NC4X4 Hunting and Fishing

Been chasing grouse for 3 days straight without a single find. Tilley is loving it. Think I'm gonna change it up and try and find some woodcock next week.
 

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Well, @Atla , the wait is over. In the final minutes, of the final day of regular deer season I have finally gotten on the board. Had a group of does come in with 15 minutes of legal light left and hang out at 50 yards. After patiently waiting with bow in hand for them to come on to the 30 yard mark, with 5 minutes left I finally let go of my stubbornness and grabbed the 30-30 off the hook. Even though I'd made peace with tag soup, it's nice to get one.

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Well, @Atla , the wait is over. In the final minutes, of the final day of regular deer season I have finally gotten on the board. Had a group of does come in with 15 minutes of legal light left and hang out at 50 yards. After patiently waiting with bow in hand for them to come on to the 30 yard mark, with 5 minutes left I finally let go of my stubbornness and grabbed the 30-30 off the hook. Even though I'd made peace with tag soup, it's nice to get one.

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My hat's off to you and everyone else who bow hunts.

That's a skill I don't have the patience to master.

But nothing like a good rifle. :) Especially in 30-30!
 
My hat's off to you and everyone else who bow hunts.

That's a skill I don't have the patience to master.

But nothing like a good rifle. :) Especially in 30-30!
Man it's been a long but fun season. I've had the most fun bow hunting this year that I've had in a lot of years. But yea, it's hard to beat the ol 30-30 sometimes.

The boys helped get it skinned and off the bone. Was a good homeschool lesson. First thing munchkin asked was when could we eat it.

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And the first test batch of jerky is in the smoker. Just did a small batch, maybe a pound, to work out thw kinks. Any tips?

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When I make venison jerky, I'll let it sit for a day in the fridge to firm up, lot easier to slice thinly. I usually let it marinate(once its cut) for 2-3 days in the fridge and then I dry it my oven with the door cracked at the lowest heat setting 8 hrs or so. Makes the house smell amazing.

I typically make my own marinade, usually black pepper/garlic, worcestershire sauce, salt, dash of liquid smoke etc. It doesn't last long at all.
 
When I make venison jerky, I'll let it sit for a day in the fridge to firm up, lot easier to slice thinly. I usually let it marinate(once its cut) for 2-3 days in the fridge and then I dry it my oven with the door cracked at the lowest heat setting 8 hrs or so. Makes the house smell amazing.

I typically make my own marinade, usually black pepper/garlic, worcestershire sauce, salt, dash of liquid smoke etc. It doesn't last long at all.
Yea we will see how this goes. Munchkin was driving me up the wall to do something with it. So we made some "quick" jerky to appease him lol.
 
This vacuum sealer the wife got me is awesome.

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Edit, the jerky turned out great. 6 hours in the big chief and it's tender with a great taste. Just used Worcester sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Soaked for maybe 30 min while the smoker got hot.

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Odd request. I'm considering a saddle set up for next year, but unsure. Anybody in the area (yadkinville to wilkesboro, elkin to statesville) have one I can try out? Anybody upgrading and want to get rid of an entry level setup cheap? Seems like a lot of money to have to set up your stand every hunt.
 
Day one of my "staycation" in the books. Cold, dry and not alot of birds but we knocked a few down and I could watch tilley putting the pieces together with each one.
We probably walked 10 miles today. GPS only showed what we hunted with just her.
 

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Day one of my "staycation" in the books. Cold, dry and not alot of birds but we knocked a few down and I could watch tilley putting the pieces together with each one.
We probably walked 10 miles today. GPS only showed what we hunted with just her.
It’s pretty cool watching a good dog work. My grandpa trained bird dogs. It was amazing how good he could make some of them. He had one that was a show winner. I’m certain that dog would have driven the truck to the hunting land if grandpa would have taught him. On the flip side. Them bird dogs could be some mean sob’s.
 
It’s pretty cool watching a good dog work. My grandpa trained bird dogs. It was amazing how good he could make some of them. He had one that was a show winner. I’m certain that dog would have driven the truck to the hunting land if grandpa would have taught him. On the flip side. Them bird dogs could be some mean sob’s.
My little girl is as sweet as can be. But she's pretty serious about these birds and the pieces are starting to line up and light bulbs going off. Pen raised birds can only do so much to train one.
She's got great genetics, I also fall into the camp of hunt a dog more than you train one and they put it together with a little help.
 
Today was a long one. Started with my buddies squirrel dog and treed a few and shot three. Spend the rest of the day trying to find woodcock. We finally found a few and ended up flushing 4 and I knocked one down. The last drop of the day was a big one. We had probably already walked 5 miles between squirrel hunting and a couple other short drops.
 

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I love hunting with dogs.
Never had a chance to bird hunt, but I spent MANY hours in the woods running rabbit and racoon.
 
Well 4th day of small game hunting and we calling it a wrap. 2 for 5 woodcock today and I found a nice deadhead. Couldn't find any woodcock yesterday but we did hammer some squirrels
 

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Haven't seen a deer on my backyard game cam in months & I'm finally starting to see them again. Hopefully that will help me gauge when they start to shed!
 
They are already starting to shed up here. But I’m still seeing them with racks as well. Usually I start walking towards the end of February. But we do occasionally find them rabbit hunting as well.
Still game if you want to combine forces...I'm just saying!
I've ramped up the shed hunting practice with the pup and was planning on getting in the woods around the end of February. I talked to a local guy that has a 1,500ac hunting lease in Franklin county...hopefully that one works out.

For anyone out there close to and/or between Stanly & Granville county that has some land you wouldn't mind me & a hyper puppy walking around on looking for shed antlers & dead heads...let me know!
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Still game if you want to combine forces...I'm just saying!
I've ramped up the shed hunting practice with the pup and was planning on getting in the woods around the end of February. I talked to a local guy that has a 1,500ac hunting lease in Franklin county...hopefully that one works out.

For anyone out there close to and/or between Stanly & Granville county that has some land you wouldn't mind me & a hyper puppy walking around on looking for shed antlers & dead heads...let me know!
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Yea. Give me a few weeks and I will get in touch with you. Actually had a buck drop his horns in front of 1 of my cams. Ran before work and picked up. Got 3 so far without really doing any walking.
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Took the boys out for some chicken of the trees. Took my grandpa's Ruger single six and JC Higgins shotgun. Hadn't squirrel hunted with a pistol, but it was pretty fun. Got the first one at roughly 30 yards with the single six with 6 1/2" barrel and irons.

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I could feed my family for the foreseeable future with the amount that are around my house. They’re everywhere.
I could too, when I'm deer hunting lol. Really need to pick up a pistol and suppressor.
 
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