Opening weekend come and gone. How'd you do?

[Haris122]

Thanks on the info guys. I'm surprised of those incidents, all 4 were firearm related. I've tripped and fell pretty good a few times in the woods, usually stepping into a hole or real soft ground deceptively masked by leaves to look like it's a safe step. Thankfully I was able to keep the muzzle pointed away from me as I fell, and either didn't have a round in the chamber, or the safety did it's job.

[Flysmallie]

1 hour ago, MOPanfisher said:

https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/2018/11/13/missouri-hunting-deer-accident-willard-coach-killed-justin-atchison/1987997002/

 

This is the one I was referring to. I heard he fell out of the tree but was never really sure about that and didn't want to ask the question of those that knew. Just going off the kid rumor mill. 

[MOPanfisher]

Many fall out of trees, but if report is correct, and I have no reason to believe it isn't he sent a text to his father saying h had sen a deer and was going after it.  Some time later, text of accident and hurt or something close to that.  Apparently he tripped, fell and firearm discharged, sadly another of the all too common themes.  Gravity is always there to try to kill you, and when he and Mr. Murphy get together especially if you include a poor choice or two, well bad things happen.  I believe the young man was also a hunter ed instructor or at least assisted with classes, maybe through the school, not sure.  I think the count is up to 4 in Missouri now. 

[slothman]

10 hours ago, Haris122 said:

I got hunter certified something like 9 or 10 years ago, and I remember at least from a little before that, to up until the last 6-7 years, MDC used to have a brief explanation of all the serious accidents that happened during rifle season, either as part of a general write-up of opening weekend/all of rifle season, or as a completely separate little article. I think they had the same during spring turkey season too. It basically explained the situation as far as they knew it,  something hypothetical like, "real cold day so guys put propane heater on max in shooting house, guys dozed off, propane heater malfunctioned, eventually exploded, killing one and injuring the other hunter in process". For some reason they stopped it, or at least only give a very brief mention of it nowadays, that's very lacking in detail. Anybody else remember something like that or am I going crazy? I feel like that would still be helpful to read up about to keep you vigilant on what kind of things end up going wrong. On that note, anybody got any more info on what happened in those cases?

 

As far as opening weekend went for me, well, I was at work. 4th year in a row that opening weekend hit on my weekend shift. I wasn't too upset about it since I hunt public land, and figure I'd rather have the following week completely off to go instead like usual, mainly because of the safety standpoint with there being less people outside of opening weekend. This year however I wasn't able to make things happen during the 7 days I went out. I actually only saw 1 doe with a little one in tow, in those 7 days, and I didn't shoot cause of the younger one. Hopefully going once during antlerless will work out instead.

Yes. I remember that. It used to show that the majority of “hunting accidents” were things like “guy got caught in barbed wire fence while trying to cross it resulting in a trip to the hospital and some stitches.” Or falling out of deer stands and stuff like that. 

[Smallie Seeker]

Hunted the 2 days before rifle season with the bow, then opening weekend at my family farm near Licking, MO. Trailcam pull had a really nice shooter buck for the property and so I passed a few does waiting on Mr. Big but he was a no show. 

Worked during the week. 

Went out to some public land north of I-70 Saturday evening and boy was that a good idea. Got my stand hung and climbed up around 2:40 pm.  Was getting situated when I looked down and this really nice 11pt was making a scrape in the brush 25 yards from me.  Waited about a minute or so for him to offer a shot, and the hand loaded .22 Nosler round did its job. 

Never got to sit down. 

Haven’t scored him yet but this will probably be my best buck. 

Incredible hunt!

[BilletHead]

 

1 hour ago, Smallie Seeker said:

Hunted the 2 days before rifle season with the bow, then opening weekend at my family farm near Licking, MO. Trailcam pull had a really nice shooter buck for the property and so I passed a few does waiting on Mr. Big but he was a no show. 

Worked during the week. 

Went out to some public land north of I-70 Saturday evening and boy was that a good idea. Got my stand hung and climbed up around 2:40 pm.  Was getting situated when I looked down and this really nice 11pt was making a scrape in the brush 25 yards from me.  Waited about a minute or so for him to offer a shot, and the hand loaded .22 Nosler round did its job. 

Never got to sit down. 

Haven’t scored him yet but this will probably be my best buck. 

Incredible hunt!

                     Very nice!

   BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

@Smallie Seeker that is an awesome buck with some serious tine length. Congrats on a great deer!

[Haris122]

darn Smallieseeker, that's a hell of a lot better than my public land hunting experience this year (or any other year so far for that matter).

[Smallie Seeker]

I was definitely blessed to be able to harvest this buck, especially on public ground. 

Now, someone needs to ask me about the necklace I'm wearing in the pics!

 

[nomolites]

Beauty!  I though about taking my AR out as well but could not find a factory loaded partitions for my setup and have not yet tinkered with handloads.  Would not consider using it for deer with anything else.

Mike