Somebody was looking for some...

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=529400721

No connections, just stumbled into them.

Snagged them. Thanks Hoot!

I thought it might be you but had a CRS moment.

Not a very good buck but given the hot weather, nothing was moving.

We saw only one deer whilst hunting. It's been a rough few years here.

That would be a major trophy around here, did not see a single buck during our season this year.

Gorgeous deer.

Coincidentally, I killed a 10 point that the butcher said weighed 170 pounds field dressed, after hanging two days, with a 1950s 99-F in .300 Savage on the Monday after Thanksgiving this year. The cartridge is plenty for almost anything in the U.S. with the right bullet and you can't beat the rifle for portability and speed of operation.

I wish Savage still made them, but I understand that there's little interest anymore and the machining would be prohibitively expensive. Plus, with the number of them out there used but in near new condition, it's hard to compete with the used market. Every gun store I go into has a handful on the shelf, mostly .300s.

I picked up a ton of brass when I bought the rifle, so I'm fixed for life, and probably for several additional life spans, given the volume of shooting I do with the rifle.

It really is a grand rifle and cartridge. Mine is a 1926 takedown. At some point it was reblued (including the lever) and drilled and tapped so no collector value. I have a bunch of other rifles that are probably more accurate, powerful etc., but this is a favorite.

They are very hard to find around here. Kansas didn't have enough deer to even have a season until the mid 1960s so classic rifles are pretty hard to find locally. This one was an internet auction purchase out of Las Vegas.

That's a junior bubba around here. Probably 2.5-3.5 years old. I should have let him pass. Trouble was, nothing was moving at all in the daylight and I was fresh out of venison. I love beef and have a freezer full, but nothings better than backstrap and venison chilie!

I shot a 4.5 year old a few years back that was still a forkhorn and have seen several that age or older that were still spikes when doing deer checks for the DNR. It is not genetics, it is the lack of nutrients in the soil combined with severe winters. We can only support up to about 5 deer per square mile in these parts, and there being lots of public land, it gets hunted very heavily. It is rare for a buck here to survive past 1.5 years.

While the population is not what is was 4 or 5 years ago there are still lots of deer on my place.

The turkeys are even more of a wildlife success story...I have seen flocks of over 50 of them strutting around in the sun out in my back hayfield. Too bad they killed off all the quail.

Byron

Deer numbers weren't the issue for us, just the warm weather. They didn't need to get out to feed much. Checked my game cameras over the weekend and it seemed they fed very late and for a short period. Thankfully, we had some real bruisers that made it. Our turkey are thick as usual and I saw more quail than I have in years.

We try to keep the pressure low to avoid pushing anything off our ground, so we mainly hunt food plots.

Sampling the wheat I drilled Veteran's Day.

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