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ALAN_50501

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after searching around the forums the past few days i see theres a few from central iowa..where abouts are you central iowa folks from..ive got some questions that i dont want to post..its all good ive never been deer hunting and ive got an itch to go i ve got questions i dont want people to think are stupid..thanks alan
 
Alan, first off welcome to this great forum!!!! Secondly, there are no stupid questions, you will find that everyone on this site is extremely helpful. You will find no flamers on this board!!!!

Now, I live far from Central Iowa so I probably won't be of much help. Anyway, enjoy the site and welcome aboard!!!!

Mark....
 
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Alan,there are no stupid questions, you will find that everyone on this site is extremely helpful.

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Feel free to ask away!
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I live in Coulter, IA..it is on I-35 about 30 miles south of the Clear Lake/Mason city exit.

ask away or email me at rgrummer@frontiernet.net

but I encourage you to ask questions on this site...it may help someone else too.
 
my biggest thing is.. id like to go deer hunting but dont know much outside of you can hunt them out of a treestand....i would for right know learn deer movement such has...habbitat,habit,food,travel routes,different sign and their meaning and determining size and gender from there tracks....my wife brought me a fully rifiled slug barrel like 2 years ago for christmas all ive done was try to sight it in with no luck.....alan
 
Alan,

how far away is your target you are using to sight this gun in?

what type of slugs are you using?

One of the things you can do this time of year, you may want to wait until
second shotgun season is over though, is go shed hunting...

I've never done it myself but might try it this year while carrying either a
.22 or my bow and try and get some rabbits along the way.

anyway, find some public hunting or ground you can get permission to hunt and
just get out there. People can tell you all kinds of things, some things may be
helpful and some not, but in my opinion, your best teacher is going to me nature
itself. right now with a snow covered ground you should be able to see where the
highly traveled locations are...you will also see some smaller trees with the
bark rubbed off of it. look for places of melted snow where the deer have been
sleeping. try and figure out what and where they are eating...

things are quite a bit different during shotgun season compared to bow season.
if you hunt shotgun season I would personally recommend the first season, just for
the fact that the deer haven't been pushed by other hunters near as much as you
will find during second season. but on the other hand, during second season you
will have two weekends to hunt instead of just one.

I have never shotgun hunted from a treestand, not saying you can't or shouldn't
I just have no experience. I do often bow hunt from a treestand however. That
is something that you will have to determine depending on what area you choose
to hunt...maybe a ground blind would work best??? I've shot deer with my bow
from a 15' ladder stand, on the ground, and just up in the crotch of a tree.
The closest I have ever gotten to a live deer is a foot or two...I was bow
hunting one year and was about 10 feet off of a good trail(on the ground)...
I got there pretty early in the afternoon so had a long time before I expected
to see anything. long story short I sort of fell asleep and awoke to the sound
of something right behind my head...not sure what it was, deer, coyote, raccooon,
rabbit, pheasant, skunk...it could have been anything. I wasn't sure if I should
move or keep still...finally I decided if it was a deer I would never get a shot
anyway so I started getting up and turning around to look...it was a doe. took
her about a second and a half to disappear in the tall weeds and brush...

I guess my best advice for you is to find some good timber that you can hunt and
spend as much time there between now and next season as you can. if you are bored some
sunday afternoon, instead of watching the game or whatever is on TV take a long
slow walk in those woods...maybe bring your camera along and sit somewhere you
think might be a good spot to hunt next year and just sit there and wait. Even
if you don't see any deer you will see and hear many other animals...the woods
will literally come to life if you are quiet and still long enough.

that is all pretty general and just my opinion...you will probably get lots of
advice between now and when you hunt...listen to it all and use what you can.
if you have any other more specific questions ask away. I'm sure someone, if
not me, will be more than happy to add there two cents worth.

good luck.
 
thanks for the tips keep them comming..ivbe had other people tell me to find a group of hunters and tag with them or go with someone that has exp and knows what he is doing and teach me.....
 
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How far from a feeding area should i hunt in a beding area???can deer see colors?like orange for example?? alan

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deer are color blind...the orange is so you don't get shot.

this time of year, I would find where the deer are feeding first of all. and do you best to determine how, i.e. what direction they are coming from to get to this feeding area. if they are coming from timber I would put myself a 100 yards or better into the timber...a lot of times the deer will just sort of hangout in cover until it is dark enough and feel safe enough to come out into the open...especially after they've been shot at a few times. with knowing your exact situation it is sort of hard for me to tell you exaclty where to sit.

and the deer will not do the same thing everytime...just when you think you have them figured out, they will do something totally unexpected.

hope this helps a little
 
how far away is your target you are using to sight this gun in?

what type of slugs are you using?





when we go to the range we was told to start out at 25 yards then move to 50 then 100...im starting to use rem cooper solids these shot better out of my gun..im not good at shooting yet so i havent tryed 50 or 100 yet trying to get good at 25 then moving up....
 
sounds like you're on the right track...remember two squeeze the trigger slowly...it should actually surprise you a bit when it goes off.
if you pull hard on the trigger you know exactly when it is going off any may flinch a little...squeeze it slowly and let it surprise you and you shouldn't flinch as much.

that is assuming you are flinching...if not, ignore above advice
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im not just flinching a little im flinching alot..my shots would jump all over the place..id have 2 next to each other then the third would be way high or way low aways from it or id always try to go in the same whole like i was making the whole bigger or something...lol
 
what size gun are you shooting 12ga. ?

have you hunted with this or any other gun in the past?

you said you are new to deer hunting, but how much have you shot guns in general in the past?
 
