that boy?
Hey Tuna pm sent

[JackMoran]

Nice get!

[AQUAASSASSIN]

He was all rutted out, bag of bones when I shot him late rifle, only 158 lbs. had a 200 lb frame though, his teeth told the tale of him being 5 years old

[Tony Thunder]

Hey meats better then no meat. Was that still in nh or maine

[AQUAASSASSIN]

I shot him in Maine. These were my 3 I could get in N.H.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

We can only take 1 deer in Maine and no Sunday hunting

[Tony Thunder]

Very nice, I’m so disappointed in myself, didn’t get to go out this season, was to busy with new house we got. Planning tagging out next season

[AQUAASSASSIN]

I quit open water fishing on 8/31 then I’m in the woods until I fill my tags and the season ends Mid December and I come back here on shanty to make friends and ruffle feathers simultaneously .

[Tony Thunder]

Haha nice, I like to go for big browns in the fall when they spawn, so I can’t quite hang up the rods so early

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Very nice, I’m so disappointed in myself, didn’t get to go out this season, was to busy with new house we got. Planning tagging out next season

It happens, I built a new place in 2017 after selling my old place when I got fed up with the taxes. I got done in time to hunt but then broke my back and spent a total of 6 months between living in bed having surgery and rehab. Had to relearn how to basically walk for the most part and use stairs though I could stand. It’s a funny think when your brain knows what it wants to do and the message never fires.  2018 is the first time I missed a season so I came back in 2019 just as hardcore as ever. Whatever they had me do in rehab I tripled it, they said I wouldn’t work in the trades again or shoot a bow again without a crossbow permit and I’m doing both flawlessly. Was supposed to go back for a final appt. where they give you some sort of test to see how much disability you have but I skipped out on it. I don’t need that BS.

Point is just go twice as hard next season. None of us are owed anything and we all make our own bed. You get hit with heavy things it doesn’t matter it’s how you come out of it. You’ll have better seasons ahead!

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Haha nice, I like to go for big browns in the fall when they spawn, so I can’t quite hang up the rods so early

I don’t blame you, when I finish my archery seasons early I head up for them too on cast and blast trips. It’s a ton of fun and I don’t like missing it but the woods are my first love

[Tony Thunder]

It happens, I built a new place in 2017 after selling my old place when I got fed up with the taxes. I got done in time to hunt but then broke my back and spent a total of 6 months between living in bed having surgery and rehab. Had to relearn how to basically walk for the most part and use stairs though I could stand. It’s a funny think when your brain knows what it wants to do and the message never fires.  2018 is the first time I missed a season so I came back in 2019 just as hardcore as ever. Whatever they had me do in rehab I tripled it, they said I wouldn’t work in the trades again or shoot a bow again without a crossbow permit and I’m doing both flawlessly. Was supposed to go back for a final appt. where they give you some sort of test to see how much disability you have but I skipped out on it. I don’t need that BS.

Point is just go twice as hard next season. None of us are owed anything and we all make our own bed. You get hit with heavy things it doesn’t matter it’s how you come out of it. You’ll have better seasons ahead!

Yikes glad to hear your back at it and all good.  Your last part is right on point!

[Steve H.]

Very nice mount.

[zcm_82]

Very nice. 

I haven't seen a deer of that sort of caliber during season in many years. This was actually the first season I had seen A deer, period, in 3-4 years. Well out of range, of course, but I suppose it beat seeing nothing again.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

In ILLINOIS?!? That’s not good lolllll! How close are you too Pike County? Not that it’s what it once was but I’m trying to visualize where there would suck lol, I get the disease factor but

These arent even monsters they are just good for here, if you can hunt here you can hunt ANYWHERE. It’s not open for discussion, it’s factual.

[zcm_82]

Illinois has largely become pay ridiculous prices to play. Over 97% of the state is private land. That leaves you with coughing up several grand to hunt a 7 day season, taking your chances getting shot by Chicago idiots on slivers of public land, or hunting land you are lucky enough to own or have a friend own. 

I'm not fond of throwing away
money or getting shot, so I go with the last option. Used to have some better ground to hunt, but it was sold for city folk to build McMansions on several years ago.

Also, I am on the opposite side of the state from Pike.

