# Virginia Whitetail



## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

My small family and I left Logan, UT this summer to attend medical school at VCU in Richmond, VA. I lucked out and found a couple of guys in my area who enjoy hunting quite a bit and was able to tag along. I finally had an exam on a Friday morning which meant one thing: free weekend!

I made a little time to head out to a shooting range a few weeks ago to try out a new load in my CVA Optima. I had been shooting 290 Gr. Barnes, but thought those would be a little overkill on the smaller whitetails in the east. I had some 44 cal 240 Gr. Nosler Sporting handgun bullets and threw those in a Harvester Crush Rib sabot. They shot quite well at 50 yards and I decided to call it good. I wasn't planning on a shot further than 50 yards in the thick woods.















Friday night was our first outing - we went to a local wildlife management area and walked in to a spot along the river bottoms. We threw the tree stands up and it was quiet for a few hours until my friend's muzzy boomed - I could see a couple of deer running through the trees, but nothing close enough and with any obvious antlers. The scope on his muzzy must have been off as there was no sign of a blood trail. After searching for 30 minutes, we concluded it must have been a miss. We left the tree stands and decided to come back in the morning for a "doe day."

The next morning we were in the stands before light and it was COLD! It was a beautiful clear morning and the forest came to life at daybreak. Around 9:30 am, I happened to look over my shoulder and caught 3 deer moving my way. I carefully stood up and turned around in the stand. They kept filing towards me and when they came out from behind some brush, I whistled, stopped the doe, and shot. She bounded 20 yards before piling up within view of my stand. I was hoping for a buck to come along, but with the limited time I have to hunt, I was happy to fill one of my six (that's right, 6!) deer tags. In the photo, she's laying in the bottom of the dark spot to the right of my shoulder.








No tracking necessary, but she left a good trail leading to her.








It took us a while to take the stands, gear, and the deer out of the woods, and to process her, but I ended up with 25 lbs. of burger and some great cuts of meat. If I can spare another Saturday morning, I may try to get out again because the meat tasted great!


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Nice hunt report waspocrew. I really like pictures 4 and 5. They should be on your wall.


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## Nambaster (Nov 15, 2007)

Are we talkin 6 either sex tags here? If that is the case I might have to transfer to a school in Virginia. I could probably get into SVU :grin:


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Looks tender!------SS


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## Iron Bear (Nov 19, 2008)

Very cool. Glad you posted this. 

6 tags per hunter that's great.

6500 cougar would put and end to that. That's about 1 cougar for every 150 deer. That's what we have here in Utah.

Is it difficult to access private ground? Is there much high dollar hunting out there? And how much are deer tags? 

Thanks for sharing.


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## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

Virginia has tons of deer- there aren't too many crazy huge bucks, but there are some nice 8 and 10 pointers harvested out here.

When I bought my big game permit, it included 3 either sex tags and 3 antlerless tags for a total of 6. When someone uses up all their tags, you can pick up another 6 antlerless tags for $18. Not bad, huh?! There really is no limit as to how many extra doe tags you want to fill.

The seasons here are pretty generous as well - Archery started in early September and runs through January 3rd. Muzzy started Nov. 1st and goes til Nov. 15th. Then it goes to shotguns til Jan. 3rd. 

As far as public access to areas, I think the state does a good job. There are numerous military bases open to hunting, and quite a few wildlife management areas as well. I'm sure there's quite a bit of private ground also. I'm definitely still learning the ropes out here.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Sounds like lots of great hunting opportunity out in Virginia. I wish mule deer were that prolific and adaptable!


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## Iron Bear (Nov 19, 2008)

Wish granted. 

Now they're adaptable. Let's see a whitetail survive at 12,000 ft. And then make a living out in the desert. You can find a Muley in the most remote country void of humans or see them grazing along side golfers in the city. Muley's can adapt to places like Texas with snow free winters and survive well up in Montana with 3 feet of snow and temps to 30 below zero. A Muley will climb a cliff or swim across a lake. They really should have been named adaptadeer.  

Let's see a specialist like a whitetail do that. 

Adaptability pffff!


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

I just killed a Whitetail yesterday at 7000 ft. They handle pressure 100 times better than mule deer and they need far less specific habitats to thrive. Biggest problem is that their antlers are generally not as big so they don't get no love. Hunting high mountain western Whitetails is AWESOME. Hey Waspo, I met a couple of your fellow Wospocrew buddies today.;-)---------SS


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## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

SS - I was wondering if you were heading up to N. Idaho again for whitetails, sounds like you got it done again! Did the .25 get the nod or your new .280 AI?

PS - Hopefully the missionaries didn't bother you too much! ;-)


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Called this one in to 40 yards using a bleat call and shot him with my 25-06. First deer that I have ever killed that had a mane. I might pony up for another tag and give the new 280 a turn, we'll see.--------SS


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## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

Springville Shooter said:


> Called this one in to 40 yards using a bleat call and shot him with my 25-06. First deer that I have ever killed that had a mane. I might pony up for another tag and give the new 280 a turn, we'll see.--------SS


That's a beautiful buck! You tag some nice ones every year up there!


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks,

I love it up here. I must say that there is more and more pressure and that the hunting has gotten worse each year but there are still some bucks around. I went out looking around today and saw a few average bucks but nothing super exciting. I should post a pic in the big game section so Lonetree can identify what kind of mineral deficiency would cause my buck to grow a mane like an antelope. JK:grin:. ----SS


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