Was at Walmart grabbing some things my wife needed and decided to walk by the sporting goods aisle to see the spectacle.  Opening day in MO is tomorrow and people trying to get ammo and tags.  Most hunting calibers were gone.  I mean deer season comes every year, this should not be a surprise.  

Guilty


For various reasons I have not been out chasing hair for about 3 years.  Son -in-law says, tonight, lets go out tomorrow.  yeah ok,  Where the hell is my rifle, ammo, vest, binoculars, boots, pants, fuck all paraphernalia, etc.  

sigh.

Hopefully we can go for a nice walk, reflect on past, present, and future, and not have to deal with actually tagging something

August is when you pull out your deer gun to make sure it works and you have what you need for it.

If it doesn't work the parts needed to fix your gun will have plenty of time to get to you.

I've seen guys at the gunsmith the day before opening day with buggered up guns wanting them fixed on the spot.

The look on their faces when they get told "two weeks, minimum" is priceless.

I once sighted in my rifle the night before opening day using my car's headlight and a magazine pages stapled to a tree at the nearest bit of Mark Twain National forest lolololol

I buy hunting stuff for  years ........

Lack of experience, intelligence or just because that is routinely how they live life and know no other way.

These are the same guys sighting in their guns the night before. Literally one of the guys in our group had to sight in last night just before dusk. He shot the first and only deer so far this morning

This was my first year hunting anything. I said to myself I am going to try squirrel this year then my cousin was in the market for a rifle and bought me a rifle .
I now had a 308 gun for deer. I won an award at work which gives me a choice of gift certificates if I choose, thanks company for all the 9mm and 308 ammo from cabelas.
I had just bought a bushnell ar scope from a buddy that had a spare one. I sighted in the rifle using this scope at 100 yards. I shot a 3 shot cloverleaf under a inch.
My cousin located a property his family owns that isn't prime hunting ground. almost 20 acres in an area that has alot of people.
He said lets take you hunting there. He lives in IN and didn't want to pay the non resident hunting fee and offered to take me since IN gun season starts the week after KY.
Two weeks before opening day we built the ground blind, put out corn and molasses and I ordered my camo.
1 week before I put out more corn and deerjam.
Opening day this happened

I was prepared as time allowed and got lucky as hell.

Next year the plans are already being made!!!!

People only have ONE deer rifle!? I must be doing it wrong

I only have one shotgun for deer.  So far I have not missed with it and everything I hit has not taken another step after impact.  

But I only use it to put meet in the freezer on opening weekend and back to bow until I like something with an arrow which I have never been able to do.

Funny you say that.  I was buying a lower this week and a guy came walking into the shop.

Guy: "My shotgun won't fire"
LGS Guy: "When's the last time you "really" cleaned it?"
Long pause.
Guy: "A couple of years ago?"
LGS Guy: "Go get it............. bring it in here"  

Of course I expect "really cleaning it" meant running a brush down the barrel and wiping down the exterior.

this is this.
this isn't something else.
this is this.

why do it today if you can put it off until tomorrow

Those who do as I described often discover too late that they have NO deer rifle...

BTDT

went to a friend's place for a duck opener.  His 1100 was a single shot.  I asked him, When is the last time you cleaned it?  Ans.; "I just cleaned the barrel before leaving home".   When is the last time you cleaned the rest of it? Ans.  Never.    We took it apart at lunchtime and I removed 3 coal mines of unburnt powder, oil, and lots of twigs and seed bits.   About a tbsp of gunk out if it.   Worked fine after naturally.

I did kind of the same to myself.  I hadn't used a particular 11-87 in a few years but it was cleaned and oiled.  My issue is the hammer was dropping with not enough power to fire the primer.  Culprit was oil lubing the action parts had gummed up.  Hosed it out with a spray oil at the truck and it worked for the day until I got home and scrubbed the gummy varnish off.  

don't presume your gear is in good working order just because it was when you put it away.  I've had M700's with jellied oil in the bolt too.


My friend runs a gunshop.  Every fricken year there is a parade of dummies showing up with muzzle loaders still loaded from last year with crud in the barrel.  He used to pull the bullets and clean them up but as most are cheap traditions he tells them to throw them away and buy a new one.   It's always the same, he tells them he'll call them in about 3 weeks when it's done.  "but I need it now/tomorrow"   he points to the rack of guns that came in before him.  