There are deer around, but it's extremely open, flat ground with a shotgun, so seeing deer and getting a shot aren't in the same ballpark a lot of times. Also had problems with someone poaching them off the property the last couple years. I found a pile of half butchered carcasses 2 seasons ago, and my friend that owns the land found some this season. We put some phone cams up last year, but whoever it was never crossed them.

I'm hunting this... with a shotgun.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

MKes sense, sounds horrible! Thanks for the enlightenment. I’m a shotgun guy myself. I have Ithaca DS2 and DS3 you can do 4” groups at 200 that’s no joke you should look into it. Will put a Savage 220 to Shame

[zcm_82]

MKes sense, sounds horrible! Thanks for the enlightenment. I’m a shotgun guy myself. I have Ithaca DS2 and DS3 you can do 4” groups at 200 that’s no joke you should look into it. Will put a Savage 220 to Shame

I just have an old Remington 870 with a rifled barrel on it. It is a fairly mediocre shooter... 3-4" @ 100yds with a 4x32 scope on it.

I actually went a few seasons without hunting between the time that last ground was sold and I was able to hunt this place. I used to use a Mossberg 500 bantam. It was just open sighted, but I was hunting a thick, brambly bit of woods, so my shots were never more than 50 yards or so. Sold the 500 when I wasn't hunting and into a severe financially broke patch, and regret it now, because it was a lot better shooter than the 870 I have now. I could lay in group under 3" with the sights off a bench with the 500.

They keep tossing around the idea of opening up a rifle season using the same cartridges that are legal for handgun hunting. I actually bought a Ruger American Ranch bolt in 300AAC a few years back in anticipation of it, but then the bill stalled out in the state senate. 😒 All my deer rifles I still have from my MN days are full sized cartridges that wouldn't be legal.

[HuntnFish603]

These arent even monsters they are just good for here, if you can hunt here you can hunt ANYWHERE. It’s not open for discussion, it’s factual.

^^^Absolute Fact. Northeast is proving grounds.

Btw, nice wall O mounts Frank. I'd say he did pretty good on that last one. I'd go back.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

I just have an old Remington 870 with a rifled barrel on it. It is a fairly mediocre shooter... 3-4" @ 100yds with a 4x32 scope on it.

I actually went a few seasons without hunting between the time that last ground was sold and I was able to hunt this place. I used to use a Mossberg 500 bantam. It was just open sighted, but I was hunting a thick, brambly bit of woods, so my shots were never more than 50 yards or so. Sold the 500 when I wasn't hunting and into a severe financially broke patch, and regret it now, because it was a lot better shooter than the 870 I have now. I could lay in group under 3" with the sights off a bench with the 500.

They keep tossing around the idea of opening up a rifle season using the same cartridges that are legal for handgun hunting. I actually bought a Ruger American Ranch bolt in 300AAC a few years back in anticipation of it, but then the bill stalled out in the state senate. 😒 All my deer rifles I still have from my MN days are full sized cartridges that wouldn't be legal.

I have a Ruger 44 carbine circa1982 I picked up a few years ago, what a seeetheart of a straight walk cartridge

[AQUAASSASSIN]

^^^Absolute Fact. Northeast is proving grounds.

Btw, nice wall O mounts Frank. I'd say he did pretty good on that last one. I'd go back.

Agreed!

[zcm_82]

I have a Ruger 44 carbine circa1982 I picked up a few years ago, what a seeetheart of a straight walk cartridge

My first 3 deer were taken with a Ruger 96 lever in 44 mag. I never could get it to shoot as well as I wanted, so I ended up doing the bulk of my hunting up there with a Remington pump in .270. 

I don't have that anymore, either, but I still have a pair of Savage model 99s. Whenever we finally do get moved out east, those will be my go-to deer rifles.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

My first 3 deer were taken with a Ruger 96 lever in 44 mag. I never could get it to shoot as well as I wanted, so I ended up doing the bulk of my hunting up there with a Remington pump in .270. 

I don't have that anymore, either, but I still have a pair of Savage model 99s. Whenever we finally do get moved out east, those will be my go-to deer rifles.

I have a 1950’s savage 99 in .300 savage with the Brass counter she’s still a straight shooter. 180 gr. Corelokt she loves