I recomend just hitting it... Talk to everyone that will listen, videos are everywhere a good one is(So... you want to be a Bowhunter) it covers the archery perspective but this will more than help with gun hunting. Stroll through the sporting goods store and pick up books, magazines, videos.
Most of all get out there most here have learned the most by experience the is no way to learn it all in a short period. It is more of a marathon.
Get and arial picture of a place you have permission to go on and walk it, maybe sit out morning and evenings from a distance and just observe the deer look at the signs (trails, rubs, scraps, oval shapes in the snow where they are bedding). I carry my aerial with me as I walk and scout and mark what I see and where. Looking for funnels ( areas that may converge the movement of deer to raise your odds of getting a shot hopefully between bedding and food source)
Every area has its own unique aspects terrain, food available, cover, doe to buck ratio,tree stand locations, ground blind location, hunting pressure etc. Once you figure that out, it changes with the season. Early(oct beginning of bow) the deer have regular patterns of bedding and feeding mid october the acorns fall and the deer hit the acorns if available. Then late oct. to mid nov. pre-rut the bucks are looking for does. Mid to late rut is locked and hard to find bucks. ETC. ETC. Then shotgun season in Dec screws everything up, and so we all adapt, experiment using calls or decoys try new things. Sometimes they work other times we learn from our mistakes Get out in the off season shed hunting, trail cam is a great way to pattern deer and see what type of herd you have.... I really like the primetime series of videos they are based in Cedar rapids area and many hunts are in the midwest, and primos (truth series) they both show the good and bad misses and all. Really its just like Real Estate Location,Location, Location mixed with some luck and timing.
GOOD LUCK I could go on for hours about other topics (scent control, stand location,private land vs. public, trophy vs. meat hunting etc.) but I type to slow....
 
ive been talking to alot of other hunters to see if they could take me but most said no ive been wanting to go deer hunting ever since i got this gun and thats been atleast 5 years if not more....ive seen dvds at walmart but do they gte into deer hunting with shotguns??..thanks for all the tips and advise....im just looking for a dvd that tallks about deer hunting with shotguns....
 
With all of the deer drivers I would look for a good deer escape route leading to thick brush or timber. Hang a stand, buy a tag, sit and wait for one to pass by and shoot them in the boiler room.....For the videos the principle's still apply just that you dont have to be within 40 yards for a shot. Grab the hunting regulation book and read up its really not that complicated.

GOOD LUCK ALAN
 
Not much for videos but here are some books at amazon:

Shotgunning for deer By: Dave Henderson
Ultimate guide to shotgunning " "
Ultimate guide to deer hunting By: David Richey
An oldie is Deer hunting North America form North America Hunting Club

I started at 12 years old by myself noone took me out hunting. Unfortunatly my family just was not into it except for me.My dad would allow me to borrow his shot gun and give me 3 shells ( or slugs during deer season) to walk and get whatever I could. I just did as described before learning as I go and still learning. I for the first time this year hunted with a group on shotgun just because some buddies needed extra guys for a deer drive. Just get out and make it happen there is alot of public land around if you dont have anywhere lined out.
 
alan as far as sighting in your shotgun/slug barrel just call around to local sporting shops. they can laser sight it to be some what close, then you have to fine tune at the range or woods . they can also tell if your scope mounts are on right. my buddy spent half a day trying to sight his in , just to find out the base plate was on back words
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10 minutes with the gun smith, 5 minutes in the woods, all sighted in. my best advice is read, watch, listen, and spend time in the woods , perferably the woods your going to hunt. start right after hunting season while snow still on the ground, so you will know travel roots check prints to see which direction they go , get a geographical map to mark these travel roots on and direction then find bedding areas, food sources ect and mark those on the map too. before you know it you start seeing deer on a regular bases. also probably the most important is wind direction, allways try to to be down wind, or they will bust you almost everytime!!!! i would look for sheds too this tells alot about the quality and quantity of the deer herd. while shed hunting look for stand locations, set some mornings and evenings with a camera, start a journal of what you found. its not always easy but the more your out there the more you will see , then you be hooked just like the rest of us on this site.
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I'd offer this in regards to sighting in. If your throwing wild shots at 25 yards with a rifled barrel, it is most likely you, not your gun. I am assuming here that your using rifled sights and not a scope. Even a dirt cheap smoothbore with cheap slugs should shoot pretty decent groups at 25 yards. Try letting somebody experienced shoot your gun and see if they can get a good group. If you dont know anybody with experience go to a public range on a weekend and ask. Most people would be happy to burn up some of your ammo! If your shooting an open sighted shotgun there really just isnt much that can go wrong as long as it will go bang. Scopes are a little trickier.

Dont feel bad about not shooting well, because nobody likes sighting in a slug gun unless that person weighs 700lbs or is a liar! They just plain kick hard and that recoil will cause you to flinch like mad, which makes you miss. There are some things you can do to help with recoil though.
1. Wear ear protection. I often wear both earplugs and earmuffs if I'm shooting a hard kicking gun. Its partly mental so if the gun dosent sound bad it doesnt feel so bad. It will make a difference and you dont go deaf either.
2. Put a slip-on recoil pad on over the standard pad while sighting in. Wally world sells them for $5. A stocking cap shoved under your coat between the butt of the gun and your shoulder helps too.
3. Keep your gun fully loaded for each shot while practicing. Every extra ounce of gun weight helps to soak up that recoil.
4. Auto shotguns kick noticably less than pump shotguns.
5. Brownell's (in Montezuma) sells several aftermarket devices which will help reduce recoil.

Learn to shoot well before you worry about finding something to shoot. BTW, you will not notice any of that recoil when you are actually shooting at a deer!
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