Oh the and the guys who want a new scope mounted on the deer rifle at 7:30pm on the night before the opener and plan to be in the blind with it at sunup.     "bore sight it, it should close enough"

I can say this year I dicked around a little. I put my pop up blind that served me well last year up and the week before opening day, a branch fell on it and I spent all day today building a box blind. My feeder quit on me as well but I haven't fixed it yet either. Not enough time in the day this year it seems like.

Exactly. Walmart hunters are lazy!  

A lot of guy's around here are like "Hey buddy do you want to go hunting tomorrow.  It's the first day of gun season." So they get there shotgun and stand on the side of a road listening for dogs or they get placed in some random stand.

Sometimes it is hard deciding which one to take out!

Same spectacle in Arkansas today. The gun counter at Wal Mart was lined up 8 wide and 3 deep for hunting licenses and ammo sales. You would think that deer season had never happened before.

Of course today is the 15th, when do welfare checks come in?

I wear my hunting close just about year round,  jeans, T shirt and maybe a camo jacket.  

     About three or four times a year everything gets taken out of the case, broke down, barrels get bunched, all moving metal parts get sprayed down with degreaser, dried and then reoiled.  Then there put back in the gun cabinet.

     I never know which one I might decide to use on that particular day.

     Wolf    

Never underestimate the stupidity of people. It's the same crowd that boresites their new rifle and thinks its zeroed, then when they miss or gutshoot a deer they blame the ammo.
I saw a group of these tards last week at the range. Their target was a paper plate at 50 yards, the older man shot at it 5 times, brought it back with 3 holes, then put his rifle away because "I'm done, all sighted in for deer". I offered one of my zero targets but they gave me a and said "I dont need one of them sniping rifles to shoot a deer". My "sniping rifle" was a Savage 220 shotgun and an actually zeroed Vortex

yesterday I actually saw a set up like this which is kind of unheard of in NY.

two folding chairs next to a chevy dually half pulled on the shoulder.  Chairs on the field side to watch a field.  A lot of effort in that hunt.

I love the people that don't even know what caliber their rifle is, I can not count the times someone has shown up with .270 WSM rounds and their rifle is a .270 or something along those lines.

My favorite are the hunters that walk into a diner wearing full apparel. They are the same guys that can't understand why the deer almost came into range, then book it.

Been that way for me as well...

Same here. I have missed the first part of the season already and the rut is in full swing in my area. Too much work, too little time.

Two more weeks until PA opens up.

I was in my local gander getting a few small things this year the day before our muzzle loader season opened. At least 6 or 8 people at the customer service desk trying to get licenses, all of which bitching about the line, and more people in the back looking for powder, sabots, and primers. Many of them in disbelief that there wasn't anything left on the shelves 12 hours before the season. Must be they weren't the only ones going hunting in the morning.

I get my license the week it comes out(august in ny for late October hunting season) and try to shoot my hunting guns in September. By the time October comes I'm hanging stands and checking cameras. Who knew I was doing it wrong this whole time?

Couple years ago a buddy called and wanted to go hunting. He bought his tag, a six pack of beer and a bag of sunflower seeds on the way to my house. He brought his rifle, one round of ammunition and no knife. The only hunter orange he was wearing was a ball cap ( needs to be 400 sq. inches here, and a hat alone is not allowed.

Needless to say he did not get his deer. This is his typical level of preparation to hunt.

On the flip side I brought 4 sighted in rifles (3 of which i got deer with, the other my buddies got deer with), 8 knives to clean, 2 sharpeners, 2 ice chests, stand up LED lighting for night time field dressing and cleaning, extra cleaning gloves.

I have seen plenty of shit like this.
The worse was some bozo that bought a package rifle that came with some unknown blister pack scope that was "factory boresighted"
This stupid fucker thought that meant it was good to go.
Fired three times at a deer and never hit it.(we checked thoroughly)
When we set up a target it was not even on paper at 50 yards.
We went through half a box of .270 before we got it squared away.
Oh yea,the guy also did not have a knife or a flashlight.

I've had everything needed to hunt anything in my state... for years.

My boy had never shot my AR with .223 loads.  He has only shot it with the .22 conversion and a green dot.

He killed his first deer with it.  One shot.  Nikon Buckmaster 4.5 X 14 X 40.  Set on the lowest setting.

Last year, he killed his first gobbler and used our .20GA Youth 870.  He had never shot it before.  The only shotgun he had shot before that was a single shot .410.

I suppose some would say he was unprepared.  

I'm usually squared away like a champ, but I found myself reloading the night before I left last week, and find myself loading more and squaring more stuff away before heading out next week.