Ramoel wrote:
Ironbear, if you've never hunted deer before, starting with a handgun like a .454 is a heck of a challenge. A good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to 50 yards or less. If you can keep all your shots in a paper plate at 50 yards that should be good enough for starters. If you can't, limit yourself to the distance that you can keep all your shots in that circle. Not good to lose a deer because of poor shooting.
As far as the .454 is concerned, it is probably overkill on deer, but Winchester has a 250 gr loading at 1,300 fps that's more appropriate.
It's not the shooting part that really bothers me, I've been shooting competitively a long time (smallbore, high power, misc pistol) so I am reasonably aware of my capabilities. Mainly it is that I'm not from MN and all the family and friends I have here are non-hunting. So... without the camaraderie of family or friends, going out hunting by myself really isn't that important to me. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that one of the things that I've figured out about myself is that hunting, to me, isn't just about going out and killing things. I find that without the social "fabric", deer hunting just doesn't interest me enough to actively pursue it.
As I write this, I find myself thinking about why I haven't really tried harder to start deer hunting since moving to the MN/WI area. Part of it, I realize is my (probably mistaken) impression of deer hunting around here. Where I grew up, everyone walked on deer or stalked them. I never really heard of tree stands until I moved down here (I mean, really, what would you do with a
tree stand in western ND
) I'm afraid that sitting in a tree, waiting for something to walk by so that I can shoot it, doesn't seem all that interesting to me. The other impression that I've gotten is that 'hunting' has gotten competitive, it seems it is less about 'hunting' than 'getting their deer'. A focus on the end product rather than the process. I've also met a disturbing number of people who seem to be unclear as to the proper order in which shooting and drinking are done!
Hmmm. It occurs to me that I would be perfectly satified to 'hunt' with my camera... no cleaning
!
Ramoel wrote:
Read some good books on MN deer hunting. Dr. Ken Nordberg writes some of the best. They are normally carried in paperback at Gander Mt. and other places. I learned a lot by reading his books and they are MN specific. Here is a link to a Nordberg website.
http://drnordbergondeerhunting.com/hypertext/Bio.htmlThanks for the info. It hadn't really occurred to me to check around for books on the subject.
